5th March – Reached the two hundred thousand word milestone.

Today I actually made it – hit 200,297 words in total, so I am now officially 20% of the way toward my million word target. It feels good. It’s not eleven thirty yet, but I’ve got to stop – I’ve got a critique group later today and need to prepare for it. On top of that we need to get some baking prep done as we’ve expecting our daughter and granddaughters to visit tomorrow, so we’ll need biscuits for the occasion. Not sure of the flavours yet, but we’ll see – I have got some nice cherries I can chop up, and they’ll provide some colour too. Along with the white chocolate chip for sweetness and taste I think they’ll work.

This w.i.p., just to return to writing for a moment, is going well, my length estimate keeps growing, I had intended for it to be a 50-60k work but I’m now past 57k and nowhere near the climax of the novel. Ah well, all in a day’s work, I guess. I wonder how much will get cut at the edit stage? If it does, does that count as cheating, even though it’s not deliberate?