In which I persevere, despite not having much to count

I was, in fact, tempted to skip this week's counting session, since the numbers are rather depressing, but avoiding a cold, hard fact never did anyone any good. And besides, if I skipped it, I wouldn't get to post this lovely picture of my role model!

Pounds to lose to next reward sticker: .4 (Argh!)

Fantasy novel word count: 33, 063 (could be worse)

Dickens project word count: 1,785 (groan)

There, that's over with! And hopefully, next week's counting will be more prosperous. Until then, may your checkbooks balance the first time, every time.

Wednesday WIP update

This week I realized that because of insufficiently clear character motivations, I wasn't going to be able to finish the draft. I'm trying to write a very tightly woven plot, but the problem with tight plots (which I hadn't realized before) is that if the setup isn't right, the ending, where all the strands are supposed to fall perfectly into place, won't happen. So, I'm back at the beginning, and hopefully this time, I'll get things right enough to make it to the end! I'm very hopeful, since I feel like I have the clearest view of the story as a whole that I've ever had.

And, in joyful news, a character was born tonight! In my previous draft, I had a character who was a sort of stock elderly mentor type with a small role. Hoping for something a little less like cardboard, I poked him vigorously, and he suddenly metamorphosed into an utterly different personality - younger, fatter, and bubbling over with resentment. I have to admit that I wasn't entirely pleased at first - the initial wash of his personality was so strong that I thought he would try and elbow his way into a larger role in the story, and there is no room! But once I stopped yelling at the computer screen and settled down to work, he slipped into his niche and transformed a wobbly, melodramatic scene into something that I think is very solid. Huzzah!

A WIP seen through a glass darkly. Very darkly.

I'm happy to report that yesterday's writing went very well (I'm relieved too - I'd been stuck for a couple of days, and at this late stage that makes me very anxious). I ended up creating a brand new scene with one of my favorite characters and even throwing in a little romantic tension (ooooooh).

Come to think of it, I haven't explained my creative project in the context of this blog, so I suppose I should do that to give some sort of face to these writing updates. I'm working on a YA fantasy novel of approximately 100,000 words. I've recently learned that you are not supposed to post plot details about WIPs (works in progress) online, because of one in a million plagiarism concerns. So I guess I'll just say that if you crossed Eragon with A Wizard of Earthsea, set it in the middle of The Secret Garden, and dusted it with a pinch of The Queen of Attolia, you'd come up with something that's more or less unlike my book. :)

Here's hoping this blog post will launch me into another successful writing session! (Got to write yet another sword sparring scene. Why do I do this to myself? Why?)