Despite Nanowrimo being over, I still beat the daily quota for it today. Of course, during Nanowrimo I’d have done double today as I’m off work. Oh well. One more chapter and this Act is finished. Next, haunted castle.

Nanowrimo is over, but writing isn’t! Careening towards the end of the act, setting up some confrontations. One of my key villains is about to bow out, but she’s going to put on a hell of a show.

Today, free of the Nanowrimo steamroller, I planned out the last three chapters of this act, and started to work on the structure of the next act. I know how it ends, but not quite how I’m going to get there.

Arbitrary 50k word limit reached, hurrah! Novel is still pretty wide open, I think I’ve got my “end of act two” stuff set up, and an idea of what act three involves, but there’s at least half as much again to go. Still, the 50k has given this life, now I can slow down and finish it carefully. Hurrah!

One more day to go. One more chapter to go. Then…well, then I keep writing. Book ain’t done yet. But it lives.

Another chapter I had to force myself to write, another really good chapter. Writer’s block is for quitters.

Another day I had to force myself to sit down and write, another chapter that turned out far better than I deserved. Except the ending, anyway, and I can fix that in post. The story is taking twists and turns, anyway, and it’s well set up for the end of the current act, which should be a chapter or two after I break the nanowrimo number. Onwards!

Not the last planning of this novel, but enough chapters sketched out to get me over 50k words. Plus a rough roadmap to the end of the book, I think. Very rough. And an idea for the fourth book (the next one is another mystery). One weird book, one mystery, one weird book, one mystery. Repeat FOREVER.

Today was an exercise in proving the virtue of the system. Really did not feel like writing – then knuckled down and wrote 2300 words in a fury. I think being on the edge of an attack combined with writing about someone in an altered state of consciousness is a good synergy. Now I need to go fall over.

Less that ten thousand words to go. The Nanowrimo goal is definitely achievable. I’ve no idea where my story is going after that, though. To 50k and beyond!