Only wrote for about two hours last night and did well over 3k words. I’m getting faster at this, and I don’t think the quality of the writing is suffering. It could have been that I’ve hit a pretty big action sequence, and I tend to write those faster.

I’m pretty pleased with the way things are going. I’ve been training the muse to hit between 9pm and midnight, and she’s starting to show up at that time every night to beat me over the head until I sit down and get some writing done.

My only worry is that Nethermore is going to be longer than I expected it to be. I thought I would be done with Part One by about 25k words. Now I see that it’ll be about 75k.

In the end, I think I’ll be surprised one way or the other by the outcome.

Orson Scott Card talks about this in one of his writing columns at his website.

There is a weird story-dilation effect that I’ve noticed. At about 25,000 words, I start thinking this novel will never end — I’m barely started and I’ve got all these pages! That feeling persists up to 50,000 words. But then, along about 75,000 words, I start getting a real anxiety that I’m suddenly moving so quickly that this novel won’t get even to 90,000. Then, at about 100,000 words, I realize that I’m not done yet so I have nothing to worry about. And at 108,000 or 112,000, I’m done.

Interesting arcticle about how story lengths are particular to the author.

Quote for the Day

Isaac say, “Life is like a road trip. The company you keep largely makes or breaks it.”

Scotsman say, “If life is a roadtrip, then let me bring my bagpipes.”

Stinky Hobo say, “Roadtrips are fun, except that one time when a Scotsman brought his bagpipes.”