I finished writing the current novel! YAY! The last few days have been fun. Did 4000 words in about 2.5 hours because I was so close to the end and it was all just pouring out.

For those of you playing along at home, I first outlined the entire four book series. Then I outlined this novel, writing a sentence per chapter. About midway through the first book realized that it was only a three book series. Then, towards the end, threw out large chunks of what I had planned for this book, writing different chapters entirely.

I had 13 POVs. Some of the changes I made set up novel number 2 beautifully. I’m really happy with how this novel came together, even if it was kind of a pain in the ass to write.

The biggest problem was that I started writing the novel too soon. I needed to do more world building before I started chapter one. I don’t know if it was critical voice that stopped me or not. “A REAL writer doesn’t have to do a lot of world building, they can just create the world on the fly.” I suspect that was part of it, but it was also because I was impatient, and I didn’t want to lose word count. If I stopped and did world building, I wasn’t writing and generating words.

So I need to think about that. I don’t do world building in the afternoons. I do it in the mornings, during what is supposed to be my writing time. That means lower word count. But struggling with this novel also meant lower word count. So I’m just going to have to do the work.

Fortunately, I believe the next book is the second in the cozy mystery series. I keep having ideas about that. I won’t get to it for a couple of weeks, but I’m looking forward to it.

I just have to remember to not stress about the word count. Do the planning I need when I need to do it, and so I’ll be able to write the damned thing.

I wrote the first cozy while I was still tired and didn’t have my thyroid medication right. That honestly made it damned hard to write. Because I was so tired, it was hard to come up with what happened next, despite having an outline. Writing is a lot easier with the right meds. (^_^) I am anticipating that writing the second novel in this series will be easier.

Today, I pivot over and start writing short stories. I have two that are due before the workshop starts next week. There are many, many others that are on my plate as well, but they aren’t due right away. I’m going to see if I can get back in the habit of writing a short story a day for a short while, to kind of practice for the workshop.

The other writing project that I keep thinking about is the next Business for Breakfast book – the one on author branding. I had started it last year, but knew that I’d started in the wrong place. But I keep going back to it, and I might have a better handle on how to start the process.

So what writing or art projects are you working on? Are you completing? Just starting? In the mushy middle?