End of March Update...

It's strange having an update without a word count. But it's been a busy month and there's been a lot happening, so I wanted to maintain the end of the month progress reports. After finishing the first draft of 'Grey Sister' at the start of the month, I've been busy with proof reading and editing.

I've completely re-written the first two chapters (kill the darlings!), which was the biggest revision I wanted to get done. An author once told me that the first 50,000 words is just about the author finding their voice and that was definitely true about my first attempts at writing! I was a little worried, when I started to read through, to see how rough that first section was. Thankfully it didn't take the whole 50k for my voice to come out and about half way through Chapter 3 I was able to convince myself that, 'it's all right, I'm not so bad at this after all'. Surprisingly the Prologue, which was the very first thing I wrote, didn't seem so bad. I was actually surprised by how much I still liked it. Maybe it's just the emotional tie I have to that first piece of the book. Perhaps an impartial eye would see it differently. I'll just have to wait and see.

I've been working through the rest of the book as well to make the big and small amendments that came up in the read through. Reading through the book as a whole first definitely helped and I can see now how easy it is to get tunnel vision during proof reading. Because I viewed it at a wider scale, I could pick out missing pieces of information, flaws in characters' relationships and inconsistencies in tone and pace. But when it came time to focus in again, I was getting so lost in sentence-to-sentence level details that it would have been impossible to see those problems I could see during the read through. Thankfully I made plenty of notes.

My next deadline is the 29th April, my birthday, by which point I want to submit the manuscript of 'Grey Sister' to at least one agency (wheeeeeze). It's terrifying, but I'm so excited to be finally reaching the point of submission. I have an endless list of jobs to do before then, most important of which is going back over the Prologue and first two chapters to get them to the point of perfection, since those are the ones that go out to agencies before the full MS (though some agencies may ask for the complete work straight away). Then it'll be a matter of writing up a decent cover letter.

Lots of work to do! Busy month ahead.

Finished!

I... Oh gods, give me a moment. *Deep breath*

Ok, I'm alright. I'm good.

Right, OK, so.... I'm finished. Done. Complete.

I just wrote the final chapter of 'Grey Sister'.

For the past eight months, this has been my whole goal. Everything I've been working towards. A whole book, written from start to finish. And I've done it. I actually made it. I didn't give up half way or forget about it or move on to something else. I actually finished. And you know what?

It was easy. 

Don't get me wrong. It was hard. REALLY hard. Its been hours and hours, day after day, of work. I've not stopped thinking about writing for more than twenty minutes at a time. It's constantly on my mind, constantly wanting my attention. I've sacrificed a lot of hours that I could have been spending with friends or family or my boyfriend for it. I've put aside books I've wanted to read, stopped watching TV shows I loved, I've even cut down on my long, lovely soaks in the bath because The Book Always Comes First. I've kept working in a shop and put aside my career plans aside, passing up on job opportunities because I so wanted to do my best and try to achieve this one, stupid, outlandish dream.

The writing itself has been a huge learning curve, figuring out all the rules from scratch and working my way through plot holes and poor grammar and my constant desire to repeat the same basic writing techniques again and again (and again. See? There I go again with the triplication!)

But it's been fun. So fun. The best fun (Triplication again, dammit). Even though it was tough, writing has never actually felt like "work". I've never sat down to write and wished I could be doing something else. Even when I struggled to find the words or got stuck in a scene, I've constantly enjoyed the simple pleasure of writing.

While it has been a long time, it never really daunted me how far I still had to go. If it had been an university assignment, the idea that I would be working on it for the next who-knows how many months would have made me want to run and hide. But the only thing that's ever really scared me about writing has been finishing. Because next is the really hard bit and I'm equal parts excited and terrified to enter the publishing game.

I'm so happy that I've finally made it. I keep insisting that getting published is the main aim of all this, but actually writing a whole book has always been the biggest goal. If nothing else, even if 'Grey Sister' never comes to anything more than a series of files on my computer, I'm so glad I've done this.

So then, for one last time.

The word count, as of 9th March, 2014 is:

135, 917.

Eight months since starting. Prologue and twenty three chapters. 

Completed.

Now, where's my champagne? 

End of February Wordcount...

128,714.

Prologue, twenty chapters and a quarter.

Seven + months since starting.

Only a few days late! Oops. There's been a lot going on story-wise this month and there's been some scenes I've been looking forward to writing for months and months, which has really helped speed me up. I'm someone who definitely likes to write chronologically, so its exciting to start reaching the end. 

There was one chapter in particular I had real struggles with this month and it bogged me down for quite a while. It was a scene I felt was important for the characters, but not very interesting for the reader so I had some difficulty trying to get over that and just get it written so I could move on. Hopefully when I go back to it I'll be able to see it a little clearer and hopefully get it polished up better. 

Not much more to go now. March may be my very last progress update! Eeek!

End of January Wordcount...

110, 202. 

Prologue, sixteen chapters and a quarter. 

Six + months since starting. 

January has been another busy month for me. I only finished my extra work in the library in the last week, so time still hasn't been on my side writing wise. I also had my five year anniversary with my other half to celebrate which, of course, kept my away from my laptop (but, for a pretty nice reason, so I can forgive him).

I have, however, reached a very big milestone this month: 100k words! Really pleased to have made it to such a big milestone in my writing. It's also been a full half a year since I began The Book, which feels at once like a long time and not enough at all. The Book has become a huge part of my life and, to be totally honest, almost my entire vision for the future. I find it hard to believe that this time last year I hadn't even had the first idea for the story.

Now I'm so far into writing I'm starting to think seriously about What Comes Next. That has scared me a little and I think my pace has slowed recently because of that. Nevertheless, I'm almost finished plot wise. I figure I have three major events left before the climax, which really isn't much at all. Another 20,000 words, perhaps?

Next month I hope I can get a really good focus and start heading for the finish line in earnest....

Hitting the Big Hundred...

So, I got a little carried away (and a little terrible at adding up) and whooshed right past the 100k mark today while writing. Which means my word count as of January 10th is: 

102, 673 !!!

It's a crazy amount to finally be hitting. I can't quite believe I did it all myself. Perhaps the elves came at night to add to my wordcount? That being said, it's been a long haul to make it this far. A massive number of hours (I can't even imagine how many) have gone into The Book (which may have a name now, but I want to keep trying it out in my head before I start using it out loud) and I've put a lot of myself into it. 

It's not just the time, but the amount of emotional effort and sacrifices that go into a project of this size. There's little things, like not playing on the Wii or reading as much or watching as much TV because they're all big time eaters, but there's also the bigger things. I know I've given a lot of the time I would have been spending with my boyfriend away to the book, which I feel very guilty about. He's incredibly supportive though and he knows that this is a hugely important thing for me to do, but we struggle to get time together as it is (his work is a fair commute and we very rarely have days off together, especially with me working two jobs just now) and though I always want to be with him I have to keep up with writing. Even when I do have time away from The Book, it's constantly on my mind and I've become a lot more introverted I think. I certainly feel like I spend a lot of time "in my head" so to speak. I'm a prolific daydreamer as it is but having a story constantly being tweaked in my head makes even someone as scatter-brained as me seem more preoccupied than normal. Which I think makes me a bit of a pain to be around right now, so I hope my friends and family will forgive me.

The other thing that's really taken a back seat to my writing is my real-world job hunt. I knew this was going to be the case and prepared myself to not be progressing career-wise for a while. But it's a bit of a tricky thing to explain to people who ask why you're still in That Shop Job and not looking for something more. But I'm still not comfortable telling people about my ambition (though a few more friends know now) so I've taken to casually changing the topic when it comes up. It will still be a long while yet before I'll know if I'll be able to make anything career-wise from The Book so I'll have to try and hold on on the job front for a while yet. 

Until the end of January I'll be continuing working two jobs, so the word count might not be as healthy as I'd like by the end of the month, but I'll try to keep plodding along and hopefully I can keep adding bits here and there. 

But, Holy Poop: look how far I've come! The finish line is in sight! We're going for gold! And other sports metaphors!

End of December Wordcount

95,045.

Prologue, thirteen chapters and a half. 

Five + months since starting. 

Well, I didn't quite make the 100k mark but I came pretty close. Time's not really been on my side this month but I also realised that, along with the story marker I reached earlier in the month, I also hit a bit of a gap in my research. I've got a few trips planned in January to fill in the gaps and get some inspiration together for the second half of the book. Big, big, BIG plans next year. Wish me luck!

End of November Wordcount

82,240.

Prologue, ten chapters and three quarters.

Four+ months since starting.

22,200 words this month! (Is it a bit weird to be such an exact number? I swear, I count every word.)  I'm really pleased with my progress in November. I've really been able to move the story along a long way since the end of last month and I've had a lot of really good writing days. With my Christmas deadline coming up its good to be able to make some good progress. Real Life got in the way during the last little bit, but I was expecting that so I'm not going to be too hard on myself. 

I'd love to hit the big 100,000 mark by the end of 2013 but it's a pretty unlikely thing given my current schedule. So long as I hit that all important storyline marker though, I'll be happy.

End of October Wordcount

60,040.

Prologue, seven chapters and a snippet. 

Three+ months since starting.

I feel like I should have gotten further this month. I'm a little disappointed. For some reason I really struggled to find the drive to just sit down and write (which is also why I didn't do much/any blogging this month). I've picked up again quite a bit in the last week or two, which is why I think I'm disappointed: because it felt like I've gotten a lot done of late. But oh well. I'll just have to work harder in November. Lots to do! 

End of September Wordcount

43,049.

Prologue, four chapters and a snippet.

Just over 2 months since starting.