the end is the beginning is the end...

I started this blog on April 30, 2013 as an attempt to help myself with my writing. Early on, the ideas for blog posts came frequently and I was able to write a blog post and 1,000 words for my word-a-day goal easily. Writing got hard a few times. Really, really hard. It's hard to focus and sit in front of a computer when things elsewhere just seem to be falling apart. I've shared before that I love Stephen King's book On Writing. It's a fascinating "behind the scenes" look at his career, full of outstanding writing advice, and has a heart-wrenching account of the accident that nearly killed him. Yes, I almost cry every time I read it. One of the best things King said in that book was this:

"Writing is not life, but I think that sometimes it can be a way back to life."

On July 5, 2013 I talked about the personal milestone of 7,000 words. Let me put this in perspective. I had been struggling to write, to write with commitment, I should say, for a while. I let myself go over the first few chapters several times until I was sure that the beginning of the story was okay, which accounts for such a delay to reach that milestone. I was going through those early stages of writing. Out of habit, writing 1,000 words felt like it took all night. But as time passed, the writing got easier. Case in point: today, October 30, 2013, I wrote more than 4,000 words.

Now, it certainly helped that I had a heaping pile of personal inspiration. I was pretty determined to finish the First Draft of The Novel by 10/31/13, if only because November 1 was the start of National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, aka NaNo. Conveniently, this endeavor has you write 1,667 words a day for a month, so that at the end you have a novella (or the start of a novel) that equals 50,000 words.

Why am I even considering this, having just finished the grueling, months long process of reaching 104K on my First Draft? Because a) It would be a Real Shame to let me writing muscles relax and get flabby again and b) I need to get my mind off The Novel nicknamed Dust so that I don't look at it Right Now and c) Because there's always another story to tell.

Having reached my goal, I'm still not entirely sure I like the ending. But it's done enough that it's time to set it aside and work on something else for a while. Let those muses rest and recover so that I can look at it later with fresh eyes. But, Dear Readers, I have not forgotten you who have followed the meandering climb of my word count as it scrolled through your Newsfeed. So here is something special, just for you...a horrible one sentence synopsis!

In a realm recovering from war, soldiers are disappearing and it is the scorned Captain of the queen's guards that must face the past and choose how to fulfill the oath sworn: to protect the crown and the realm.

Next up? NaNo Novel 2013 - something something something

Everybody has a secret world inside of them. I mean everybody. All of the people in the whole world, I mean everybody — no matter how dull and boring they are on the outside. Inside them they've all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds... Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe.
The Sandman: A Game of You, Neil Gaiman