Results of Ruminations

I threw down 7,380 words today, with the specific understanding that I need to get used to this amount of output if I plan on finishing this book on time. It's great that I had such a productive day--nearly twice as much as I normally do, with two full chapters and two brief interludes/flashbacks--and I'm really encouraged that I was able to get done fairly difficult scenes with a small measure of adroitness, but I fear it's just not going to be enough. Peter and I will be celebrating our 5th and 29th respective birthdays next Saturday by going to Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur museum. That is, of course, awesome. What is less awesome is that there's no way that I'll be justified in getting any writing done. So while I may have kicked some royal pagination here today, it actually simply balances out next week. I'm not complaining, mind you. I'm quite happy to have a day with my boys and the rest of my family. That's great. I'm always sad when I miss a...

I figured out an ending. I'm not happy with it, but it'll do for the nonce. I went ahead and tried something rather rare for me: I outlined the end of the story. It's just a single page with a chapter number (starting at 73, which I wrote today, and ending at 85) and a brief description on it. I have some problems with it. 1) There are only three Saldrae chapters left, which isn't cool. I really like her as a character, and though she's been fluctuating between passive and active, on the whole I think that she's a really important, solid addition to the story. Unfortunately, her role is pretty much done, now. She has emotional closure to the story that will be really fun to write, but there isn't a lot in terms of the action that she'll be able to do. Part of it is because she's not the kind of person who kicks butt literally--she has other ways in which she is strong and resourceful. If I can, I'd really like to let her come through with tha...

With Spring Break here--and a mother who wanted to see her grandsons--I was able to go back to one of the earliest places that I ever wrote a book: the downstairs bedroom in my parents' house. Here, in the house I grew up in, I put together an interlude chapter with my highly enjoyable--and always running, it seems--Arik the Spy. I'm pretty pleased with what I put together, though there's a slight possibility that I'll split this interlude in half and put the set up in one chapter and the chase scene in another. Then again, that might be too  many cliffhangers, so I might leave it. Anyway, it was interesting to be in this room to work. I didn't want to worry about a parking ticket at UVU, so I decided to dedicate the time toward writing instead of driving to, say, Orem Public Library. I think it was a good choice. With the three hours or so that I was given, I managed about 3,400 words, which is a lot more than I was expecting to get in a single block of time. It ...

With today's work done, I feel pretty good about what I've accomplished. I still wanted to write more, but I figured that if I did, I would probably end up regretting it. Not because I wouldn't enjoy myself, but the day is beautiful, I want to see my kids, and it's getting later than I prefer. It takes me a good three or four hours to crank out my 3-5,000 words (I'd say that I get between 900 and 1,100 words per hour, so, with that rough estimate, I have poured at least 240 hours into this book, to say nothing of the work I've put in away from the keyboard, or in wasted chapters), and it seems like sometimes, even though I have an idea of what to say next--and I'm really eager to see it--I can't convince myself to actually give it a shot. Part of it is the fact that I'm wanting to get home. Part of it is that I'm not wanting to overkill a chapter by too much cherishing, if you catch my allusion...and drift. See, I have sometimes been on such a ...