Goals

Ok, you're in for a long one! I skipped yesterday 'cause I posted twice the day before. Just to let you know, I put in at least 1 1/2 hours yesterday finishing chapter 4 and I spent a 1/2 hour today reading through chapter 5 and making notes. I would have done more, but I was soooo tired, so I took a 2 hour nap :) Anyways, today's post is on more strictly defining my goals, or at least some of them. Here goes:

Ok, so let’s get my goals down on paper and completely defined! I have two major goals with this book. One is to have the book completed in a year from when I started. So it needs to be done by October 4th, 2010. My second goal is to have the book queried out to agents by the end of 2010. Let’s work on the first goal.
I have 3 months to get this book done! I am working on draft 2 and I know there will be a draft 3. Heck, there will probably even be a draft 4. I can only hope that with each draft I spend less time editing. So I’m hoping to have draft 2 done by the end of July, draft 3 done by the end of August, and the final draft, 4, done by the end of September. Now I realize that I’ve got to include beta and editing reading time in the second two months, but not right now. Now’s the time to break down July and finishing draft 2.
Starting today, I’ve got 32 days to finish draft 2. I’ve all ready completed 81 out of 228 pages, so I have 147(approximately) pages to go.
That means I need to edit 4 ½ pages a day to be done on time. Really, to be completely realistic, I need to do more than that, ‘cause I plan on taking weekends off and holidays(Happy Fourth of July!). Break down of July: Starting today(June 29), I’ve got 32 days to finish draft 2. I’ve all ready completed 81 out of 228 pages, so I have 147(approximately) pages to go. I’m going to set slightly higher goals than minimum to make sure I’m done and there’s spare time. That means I need to edit 6 pages a day to be done on time. To simplify it, I need to have 42 pages edited every week. July 10th I need to be on page 123; July 17 I need to be on page 165; July 24 I need to be on page 207; and July 31 I need to be done.
Ok, for now, for you guys, I’m going to stop defining my goal’s any further. I’ll wait until the end of July to continue.  Oh, except to mention that I’ll have 3 months once the book is complete to get it queried out. But that’s for later!