The Moment Arrives

I took another break, had a lot going on these last few months. Not the least of which is my wife, who's pregnant with my first child. In all the anticipation and excitement, I let the book slip away. But it wasn't entirely forgotten. I've been writing notes about future events this whole time, and today I decided to put some of what I've been noting into the novel.

The character's goal is finally within reach, almost literally. And I actually know how I want it all to go down. Also, I've reached a near milestone, I'm about 300 words away from 75,000 words. I put a goal of 100,000 words just so I can benchmark my progress, but I have a feeling this draft is going to end closer to 80,000 or 90.000.

I'm excited, and I can't help but think about the second draft already. I'm trying to file my thoughts away for later, my goal now is to get my ideas on paper, and not to look back until I've done that. I'll worry about continuity errors and that sort of thing on the second draft, when I can look at this as a whole and see what needs to be fixed.

One thing I've been thinking about a lot is something I brought up in an earlier entry. My characters exist in a vacuum. Before I'd mentioned how they almost never talk to anyone but each other, but it extends beyond that. I barely ever describe where they are in space. I think a big part of that is because I'm being influenced by Isaac Asimov, who only described a scene if it was necessary. I think I've gone too far though, and I'm not describing scenes even when necessary.

I don't want to end up with what How Not to Write a Novel described as treating a scene like a bunch of disembodied brains floating in a suspension. I describe what the characters are doing sometimes, but I don't think I've ever described what they look like. Definitely need to work on that.

Lot of stuff to think about, but my first goal is to keep writing until I get to the end. Then I can worry about everything that came before.

-E. Maxfield Moen