August 7th – 656,570

Today has been a day of visitors, one set after another, meaning my writing time became constricted. Still, it’s nice to see people, and of course, most especially, the grandchildren. Mind you, the best thing about grandchildren when they’re small remains quite simple – you can give them back after a couple of hours. Our two aren’t a problem, not really, but still the house is nice and quiet now.

I did manage to hit a full quota of words, reaching 3, 293 a few minutes ago, which takes me within striking range of 660k tomorrow. I’m still in the middle of my complex scene, as described yesterday, and I expect this scene is going to span two if not three chapters before I’m finished.

I have a huge pile of “tasks to be completed by today” on my to-do list, so this blog post is going to be terminated very shortly. Still, there’s always tomorrow.

August 6th – 653,277

A slightly slower day today, resulting in a word count of only 3,076 words. Only, he says – LOL. Actually, only is right, because it’s the lowest daily word count I’ve managed in the 12 days.

In any case, today’s scene was a serious challenge, as my heroine had to cope with three different sets of emotions simultaneously. Firstly, she’s appearing as a bit part, an extra, in a film, and she’s playing a bank teller when the branch is robbed at gunpoint. So she’s got to display fear on behalf of her character. Secondly, it’s the first time she’s been on a film set, so for there’s a natural curiosity about what is going on around her, and she’s trying to watch everything. Thirdly, the guy playing the bank robber is the guy who got her the job and who’s also taking her out for dinner that evening, so she’s thinking about the possibility of a relationship, but knows he’s got a reputation as a player, while at the same time musing about what she’s going to wear, something to impress in, rather than the smart but dowdy bank uniform.

That’s a complex scene to write, and get her interactions with everyone right, which is why it took me longer to get that many words done today, than the previous scenes did yesterday. I’m not sure I’ve pulled it off, and I’m certain it’ll get tweaked in edit, but for now, it kinda works, so I’ll leave it as is and get onto the next scene(s) tomorrow.

August 5th – 650,201

That’s it today's, 3,451 words was enough to push me through the 650k barrier so I am now officially 65% of the way to the completion of my goal. Can I get a yee-hah there?

In fact I managed to finish the section of the manuscript I needed to do right on the crack of lunchtime. However, since I had to go out straight after lunch, I’ve only just sat down to produce the requisite blog entry.

Although the writing isn’t as quick as it was, just a few months ago, it’s still quite quick, and as each day passes when I’m well over 3,000 words in the day, I’m getting further and further ahead of the target – in fact I’m almost 3 weeks ahead of schedule. Bearing in mind I had a fortnight’s break in May, that’s pretty good going, even if I do say so myself.

Anyway, on that note of smugness, I guess I’ll go and watch the cricket. Oh dear, I can’t - it’s been raining. So for the first two tests, when Australia desperately needed bad weather to prevent their getting thumped, all they got was bright sunshine and perfect playing conditions for the England team to exploit. Now, when we need the rain to ensure we don’t lose the match – we get rain. I guess the weather gods are on our side after all.

August 4th – 646,750

A hectic day today, on non-writing tasks, meaning I had a long gap between writing stints, so although I hit 3,716 words for the day, the finish time is a lot later than I’ve been hitting. Still, I hit the target and more, taking me within striking distance of 650k tomorrow. This w.i.p. is developing well too, I’m about halfway toward the target work count for book three in the trilogy and I’m approaching the “grey” moment which is going to determine the heroine’s path.

The “black” moment will come a lot later in the piece, and will then lead to a resolution that can only be described as HFN (Happy For Now) rather than the HEA (Happy Ever After) ending you’d expect for a true romance. Of all the drafts I’ve completed during this challenge, I’d have to say, this trilogy probably gives me the most pleasure.

Now it’s time to get a couple of covers completed and then sit down and watch the TV adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s series about Elizabeth Woodville. Mind you, I’ll probably watch the mindless Mayhem that’s called Top Gear first, although nothing they do will trump watching James May getting smashed to pieces on a racing catamaran around the North Island of New Zealand – the stunt that started the series.

3rd August – 643,034

We moan a lot about the weather forecast never being right, but today they were. Our local TV forecast at lunchtime said we’d have brief showers starting around three o’clock this afternoon. At five minutes to three it started raining, for about four minutes – so at a  guess I'd say that was a pretty accurate forecast.

Since we the forecast was for rain later as soon as we finished lunch, I retrieved the lawn mower from its near retirement (as I’ve said before I hate gardening, especially mowing the lawn) and quickly whizzed round to get it done before the rain. Consequently I’ve only just finished my writing for the day – 3,524 words, I was a couple of hundred short of target before lunch, and I’m afraid I can’t sit down at a keyboard and just write that few, so I overshot by a margin.

At least there don’t seem to be any side effects from the new meds – although I haven’t yet seen an increase in appetite. Still, it’s early days, and it’ll take a while before the others leach completely out of my system. We’ll just have to see.

August 2nd – 639,510.

I just realised I made a little arithmetic error a couple of days ago, crediting myself with a 1,000 words more on the total that I should have. Apologies for that – I’ve gone back in and edited the totals correct before posting this entry.

Once more I’ve been back on track in the morning, hitting 3,077 words before lunch, and also having time to get this blog entry written. Since I’ve also got to get a lot of print cover work done today, I’m glad I’ve got today’s stint out of the way in good time.

I’ve started my new meds today, so hopefully some of the effects I’ve been suffering with will dissipate, but you can never be sure. So far at least, and I took them five hours ago, I’ve had no adverse effects from them. I’m not feeling hungry though, so it’s not an instant cure.

1st August – 636,433

My work patterns remain disrupted, but at least today I have an excuse – I had to spend the morning going to see the doctor and then running here there and everywhere sorting out a number of errands. At least the doctor is taking my issues seriously and is changing my meds, which should in help me in terms of appetite, although not eating properly has meant I lost weight, which is perhaps a beneficial side effect.

Nevertheless I’ve managed to get 3,167 words down and I’m fast approaching the 640k mark. I’m surprised nobody picked up on my mistake yesterday – I’m still 26k short of that magical 2/3 done mark on the challenge – I’d accidentally mistyped the title line as 664k not 634k so based my ramblings on an incorrect number. Doh!

Anyway, today is a sudden hot spell after a day of rain yesterday, so in a moment I’m going to tootle off downstairs and go and sit in the rays and wash a bit of the last week’s rust off. See y’all tomorrow.