Chugging Along, Gathering Steam

You know, I understand that writing the current novel is different from writing the last two novels, and that you can only learn to write the novel you are working on right now, but man, Dark Water Blues is kicking my butt.

On the positive side, we turned a corner tonight, and now we are out of the middle and heading for the finish line. I am also pretty sure this novel is not going to hit the projected word count of 96,000, but is more likely to finish up at about 90,000 or so. I'm still considering going back and giving Holly some POV time, and sadly, I'm starting to wonder if the first-person is working or not. There is a part of me that is starting to think third-person might have been the better way to go. I'm going to go ahead and finish the novel in first-person, and we shall see what the first revision holds.

Holly has stepped up and taken over the action here in the third act, which I suspected she might once I realized Holly was on the Hero's Journey, even though I was writing the story from The Mentor's (as in Richard's) POV. But Richard, in his zeal to try and protect Holly, just made a terrible mess of things, and in fact has been making things worse for the last 5,000 words or so, and now Holly has determined to step up to the plate and take control of her own situation, as opposed to letting Richard guide her actions.

Richard, realizing how badly he has screwed up, is about to go on a little guilt trip/pity party. That will last all of a paragraph before Holly kicks his ass and straightens him out. She might not be following his lead anymore, but she still needs his advice, and someone to watch her back when the fecal torpedo smacks into the rapidly rotating blades. Also, the sexual tension between them is getting pretty thick, and I still don't know if they will or won't.

Dark Water Blues

Chugging Along, Gathering Steam

You know, I understand that writing the current novel is different from writing the last two novels, and that you can only learn to write the novel you are working on right now, but man, Dark Water Blues is kicking my butt.

On the positive side, we turned a corner tonight, and now we are out of the middle and heading for the finish line. I am also pretty sure this novel is not going to hit the projected word count of 96,000, but is more likely to finish up at about 90,000 or so. I'm still considering going back and giving Holly some POV time, and sadly, I'm starting to wonder if the first-person is working or not. There is a part of me that is starting to think third-person might have been the better way to go. I'm going to go ahead and finish the novel in first-person, and we shall see what the first revision holds.

Holly has stepped up and taken over the action here in the third act, which I suspected she might once I realized Holly was on the Hero's Journey, even though I was writing the story from The Mentor's (as in Richard's) POV. But Richard, in his zeal to try and protect Holly, just made a terrible mess of things, and in fact has been making things worse for the last 5,000 words or so, and now Holly has determined to step up to the plate and take control of her own situation, as opposed to letting Richard guide her actions.

Richard, realizing how badly he has screwed up, is about to go on a little guilt trip/pity party. That will last all of a paragraph before Holly kicks his ass and straightens him out. She might not be following his lead anymore, but she still needs his advice, and someone to watch her back when the fecal torpedo smacks into the rapidly rotating blades. Also, the sexual tension between them is getting pretty thick, and I still don't know if they will or won't.

Dark Water Blues