Panster in Disguise?

While home due to feeling under the weather on July 10th, I stumbled across a writing challenge called the 70 Days of Sweat, which calls for writers to complete a first draft of a novel in 70 days, between July 10th and approximately September 20th. I decided to sign up.

I updated my progress yesterday, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I'd written 67,000+ words since that time. What was even more amazing was that I did not have a completed synopsis, only a vague idea of how the plot would unfold. I haven't written this way in quite some time.

It seems to be working for me. I've never produced this much in such a short period of time before. In many cases this would be nearly a completed novel. I'm actually working between two projects, and even though the bulk of it is on one manuscript, I can't say anything is nearly complete. But the progress meter I installed on the Books/Works in Progress page of my web site shows 36% for the major project. I hope to have it past 50% by the 20th of September.

It's still too early for me to say with certainty whether this is the way for me to go in the future; I'll have to complete a draft without running into problems first. I just know that in the here and now it's working, so I'll stick with it.

Wish me luck!