November usually gets a lot of attention due to it being the National Novel Writing Month, but October turned out to be a very good month for me. Work has calmed down, now less mentally exhausting now that most of my training is complete, and I was able to get back to the keyboard and continue banging away at the book I started earlier this year.
The total for October came in at over 11k words written, including edits and changes made based on feedback from my wonderful beta readers. While any writer would love to have more, more, more, I’m not going to kick myself. That is substantial progress. Looking at where the novel is now, I’m well into the 30-40% range in terms of story completion. Maybe even halfway at this point. What excites me the most is that those who are reading these chapters are reporting back that they’re becoming more and more drawn into the story. That makes me happy.
On the website front, it seems as though my mind has divorced itself from Flash Fiction for the time being. Even when I try to force myself, nothing really comes of it. I think a large part of this disinterest is coming from the enjoyment I’m having with developing the characters in my book. There’s a lot more satisfaction in going deeper and deeper with the characters I have instead of starting over each night like I do with Flash Fiction.
It feels a little funny to post here since readership has effectively dropped to zero due to my inactivity, but I figured I’d leave an update for anyone who may wander through from time to time. The rest of the year will obviously be busy with the holidays and some personal things that are going on (we’re moving), but I’ll keep plugging away at the book and trying to gain ground. It’d be amazing to have something ready to self-publish by the middle of next year.
Or even sooner.
Shawn Saying Something... 