Welcome to Gaia! ::

I think this would help keep me on track.

Right now I'm working on Red Knights, a 6 part story mostly detailing a girl and her older brother's involvement with a street gang after the death of their parents.

I've finished the first draft for part 1, working on part 2 now. I've found I like part 2 so much better; it's more fun to write.

1 - Farewells and Introductions
Helen is 13, Xander is 23.
Helen's and Xander's parents die in a car crash caused by a drunk driver. Marco Riaz, the leader for the Red Knights gang, offers Xander a job.

2 - Gang War
Helen is 14, Xander 24.
I may change the title of this part. A rival gang has resurfaced and is challenging the Knights' power, but this war is mostly a backdrop while Xander gets more involved in the gang life.

3 - Angel's Away
Helen is 15, Xander 25.
Big brother has to leave for reasons I'm not going to disclose. Marco charms Helen and she's dragged into the gang as well.

4 - (Need a title)
16 and 26.
Helen and Xander learn they have little choice other than to accept their fate for the time being, and Helen learns to see Marco as the villain he is. Helen learns to drive, defend herself, and fire a gun from Xander.

5 - Gutter
Helen is 17, Xander 27.
Helen turns to addiction and crime and hits rock bottom.

6 - Dissent
Helen is 18, Xander 28.
Helen and Xander have had enough of this life and wish to leave. That's easier said than done.

I've outlined every chapter that this story will have, and if I go along with it it'll have 40 chapters. It was 39 at first, but I added another one mainly because that REALLY bugged me for some reason. At this point, I'm working on chapter 13, in the middle of part II. I'm about a month away from my deadline, so I'd better get moving.

I'll be on vacation until Tuesday, and I hope to finish up Part II by the time I get back.

I've written up plans for chapters up to 20, so now half the book is either written or outlined.

I moved two chapters to part 3. It's where they should be, considering the year-long time skip. Now I only have one chapter left of part 2 to write. Not how I planned on reaching my goal, but it's nice.

I reached my goal for this vacation! Chapter 15, the last chapter of part 2 is finished.

Next, I plan to finish chapter 20 by next Sunday. 5 chapters a week doesn't sound too bad.

I am terrible. I've done nothing. I'm still stuck in vacation mode and haven't written a single chapter since last weekend.

I'm actually sitting here typing up the last chapter I wrote so I can get a work and page count. But I've done little else.

I even tried to pull an all-nighter last night to get some work done, but I spent that roleplaying with a friend and watching Dirty Harry before finally passing out around 5 am.

I'm not so sure I'm going to make this goal for myself. I've been tying to ignore that doubt in hopes of overcoming it, but summer's almost over (less than a month!) and I have so much to do. It isn't just this book, I also have summer reading to do (At least I read the book a while back. Now I just have to reread and comment on it. Fun.), one essay to proofread and another to plan.

My computer and keyboard are also shot. Again. My father looked up "questionable content" while supposedly dogsitting when we were away, and now we've got some spyware/virus problem. On top of that, my keyboard has a hard time registering keystrokes. It gets pretty irritating to retype half the words I'm trying to send or put in spaces. I'm not sure if it's the virus doing this or if my keyboard's just getting old. I know that sort of thing happens with mouse buttons.

And my brothers need to stop talking to me about their video game accomplishments while I'm typing. I can't concentrate on both things at once, and ignoring them won't work.

At the risk of being considered a quitter, I am now going to completely disregard any deadline I set for myself.

I do plan on finishing my story. I simply want to shift my focus from simply finishing to being able to finish something I'm not too ashamed to read over.

I'm not good at all with deadlines and forcing myself to work. I know I should probably learn to work past that, but I don't want to start that at this time.

So I will be working, just not at the same pace as I was on vacation.

I'm not starting over, just continuing without a deadline.