Day Fourteen - 27,048 words and counting

This month, I'm writing a novel. All my progress can be found on my private blog. The commentary for each day's work can be found below.

Now that I've established Jancel and Tonio as characters, I need to figure out where they work into the overall plot. Tonio is a little simpler, although given Jancel's personality, I think I can guess where she'll figure in. Of course, right now Bryony is still very young. After ten or twelve years have gone by, Bryony will be in her mid-twenties, and Jancel and Tonio in their mid-thirties. That's much less of a difference, and their relationship will change accordingly.

Still, that's looking ahead. The big news is that I've finally topped the 50% mark! I couldn't be more thrilled, especially since I reached it two days ahead of schedule. That's a big milestone; 27k words is over 100 pages. I have officially left the territory of the short story and moved into the novel zone. (Honestly, I probably hit that at 20k words if not earlier, but there's just something about a triple digit page count that sounds awesome.)

So now that I'm halfway through my one month plan, where does that leave me? As I continue to write, I revise the structure of the story in my head as well. Now what I'm calling the first Act, is everything up to the first confrontation with Gessica, which took place in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 is finished now, so this is technically the beginning of Act II, which will cover the early part of Bryony's experiences in class. For the benefit of those who want to remain spoiler free I won't say where it ends, but I will say that the bulk of the story will remain within Lair Middling for a while.

By Act III, we'll start to explore the wider picture, and we'll finally be leaving the market--not leaving it behind, but stepping outside its walls for the first time since the prologue. In Act IV, the story becomes even more wide ranging, and Act V cranks it up another notch. Its climax is one of the central images of the story to me, one of the three central images that inspired me to write it in the first place. (The first was Bryony's awakening with Elma at her side; the second is the climax to Act III.)

Act VI is still a little nebulous. I know how I'm ending the story, but precisely how I get there is yet to be determined. I think that's only natural, since I will probably meet someone people along the way who play a role, people I haven't yet encountered.

If what I've done so far is any indication, I can budget between 25k and 30k words per act. That'll put the whole thing between 150-180k.

So what happens when I finish this month? Well, I'm going to keep going, of course. I will re-evaluate my projected word count at that time, for both the current act and the novel as a whole. That will become my new target, with the same daily target rate of 1,689 words. According to current estimates, I should finish around Christmas, but it'll take as long as it takes.

For now, though, I can look back on what I've done with pride. It hasn't taken all that long on a daily basis, but the work really adds up in a very satisfying way.

Chapter Eight begins next!

Today's Total: 1,749 / 1,689 words (103.6%)
Progress to Date: 27,048 / 23,641 words (114.4%, 2.0 days ahead)
Total Progress: 27,048 / 52,347 words (51.7%)