Friday’s work is never done…

Friday was a good day, despite a late start. I got two chapters done for 5,052 words and I am pleased with them. I did some quick outlining of the next seven chapters or so, to make sure they fit together and I’m liking how that sequence will run. By Monday it should be done, in fact, and I should be at 68,000 words or so for the month.

I did have some bad news. As I was looking ahead, I realized the novel will run long. I know this isn’t a problem for readers, since more is usually better. And it’s not really a problem for me, other than running me a bit longer into December than I wanted. The extra work is coming out of character stuff, which is always good. I considered trimming a future line of the story, but that would have shortchanged things. I’ll stick with the overall plan, and just have to run long. Since this is the first book of a set, I don’t really see that as a bad thing.

My publishers and editors might have a difference of opinion on the matter. The books are slated to be 150,000 words long. This one could go as long as 170,000, which is an extra week of work or so for me. For a publisher, however, that’s more pages in the book, which means fewer books in the carton, which means greater shipping and warehousing costs, not to mention increased printing costs. Running over has never been a deal-breaker before, and I don’t expect it to be one in this case, but I do have to be careful and avoid running too far over.

I likely would have been dead on target except for the addition of a villain for this book. It seems rather stupid to have started the book without one, and I didn’t. I had one in mind, and he’ll be showing up soon, but he’s really taken a back seat to another villain who cropped up and came on strong. That’s one of the great things about books: you will have characters who develop out of the needs of the story. Even better is a character who will continue throughout the series, presenting different challenges for the main characters. Guy du Malphias is shaping up to be exactly that sort of person.

A lot of stories put physical pressure on characters. These are survival stories, and they’re exciting to read. I certainly have no problem denting and scratching my characters. More powerful, however, are the emotional conflicts, both good and bad. Readers go through the same emotional ups and downs that the characters do. Having someone fall in love is an up. Having them ripped away from their lover is a downer. Having forbidden love or unrequited love can be a delicious warring of hope and fear. A good writer is one who can challenge characters on multiple levels since no matter what the reader comes to the book for, chances are they will find it.

November Word Count: Hard: 58,766 Soft: 13,500