Dieting and writing Don't Go Together.

I've mentioned before, that budgeting and dieting work together nicely.

Well, writing and dieting are the opposite.  I nibble all day long, mindlessly.  Just walk around and nibble and sit around and nibble. 

I finished what I suppose could be called the second draft yesterday.  It has more than doubled the size of the book.  I'm at about 52,000 words.  I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being closer to 60, 000.

Spent some time rearranging the chapters, so there isn't too much gap between the two storylines.

I'm still liking this book.  Usually by this time, I want to get away, but this time I'm still into inventing and discovering what this book is about.  I think it's because I've done this in such a short time that it is still fresh to me -- or it's because I'm just really liking this world and these characters.  Or maybe that's saying the same thing.

Last night I was thinking about the evil kingdom in the story, and started imagining more of what it looked like.  This is probably what I'm going to be doing for awhile -- filling in the backstory of the world and the characters.  Making it feel more full and real.

I'm going to rewrite the first chapter today, because Linda had some cogent criticisms.  This first chapter will probably be revised dozens of times before I'm done, because it's so important.

Then I'm going to go through the entire book and try to standardize all the names and spellings.  That will probably take the rest of today and tomorrow.  Then I'm going to print out a couple of hard copies that can be worked on.

I've done this so intensively and in such a short time, that it calls out to the fact that writing a novel is a major project.  And why the hell does anyone do it?

But, as lame as it sounds, I feel like I'm doing what I should be doing.