Ghostwriter Circus: The Paul Eckert Website

It's the home stretch in my writer's workshop. The workshop ends November 30, and my novel is only maybe 1/2 to 1/3 of the way finished.

There have been a lot of obstacles to getting the novel finished, so I'm actually proud of how far I've made it this year so far. But now that many of those obstacles are gone, even though a precious new one has been added, I can still find the time to write for 30 minutes a day.

I didn't want this year to go to waste, and I really want to get this novel finished in a rough draft form, so I decided the only way this was going to happen was to set some goals.

So I took a cue from a fellow writer and decided that from now until the end of the year, I will write 500 words a day. No excuses. Okay, there will be excuses, but not too many, and not any bad ones.

I'm loving it so far. It keeps me thinking about the story every day. Hard to keep up with, but when I do it, there's a great sense of accomplishment. Writing that way, for me, produces awful writing, but it gets words on the page. Besides, polish is what revision is for.

The best part is that it only takes 30 minutes to an hour of time, and I can usually scrounge that much amount in a day.

If you're writing a book, definitely give it a try. Just write 500 words a day. Slow, fast, whatever, just get the words on the page. It keeps your head in the game and it keeps you writing.