Novel Progress

I’ve actually continued making progress on the novel, just haven’t posted about it. Part of the problem, though, is that I write up until the very minute I have to start the day job, then I’ve actually been busy with the day job, and so haven’t been around much.

Tuesday I did continue going through the hardcopy, up to the haikus in chapter three, which needed to be rewritten, but I really hadn’t the time or the energy or brain to do it then.

Wednesday I’d told myself I didn’t have to write — I hadn’t slept well, was feeling a bit off balance, etc. Gave myself permission to take it easy. Had coffee and donuts for breakfast and by the time the caffeine kicked in I was actually ready to write. Managed to rewrite the haikus — two of the three are now good — may still have to redo the third. Though looking back on them just now — okay. Maybe they do work better than I’d originally thought. *G* (Yes, that’s part of my process. To hate the writing I’ve done as soon as I finish it, then to go back to it later and realize, okay, it isn’t that bad.)

This morning I typed in what I’d written out by hand on Monday — it turned out to be 494 words. LOL. I generally write 500 word chunks, it’s my default setting. Guess it was still working on Monday. Wrote another couple of paragraphs, but that wasn’t where my head was at.

When I started the new file this morning I found that I’m still a chicken. I’m serious when I say that I never write novels. They’re *much* too big. Instead, I rediscovered that I still can’t use the word “Chapter” as the first word in a chapter file. I’m just not capable of it. That word chapter stays hidden until I merge all the files into one.

So after I finished with “chapter” seven, I picked up chapter four and incorporated the hardcopy edits on that into the softcopy.

Tomorrow I plan on rewriting chapter five. This chapter actually requires some serious rewrites. I’d underestimated this character. She’s always been wise — but I realized that she’s actually a lot smarter than I was giving her credit for. Which is a good thing, because it’s going to make her plight more difficult.

Ah yes. I *love* these characters. And I love to see them broken, bleeding on the floor, as well. They break so pretty. Ya’ll just don’t want to be in my head sometimes. It’s a twisted, scary place.

I hope that each and every one of you is having a good day, that you are doing what you need to do to fill your soul with joy, as well as to drain whatever poison it harbors.