Day Twenty-nine - 55,077 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've made a change in my percentage counters below. Since I've decided to continue after October finishes, the counter for the month will reset. That means that my current buffer of 3+ days will go away. And so I've gone ahead and added the counter for November, which of course won't start advancing until November 1st.

I'm happy with how the scenes with Devan turned out yesterday, even though once again, he wasn't supposed to take such an active role. It just seemed in character that he would have befriended the guard, and based on that, would be in a position to help out Bryony and Yancy. I also wanted to show one more way in which people of Yancy's ethnicity were mistreated, and begin to draw the distinction between old-market and new-market, the conservative and liberal elements within the politics of that society.

Let's just say that Gessica is decidedly old-market.

My biggest concern about this chapter is how to get out of it. You can't end a chapter without... well, an ending. I usually try to wrap up the scene while providing a hook into the next, and it's not easy to balance cliffhanger and closure. (Hmmmm... alliteration. That must be right!) In this particular chapter, I don't have any really good candidates for closing scenes.

Unless... yeah, I think I might have it. I don't see a deep need for this chapter to go on until Bryony makes it back to her room. It can end within a very short space of time, and then I can pick up with Chapter 14. The Bryony scenes in 14 will go about halfway, and then I want to look in on Merona again. I had planned that for Chapter 15, but I don't think it's worth a whole chapter.

The result will be a tightening of my plans for 13-15 into 13-14. I think that'll be okay.

--

What do they say about the best laid plans? I wasn't expecting Yancy to open up like that, but it seemed like a good chance to give out some of her back story. Not to mention the fact that she's putting ideas into Bryony's mind. If you read that passage and consider it to be foreshadowing, well, you're probably right. But exactly what it's foreshadowing I'm not going to tell you.

As a result, I ended Chapter 13 even earlier than I intended. I don't think 14 will be significantly different, though.

I'm happy to report that I devised a good ending for today's section as well. Chapter 14 will continue tomorrow!

Today's Total: 1,815 / 1,689 words (107.5%)
Progress to Date: 55,077 / 48,970 words (112.5%, 3.6 days ahead)
October Progress: 55,077 / 52,347 words (105.2%)
November Progress: 0 / 50,670 (0.0%)
Est. Completion: 55,077 / 250,000 words (22.0%, 115 days to go)