Far-Seeing from 56,000 words

          From the lofty place of 56,379 words, I can see a bit further than I could when I was only at 50,000 words. The first thing I notice, is that I have a lot more writing to go... okay, not a lot, but more than I thought. At my best guess now, I have 1-2 more chapters (1.5 - 2k each) to get out the end conflict of my novel. I'll also have an expected 2 chapters and one tenuous scene of epilogue material (another 1 - 2k each) which means that my novel will probably be end up being around 62,000 - 63,000 words long.
          The second thing I realize is that despite the advice to write every day when you get home, it can be really difficult, even when you're excited as hell to write. A few weeks ago I hurt my foot and despite taking some heavy duty anti-inflamatory's and some pain killers, my foot is still really hurting me when I get home from work. It means that either I'm being too tough on my foot or that something more serious is up with it (more on that when I see my doctor in two weeks, so until then, I'll take the prescription and do what I can).
          The third thing I've discovered is that sometimes life likes to kick you in the gut just to see you spew all over the ground. I'd rather not talk too much about it here, but I've got family that got some bad news from the doctor... not life-threatening, but it could be life-changing and it leaves me feeling uneasy. At least, I can say that life took me out to dinner before it kicked me in the gut though.
          This last thing I'm going to talk about has nothing to do with my writing life or life kicking me in the gut. Near the end of February, I signed up for WowBox, a Japanese Candy subscription box. It finally arrived yesterday. I got some pretty awesome stuff in it, but the main thing I've taken away so far is that these snacks thus far have been insanely sugary.  Good/Bad, I'm still deciding, but sugary, is something I can say with conviction.
          That's it for me today though... hopefully, I next time I write in this blog it will be to tell you I'm done my novel! We'll see though. I'm getting close, but it all depends on how much time I have to work over the next little while. Either way, I'm looking forward to it.

50k words and I feel like I'm dancing on Sunshine!

          This week, I managed to hit 50k on my novel! I must admit, I am damn impressed. It's a lot more than a month, but I am quite comfortable in the knowledge that I am only able to keep up that level of writing over a smaller period of time and that I need a break afterward. If I sound to you like I'm justifying, I am, slightly. I feel bad that I can't seem to keep up that level of writing on a permanent basis. In the meantime, I'm left not reaching my goals. On the other hand, today helps to remind me that even if I'm taking more time than others or even more time than I want. It may take me longer but I'm still getting there.

          One thing I did have to remind myself and accept was that I am not writing to reach a certain number of words, but that I'm trying to tell a story. Somewhere along the way, I forgot that and then I started looking at my novel and realizing that I probably don't have enough story there to reach 70,000 words. It was hard, but I eventually reminded myself that it was the story that mattered, not the word count.

          After coming to terms with this, I realized I probably only have another 12,000 to 15,000 words left on this novel. I'm so close! I'm sorta hoping that I will be able to make it before the end of the month. I'd love to start off April with a week of intense reading and then starting to edit and making my novel bible for the first book. I'll keep you updated either way!