September 7th – 760,655

Another reasonable night’s sleep has improved things, and I was less jaundiced in my appraisal of this manuscript today, probably for that reason. In any case I added another 3,083 words to it, taking it over 20k and it’s starting to work well as a story, so I suspect I may be cutting a number of chunks from the early part of the book when it comes to editing.

More importantly in writing terms, this has taken me past the 760k point and that little bit closer to the target.

The new blood pressure tables seem to be working too, although this is still early days as today is only day 2, and the doctor wants to review things next week to make sure the dosage is right. I even managed to go out yesterday lunchtime and eat a cooked meal. Okay, it wasn’t a big meal, and I didn’t clear my plate, but I did eat more than three-quarters of it and I enjoyed it. There were no repercussions afterward, either, no tummy-ache or other side effects. So I’m feeling happy with myself over that, all and all that’s starting to make things feel a lot better all round. Fingers crossed, we are now emerging from this particular tunnel.

September 6th – 757,572

I’m slightly outside my comfort zone here, this story is starting to move down a different track than the one I’d originally envisaged for it. Already I’ve killed off the main male rival, and the story is developing a much darker tone. I’m also beginning to have second thoughts about choosing my male character as my main viewpoint character – but there again he’s the one with the more sinister and darker motivations, so either the viewpoint character carries the readers with him - or the viewpoint character doesn’t really know what’s happening leaving potential for reader confusion.

I guess it’s another one of those that’s going to be written and then extensively edited. So much for sub-genre work, hey? Take yourself out of the mainstream and you end up torturing yourself.

I did manage to get 3,212 words done today, so I’m still pulling further and further ahead of target, but this piece is slowly becoming harder to write.

I started my new meds overnight, and the specific one to be taken at ten pm really worked a treat. I slept much better, and although I did wake up during the night, I drifted straight off again, a big improvement. I’m not sure if the fact it was such a dull day helped, but I slept later as well this morning. The new blood pressure meds also started this morning, and so far, no side effects, and if anything, I’m starting to feel more positive about food as well, so fingers crossed this is looking promising.

September 5th – 754,360

Today has been a life day, rather more than a writing day, so as a result it’s tea time and I’ve only just finished my 3,037 words for the day.

If it wasn’t one thing, it was another, the interruptions piling up, one after the other, until I felt I wasn’t going to get finished at all. So I’m afraid today is a bit of an abbreviated update, I’ll aim for a longer one tomorrow.

September 4th – 751,323

That’s it! I’m officially three quarters of the way through the challenge, having passed the 750k mark this morning with today’s word count reaching 3,183 words.

As I said, this work in progress is flowing, so the writing comes easy, and as a result the speed is up on the previous piece. A sure sign this one is going to work as a story, albeit after it’s been through the edit phase. I’ve got one problem to fix in it though, that’s for sure. There’s an old adage about not having character names that sound the same, or start with the same letter. In this case I have both – two male names that start with the same letter, and one of them also sounds very similar to the leading lady’s name. I’m pretty sure one of the guys is going to change, and which one that will be – but from another point of view – thank goodness for global find and replace functions in word processors – doing this on a typewritten manuscript would be pure torture.

Time to get back to sorting out my diet for the rest of the day – I’ve decided to line up “bite size” portions of foods and see which ones I can’t handle, or don’t taste as I expect, and which ones I can. Yesterday I had problems with two foods I haven’t had problems with before, in fact one was something I’d eaten without problem the day before. I need to have some concrete information before I go and see the doctor again. Apart from excessive (top end) wind, everything seems to be okay from the neck down, now, but it’s no good to me if I can’t swallow it in the first place.

September 3rd – 748,140

I picked up an old work in progress today, and for me a very old one – over two and a half years old, something I’d last looked at in January 2011 (according to the last modified date on the file). A quick polish and I was away, and indeed by ten o’clock this morning I’d added 3,486 words to the existing 4.5k I already had.

Compared to the tortuous process of the last piece, this one is flowing very nicely indeed. I was instantly inside the head of the main viewpoint character and I could see the other characters in front of me as the words positively flew from my fingers.

I guess this one will probably beat the last one to market – once finished it will need at least one self-edit and maybe two, but those edits will not need to be anything like as fierce as on the previous piece.

When a story is flowing, and I really do mean flowing like this, writing is a pleasure, instead of the chore it becomes when you’re wrestling with a story like I was doing last time. Even though I was tired from another bad night, I was still able to write “like the wind” today, and when I’d finished not only could I have gone on a lot longer, when I read back what I’d written it looked good, and felt right.

I’m thinking this story has got legs, for sure.

September 2nd – 744,654

I wrote THE END on the current manuscript today, and I’m pleased I did. Although it came out a few hundred words short of 47k, I’m happy with the length, knowing it will be cut on edit. However, I have to confess I’m not happy with the manuscript itself, structurally. There are two parts to the story and they don’t meld well – there’s too much harmony between the two leading characters, and there needs to be more tension if not more conflict between them.

I’m going to have to work at that later – for now it’s time to put this one in the “drafts drawer” and come back to it in a few weeks’ time.

I did manage to get 2,635 words written on it, and another 725 words on the newsletter, for a total daily word count of 3,360, so by the look of things, I’m going to hit the 750k point the day after tomorrow.

Now of course, comes the difficult question – what’s going to be the next piece I pick up to work on, what am I going to work on to hit the target and reach that 3/4 point on Wednesday. Hmmm… Big decision that.

September 1st – 741,294

Another 3,389 words on this manuscript, and I’ve managed to get the black moment written as well. Now I just need to get the angst ridden guilt trip out of the way before we end up at the HEA moment. As predicted yesterday, I think I’m going to get this done tomorrow, now, and again, as predicted hit a 47k final word count.

Final is, of course, a relative term – it’s final in terms of the first draft, by the time the book has been through a couple of edit passes, and then the hands of a proper editor, we end up with a very different word count, but if it ends up closer to 40k, I won’t particularly mind. That though, of course, is for the future, I need to get it written first, and having survived a lot of angst myself with this manuscript, I’ll be glad to put it to one side for a few weeks.

My edit pile is growing apace, too, so I’m going to have to tackle a few more of the older ones, and start thinking about getting them shipped off.

In the meantime I need to concentrate on getting my diet, adjusted. Although most things are heading back to normal, I seem to be developing an issue with bread. It’s not some form of gluten intolerance – pastry and cake are fine, as is anything else using wheat flour, but bread is becoming an issue – I’m literally unable to choke it down. Strange, there again to most people, my diet has always been strange.