Day Seven - 14,023 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.

As I mentioned, I had originally intended that Chapter Three would take two days to write, and therefore be closer to the length of the first two chapters. But when I reached the end of the first scene of the chapter, I thought the scene was too touching to be buried in the middle of a chapter. And so we pick up with another Bryony POV in chapter four.

Am I spending too long describing the details of things like clothing and architecture? They're not "important," per se, though I think they give a sense of atmosphere. I have a very clear picture of how the market and its inhabitants look, act, and dress, and I'm trying to get that across.

Better in the rough draft to write it down and cut later, I suppose. If I start to repeat myself, it will be easier to gloss over a description later than to create it.

I had nearly written the entire passage about how Bryony and Elma were underground when I noticed I hadn't talked about where the light was coming from. In my mind, it wasn't coming from anywhere in particular, it just was. But that's no explanation at all.

Thank you, fantasy genre. When in doubt, it's magic! But in this case, it made sense. Part of the theme of this book is how magic can make otherwise untenable systems work, and the enormous underground complex of Lair Middling probably wouldn't work in the real world, at least not at the level of technology in this story.

I came up with the name Jacielle for the cook, but it didn't fit the character, so I'm saving it for someone else. Instead I called her Myrna, which I like.

No real cliffhanger today; I ended the selection at the best possible stopping place. Chapter four continues tomorrow.

Today's Total: 1,926 / 1,689 words (114.0%)
Progress to Date: 14,023 / 11,820 words (118.6%)
Total Progress: 14,023 / 52,347 words (26.8%)