The Century Mark

Thanks to my cheap-o update earlier in the day with Dr. Rat's revelation of the unifying theory of quantum physics and such, this is post number 100. All these posts with all these words, and still nothing of real import has been said. Sad, really.

Anyway, so, I promised a book update, and so I thought I would offer it. Between sickness, tournaments, trying to get the house cleaned up, home improvement projects, really nice weather and, well, general laziness, I've not been real diligent in my writing of late. However, I was thinking about this the other day while sitting on the bridge on Duke St. (a place where I get stuck every day on the daily commute home) and I realized I--according to my spreadsheet--have only nine chapters left to finish. Wow. I knew I was getting close, but that's less than ten. That's less than a third. And, taking into account that several of those chapters are started and orphaned for the time being, that's even less of the book to complete (probably down between a fourth and a fifth or so).

That led me try and redouble my efforts toward typing, so I've actually been doing more of that lately. It's very nice, especially since I can have the windows open (for the time being) and enjoy the lovely spring breezes (for the time being) that feel more like summer (for the time being). Plus, I can listen to the deer walking through my yard. Keen.

So, my goal is to try and finish this thing by the end of the month. That is, getting all of the words onto "paper" and the story wrapped up. That doesn't include finishing the reread/rewrite process (caveat, I know), but it does involve starting it.

To that end, I've been hitting chapter 25 hard. It's about two thirds done. I've got it to the place where I might be a little stuck, only because I'm not sure how a certain set of characters should react to meeting the other characters. It's the initial meeting that bothers me, not the entire meeting. I know where to go next with that.

And then I started 31, which is the final chapter. I still have more to write, but so far what I've constructed for the final pages of the book really please me. I've built in the "not so happily ever after" ending that I want and wrapped up at least one storyline and tied it together. To say I'm pleased with myself would be an understatement; terribly egotistical, but also very true. At least I can admit that flaw.

I'm hoping to have both 25 and 31 finished by week's end. I think I would take a step back and do 30 next, which is the ultimate battle scene, as opposed to 29, which is the penultimate (I added this only to write the word 'penultimate'...I need more sleep).

Okay, I'm rambling, and I apologize. Here's the run down:

Word Count: 119069
Page Count: 387

This is turning out to be exactly what I wanted size-wise. I'm very pleased with myself. And now my enormous, inflated head and I are going to go lay down.

Edit: I forgot that to mention that I'd post some more "fun" updates later in the week. I downloaded a drawing program that is better than Paint (I hope) and I'm going to be doing some extra work on some images that tie in with my book (and will be shown more readily elsewhere). I like painting pretty pictures.