Novel #2

2010 was the year of many things for me. One of those things was Novel #2 (which, technically, I started at the very end of 2009). I'm feeling a little frustrated with myself because #2 (also called Torn) is taking sooo muuuuch loooonger to finish than I thought it would. But that's not to say I'm not excited about it. I'm really excited about it. I love my characters and my setting a lot, and I'll be excited when I can share it with whoever I can convince to read it over for me.

It's just that I'm feeling a little embarrassed. After finishing Novel #1, I thought I'd learned so much about plot and character arcs and streamlining. That I learned what I'd need to do to make sure I didn't end up with a lumpy, patchwork first draft when I gave this whole novel-writing thing another go. But I can see, without even having finished it, how much work I'm going to have to do to get Novel #2 where I want it to be. But I'm beginning to think that maybe this is my process: write madly, stop and pace and plan, write madly, then copy/paste/partially rewrite my merry way to a story I'm truly proud of. Maybe I'm not the kind of writer who ends up with a first draft that doesn't need to be half shredded. Maybe that's okay.

After more than a (very tumultuous) year, I've got about 20,000 words left to go. So, for the purposes of inspiration, I thought I'd Wordle the 50 most-used words in my manuscript.

Here's to finishing my draft by June!