Day 12 of Writing Every Day In March

I've been busy, but I have been writing. I haven't been writing much, but I still have dipped into my novel and tapped out a few words every day. The last few days the words have been sparse, but I haven't missed a day of writing. Even when I'm only able to write a little bit it still keeps the story fresh in my mind.

I'm having a little trouble making sure that the midpoint of the story does what it needs to. I don't think I had the character make dramatic enough decisions and actions so I've been adding little bits to chapter 26, and also going back into chapter 25 to beef it up a little. Once I get through this little midpoint logjam I think the story will start to flow again. I'm expecting my commute home today to bring a lot of new words and hopefully complete chapter 26. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope your writing has gone well. I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Day 9 of Writing Every Day In March

I know I got some writing done during my commute today, although my commute was much shorter than usual because I didn't go to work today. I'm taking the day off to spend it with my sweetheart. I'm writing this on day 9 instead of the day after my writing because this post date is my 10 year wedding anniversary! I am so thankful for my amazing wife. I can't wait to spend the next 10 years with her, and hopefully 50 more after that depending on how long we live. She's my best friend and I can't imagine life without her.

Day 8 of Writing Every Day In March

Yesterday I wrote around 900 words. I wrote on my phone on my commute using speech to text again. I wrote most of chapter 25. I'm pretty much halfway through my novel now! The story just keeps flowing and I keep coming up with ways to add tension to the scenes and I think it's really making the characters feel more real as they interact with each other in realistic ways.

Dealing with haunted houses and demons is one thing, but having to fix a relationship with your contractor because you were so mad you walked out on him just as you were about to start a job is another! I'm hoping these tense character interactions will flesh out the story and make it more than just a weird adventure about a realtor who finds the power to get rid of evil spirits in haunted houses so he can renovate and sell them.

Day 7 of Writing Every Day In March

Yesterday I wrote almost 900 words. I wrote on my phone on my commute using speech to text again. I wrote most of chapter 24. I'm getting so close to chapter 25 which is halfway through my novel! The midpoint where my character goes from reacting to acting. It's time to make plans to defeat the bad guy.

Day 6 of Writing Every Day In March

Yesterday I wrote a little over 500 words. I wrote on my phone on my commute using speech to text. I would have been able to write a lot more but the weather on the freeway was pretty sketchy with fresh snow. I was driving through slush so I chose to just focus on driving until I got off the freeway onto dry roads in my home town where the weather was much better.

I finished the 24th chapter though, so I'm still on track to finish the novel this month! I just have to complete a chapter every day. I shoot for 1,000 words but they usually end up being around 12,000 or even a little more sometimes. The manuscript is at 27,574 words with 24 chapters complete. At this rate the finished manuscript will be around 57,500 words. That will be a nice length. I outlined and planned for it to be about 50,000 words with 50, 1,000 word, chapters. Some of those will probably get shortened, but most chapters are turning out to be around 12,000 words so it's increasing the length of my book, which I'm totally okay with! It's still going to be a fun quick read.

As far as I'm concerned I still have a lot to learn so my plan is to write a whole bunch of short novels in several different genres. That way I can see if a particular genre or story grabs me and maybe from there I can start a series, but for now I just want to keep cranking out fun short adventure novels in lots of different genres and see if any of them find an audience.

There is one book I've written that I know is the first of many in a series. It's called The Case of the Missing Snowman and it will be the first in my Barnabas Thackeray Mysteries series. I'm still working on finishing the illustrations for that book but the writing is complete on it. Maybe I'll start the second one in the series after I finish this book. Or one of the other 50 ideas I have for books :) I seriously have a document with 52 book ideas at the moment. It's always growing too.