Starting this week, I’ve finally dug my heels into the third draft on the third novel-length story. It’s interesting how the evolution of emotion always goes the same way:

1st draft – why am I writing this?

2nd draft – wow, this is going to be a lot of work…

3rd draft – hey, this isn’t bad

4th draft – okay, this is good

5th draft – I know there’s a spelling mistake in here somewhere, come out come out wherever you are, all work and no play, all work and no play

1st draft – why am I writing this instead of doing a 6th draft?

Unlike the other two novels, where I just tracked the writing pace for NanoWriMo, this time I’ve been taking detailed stats (simple memo like 9:00 – 9:45 600 words, on train) and it sheds a light not only on my writing pace, but on where and when I do my best writing. Highly recommend trying it! In the third draft, I seem to be moving at about 4 pages an hour, which is a turtle’s pace, but considering I’m guaranteed an hour and a half a day between the morning train where I get to sit and lunch in the cafeteria, it’s enough to get the work done by the time the next novel rolls around. This one has gone lightning fast compared to the first two, which makes me quite happy.