OCTOBER STATS
Days Writing: 23
New Words: 7,338
New Chapters: 2
Total Word-count: 94,033
Total Chapters: 25.5
September wasn’t a great month for my story, but October was my best one yet! My commitment for the month was to prioritize the novel over my story blog, and to shoot for 500 words written or 800 words revised each day. This resulted in 23 days of writing, the second highest I’ve ever had, and over 7,000 words written, the most I’ve ever done.
In September I could hardly feel my story progressing, but in October I was keenly aware of the narrative moving forward. I not only accomplished more, I enjoyed each moment more because of it.
Naturally I will be keeping the same commitment into November, prioritizing the novel over the story blog and writing 500/revising 800 words each day. That should make it possible for me to finish the entire first draft at the end of November or start of December, and that is another goal that I’m going to hold myself accountable for.
So clearly it was good news for my novel in October…but what about for my story blog? Well, when I started the month I was writing my posts two weeks ahead of when I published them, but I lost half of that reserve, leaving me with only a one week buffer. I’m hoping that I’ll get into a better rhythm as I become accustomed to the new schedule, but I’ll be keeping my priorities the same either way.
I can’t wait to give my next update a month from now, and as usual here’s a small snippet from the material I wrote in October.
What do these scenes of recaptured hope mean to you? You have revisited these memories in a repeated ritual, and always the sweetness of these moments have tasted bitter because you knew the evil that would soon follow. You have always wished that you could halt the flow of time and dwell in these scenes for eternity. These scenes before all that was right turned wrong.
And while the story appears unchangeable, written in stone, the hope of these moments seems to fight against their predetermined end. Is it possible that a chapter could break out of the confines of its own story and rewrite the ending before it occurs? Is it possible that what you thought was the same story being repeated over and over were but repetitive chapters in a much larger tale, one whose ending you have still never read?
Do you return to these scenes over and over to witness death afresh, or do these repeated visitations represent a living battle? Each of these passages still torment you inside, and if there is torment, then is there not still a fight? And though these battles have been lost every time before, could the final outcome of the war still have yet to be determined?
Is it possible that you can change the ritual, rewrite the chapter, and turn the tide of the battle? Are the pen and sword already in hand, ready to craft an ending of your own choosing? Ready to write and ready to fight…but only if you are willing to wield them?
Give Me Pen and Paper 