Where am I at in the November 50k Challenge: Week 3? Despite hitting 86% of target, I’m struggling to keep the words flowing.
In summary: 10,053 words for the week, which brings me to 42,791, or 86% of target. Best day 3,331 words, worst 259 (most of the day at the wheel, hardly any at the keyboard).
It’s been a slow week for reasons of plotting:
- filled in a couple of missing scenes where I skimmed over them in weeks 1 and 2
- gave one of my antagonists his own confrontation scene with the MC
- moved the demise of another antagonist to later in the plot
- placed a key item of backstory in dialogue for the Act 3 ‘reveal.’
And despite the ‘rule,’ I revised a couple of early scenes to smooth over the plot changes.
Arc de Triomphe
Early wins for this draft:
- I have a complete arc for my protagonist’s transformation. It isn’t particularly subtle but neither are the classic Westerns/Samurai movies I’ve landed on as a model
- The principal antagonists each have some backstory to add a little depth
- My action scenes work the way I want, balancing practical fighting arts with enough magical abracadabra for the genre.
Early losses:
- My prose. I’m reconciled to hating it. It’s more tell than show, despite the chunks of interior monologue, dream sequences and flashbacks. But… my genre has a surprisingly low bar for tell versus show. I guess we can’t all be Salman Rushdie. Then again, I don’t want to be.
Week 4 Blues
What’s left for Week 4 and the wrap up? Assuming I don’t get called away again:
- add 7,206 words to make target
- start revising my zero draft to round off the incomplete sentences, placeholder text and any garbage I spot.
The glass is almost full, but is it fine wine or vinegar?