Soi Dogs

Update: drafting

Alas. A black day. I'm ashamed. My fingers didn't touch the keyboard for the draft at all last week. Not once.

I did get a whole bunch done on my thesis--but that's not the point, is it?

Bad Euan. No cookies for you.

Word count: 27,081

Update: drafting

Some problems with using Typepad at home (page doesn't load for some arcane reason), hence delays to this update.

Didn't get much done last week, and ended up cutting a bunch of material that was filler. Falling further behind on the schedule--but the summer teaching session stops in two and a half weeks, and then I'll have a fortnight off before the next term begins. I'm aiming to catch up then.

Word count: 27, 081*

*Includes 3,000 words I cut. So, only 1,000 words longer manuscript than last week--but much more done and hence closer to the end than that figure suggests.

Update: drafting

Falling a little further behind each week--but, alas, my thesis has to come first, with the novel fitting into the gaps. Still, when the summer session at my university finishes (in three weeks), I'll have time to catch up. I'm working twelve/fourteen hour days at the moment, so a single slipped day is hard to claw back.

Word count: 26,005

Update: drafting

Forging ahead. Working on a section where magic is used openly--and now wondering whether to use some kind of ranking system for spirits (as in the Bartimaeus Trilogy), or to keep things unnamed and hence mysterious (and more flexible).

Word count: 18,004

Update: drafting

Pootling steadily forward. Closing in on the Act I climax.

Word count: 16,332

Update: drafting

Bimbling along steadily.

Word count: 14,552

Update: drafting

Some inserts and shuffling things around. I was writing a chapter which contained a stupid amount of backstory. When I read through it and tried to cut, I realized I couldn't; it was all necessary. Which means, of course, that I started that character's story in the wrong place--significantly too late. So I'm going back and inserting another chapter.

Word count: 13,009

Update: drafting

Split chapter four into two chapters. Finished 4--although it's going to need work on revision. Much of chapter five now also done. Took some time to develop characters (silly me, should have done it before), but things are bimbling along again now.

Word count: 11,122

Update: drafting

Closing in on the end of chapter four. It's getting kind of long: up to around 3,000 words at the moment--so I'm probably going to have to split it in the rewrite. But that's okay--it's introducing two of the main characters, plus a bunch of worldbuilding, plus sharpening some mystery hooks, and introducing a bunch of secondary characters. So, lots to do, which means I don't feel bad about spending two chapters doing it.

Word count: 10,008

Update: drafting

Started chapter four--the first chapter with Alexandra in it. She started off as 'the love interest', but she's now becoming quite interesting in her own right. Which has to be good.

Word count: 8008