Well, today is the last day of March, which means tonight is my final chance to churn out a solid word count. This week was slow, but overall, March has been great for progressing through Manuscript: Beta.

I only wrote 4,500 words this week, which is my lowest weekly total in a while — definitely for Writing Crunch Month. That brings the second draft of The Warden of Everfeld: Memento to 103,000 words total. That’s exciting for a few reasons:

1. I broke 100,000 words, which is a nice, big-looking number
2. I finished the big turning point of my story, which has been nagging at me for a couple of weeks
3. And I am definitely passed the halfway mark of my story.

I’m still aiming for 180,000 words total, but it took me longer (in words) to get this point than I anticipated. I can’t decide if that matters or not.

Ultimately, I want to write the best story possible, and if that story is a bit longer than I thought it would be, so be it. But I keep questioning if the first half of my story needs to be trimmed down a bit. I haven’t made any significant changes, because I know that the second half is going to be drastically different from the first. So I’m waiting to see where it takes me.

Writing Milestones

Some other interesting tidbits from Writing Crunch Month (not including today) and beyond:

• I started writing Manuscript: Beta on December 2. As of last night, I have written an average of 868 words per day (over 119 days). That’s not bad! I’d like to get it up to 1,000.
• March has been my best month for writing by far. Through 3/30, I’ve written 38,000 words this month — nearly tripling February’s paltry 13,000. March’s total also blows January (26,000) and December (24,000) out of the water.

So, this week was slow, but I was feeling the burnout a bit from the first three weeks of the month. I’ll still call it a win.

Vacation Incoming!

Wife and I are leaving on an Adriatic excursion in a few days. We’ll be traveling abroad, so that means no significant writing for me until mid-April.

My reading over vacation will focus on Jessie’s alpha draft, something I need to make way more headway on. (Btw, did you know she wrote a book?! She barely talks about it… hint hint.)

I will also be taking notes for WoEL. I know! It’s been months since I’ve mentioned the presumptive second novel in my fantasy universe, Úr’Dan. But, as I draw nearer to finishing WoEM and sending it off to readers (and an editor) once again, I need to look to the future a bit. Vacation gives me plenty of space to think and ponder and take notes, so I’d like to put together a solid outline of my second novel and start piecing that first draft together over the course of this year.

Writing Goal for April 5: Break 110,000 on WoEM; have notes prepared to outline WoEL during vacation

Oh, I will have some posts scheduled during my vacation, but otherwise I will pretty much be MIA. I may pop in here or our Facebook page to post a pictures from lovely Venice, or Dubrovnik, or London, but no promises!

Steve D