Progress post: Book 2, draft 3 (SWANoWriMo edition)

Image obtained from a Public Domain site

I started out the month with about 38800 words on "Reincarnation," which is the tentative title for the second book in my trilogy. I'd set it on the back burner while I did edits, because there are only so many hours in the day, but I spent a little time pecking at it to get back into the groove of writing in time for SWANoWriMo.

When I finished up my writing for the night last night, I had 42829. I haven't done any writing yet today, but 4000 words is a good start on a month where I'm hoping to make it to 50,000. I don't think a full NaNo-count is realistic, but we shall see. When I have momentum, I can really churn out a word count.

And, initially, I did have quite a bit of momentum. My conflict was coming together, my characters were motivated to find out what was going on, and the tension was perfect. I was patting myself on the back for getting over that initial stumbling-block I'm always dealing with when the execution doesn't match the awesome ideas I've been churning over.

But then I had to scrap about half a (single-spaced) page, and the momentum fizzled. I realized I was revealing too much, too soon, and that these characters would step more carefully. I liked the scene that resulted from taking out all of those words and being more mindful of the characters' motivations, but it slowed me down.

I'm almost done with a really long manuscript I'd been editing, so I'm hoping that, when I finish that monster, I'll have more focus to spend on my own novel. We shall see. I may have been able to do a double-NaNo the last time I participated, but I had a lot less going on that month.

Not that having things going on is bad. I have so much to look forward to, and I'm so excited about my February 28 post!