Two-and-a-half weeks ago I stated that I was scaling down this blog and giving my attention to my novel and short story. This is my first update since making that change.
Admittedly, for about the first week things were rather concerning. During that time I wasn’t writing anything at all, and I started to be afraid that by pulling back from this blog I had cut off my only connection to steady productivity. I feared that soon I would lapse out of writing altogether.
Over the last week things have started to look better, though. I’ve formally recommitted myself to several daily practices, including writing, and ever since then I’ve been able to put effort towards it each day. Most days I’ve done as much as work as I was putting into this blog and sometimes more. The result is that I have now reached the next milestone on my novel, which is finishing the last of my character studies.
I’ve been wanting to finish these character studies for a few months now and had been disappointed that it was taking so long. But once I finished, I took a wordcount of them all and found that combined they weighed in at over 12,000 words. Yes, my progress was slower than I would have liked, but also I was developing far more material than I realized!
For each of my characters I have extended their backstories, revised their initial motivations, and conducted several interviews to establish their unique manner of speech. I’ve also identified ways that I need to improve the arc of their development and I have made plans for how to implement those changes in the second draft.
Which, speaking of the second draft, I now have the way cleared ahead to get started on it.
Before I do that, though, I’m going to dedicate a week or two to my short story, The Storm. I’m going to progress that to its next milestone, and then swap back to the novel. I’ll check back later to let you know how it’s going.
Give Me Pen and Paper 