So, in the last week or so I’ve accomplished little on the book, however, I am proud to say that I just broke 10k words on Part 4! Officially I have under 14,000 words to write before I hit my goal of 100k, but the end is so near I can almost taste it. But, much to my dismay, I’m finding that the more I write on part 4, the more I feel like there is too much story left for 14k to contain. I’m almost dreading to reach 100k only to be looking at another 25k still to be done. So I’ve decided that when part 4 is done I will do the editing on part 2 just to give myself a bit of distance from the seemingly endless story I’m weaving. Sometimes it feels like I’m knitting a scarf that will never quite be done; like I just need to add one more row to make it perfect, but that one row turns into 50, and so on and so forth. When I started part 4 it felt like there was a light at the end of the tunnel, as the saying goes. Now it seems like it was a horrible april fool’s joke or something.

But never fear, I will not lose heart. Last time I tried to tackle a huge writing project like this I didn’t know what I was getting into and just wasn’t in a place (mentally and maturity-wise) where I could go the distance. I’m a bit more informed on the whole process this time and I like to think my writing has improved a bit in the last 10 years. So that gives me hope. Also, I am refusing to quit on this project. Even if the story never sees the flourescent light of a publishers office or an agent’s desk, I will know for myself that I can, in fact, write a novel.

Word count to come later tonight.

Total word count as of right now is 85,142 words. Lost is on tonight, followed by Eli Stone, so I doubt I’ll get much done before bedtime. Heh heh.

Another day, another thousand words, LOL.

Official Tally: 84,215

Another 15,000 and I’ll have the makings of a real novel. ^_^

Well, it’s been a semi-productive weekend. I got a lot of non-writing stuff done, however, that’s no concern here. The big news for me is that I finished the first re-write of part 1!!! Woo hoo! So, I am now going to include rewrites in my word count totals!

That being said, without further ado…

Word count as of tonight is…

83,271

So, now that part 1 rewrite is done, I am going to finish part 4. I’ve sent out part 1 to my team of expert editors (lol) and am anxiously awaiting their comments.

Word count today is officially at 82,568. Again, that is not including rewrites.

So the last few days have not been overly productive, writing-wise, but it was not a complete bust. My brother made extensive notes on part one so I spent some time Saturday and Sunday nights tweaking part one a bit. So that makes two people so far that will go on the inside of the book in thanks for their efforts. Of course, that would be pending I finish it and consequently manage somehow to get it published. LOL.

I hope to do some writing tonight, but I fear I wasted what time I had this morning working on a 500 word piece for an online group. Although, I suppose any exercise in writing is not a wasted effort. I guess I can think of it as warm-ups for my real work.

Today was a pretty productive day. Word count before I retire for the evening: 81,812 words.

I just finished writing a half-decent action sequence. I love writing scenes that get my heart pounding and really wind me up. ^_^ Unfortunately, it’s hard to stop when you get going like that, but tomorrow I’m journeying up to the great white north…well, just Vancouver, but still Canada nevertheless…so it’s early to bed and early to rise for me. Dunno if I’ll get to do any writing tomorrow, but I will try. This weekend’s looking pretty dismal for me as far as time to dedicate to my novel goes, but I am looking at many months of plenty of time to work so I can make up for it later.

*sigh*

Now to figure out how to make this train of thought take a hiatus…

So, in my writing today I had to actually stop and think about a scene before I could write it. Usually I just fly by the seat of my pants, but I found myself staring stupidly at part 4, looking for a way to get myself where I wanted to go. After breakfast, a cup of coffee (a LARGE one, at that), a small snack, lunch, and idly distracting myself on mySpace and Facebook, I finally convinced myself to step back and just think about my next move. It worked, this time, and I was able to push through to the next bit, but it was slow going. I still have trouble figuring out how I managed to write over 50K in roughly 20 days and then only 30K in the last three months. It just flowed so easy in November. I guess that must be because I had no plan when I started and now I have too many things I want to put in. It will be a struggle to fit everything into part four, but with careful editing later, 4 semi-equal parts should be achievable. In my rewrite of the 2nd half of part one I managed to expand it to 28K and some change.

[Read more…]

Total words, as of this moment, including only first drafts of all parts, currently equals 79,052 words.

This total does not reflect my recent reworking of Part 1 (as I’ve only fixed about half of it) LOL.

I will try to update daily as I write.

Hello and welcome to my blog. Here is where I will be recording my progress through my novel.

Begun in November 2007 for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), what started out as a frantic 50,000 word challenge has taken on a life of its own. My current word count is well over 75,000 words, to be updated later with an exact count, and is divided into 4 parts, 3 of which are finished and in rough draft form. The parts are somewhere around 25K words each, but, as I said, they are only rough drafts. The 25K just seemed to be a nice round number with which to end each part. As scattered-brained as I am, I’ve done a bit of reworking on part one, completely eliminating an entire character, despite the fact that the final part is still only on page 5. It’s okay to laugh here. I find it pretty funny myself.

Anyway, I’ve decided to create this blog to sort of make notes on this project for anyone who might want to follow me down this path of insanity, or maybe even for myself to go back and shake my head sadly at my silly misguided notion that I could actually write a real novel. As things go from completion of rough draft to harrowing rewrite to hair-pulling frustration as my friends and family assist me in perfecting it even further to the inevitable writing of the query letter to publishers and eventual receiving of rejection letters, I will attempt to post all about the smiles and frowns, the ups and downs of this wacky world of noveling.

So can I call myself an author if I haven’t been published yet?

I think so, although I feel a bit silly for it. Being an author does not necessarily mean being good at what you do or even being paid for what you do.

All I know is that I’m creating something. It’s a story. I like it. So far my friends and family see the potential too. Whether or not the publishing world agrees with me…well, I think that’s getting ahead of myself. For now, I need to finish that pesky part four.

But welcome to the dungeon, where I am shackled to my laptop. I’m a prisoner to my art! Come along and join the madness!