Halfway through.

JOURNAL:  5/26/13.

I think maybe the biggest difference between the last time I was writing full time and now is that I'm being much more patient.

I understand that the book needs more work.  That while it may be fine, it isn't done until it's done.

I have the strangest feeling -- which I've had from the beginning -- that the story is better than my ability to tell it.

Which is kind of strange, since it's my story.  Kinda strange, because it's a werewolf story.  But it has a kind of unexpected depth to it.  A story of human endurance.

What I want to do is elevate the writing to where it needs to be.  More depth and verisimilitude, for one thing.  More emotion.  More visceral terror.  More everything.

But most of all, good writing.

I'll just have to go over it a bunch of times until I feel I've got it right.

I just have to try not to be lazy.  If I'm twice as lazy, then I have to take twice as long to get it right.

Really, as usual, it comes down to the idea that I think someone else could come along and improve it dramatically.  But you know what?  That hasn't ever happened.  Small, incremental improvements, yes.

Anyway...


Meanwhile, I'm still not sure that writing only 2000 words a day is necessarily an improvement.  I feel like I lose touch a little with the story by not pushing it harder.  So far, though, I think it's been an overall benefit.  Just not quite as much as I thought it would be.

I think that it makes each chapter a little more thought out, though not by much.  I feel a little less burned out and fresher each day.

The book should start getting easier now.  Action chapter building to a climax always seems like the easiest part to do.  Starting a book, for me, is the hardest.

I think having a story that is constrained by historical events is good for me, and has made it easier to get going and write the damn thing. I like trying to impose order on the chaos -- it's what gives me my plot. 



I think I'm more or less on track.  2000 words a day, and I have 32K words after nearly three working weeks (five days each).

About halfway through, I think.  My guess is that I'll probably add about 10% more trying to make it better, filling in, fleshing out, being historically accurate with telling details.

So size-wise, I'm looking at a real book.

Left to do.

I have one chapter with Reed, trying to get help.

A second chapter of him going off the the battle of Santa Clara.  Finally mounting a rescue mission.

I need to have three or four chapters of the "Forlorn Hope" (their all out effort to get help), fighting Werewolves.

Two or three chapters back at Truckee Lake, fighting the Werewolves.

A couple of chapters for the final rescue.

And the wrap-up.

I usually underestimate the required chapters by about a third.

So probably between 10 and 15 chapters left to do, which is exactly right. 

Just keep pushing on.