Sometimes the universe is magic:

Ok, so this post is a bit more personal and zoe-centric than some of my others. I'm currently in the edit stage for the novel I wrote for nanowrimo last November. I had set a self-imposed deadline to getting query letters out the door (which means also getting the novel completely revised and polished and ready to go should someone want to see the completed manuscript) by April 5th. (a self-imposed and psychologically significant deadline for me to get moving on this.)

Today I found out that a new LJ comm was started today called novel in 90: Novel in 90 Community link

The goal is to finish a novel in 90 days. Now, I already finished a rough draft of a novel in 30 days (nanowrimo). And I did a clean up edit in December. But the novel isn't finished. It's not REALLY finished until it's ready to send out to someone is it? So this is the phase I'm at, to FINISH this novel.

That means editing/revising, researching (for characters, story etc. things that will help flesh the book out where it needs it.), writing new scenes in places, getting my query letter ready etc. etc.

The goal for the comm is 750 words a day. I don't know that I'll be writing that many a day. Some days it'll be more cause of new scenes. Some days, much less. But the point is, I need to really commit to getting this thing done. I'm making a personal to do list so I can pace myself properly but I'm thinking I need about 2 hours of actual work ON the novel (in some form) a day.

So what's the magic here? Well. Coincidentally...this comm was started today. And...counting today and April 5th (my deadline) it's EXACTLY 90 days. So yeah, I'm a complete goob, but I totally believe this is the universe going: "Zoe, get your ass in gear, I can't hand this to you any more plainly." So I intend to finish the novel in 90 days. My punishment for not completing will be total mocking. (no, really...that's the rules on the comm. they get to mock you for failing to work.) :)

If this is something you think you want to do, I encourage you to check out the comm and jump in!