Two and a third more

Wednesdays are turning out to be very productive days. Despite having my hands hurting, I put together two and a third chapters for a total of 6,121 words. What’s great is that the work is coming faster and feels natural. It has emotion to it and power shifts. Characters are beginning to recognize the depth of the situations they’re in and some of the implications of their successes or failures. They’re getting to see that the world is a bit more complicated than they thought or desired, and sometimes both.

The third of the chapter is what makes me feel the best. I did that during another NaNoWriMo write-in in Second Life. Folks showed up an hour before my office hours and just wrote. I knocked out just shy 900 words. The best part is that they really described little more than one character delivering a note to another character, and that second character’s reaction to the contents. There’s politics, emotion and some humor in there, as well as some facts about the world, and that’s only in a third of a chapter. The rest of that chapter will do more, including introducing more fully a brand new character who will have a critical role in how the books play into the future.

My hands are still hurting a bit, but chemicals are helping. I worked quickly enough today that I was actually able to take a longer lunch hour and rest them. I would have run errands, but since what I need to do are a bank and post office run, Veterans Day didn’t work out too well. There’s always tomorrow.

Actually, tomorrow will be a bit of a problem. I have to go to the DracoVista Studio to record Cover to Cover. Normally we record twice a month, but since we want to take the month of December off, we’re recording some shows in advance. Thursday becomes only half a day. I know I’ll get one chapter down, but how far I get on the second will depend. Ideally if I can get 5K words down, I’m set up well to hit another five on Friday and that will put me at my weekly quota.

This weekend I shall be down in Tucson at Tuscon. My schedule there is spread out enough that getting much writing done will be difficult. What I will probably do is work on some ancillary products and ideas, then just leap back into the story on Monday. If I can push to 35000 words next week, I get to cruise through the holiday and might even be able to take my birthday off.

Office hours went well in Second Life, and then I went out dancing. That was a great deal of fun. The dance was a benefit for homeless veterans. Beneath my dancing shirt I wore a grey t-shirt from one of my brother’s units. We had a few veterans at the dance and they were rewarded with a round of applause. It’s not much given all they have done for us, which is why making sure they have a roof and three squares is so very important.

November Word Count: Hard: 41972 Soft: 9446