A few more chapters are going to be combined I think, chapter 9/10 (which were previously 10/11) and maybe 13/14 or 14/15 although I'm a bit on the fence about those two. Not that I don't have anything for them, I'm just not sure how many "filler" chapters I want given how long this thing already is.
Have also been converting chapters to manuscript formatting and printing them once they're done so they're ready to go when draft 1 editing begins in late March/early April. The plan then being to rewrite the whole thing with the edits over Easter long weekend.
About 3/5ths of the way through chapter 9/10.
18/11/24 (WC 69939 - 71418) Total: 1479
Almost done with chapter 9.
19/11/24 (WC 71418 - 73501) Total: 2083
Looking set to be done with the first draft just before the 2 year anniversary of starting it (Feb 27th 2023)
Chapter 9 is done and I've opted to merge 11+13 meaning I've finished almost half of the chapters!!
21/11/24 (WC 73501 - 74521) Total: 1020
Have been working on ch10 all week and it's finally done!! Over half way now!!
22/11/24 - 27/11/24 (WC 74521 - 79983) Total: 5462
Have pushed back my draft one deadline a week to 02/02/25 because I got too busy (getting tattooed again, testing out my new runners, buying furniture in black friday sales, being a bit depressed, getting distracted by a 6 hour long podcast).
Chapter 11 is getting there I guess but is also making me a little insane.
02/12/24 (WC 79983 - 81723 ) Total: 1740
Have realised that maybe my first draft has some glaring problems and it may be worthwhile to abandon the goal of finishing draft 1, rejigging the whole thing and starting draft 2 now instead of waiting until it's done in Feb???? Have for the time being thrown away the schedule and am going to work on something else for a bit until I have some Christmas leave to think things over for more than a weekend.
Word count is at 84011 btw
I have scrapped draft 1 (kinda, I will be keeping passages I like that have already been written). Draft 2 has now been fully outlined and is a much more streamlined version of the original. 23 chapters have been reduced down to just 12, with a greater emphasis on worldbuilding elements that were getting bogged down by complicated side plots which have now been removed. It's possible I've overcorrected and have cut too much, but that's what draft 3 is for. I've also tried to focus more on character development in this draft as it was getting pushed to the side in the original.
I've set a strict schedule of 1 chapter per week with a 1 week break between act 1+2 and act 2+3, and plan to have this draft finished in time for the easter long weekend to be edited then. This draft is also written in manuscript formatting to save me time I was spending changing it manually chapter by chapter before printing each to have a physical copy to make editing annotations on before.
I have finished chapter 1 already, it's largely the original chapters 1+2 combined into one but does have some editing and a new opening to shift it more in the direction of the new draft.
31/12/24 (WC 0 - 8672) Total: 8672 (excluding chapter names and gap notations, which I believe were included in the WCs in the original draft)
I'm alive I promise. I've realised my draft 2 also has glaring issues and so am completely reworking the story. The main issue being that it jumps around the world too much and still has too many little side stories. I have done some market research (ie. reading similar books for the same age range) and am trying to simplify the story to the extent to which the books I have read are. Trying to get back to writing by my 22nd birthday on the 31st.
Chapter 1 of draft 3 is done, coming in at a whopping 8634 words.
Chapter 1 of draft 3 is done, coming in at a whopping 8634 words.
Full chapter is up on the sharing & critiques thread for anyone who wants a read :)
Chapter 2 is done.
19/05/25 - 5721 possibly the most I've ever written in 1 day, Total = 14,355
Dunno what's gotten into me this week but I definitely have the writing bug. Chapter 3 is done, am going to try and get some work done on chapter 4 today too.
20/05/25 - 8789 (tbf a solid chunk is copied from draft 1 of chapter 4 but I did have to go through and edit parts of it), Total = 23144
I really am on a roll, 2 full chapters in 1 day. Onto chapter 5!
20/05/25 (part 2) - 4890, 13679 for the day. Total = 28014
Chapter 5 is done!
21/05/2025 - 8029. Total = 35709
Chapter 6 is also done.
22/05/25 - 5715. Total = 41424
Chapter 7 is done and I'm officially half-way done writing this draft of this WIP.
23/05/25 - 10918 (a solid amount of this was copy/pasted from draft 1 with some edits). Total = 52342
Saw a funny Tumblr post about how if you're experiencing writer's block it's because Stephen King is stealing your life force to write his books. So I guess this is the first week in like 3 years Stephen King has stopped stealing my life force. 50,000 words and over half a book in just over a week is lowkey nuts. No idea how I've done it
Chapter 8 is done! Just 5 more to go.
Meant to write in the library today but it was really noisy so ended up back in my work office. On a Saturday. I'll probably end up back here again tomorrow too since the library is only open 12-4 on Sundays and I can't focus in my apartment.
24/05/25 - 5658. Total = 58000.
Also paid $6 for a small coffee that tasted like burned plastic because the cafe I usually go to during the week at work isn't open on weekends - absolutely diabolical coffee pricing here in Melbourne, whose idea was weekend surcharges. The things I do for my craft istg
Chapter 9 is done. Bit of a short one this time.
25/05/25 - 4173. Total = 62173.
Didn't finish a full chapter today on account of having gotten almost no sleep (upstairs neighbors were having a party until 4 in the morning), but did get about 1/4-1/3 of ch10 written
26/05/25 - 2600. Total = 64773
Is almost winter here in Melbourne so have been out with a headcold, still working my way through chapter 10
29/05/25 - 3221. Total - 67994
Chapter 10 is done and boy-howdy is it an absolute monster (10670 words in total). Just 3 more chapters to go before this draft is done.
30/05/25 - 4849. Total - 72843.
Will likely write a bit of chapter 11 today too.
Have decided it makes more sense to combine 12 + 13, so 2 more chapters actually. Perhaps with a prologue
Chapter 11 is done. 1 more to go!
31/05/25 - 6048. Total - 78,891.
Copied the bits from my original draft that I'm happy with into my last chapter. So not really stuff I've written as a part of this draft but it still counts for the WC. About 1/4 of the final chapter is now done.
PART 2 31/05/25 - 2567. Total - 81458
It's DONE. AHHHHHHHHHH. LET'S GOOOOOO!!!!!! (except now I have to edit, so it's not really done)
01/06/25 - 2819. Total - 84280 (somewhere my maths went awry so if there's discrepancies that's why)