Today I passed the 15,o00 word mark and must confess that first time I can see problems looming on the horizon. Perhaps I was slightly naive in believing that I could free write my way to 50,000 words using a concept I refused to develop before starting. I wanted the evolution to be natural and unfortunately I am starting to suspect that I won’t make the 30,000 word mark using this idea as it stands.
For the first time I have sat down and actually tried to plot my story line in part to help me maintain a clear direction and also to help me roughly estimate how many words I can pull from this concept. I do not want to pointlessly pad out the plot as that would deem the last 9 days as a waste. My plan of action for now is to write the remainder of the story and then worry after.
In the last post I declared that I wouldn’t read the novel until the 1st of December. Unfortunately that is now clearly impossible and incredibly unrealistic. In hindsight I can think of a number of places where I could add new scenes which would add something to the story quite naturally. The irritating fact is that I have very specifically tried to write a pacey, punchy manuscript and I am certain that when it comes to writing additional scenes I am sure to disrupt the flow. Nevertheless I shall cross that bridge when I come to it.
In the meantime my better half has started to read through what I have already written. Her first impression is that this is the clearest and most focused story I have written. The best news is that the major twist on which the whole plot depends, caught her completely unaware. Her opinion means a great deal to me, although I know she is too lovely to ever tell me get a grip, give up and get a life. Which means one of two things, either we are both completely crazy or I am a very lucky man indeed.
