The final ten
by Richard PerkinsAt midnight tonight, I will officially enter the final ten days of National Novel Writing Month. It’s been a slog, let me tell you. And it only goes uphill from here. But the support network and constan encouragement from the NaNoWriMo organizers have been phenomenal. I’ve been pretty successful at writing a little bit every day, thanks in large part to the pressure of their deadline and their incessantly cheerful reminders about word count.
So far I’ve been able to stay ahead of the target word rate, and I’m well on my way to completing the 50,000 words by 11:59 PM on November 30. I’m at just over 35,000 words now with ten days to go. I’ve also completed scenes one through twelve of twenty. So not only am I on track for crossing the word count finish line before the deadline, I’m in pretty good shape to actually complete the story by the end of the month as well! But the next ten days will be challenging, as I focus on completing plot lines and evolving the characters into the people I know they can become.
To any of you who have been reading along, thanks. I’ve posted a few excerpts from the beginning of the novel in The Renegade’s Door, the new series. I hope you’re enjoying it. Unfortunately, you’ll have to be patient if you want to read all of Mikel’s tale. After I finish the draft this month, I will spend some time in December doing some serious revision. One of the disadvantages of generating copy so quickly is this: a fair amount of it is crap. Dead ends, misleading dialog, underdeveloped or in some cases overdeveloped characters… you get the picture. It will need some cosmetic surgery before being fit for public consumption. But never fear, I will publish more of the story as quickly as I can whip it into shape.
In the mean time, enjoy this pretty graph of my word count progress. And hope that I manage to find an interesting job that pays actual money soon, before I have to start begging for donations on this blog!
