Two on Tuesday

I managed to knock down two chapters today for a total of 5125 words. I’m really happy with the work. The story is shifting to where I can deal with some political aspects of the world and toss some twists into the plot. Writing the book is, by and large, fun.

One point I didn’t make as I started charting my progress in November is that I already had 50,000 words down on the novel before November. The first 25,000 words are always the hardest. Story inertia. You have to figure out all the things that you think need to be said, pare them down to the things that absolutely must be said, and then figure out an easy way of layering them into the story. At the start of a book, and especially the start of a new series, I am not terribly quick. I keep looking at all the stuff that has been planned, evaluate and refine it, and that takes a lot of time.

I am running into one problem, and it’s a very annoying one. My hands are starting to hurt. I use ibuprophen and analgesic creams to help with the discomfort. I take breaks between chapters to let my hands rest. It’s not carpel tunnel—the pain profile is all wrong and were I prone to it, I would have had it ages ago. This is just good old fatigue and strain and at some point it’s been a problem with every book in the last fifteen years. (I also suffer from it in my mouse hand whenever a new version of Civilization comes out.)

I often joke that being a writer is a good job. You get to work indoors and there is no heavy lifting. I don’t recall reading of writers complaining about their hands hurting in the various biographies I’ve read of writers. Maybe that was a detail that just never got mentioned.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve recently purchase speech-to-text software. While I am not comfortable using it to work on anything that can’t be described as contemporary, I do find it very useful. After I’d finished my two chapters, I used it to create 2/3rds of the next issue of The Secrets. It works very well for that and since I’ve taught two classes in the last week, part of my brain is still in lecture mode.

Today was not just all work, however. I did leave the office in the early evening for dancing—in this case East Coast Swing. I had a lot of fun and got some exercise which is always good. I even had one very kind woman massage my forearm for me which did help a bit. And best of all, a guy who owed me money actually paid me back! And a came home to a house that smells wonderful because I have been simmering a pot of bones to make stock for soup.

November Word Count: Hard: 35851 Soft: 8926

Tomorrow, two more chapters at least, including one with a brand new viewpoint character. That will be a challenge, but getting inside his head should also be a blast.