Paksworld

A brief progress note:  this week added 12,834 words to Book III.  Since July 12, I’ve added 33,645 to the book.   You might think this means I should be able to write 40,000 words of new stuff every month, and thus 480,000 words a year or four 120,000 word novels…but no.

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When you’re writing a book that covers various seasons, you’re often writing out of season.  It’s Texas in late July, and today I was writing about a Midwinter celebration somewhere in Lyonya.   The Midwinter Feast I wrote about in Fin Panir, when Paks was there, about to become a paladin candidate, or the one that Gird’s followers had all alone in that winter camp,  had covered, I thought, the ground of what Midwinter celebrations were like, and I had not expected any big surprises.

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In case anyone has time to hunt for this…did I give the Clart Company commander a name anywhere in Sheepfarmer’s Daughter?   And did I mention whether the Clart commander died?

In the meantime, another 2500 words.

So…page proofs are done (check) and some family LifeStuff probably/maybe resolved (half-check) and I’m back “on book”.   Yesterday, after a dietary error that kept me close to one room in the house, turned out to be a very productive writing day anyway (3001 new words, in addition to cleaning up some continuity problems I discovered while working on the proofs of Kings…no, B- did not tell his father about hmmmmmph at Autumn Court, becuase hmmmmph didn’t start until AFTER Autumn Court. when ummmm went mmmmph.  Yes, hate me.)

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When my first published story came out,  I was startled at how differently it read, set in a two-column layout.  I’d been worried the story wouldn’t feel fast-paced enough–but in that format, it flew by, almost too fast-paced.   That was my first experience of how the choice of layout affects a story.

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In honor of Amazon having it listed for pre-order, here’s another Kings of the North snippet.  This one introduces some new characters, all young.   Location:  Verrakai House in Vérella.  Dorrin has  squires, who have just arrived to begin their service with her.     They are leaving for the country the next day.    The squires are Beclan Mahieran (the king’s cousin and younger brother of Rothlin), Gwennothlin Marrakai ( younger sister of Juris Marrakai), and Daryan Serrostin (younger brother of Rolyan Serrostin)…all dukes’ offspring, in other words.

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There’s nothing like actually turning off everything else and convincing the distractable mind that no, it cannot do anything until it’s produced the day’s wordage.  No, we are not playing Solitaire.  No, we are not reading email.  No, we are not checking Twitter, or LJ, or the SFF.net newsgroup.   The television is off limits.   The new red shiny netbook is off limits.   The outdoors is off limits.   Cooking is off limits.  (Dishwashing isn’t.)    The piano is off limits.  This chair, this keyboard, this one file.  First.

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Book III has decided it wants to be written and is now making my hand hurt (a good thing) with the download from Storybrain through my arm into the computer.    Every day this week has been more productive than the last, even though I’m trying not to overwork the more vulnerable right hand.   Today I stopped just short of 3000 words and will no doubt toss in another paragraph later when I’ve rested my hand to top that off.

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Isn’t it nice to know that Paks never had to face a word like “metric?”   But I do, and so today was the day that a) I emailed the maps to Editor and b) put all the loose chunks of Book III into one file, more or less in order (but not eliminating the need to write things in between them.)    That meant I could count the total number of pages…and words…and figure out where I was compared to where I wanted to be.

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