I have been neglectful. I have been tired, depressed, busy and overwhelmed, but most of all, I have been lazy and neglectful, and I really, really want it to stop.

I haven’t written for The Broken in over three months. And before that, it had been months of emptiness as well. In fact, I really haven’t given a whole lot of thought to The Broken in probably a year or more. I had originally intended to publish my second novel around two years after the first (October 2017), and it’s rapidly approaching the three-year mark with less than a third of the story actually written.

I’m not happy about this, it isn’t satisfactory, and it isn’t fair to those who are patiently waiting for further stories from me (I know there aren’t a whole lot of you, but there are some). I want this to change, because I really think the story of The Broken is compelling (or would be, if it were written) and timely, and it’s about time I got off my ass and started doing something about it.

So here’s my commitment: I intend to write something – perhaps not an entire chapter, but at least something – every week from now on for The Broken. Out of a projected 60,000 words, I have about 17,000 written so far – that leaves me with 43,000 more to write. I’d love to be able to send the manuscript to my editor by the end of the year, which means I have 24 weeks to write those 43,000 words. That leads me to write around 1,800 words a week, or around 250 words a day. Two hundred and fifty words is only a paragraph or two, so I think this is eminently possible – so long as I actually commit to doing it.

To help me keep my commitment, I intend to post a status update at the end of each week (probably on Friday) regarding just how many words I’ve actually written that week, and how much remains to go. I’ve done this before – with both 22 Scars and with my other alter-ego fantasy novels – so I know it’s possible; I just fear losing the will to continue again.

For those of you close to me, don’t be afraid to keep me in check – ask me how it’s going, ask me what I’ve written so far, and when I plan to write again. Even a paragraph a night will help me get to where I want to be, and perhaps it’ll help me stop drinking and sleeping quite so much, too, when I get home from work!

So here we go, with our first status update (another to follow on Friday): I have so far written 17,779 words, which means by Friday I should have written (at least) 19,000 words in total (an additional 1,500).

Let’s see how we do!