Paksworld

Today Book IV reached 150,000 words.   I have twenty days left in the month to finish the first draft,  and should be able to do it with a little to spare.  Last year I reached  150,236 on September 21, so I’m eleven days ahead.  Or I would be,  if I wrote another 236 words today, but that’s not happening.  Close enough, I say.   Eleven days may not sound like much lead, but at the rate I write in the last half of a book, that’s very likely somewhere around 20,000 words.

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Just got back today.  Had two good writing days on trains (2000+ words each day) after a brief conference with Editor at the convention.     As usual, time away from a project allows more balanced contemplation of what’s already been done.     I realized, for instance, that a pivotal scene I’d been thinking about for months had never actually made it into the computer–an extreme case of “I know that, but I didn’t show that.”

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And another milestone number:  Book IV is now over 140,000 words.   This was one intermediate goal–to hit this or more before leaving for DragonCon.   Glad to be here a couple of days ahead, as it means I can visit ArmadilloCon this weekend.  Can’t spend long there, what with the packing and also the resting-up I need to do, but I can at least drop by and visit friends I otherwise don’t see between the conventions.   Next year I’ll be going to WorldCon in  Chicago, which gives me an extra day (assuming ‘DilloCon’s in the same relation, time-wise, to Labor Day weekend) and I should be able to actually *attend* it again.

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Another batch of chocolate chip cookies and Saint Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 (“Organ”)   pulled me out of the slump and past the next milestone:  130,000 words.    The problems aren’t all solved, but I squeezed out a nearly shut door and went off somewhere with Kieri to look at progress along the river.

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Along with finding a major blooper in Book IV when I went back to it after page proofs….I’m now at 125,000+ words.    As mentioned back when (Oath or Kings, can’t now recall which) at some point Arcolin has to consider his succession.   The other dukes strongly prefer that he marry and get an heir, and that quickly; they never liked Kieri’s plan of not marrying again and letting the domain lapse.   The king feels the same way–he wants things settled.

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I’m presently one-third of the way through the page proofs for Echoes of Betrayal and have found few (but as usual, in page proofs, puzzling) errors.  Page proofs are the last chance to fix things.  This time (probably because of the error in the Kings map) I got a proof of the corrected map, which has Lyonya on it this time.  Yay!

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I was determined to keep on schedule as much as possible before husband’s surgery, so my goal for this week was to make it to 120,000 words.  Which I did.   Today I went back to an unfinished chapter (it had stopped in a sort of lurch awhile back) and it took off a bit.    A certain teary widow has pulled up her socks and had an idea I certainly had not anticipated when I quit on that chapter.    I’m impressed.  Kieri’s impressed.

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This may not make it into the final Book IV,  but even if it doesn’t this isn’t a huge spoiler.  I don’t think.    But imagine you’re Dorrin Verrakai, and a Personage (one of several in the book) comes to visit–a Personage whose attitude to magery is not exactly positive.

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Thousand, that is, words a day.   Ritual disclaimer:  what works for one writer is wrong for another.   Writing every day (or at least five days a week) works better than writing “when I feel the urge” but aside from that, writers’ clocks keep time right side up, sideways, upside down, and face down under the bed.

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Back on the 2000 words/day schedule for as long as I can hold it (planning for less wordage when husband’s in the hospital and I’m driving back and forth, feeding horses, checking the wildlife guzzlers, etc.)   Saturday was productive with 2160.

Current wordage is ~103,200; end of day should top 104,000.    A certain Personage has finally shown up onstage (I knew Personage existed and would be plot-critical, but Personage came in Personage’s own sweet time) and this is helping untangle a previously difficult tangle.

Back to work.   The nose on the grindstone is thickening its callus.