Day Thirty-four - 64,828 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.

I am a creature of habit. When I got to Panera this morning and the wifi was down, I was knocked base over apex, and Bertie Wooster might have put it. I was put completely out of reckoning. How could I be expected to write, I asked myself, without internet access?

Then, of course, I remembered that I might not have the world wide web, but I did have a laptop on which was saved the entirety of my story. And I had word processors and text editors and all types of software that can save my output for later upload.

But it just goes to show you how much habits influence the way we write. I do the same thing every morning: get up, check email, shower, watch TV while eating breakfast, get dressed, go to Panera. On weekends I might switch up the order and do it a little later in the day, but the content doesn't alter.

The novel writing has been going on for just over a month now, but the habits had been established since the beginning of the summer, or thereabouts. Not even six months along, an alteration into one thing, the availability of wireless internet, put me completely off kilter.

I'm not really saying that this is a bad thing. Doing the same thing every day puts me into a mindset primed for writing. I sit down and get to work, no questions asked. But it is frustrating when circumstances beyond my control conspire to ruin that routine.

So now, on to the actual writing, and not just complaining. I ended yesterday with Bryony's late night out of body experience, wherein the reader (if not Bryony herself) gets some important clues about stuff in general. Feel free to read and reread that section; if I was clever enough, you won't be able to figure it out, even with all the clues there. If I wasn't clever enough, well, I need to know that too.

I'm picking up the next day with a section I'm not really looking forward to writing, another scene of Bryony suffering the stares of her peers. I've got to make this one somehow different than the ones before.

Afterwards, I get to do another scene with Jorik, which I'm looking forward to. Is there any way I can just skip straight to that? Well... no, not really, as what they talk about follows directly on the earlier events. Okay, time to buckle up and do it. I have to plow through the bad parts to get to the good ones.

Unless... ah, if you see I’ve written that, you know I had an idea. It will mean a bit of restructuring, but will also mean a stronger story in the end. I’ll cut straight to the scene with Jorik, then a Freeday pass to the Hall of Tailorcraft, back by way of the Hall of Residence where she sees Lillian, and a vital clue that she needs Devan’s help for. Perfect.

I think I’m going to end chapter 16 here. It’s a nice ending, the chapter is long enough, and the next scene picks up a few days later. All are good indications to move along the story to another chapter.

So in that case, chapter 17 starts tomorrow!

Today's Total: 1,777 / 1,689 words (105.2%)
Nov. Progress to Date: 5,601 / 5,067 words (110.5%, 0.3 days ahead)
Nov. Total Progress: 5,601 / 50,670 (11.1%)
Est. Completion: 64,828 / 250,000 words (25.9%, 110 days to go)