Goodbye, my fair zombie friends.

I handed LT my iPad.

“Keep this for me,” I said. “I don’t need to be around it right now.”

“How long do you want me to keep it for?” LT asked.

“For the rest of my spring break,” I answered (the high school where I work is on spring break right now). “… Maybe a little longer.”

LT raised an eyebrow. “I think I should keep it until you publish Soldier of Dorsa.”

I might have gasped. “That’s not fair!”

LT only looked at me with the same raised eyebrow.

“Until I finish a *draft* of Soldier of Dorsa?” I suggested.

“Okay,” she conceded. “But it has to be a good draft. Not a ‘I-still-have-to-go-back-and-rewrite-half-of-it’ draft.”

I considered this.

Yes, it was true: I had been playing Last Day On Earth on my iPad for hours per day for nearly three weeks. (It is only the best iPad game in the whole wide world — like The SIMS if SIMS were set in the zombie apocalypse!) And my writing had been suffering as a result. I had originally intended to finish the first draft of Soldier of Dorsa by April 15, but March was not a good month for me emotionally, and so I pushed it back to April 30th. April 30th became May 15th (the day I start graduate school), and May 15th became May 30th, and then…

Well, you get the point.

But just because I had ceased being productive didn’t mean I wanted to stop playing LDOE for weeks, maybe even a month! What about my (virtual) puppies? Who would feed them? Would they think I had abandoned them??

“Alright,” I said at last, reluctant but accepting.

Miraculously, I have gotten more writing done in the three days since I handed over my iPad to LT than in the three weeks preceding that conversation.

I have a new goal: I want to publish Soldier of Dorsa on June 10, 2019.

In order to accomplish that goal, I’m going to treat May like NaNoWriMo — in other words, I need to write about 1,613 words per day, or 50,000 words for the month.

The last time I attempted NaNoWriMo, I managed 48,000 words — 2,000 words shy of my goal.

And that was at a time when my work schedule was more flexible *and* I wasn’t staring down the barrel of graduate school.

This is going to take a big push in order to succeed.

More than I’ve ever pushed myself with my writing before.

But I think I can do it… and I’m going to ask you to help me.

Okay, I’m going to state this publicly (to all, like, five of you who are actually reading these words! LOL): I am going to update you on my progress every Wednesday morning until I finish this g-d novel.

I will let you know if I am on track or not, and I will include in the post an excerpt of what I have been working on for the week.

I’ve done the math, and I figure I can write about 400 words each morning before work, and the remaining 1,215 words each evening after I get home.

Somehow, I have to still fit in my grad school work (which is starting to crank up), my job, my relationship, and my healthy eating and workout habits.

Cuz, you know, a girl has buckets to carry.

If you don’t hear from me, or if I start to slip, I’m hoping you’ll ping me. You can comment on my blog, but if I reeeeallllly fall of the wagon, you’d better email me, because I might not be checking my blog if I fall off the wagon.

eliza at ninja-writer dot com

Next Wednesday, May 1: Look for a major Soldier of Dorsa update to get this party started, which will include recently edited versions of the first six chapters!

Until then, my friends. Stay healthy and happy, don’t text and drive, and kill some zombies for me.

Update: Thanks you guys for all the preliminary support already!!! You rock!

And thanks for the Spotify playlist, MK. I will check it out!

Here is my normal Soldier of Dorsa writing playlist, for anyone who’s interested: https://open.spotify.com/user/22og3waub3msmh2g7r2ka2u5i/playlist/2I59Wcwg8pEPaZmK8rD4J0?si=PD0-JkjkSJG33aF8NglD7Q