Day 57: Over the Hump on Book 2

I still have a long way to go on this book before the end of the month. It's all still sitting on my NEO so I don't have an official word count yet, but I'll have one tomorrow. The good news is, I finally got over the hump on this book, and it feels like it's just flowing now instead of me having to fight for every word. Things should proceed at a better pace now, and hopefully until the end!

Day 50: Playing Catch-Up... Again

I haven't posted since I recovered - it wasn't a kidney stone, but I'm fine now - as I've been working hard and haven't really had a chance. Once again, I went through several false starts before I finally hit upon a direction I liked for this one. I'm starting to wonder if that's going to be part of my process every time. Or maybe I'll finally hit a point where I can just sit down and begin one of these things without second-guessing myself a half-dozen times. Regardless, I'm only about 13k words right now. Which means I have a LOT of work to do before the end of the month.

I do like this new book a lot though. It's very different from the first one. I'm trying to focus more on getting into the heads of my characters this time, and I think that's making it more interesting for me.

Update: I'm Okay!

Well, a week later and my health crisis is, I think, finally over. I've still been working though I have a lot of catching up to do. I'll need to average at least 2300 words a day to hit 50k, and I'm pretty sure this one will be a bit longer than that. Maybe QUITE a bit, but if I have to go a couple of days into November I'll do it. I figure, as long as I get my 12 books in 12 months, that's what matters. If some take a little more or a little less than a month, that's how long they take.

Quick Update

I have started on the new book. I will post about it in more detail next week. I spent the afternoon at the doctor's office being diagnosed with a kidney stone that announced it's presence at about 4AM Thursday morning. Needless to say it sucks and the worst is still yet to come.

Day 29: 1 Down, 11 to Go

I finished the first draft of the first book about an hour ago. It came out to just over 55k words, right between a NaNoWriMo-length 50k and the 60k I thought I might hit at the halfway point. I've been volunteering at my son's school recently or I would have finished up earlier this week. I still have plenty of time, though, to firm up the outline for the second book and start on the first draft Monday morning.

Huzzah!

Countdown to Halloween!

In honor of the horror novel I'll be writing next month, I've added a link to a fun site, Countdown to Halloween.  They have lots of links to horror and Halloween themed sites. For the record, I'm not getting any kickbacks or anything for linking to 'em. I just love Halloween! It is, easily, my favorite holiday. And my son's too.

Day 22: Pulling Teeth

I'm coming up on the end now. I've entered the third act and my previously furious pace has slowed a bit. Partly that's because I'm getting over a cold that hit me over the weekend. But I think partly I'm just being more thoughtful now as I get closer to the finish.

I've started doing the serious outlining work for Book #2. I'm kicking around some different ideas for the close of the 2nd act on that one but I should be able to start breaking it down into beats next week and be ready to go on the next book well before the 1st of October.