Day Thirty-five - 66,634 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.

Day two of no internet at Panera. Now they've called in Verizon to fix the problem, so I'm sure things will be back to normal about the time the next president is sworn in.

By the way, did you vote? If not, you better have an excuse, like "I'm not a U.S. citizen" or "I'm dead." I gave up my first half hour of writing this morning to go vote, and they didn't even give me a sticker. What the hell? I thought this was America, and in America, you get a sticker.

Nevertheless, this isn't a political blog, and I'm going to do my best to keep (gobama!) politics out of my post today. I'm not promising anything.

We last left Bryony at the end of Chapter Sixteen, which contrary to form had a somewhat happy ending. I am reminded of my favorite character from George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. Her name is Arya, and the only really happy times she has ever had occurred during the first novel of the series. Since then, she has endured one terrible thing after another, and she has changed from a normal little girl into a magic-wielding death dealing uber-tween.

Yet somehow, we still care about her, because we remember the good times. And those sweet, sweet moments carry us through.

Now, I'm not going to turn Bryony into a Kill Bill parody. I don't enjoy writing that kind of emotionless character, and I don't plan to do that to her. But I'm not going to be particularly nice to Bryony either, and I think it's important that she has good memories to balance out the bad, both for her sake and the sake of the reader.

Chapter 17 begins with Bryony taking her Cleaning Day certificate out for a spin. Who should she meet but good old Pritchard, who sees her in what amounts to highborn finery and connects the dots. Is Elma there too? Yes, I think so. They corner him and swear him to silence. Instead of going straight home, Bryony finds and confronts Lowell. But guess what? Lillian, his daughter, is there. Awkward! And that ought to wrap up 17.

The information she gains in 17 leads her and Devan directly to 18, which ought to be a satisfying adventure for those of you who like such things. It might stretch to 19, I'm not sure. We'll just have to see how it goes. The chapter after that concludes the Merona arc regarding the plant, and then the chapter after that rounds out the end of Part 1. So if on average I'm doing a chapter every two days, Part 1 should be finished around the middle of the month. Good, I'm on track with what I had figured out before.

Okay, time to get started! Let's see where this all leads.

Huh. I wasn't expecting Gessica to show up there toward the end of the scene, but I guess I should have expected it. These students are getting a reward, after all, and it's only to be expected that the leader of the market would put in an appearance.

Plus, Gessica has awesome people skills. She wants her own image to be associated with what is likely to be the best day in these kids' lives, up to this point. It's only good sense.

There's quite a bit more chapter left, so I don't know if I'll finish tomorrow. I'll try, but I'm not promising anything. Honestly, I would have written more tonight, but the polls just closed in Indiana, and I want to start watching election coverage.

See you tomorrow for chapter 17!

Today's Total: 1,806 / 1,689 words (106.9%)
Nov. Progress to Date: 7,407 / 6,756 words (109.6%, 0.4 days ahead)
Nov. Total Progress: 7,407 / 50,670 (14.6%)
Est. Completion: 66,634 / 250,000 words (26.7%, 109 days to go)