Day Thirty-six - 68,450 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 three of no internet at Panera. I'm starting to forget what it was like to be able to write these posts on my actual blog, and not just paste them in after the fact. It won't be long before I start telling the youngsters about the glory days of the Panera wi-fi.

Also, I'm running on caffeine and a nap at the moment, having stayed up until the wee hours watching election coverage. At first I just wanted to stay up until I knew who would win. Then I stayed up until polls closed on the West Coast and Obama clinched it. Then I waited for McCain's concession speech, and by that time, I had to stay up for Obama's victory speech. When it became apparent that the remaining Senate races and uncalled states weren't going to be determined anytime soon, I finally went to bed around 1:30am, and still had a tough time getting to sleep.

But here I am at my usual time, blearily pounding away at the old keyboard. I don't know if that stays more about my dedication to writing, the power of habit, or the gradual puddening of my brain. (Puddening - ger. of v.i. "to pudden," meaning "turn to pudding." I just made that up.)

Yesterday, I left off in the middle of chapter 17, where Bryony was getting to spend some quality time with Kalocia and Asry. I started the chapter in the middle of the scene, then fell back and started to catch up to that first part. I didn't quite make it all the way yesterday. This is a technique that I've used once before in this novel, in the scene where Devan runs by and hands Bryony the fruit. In both cases, I expected the flashback to be far shorter. It's not a bad technique, as far as such things go, as long as the flashback isn't so very long that the reader has forgotten where it started before we get back to it.

One of the hardest things for me in writing Kalocia is that I was never a teenage girl. (I know, big shocker.) I could write effective male bullies because I frequently encountered them back in the day, but the female variety is a creature I've only known anecdotally, or else from film. So please, all you lady-types out there, feel free to offer whatever correction and criticism you deem warranted, and I will take it under advisement.

I've had more fun in the past chapter writing Kalocia than at any point before, just because sometimes it's fun to say mean things. At the moment, the most damning thing that Kalocia can throw up at Bryony (heh, throw up) is her friendship with Yancy. At some point soon that will change, and the attacks against Bryony will be more personal. But it will come just before Bryony is put into a position to sort of fight back, and thus a conflict important later in the book develops.

So where am I going today? I need to wrap up the scene in the Hall of Tailorcraft, see Pritchard, introduce the visit to Lowell, meet back up with Devan, go see Lowell, run into Lillian... man, there's a lot of piddly little details about where people are that needs to be worked out. I think I can manage it, but I'm always afraid that the plot will seem forced when stuff like this happens. I think I've been clever enough to make it work and feel natural, but there's only one way to find out, and that's by writing it. So here goes!

This scene feels like it's dragging. I think I'm going to lose Pritchard's part and skip right to Devan and Lowell. Pritchard doesn't add anything that won't emerge later. All the stuff about the dress is important to set up the climax of the scene, where Bryony's appearance is of importance. If I don't set it up now, it'll be too late.

Well, I set it up. Once again, the chapter ran longer than I anticipated. The next chapter will be action-packed, I promise. It's just that the characters start acting in ways I didn't expect, but ways that make perfect sense based on who and where they are. They'll still wind up doing what I want, and I think it will work out naturally--see, I was worried about that before, but I didn't need to.

Instead, I get one more beat in the story between Bryony and Devan, coming up when they take their lunch break. And after that, some adventuring. I worry sometimes that this story is way too slow, and on days like this, I'm almost certain of it. Hopefully things will move along more quickly later.

I know they will in chapter 18, which starts tomorrow!

Today's Total: 1,816 / 1,689 words (107.5%)
Nov. Progress to Date: 9,223 / 8,445 words (109.2%, 0.5 days ahead)
Nov. Total Progress: 9,223 / 50,670 (18.2%)
Est. Completion: 68,450 / 250,000 words (27.4%, 107 days to go)