After a roaring October that seemed like the most prolific month of my life (though it actually trailed September), November was a struggle that made things close again for meeting my self-imposed December 15th deadline for first-draft completion of American Dream On.

Missing a full week because of illness, as well as a half-week due to Thanksgiving, plus spending two weekends at debate tournaments, I managed just 18,004 words (~72 pages) during the month. The good news, of course, is that that’s still 72 pages, which is pretty good for a pretty bad month. Still, you might consider this “blowing my lead” since I had been on pace to coast into the deadline and now have to hustle to complete 13.5 chapters in half of December.

Last night didn’t hurt any, though, as I wrote 16.5 pages and completed 1.5 of those 13.5 chapters, giving me a fortnight to write 12 chapters. No picnic, but certainly something I can accomplish at roughly October’s pace.

Here’s a look at how each writing period has gone, if only to reaffirm that this schedule is still working out, even with the hindrances faced in November:
November 2009: 18,004 words (~72 pages)
October 2009: 34,533 words (~138 pages)
September 2009: 34,811 words (~139 pages)
June 2002-August 2009: 19,083 words (~76 pages)

So yeah, even a lousy month was competitive with seven full years of writing on the side of day jobs. And while the decline looks precipitous month-to-month, it’s certainly worth noting that my schedule is almost completely clear for the next two weeks, free of any projects that are not the novel. If I need to start writing during daylight hours, having two or even three sessions a day, so be it.

Also worth noting that this thing is probably going to be over 500 conventional pages when it’s done. Huh.