Drafting Continues
Drafting continues on the new novel, more in bursts than in a steady drip that I’ve used in the past. I’ve been writing for a day or two and then life forces me away for a couple days, then I mosey on back to it. But according to my new target of writing a 100 words a day, I should have 3100 words as of today. In actuality, I have 3900! So … crushing this new target.
In reality, a 100 words a day is a very low target. It’s hard not to write a 100 words when you sit down to write for more than 10 minutes. Most writers I know of target 250 words as an absolute minimum (which will translate to a ~90,000 word novel in one year). Annnd it’s NaNoWriMo right now, so there’s lots of writers out there targeting 1667 words a day, but not this guy.
1667 words a day? Madness! Even if I could eek out the time, I don’t have a super tight grasp of the plot right now to do that. I write what I can now, and then spend the rest of the day or several days mulling over where it needs to go next. Which, of course, NaNoWriMo proponents would say is kinda the point, force you out of your head and onto the page without concern for quality (that’s what editing is for). But I’m not up for a marathon right now.
As for the novel itself, I like what I got so far. But already secondary characters are coming alive and becoming interesting and throwing up my early plans into disarray. I’m not too worried about it though, one part I’ve resigned myself to quite a bit of editing work, and one part I’m still dubious this novel with sort itself out. I’m “writing in the dark” as they say, and I’m okay with this novel staying there and never coming out if necessary.
For the moment, it feels good to just be writing again.