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Writing Log 5-19-2012

I knew this would happen. You see? This is why I don't outline. I put in a lot of effort in the outlines and try to write it all out beforehand, but you know what happens? Days like this.

See, I got an almost record number of words done today (8,177 to be exact), and while I'll keep most of them, they spin the story in a completely different direction. Part of that comes from the fact that I went ahead and put in the twist that I had thought about from last week. I decided to go ahead and do it for the simple reason that I wasn't thrilled by the ending that I had outlined. I thought that a little bit of a twist would spice things up and thrill me a bit more.

It sure did that.

Unfortunately for me, it also shot the rest of the outline to pieces. I'm not certain how to patch it up, so I think I'll probably throw it away and redraft the stupid thing. Ironically, I've been changing the document a lot on my word processor, and to keep track of the changes I've literally crossed out the parts I don't want to keep. Instead of just rewriting the chapter's synopsis, I actually strike it out, preserving the way that it's being modified as I go along. This is a bit of narcissism on my part, because I'm pretending that someone will actually want to see "How it Could Have Ended" behind the scenes sort of thing on the book. I'd post it, but it's nothing but spoilers, and I know that a couple of the 8 or so people who read this blog are also reading the story. I don't want to change their experience. But I am keeping the document, so perhaps one day it'll be published on my (as yet unmade) website. Or the blog.

Anyway, I may or may not be within striking distance of my goal. I'm pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I'll need a sequel, but the guy who stomped his way into my prayer a few weeks ago won't be able to get his way in if I leave it the way that I'm going. (Although, even as I'm writing this, I'm concocting a way in which I can keep The Rapper--my mental name for this guy, who's like Zach de la Rocha with fewer swears--in the story without tweaking too much. There's some logic that I'll have to put together, but that's always the case in novel writing.) But this ending is much more satisfying to me, and though I haven't figured out how to solve all of my problems with this book, I've come a long way. If things work out just right, I might be able to skip a couple of my outlined chapters--or condense them into one instead of two or three chapters--and actually finish this next week after the quidditch party.

Seriously. How cool would that be? End my first season as a quidditch coach on the same day that I finish my biggest novel ever?

That would be cool. We'll see if it comes to pass...

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