Day Fifty-five - 104,568 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.

It's time to start figuring out how I'll be working my writing in and around Thanksgiving. The Panera I write at is going to be closed that morning--go figure--so I guess I'll have to write at home. That hardly seems fair, does it? I suppose I'll manage.

Let's assume I manage to write effectively on Thanksgiving morning. Will I be able to get another section finished before 10pm on Friday? I'll give that a qualified yes. Saturday and Sunday will take care of themselves, so it sounds like I shouldn't have any disruption in my usual output.

Although I haven't mentioned it a lot, I'm using this month's writing to participate in NaNoWriMo. If my progress continues as normal, I should reach the goal of 50,000 on Thanksgiving Day itself, and meet my own monthly goal of 50,670 the following day. I know I keep saying it, but I never would have guessed that I could manage it, much less two months in a row.

This morning, I got an idea about today's section of writing. I was half asleep at that time (it was 4:45am, what do you expect?), and now it doesn't sound like such a good idea as it did. But I'm not sure if that's because I don't remember the idea fully, or whether I was just coming up with bad ideas in the shower again.

My original plan for today had been for Devan to sneak out and go visit Yancy, Sili, and Zeoly, but now I'm not so sure. Yeah, it would be sweet of him, but I don't have anything that such a scene would accomplish in terms of the overall narrative. My early morning brainfart was for Devan to see someone in the hall as he went there, or in their room, watching them. Problem is, how would I explain that later on? It doesn't really fit with the motives of the shadowy figures. (I know them and you don't, so there.)

The problem is, none of Bryony's friends are important to her enemies yet, because Bryony's enemies don't yet need to do bad things to them in order to manipulate her. Only Gessica even considers them in her plans, and right now, it's in Gessica's best interest for them to just get well and go back to being normal.

So I think I may have to leave Devan's POV for now, short though it was, and start the next scene. I'll pick up with Bryony, I think. I have a general idea what the scene will be today, but I'm going to be figuring out quite a bit of it as I write.

--

I'm satisfied with the scene so far. I think it's contrasting nicely with Devan's experiences and with Bryony's experiences in the future. Which reminds me--in the next Devan POV, I believe he might just have a run in with a certain groundskeeper (not Willie), a man that Gideon will no doubt be looking for as well.

Now that today's section is over, I have a clearer idea of where I'm going to go tomorrow. I'm using this scene to get the protocol out of the way. It's such a huge part of the story, I have to address it, but I don't want that to be what I focus on when she's meeting the Patroness. She needs to have a level of comfort with it, and this scene gives it to her.

Also, the last time she had the sense of duality was in the last book, and I needed to bring it back this time. It's huge clue, and will come into play much later on. Not in this chapter, probably not in this book, but eventually.

Chapter 5 concludes tomorrow, and most likely I'll get to chapter 6.

Today's Total: 1,840 / 1,689 words (108.9%)
Nov. Progress to Date: 45,341 / 40,536 words (112.0%, 2.8 days ahead)
Nov. Total Progress: 45,341 / 50,670 (89.5%)
Book 2 Est. Completion 20,699 / 84,450 words (24.5%, 38 days to go)
Est. Completion: 104,568 / 250,000 words (41.8%, 86 days to go)