So I figure, I just gotta write five pages a day and I'll be done drafting Sixteen Miles by April Fool's Day. I can do that, and I like the synchronicity of that day -- that's the same day, two years ago, that we learned that Lizzie was pregnant with Drew. My, how things have changed since that day. I never would've been able to write this novel without Mister Drew in my life (you could say the same for Miss Lizzie, too, of course!). This is a novel about being a father, and it's the one that means the most to me of all I've written.

Even if it's not done yet, and I haven't made any forward progress since Saturday! Arrrhgghhh.

But the good news is, I spent the past few days hammering together a complete synopsis of the book, as opposed to the notes and question marks and scribbles and three-dimensional self-portraits I had in my file after chapter 14. Now I just need to flesh out those last chapters, 15-21, soon as I finish up 14.

Hey, I know how my novel ends now!

Actually, I've had the ending written for a while; it was just the leadup to the ending, getting there, that was baffling me. Got it now. 'Course, it's all subject to change in the next 16 days.

Sixteen times five is 90, which is how many pages I'll need to hit 320 pages total, which is about 80,000 words. A bit short, but I know I'll add a lot more in the rewrite. Numbers, numbers, numbers...

Got all my other stuff ready for the workshop, including uploading my fresh-out-of-the-oven synopsis and my opening 13 chapters. So I have no excuse to get distracted by anything else between now and the day when you loosen all the tops to the salt shakers and short sheet the beds (how DO you do that, anyway?). Later!