"The Chain" - Countdown

I started writing my novel in, I think, June of last year. I started strong, wrote like a sonofabitch, and then burnt out even faster. I stop/started, on-and-off, until this point, where I'm a few months away from it being 365 days of having it hanging over me, and knowing what I've got to do. I didn't write linear, that was a problem, so I've written a lot of the fun stuff, the stuff I wanted to write since I had the idea, and now I've got a lot of filler to write-- the thick stuff that needs doing but is always a drag to do. Exposition. Fighting. Dialogue I can handle, dialogue I love, but right now... I need to finish this thing. A year should be plenty of time, shouldn't it?

But not only that, but my novel has to be just that, it has to be a novel. If the word count isn't up, then it's nothing but a glorified short story, or even worse-- a novella. Some pseudo-Italian term that means "you're not good enough to hit our special high word count". I need to get this done. I need to write harder than I have been. But I'm in the place right now where doing it would be artificial and stodgy, and who wants that?

I want to be in Venice. I want to be back in Venice, sitting in front of that cafe; my ears open, my eyes on the street and my fingers on the keyboard. I want to write, and I want to get it done.

So, June, right?

Wish me luck.