Day Forty-four - 83,869 words and counting

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.

Today will be an interesting experiment--how to write while sick. Headache, sore throat, stuffy nose, etc. I'm tempted to give all my characters headaches, just out of spite, but I will refrain. No one deserves a headache.

Can you believe it? Today, then tomorrow, and we're done with Part 1. I have to say, I expected this material to be covered within the first 20,000 words, but things don't always work out like that. In fact, it wasn't until about halfway through October that I realized I wouldn't finish within the month, and that I had bitten off a far larger project that I had intended.

As I said, Part 1 will be finished on Friday. I am thinking about taking Saturday off. GASP! It's not for sure, and if I can accomplish what I want in the morning and still write in the afternoon, I'll do that, and there will be no apparent gap. But I feel like I need to regroup and get started with Part 2 in the right direction, and that may be worth a day off to do. If I can avoid it I will, but just don't be surprised. Either way, I'll post on this blog to let you know the status.

If you're wondering about how time is measured, it's done by "bells." First bell is 8am, second bell is noon, third bell is 4pm, fourth bell is 8pm, fifth bell is midnight, and sixth bell is 4am. Only the first four are actually rung, however. To make things more confusing, there is the dawn bell, rung at dawn, and the morning bells, which take the place of alarm clocks. There is no specific "dusk" bell, but there are bells for first, second, and third curfew which take place at 9pm, 10pm, and 11pm.

Time is measured by the hour with phrases like "quarter past second," "half past third," etc. Each "quarter" represents an hour. There is rarely a need to indicate time more exactly than that, but it can be done with phrases like "fifteen minutes before quarter 'til second bell." That would translated to 10:45am. (Second bell is 12pm, quarter 'til second is 11am, fifteen minutes before that is 10:45am.)

Different crafts also have different minor bells that are run throughout the day, and form the pattern of life within that craft. These can have different names in different crafts, even when they are rung at the same time. For that matter, they do not always use literal bells to indicate the time. Pretty much, I'm trying to indicate a system that has developed over the years in a very non-standard way, and fits the needs of the community it serves.

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Looks like I miscalculated... chapter 21, and with it Part 1 of the story, are finishing up today! That means that tomorrow will be my day off, unless I manage to write some tomorrow night. Since I've got the weekend coming up, though, I think I may double up to make up lost time on Saturday and Sunday. You heard it here--no Friday at 1opm, but there will be a Saturday 1opm, Sunday 10am, and Sunday 10pm to make up for lost time. All day Friday and Saturday morning will be dedicated to drawing up some preliminary outlines for Part 2.

After that ending, you're not going to like me very much, I'm guessing. But it was necessary to establish the tension that drives us through the first section of Part 2. And come on, you're saying that you didn't expect a cliffhanger ending at the end of an entire third of the book? Give me a break.

So tomorrow... nothing much happens, as far as you're concerned. But Saturday, Part 2 and Chapter 22 both begin!

Today's Total: 2,231 / 1,689 words (132.1%)
Nov. Progress to Date: 24,642 / 21,957 words (112.2%, 1.6 days ahead)
Nov. Total Progress: 24,642 / 50,670 (48.6%)
Est. Completion: 83,869 / 250,000 words (33.5%, 98 days to go)