For the first time in a long while, I’ve had two consecutive day of writing that were both decent effort. I managed around 1,300 words yesterday and 1,400 today and I’m feeling good about the quality of the writing and the story-telling. It is starting to come together nicely, I think.
I’m really pushing to have a decent first draft of this novelette completed by Wednesday. I’m aiming for about 1,500 words a day between now and then, and at the rate that I’m going, that feels about right. I’ve worked through a lot of the comments I got from my small critique group on the first few scenes I gave to them. Some of the more significant changes included some name changes to give the character a more meaningful cultural background in the story, as well as some changes to the overall backstory that help things make more sense.
In the scene that I wrote this evening, an important political leader gives a eulogy at the funeral of a pseudo-famous person–and I was particularly pleased with how that scene took shape.
Getting a nap in earlier this evening helped me feel fresh for writing. I started the session at around 9:30 and finished at 11pm, which is close to my usual first-draft pace of about a thousand words an hour.
And tonight’s scene ended in a good cliff-hanger that will lead nicely into tomorrow’s writing.
I’m still looking for a real title for the story, but I’ve got some time yet. Unlike most of my stories, I put together a small soundtrack for this one. I don’t actually listen to the music while I write (I prefer silence), but I listen to it before and after and it’s helped to shape up some of the pivotal scenes more firmly in my mind.