Friday evening, I struggled trying to continue my novel-in-progress into the next chapter. I ended up walking away from it after a word count of only 583 on the day. My target has been 1750 daily throughout this novel.
I returned that evening and reread the last few paragraphs. After reading, I realized the reason I was struggling was because the story ended at the end of the chapter I had just completed.
So, A Darkling Nine has a first draft. At this stage, I plan to put the manuscript away for a while, probably while I write the sequel to Rigel Kentaurus, tentatively titled Barnard’s Star. I’ll also be increasing my daily target to 2000 words for this novel.
I targeted 110,000 words for this novel, and I think I will get at least 100,000 by the time I finish making corrections. I almost always add words on revision because I tend to write white room description on first draft.
So, on the week:
8031 new words.
I beat the target 1750 every day except Friday (583 words) because the story ended.
novel total words: 96729
This is the fifth novel I have written.
1 – Neanderthal Swan Song
2 – Turnabout (unreleased)
3 – Rigel Kentaurus
4 – Fishpunk
5 – A Darkling Nine (First Draft Completed)
Y’know, I’d never heard the phrase “white room description” before. Now I have, and I’m totally guilty of it! Always.
I’m glad you found it helpful. Now comes the hard part–doing something about it. For me, a lot of that comes when I revise.