Well, it’s back to the Evil Day Job today. No, I don’t feel like I had a four-day weekend, not when I got up at 5:00 three of those days. But I’m happy with my progress. It was necessary to get ahead a little, because now, it’s crunch time until my next day of vacation (Tuesday, Wednesday next week). My schedule for the rest of this week will be NaNo (Return to Shanhasson) dark and early, and squeeze in whatever I can for Revision Xibalba at night.
Today: Gulp, only 771 words this morning. Up a bit late, and I signed on for work early to sort through all my e-mails, messages, meetings, etc. that have tumbled into my inbox since last Friday. That’s why I needed a cushion going into the work week. Now I’m horrified at exactly how long it took me to figure out how to spell cushion. Must be tireder than I thought!
I have good news and bad news. Good: I got another 1372 words tonight. The bad news: I’m sort of stuck. I need to make myself write down the BIG THEME for this book. I know the overall story arc and theme for the trilogy, but I’ve tackled it from various angles in the two previous books. I know the EVENT that drives the conflict for this story, but I need to get the emotional conflict nailed. I vaguely know it, but this scene suddenly brought it all to the forefront. Shannari is facing a decision. Her whole world hangs in the balance. I know what her choice is, ultimately, but I need her to grow from it naturally to the conclusion of the story, and I don’t know that I pinpointed exactly what that lesson is for this particular book.
This requires my notebook. I wrote a lot of deep stuff in this scene, but it may not stay. It may need to move to the END of the book after she suffers awhile. NaNoWriMo toal: 13002
Snippet:
“Poor Khul. Perhaps I should bring an extra vial of that oil home with me in order to make it up to you.”
Leather creaking as he leaned down, he stroked his thumb across her lips and whispered, “Do so. I believe the promise I made to you was perfectly clear.”
She swallowed hard and refused to sneak a quick peek at her Blood she knew stood at her back. “Are you sure that’s a promise you’re willing to keep?”
“Absolutely.” He laughed softly, still stroking her lips. “Sal offered to let you eat him up. Let’s see if he survives.”
Yesterday was really hard and the writing was crap. But I can fix it and I’m not feeling really pressured. I’m hoping today goes better. I’m at 616 so I should make my goal today.
Great word count for today!
Good luck with tackling the theme for Return. Makes me wonder about the choice she has to make…veeerry interesting. 😎 Your snippets have become the highlight of my day.
Great word count. My word count for toeay so far is a big goose egg, as is the word count for yesterday, and Monday. This will change once I figure out what to work on (I hope). 🙂