Going backward -- literally.

I'm doing more lounging around, waiting for inspiration, than I usually do with my writing.

I mean, normally, I'll force the pace a little to get over the inertia.

Not this time.

It's important that the ending feel natural.  I can write at about half my usual pace and still get done in time, so I'll give it a couple of days to happen organically.  If it doesn't happen, then I'll give it a little nudge.

Linda isn't here for three days, so that broadens the time available, especially if I just don't turn on the T.V.

The Internet, seeing as it's on the same computer I do my writing on, is an ever present distraction.  But no more than usual.


I managed a couple chapters yesterday -- which I thought was going to be one chapter.

Still have the emotional confrontation scene to do -- then the physical confrontation scene, with a couple of procedural/action scenes between.

Drank some wine last night.

I'm finding that alcohol really doesn't add much to the creative process, but it's very useful in keeping my butt in the seat and concentrating on the rewriting for hours.   I went backward, chapter by chapter, for about half the book.

Going backward is a trick I use to concentrate on the wording, not the story.

I want to keep the story as fresh as possible for as long as possible.  For NEARLY HUMAN I put the chapter numbers in a hat and picked them at random.

But going backward works just as well without the fuss.

Found a few rewordings, here and there.  Nothing major.  A couple of inconsistencies  -- character descriptions that got switched somehow.

Pacing for me is so hard to measure.  It seems to go extraordinarily fast, but the answer wouldn't seem to be to slow it down.

The point of a first draft, for me, it to get that basic plot down without interference, then try to see if there isn't something else I can add to the story that comes from the story.  (I'm trying not to impose from the outside...)

It's a quick read, admittedly. but I think maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.  With four or five chapters to go, I'm at 56K words, so I'm going to without a doubt go past 60K words.  If I was sending this to a publisher, I'd probably try to find ways to plump it up a little, get it to 80K words.  But if the words aren't necessary, they aren't necessary.

It's my book.

Extending the book would be easy to do -- just look for some extra descriptions, pad the conversations a little, look for some inner dialogue, put in a couple of contemplative scenes.  I actually think that a little fluffing can help a book.  I used to call it "writing sloppy."

The easiest way to increase the size of the book would be to add some pertinent backflashes -- they're fun to write, and they don't interfere with the basic plot.  I may do a couple more of these as flavoring, as change of pace -- but only if I feel like it.

It's my book.

Oh, well.  Finish the book.  Read it from end to end.  Get some copy-editing done.  Come back and read it again, and decide if it needs more.

But first, finish the book.