Last update

I don’t have a reflecting post for the end of this year yet, maybe I’ll get to one later. Or maybe I won’t. I’m much more about looking forward than looking back.

I don’t feel great today — my niece had a pretty bad cold the entire time she was here, and my brother has already succumbed to it. I’ve had two significant cups of coffee this morning and all I want to do is fall asleep. My throat is also scratchy and I ache.

I still wrote the start of chapter 16 this morning, ~2600 words. It was slow going but the perfect spot in some ways, really easy to let go of the here and now and sink into the world.

I think the words I wrote this morning are going to be scrambled — misspelled and homophones used. Also, I know I didn’t do enough description of their surroundings in places. However, I also know that what happened is correct, these were the right scenes, and they have the right tempo and pacing. After the bad guy was defeated there needed to be a little bit of a breather, so possibly the first 800 words of the chapter are slower, more leisurely. Then the pace had to pick up again, the threat escalated higher. Just disbanding the bad guy wasn’t enough, and the characters knew it. They still needed a breather before they began again, a chance to walk across a field. I think that’s the right thing to do, it feels right for these novels. (I keep thinking the next novel is not going to have as many of these breathing, level places.)

Tomorrow I finish chapter 16 if I can. Then it’s the last chapter. I won’t finish it all before the 1st, but I will finish it all before I arrive back in Seattle, if it’s at all possible.

Happy new year to those who celebrate!