Day Twenty-five - 47,816 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.

Once again, although it may not be apparent to my casual reader, I have been off for two days. After a Herculean effort (given my schedule), I managed to get two full days ahead in new material, which I scheduled for release while I was gone.

Now that buffer is gone, which always makes me a little sad, because I like having a buffer. More importantly, I find myself in the position of trying to pick up from where I left off. Somehow, even after two days, that's not easy. I'm worried that the next couple of days will suffer just like Chapter Nine did.

I do have one advantage over my last return-after-an-absence. The scene today is one that I've been looking forward to. It begins as another confrontation between Bryony and Gessica, but then we meet another character, Lord Tynofast. He has appeared before, and been referred to even more, but this is the first time Bryony has met him. I've got some hints to drop (see if you can spot them!), and a very interesting relationship to begin. Tynofast is meant to be a counterpoint to Jorik in some respects, and I hope I can achieve that like I want.

This scene will definitely continue on through the rest of the chapter, and will likely conclude tomorrow. I'm very happy with how it has turned out so far, and although it won't be a cliffhanger in the finished novel, I think ending the day on Bryony's mental turmoil is a nice play to stop for all of you right now.

There are a couple of different explanations for what is going on, equally viable, though only one of them is the whole truth. For those of you who think I'm making this up as I go along, I can assure you that there is a single right answer which I already know.

In fact, that's something I think it's worth establishing now. I don't have the story planned out scene by scene, and to some extent I'm allowing the characters to drive the action. I'm even willing to meet new characters that I hadn't planned for and let them play major roles in the action.

But I know all the answers. I know what is going on. I know who Bryony is, how she got to the market that night, and why she was there. I know how the story is going to end, and I know the big climaxes that will lead us there. In fact, I know more about Bryony's past than I will probably mention in this novel.

What I don't know is exactly when she will discover each piece. Along the way, she may make "discoveries" about herself that turn out to be mistaken, or to mean something other than she thinks. Other times, she will be exactly correct. Remember that we are experiencing this story through her eyes, and she doesn't have a completely objective viewpoint.

For right now though, I'm going to close. You'll see the conclusion to chapter 12 tomorrow!


Today's Total: 2,164 / 1,689 words (128.1%)
Progress to Date: 47,816 / 42,215 words (113.3%, 3.3 days ahead)
Total Progress: 47,816 / 52,347 words (91.3%)
Est. Completion: 47,816 / 250,000 words (19.1%, 120 days to go)