Dry Run: Update 7

Dang, I don't think I'm gonna make it.  I believe this post drops on May 30th, which is later than this whole experiment was supposed to go.  I was writing on the darn thing today, and it occurred to me that I have no idea how much more of the story there will be.  That's not a good sign.

Two or three other things have to happen before it ends, and that's fine, except I don't know what else will happen, and I still don't know how the story will end.

All I know is, I won't be finished with this bad boy before June begins.  And that's gonna bode quite ill for my novel.  I figure I have no choice but to not write my novel until this one's done, and the faster I get this done, the faster I can get on with that one.  So I put in a bit of extra work on it today, writing three or four pages, instead of the usual one (or zero).

Still, I NEED to increase my output if I'm gonna write a novel in ninety days, even a short one.  And old habits die hard, as I still am much more willing to write in my notebook than on a computer (or worse, my phone, which Big said I should really try).  I think what I might do is, take my laptop out to the backyard--or better yet, to the park--and write on the story till the battery runs out.*

"Into the Furnace" could easily be a novel.  All I'd have to do is develop somebody other than the main character, or try to have the story be about something other than a sheriff arrives in a new town and discovers a mystery there.  I could even introduce some kind of romantic subplot, either for Will himself, or for his lovely daughter.  Yeah, I probably ought to do that.

But no, what I really ought to do is try and write this thing--with its single primary storyline--through to the end, knowing I can always go back and expand and develop things after I'm finished with the first draft.  That's my plan, for now.

Here we be:

So, around twenty-eight percent done.  If I'd just worked a little harder, I'd be a third of the way through this thing (but I spent my whole day off hacking away at an overdue Dunesteef story, so at least it wasn't just watching reality shows).

Even so, there's no way I'll be done by June 1st, in time to start my novel when I was supposed to. ** Which doesn't mean I get to shrug off my novel-writing commitment--Big already has his idea in mind and has been gathering character names, which is a fun thing I tend to do before starting a project, only to forget I ever did that and end up making up new ones while writing anyway--it just means I will have less than ninety days to finish my book.

Although, between you and me, if it takes a hundred days, or heck, a hundred and ninety days, to write my first novel, as long as I actually write it, I'm gonna consider that a success.

Here's to success.

Rish Outfield, Writing Boy

*Oh, something must be wrong with the laptop I bought because its battery only lasts an hour.  That seems laughably short to me.  Is that typical?  The craptop I had a few years back had a six hour battery, and I called it a "craptop."

**Which I realize I already said, but this is actually two posts stuck together, so try to ignore the redundancy.