Rose-Owls and Pumpkin Girls

Total words: 122,700.
Chapters: Thirty-one.
Pages: 412.

Reason for stopping: draft one is finished.
Music: Delta Rae.
The cats: Lilly, bed; Alice, unknown; Thomas, bed.

Did somebody get the number of that truck?

Well, there you go. Draft one is done. I have edits to process, corrections to make, structural elements to adjust, and lots and lots of trimming to do—the book is currently somewhere between five and eight thousand words longer than it needs to be, the length of a short story, if you wanted to write a short story made up mostly of "just," "that," and assorted wishy-washy modifiers. But the words are on the page to be mucked about with. The first draft is finished.

I am exhausted and I feel sort of beaten, but the draft is done. Tonight, I will drink deep from the keg of victory. BRING ME THE FINEST MUFFINS AND BAGELS IN THE LAND!

Draft!

Words: 2,125.
Total words: 65,130.
Reason for stopping: I need to shower and finish packing.
The cats: Alice, eating; Thomas, unknown; Lilly, currently on top of my foot.
Music: Florence and the Machine.

So it's later than I like to be up, and I would have stopped half an hour ago if I hadn't needed to make word count. Which begs the question of "why are you making word count so late?" I'm glad you asked! I actually finished "In Sea-Salt Tears," which is a short story giving a little more background on Elizabeth Ryan, the Selkie clan leader we met at the end of One Salt Sea (and yes, the title similarity is intentional).

I really like this story, and even more, I really like being able to go and fill in things that Toby doesn't know, and doesn't need to know, because they're not her stories. She's not the only person who's ever lived in Faerie and had a story worth telling.

I am happy.

Words: 10,747.
Total words: 60,797.
Reason for stopping: it is so time for bed.
The cats: all over the house, in parts unknown.
Music: random shuffle.

Well, there you go: 10,000 word weekend, accomplished. Along with catching up on several TV shows, a trip to the flea market, and seeing Step Up Revolution before it left theaters. What can I say? I am a simple girl, and simple girls have simple needs. Needs which frequently encompass complicated dance numbers surrounded by a simplistic and easily-followed plot.

This book is now super-solidly underway, and I'm a little bit in love with it, which is exactly as it should be. Even assuming that it's 110,000 to 115,000 words long, I'm over the halfway point, and things are getting nicely complicated, with some twists that I don't think anybody will see coming. And of course, stuff is paying off, finally, after I've been setting it up for six books.

I am happy.

Words: 4,164.
Total words: 47,288.
Reason for stopping: chapter eleven is finished, it's time for bed.
The cats: Alice, floor; Lilly, bed; Thomas, cat tree.
Music: random shuffle.

I am done with chapter eleven! I am all triumphant and stuff! Largely because now that I have most of the linear pieces in one place, I'm needing to move them around and introduce them to one another, and seriously, sometimes I am tempted to kill half my cast, just because I miss the simplicity of the early books. (I won't do that. I wouldn't do that. For me, the joy of these books is the interaction of the people. But that doesn't make it not frustrating to have to introduce eighteen people to each other every time someone new appears.)

I'll be working on Chimes at Midnight for the rest of the week, and I expect to pass the halfway mark before I go to bed on Sunday night. At that point, I can reassess the rest of my workload and determine whether this book gets another week right now, or whether I can switch over to Half-Off Ragnarok for a little while. And SymboGen is on the horizon...

A writer's work is never done. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Words: 9,016.
Total words: 34,663.
Reason for stopping: Bedtime.
The cats: Alice, floor; Lilly, bed; Thomas, kitchen sink (literally).
Music: random shuffle, the Counting Crows.

9,000 words is a respectable day, even if it's several thousand words shy of yesterday, which was, let's face it, some kind of horrifying cosmic anomaly. I mean, no matter how you slice it, I just added 20,000+ words to this book in a single weekend, which means that most of the Machete Squad is probably going to want to bludgeon me to death when they open their email. Heh heh heh.

I'm trucking merrily along on this book, and the speed has helped to quell the freefall feeling of not knowing what in the hell I'm doing. I'm not supposed to know what in the hell I'm doing at this stage; that's what first drafts are for. The Squad will point out my rough spots, and I will fix them, and in the meantime, I could literally finish draft one by August first if I was able to continue at this pace. I can't, and I won't, but wow. It's really awesome to be in this position.

I was telling Brooke yesterday that it's weird to be in the books where things are starting to pay off. And it is weird. But it's also amazing.

I am so excited.

Words: 2,231.
Total words: 10,248.
Reason for stopping: I have a really tight schedule tonight, and it's time to switch books.
The cats: Alice and Thomas, on the hallway floor; Lilly, asleep on my suitcase.
Music: lots of Counting Crows.

I don't actually like stopping mid-chapter when it's not to go to bed or something equally pressing, but I'm flying to Hawaii for a memorial service tomorrow, and that means I have a really full docket tonight. I have made word count on this book, I have two edit files to process and another book to work on, it is time to switch worlds. I'll use the first edit file as a palate cleanser, then work on the other book, then hopefully be awake enough to chunk through the second set of edits before bed. If I can't, I'll work on the plane.

I am happy with where this book is going. It's slow so far, but I'm not very far in, and I figure editing and revisions will tighten that up into something awesome and acceptable. And Alex is having long conversations with the mice.

I am happy.

Words: 2,731.
Total words: 8,017.
Reason for stopping: chapter two is done, and it's time for dinner.
The cats: all cats are currently out of view, which is worrisome.
Music: still the soundtrack to Syfy's Monster Island. I am predictable.

Once again, I am proving the old adage that all it takes to get me writing again is a finished manuscript and the sucking terror that comes from having nothing immediately demanding my attention. (These are things I needed to be writing anyway, mind you. It's just that Parasite was such a huge chunk of text that it sort of blocked the pipeline for pretty much everything else.) So now here I am, once more hip-deep in InCryptid and loving every mucky, slime-covered step.

Half-Off Ragnarok is really interesting so far, because it's the first book from Alex's perspective. I can't help looking at the text and thinking "gosh, the Machete Squad is going to kill half of this," and at the same time, I can't tell you which half they're going to target, so I have to write it all. That's a good thing, honestly. It forces me to get used to Alex's voice, and the little quirks and oddities of his personality. He's my first (and so far, only) male narrator in this series, and so it's important to me that I get him right.

I am very excited about this expansion of my universe. You get to meet Grandma and Grandpa Baker properly, and see more of the actual ecology of the non-sapient cryptids and how they're able to remain under the radar of modern science. It's going to be a fun ride.

Whee!

Words: 2,211.
Total words: 4,089.
Reason for stopping: chapter one is finished! Time for So You Think You Can Dance.
Music: random shuffle, lots of Glee.
The cats: it's early yet, so they're off doing cat things.

Well, that's chapter one down. A little over 2,000 words for the night isn't awesome, but it's always slow-going in the beginning, when the story is just beginning to pick up steam and I'm still feeling my way into the situation. Honestly, just typing "chapter two" before closing the file made me want to weep for joy. I'm back. I'm in Toby's world, and I'm back. And more, I get to stay for at least three more books after this one, so I can unpack my things and really get comfortable.

There isn't too much I can say about what's going on, since Ashes of Honor isn't out yet and I try not to spoiler. But jam is involved, and also shirtlessness, coffee, and Toby not getting enough sleep. But isn't that always the way?

I'm back.

Current stats:

Words: 8,464.
Total words: 101,114.
Reason for stopping: I sort of, well, ran out of book.
Music: lots of things, mostly Dave and Tracy.
Lilly, Alice, and Thomas: bed, orange cat tree, and beige cat tree, respectively.

First draft stats:

Pages: 347
Chapters: twenty-five, plus a prologue and an epilogue
Started: November 2, 2010
Finished: February 18, 2012

So it turns out that finishing a Toby book and a Mira Grant book and doing lots of conventions and writing another Toby book and a couple of Mira Grant novellas and not sleeping makes me slow. Which is why this book took fifteen months to write (the first one took fourteen months, and I swore that this one would go faster). And yet. I am done with the first draft of Midnight Blue-Light Special, and Discount Armageddon is not yet on shelves, and that means I win.

I am so tired. I am physically and emotionally exhausted, and my eyes hurt because I cried through the last two chapters. But I am done. I am finished.

I will deal with a few pending edits and send the first draft to the Machete Squad tomorrow. But for right now? I sleep.

For right now, I win.

Words: 12,732.
Total words: 57,367.
Reason for stopping: chapter fourteen is finished.
Music: lots of dance music and modern country.
The cats: Alice, bed; Thomas, floor; Lilly, cat tree.

I'm pretty sure I was actually supposed to work on something else today. In fact, I'm practically certain of it. But I kept going "oh, just another hundred words," and "oh, I'm almost to the end of this chapter," and the story kept rolling on, and then it was the end of chapter fourteen, and the day was basically over. This is what we call "writing what needs written," rather than "writing what the schedule says." It doesn't happen to me often, but oh, when it does...

When it does, it's magical.

Anyway, not much with the mice in this segment, so I don't have a new exultation, but I do have a lot more words (more than half a book now!), and I do feel pretty darn good about the whole situation. Soon, the second adventure of Verity Price and her insane friends will be in the bag. And that's awesome.