SCL Project: The Stretch

I've hit a point in my planning and writing where I am still writing through a major point-of-view transition, and I did about a thousand words yesterday on my book. It is a little slower going than I would like to be going, and it is one of those sort-of feeling-it-out areas of the book where you drive a little slower to take in the sights and think about the next leg of the trip.

There are points in any book where you are on the freeway, just speeding along at thousands of words per day. There are other points where you have to slow down on a back road, make plans, and think about the logistics of the rest of the journey. That's where I am. I want to be out on that freeway zipping along, but I know I am in a place where I want to be a little planned and careful, so progress will happen as it happens.

It is also there is a certain something that I feel is missing from the chapter but I don't know what. It will come to me, but if I speed through it I feel I am going to miss it and regret not putting it in where later on it becomes clear to me. I have a great plan, and I could write through that, but sometimes the intimacy of the situation demands a little think-time when you are in the middle of the chapter, so think-time I shall take.

The danger is stopping and getting hung up. I feel if it drags on for more than a couple days, I am just going to say, "more important to move on," and hit the road again. You have to put a limit on your dawdling and inaction, because you are in this to finish, and finish you must. So there is a point where I will just get back to my original plan and just go.

Yes, that's why it is nice to have a plan. I have this outlined by chapter, so even if I get totally stuck, there is work waiting for me to do where I won't have to think about where the plot goes next. That work is done. I just have to write.

So that's were we are, I have a cover comp'ed up, and the book is about a quarter of the way there. It is going to take two or three more huge pushes to finish up, I can envision this one going a full 50K, but we shall see.

More soon, and stay tuned.