If I had to guess though, I’d say a lot also has to do with me learning how to draft better. Being able to relax a little and jot down my words without stressing about them being any good or not. It’s so freeing to be able to write a bad first draft, because a bad draft is better than an empty screen. So this month of October I wrote a total of 47.269 words (that’s about 19.000 words more than my previous record)! Most of that was for my WIPs SALANDRINE and DEMONOLOGY. The latter is a combination of at least two books though. Just unsure about the titles, so am using this working title for both outside of my private files.
WIP updates (SALANDRINE , DEMONOLOGY & SAMHAIN)
SALANDRINE’s had a nice boost with new and rewritten chapters. I’ve added the second viewpoint character (Amal) while editing the chapters the other chapters. So far I’m up to chapter 15. I wrote a total of 11.038 words for this project! Aside from SALANDRINE I’ve been working on several other novels as well. I got so much inspiration it’s turned into multiple connected books set on a cluster of islands in the same world as SALANDRINE. There’s the draft for DEMONOLOGY I finished by adding 5.813 words. Then what started out as a short story, but of course, ended up being another full novel which currently remains titleless. I’ve written 15.326 words for this project, including a possible side story. So It’s completely outlined and has part of a first draft. And then there’s some smaller project I worked on along the way. There’s my halloween story which goes under the working title SAMHAIN (6.844 words), which is completed. It just needs some beta-readers and a final edit/proofing.The rest of the wordcount is me trying to keep up with my overactive muze and all the new book ideas that come with that. There’s the outlining for two sequels for TEMPTED and ENCHANTED. And some ideas for some fairy tale retellings (mix of several, like the Snow queen, Snow white, Beauty and the Beast, Red riding hood, and the Ugly duckling).
November’s writing goal
Wow, so I met my last monthly writing goals! I wrote more than the 20.000 words I set as my wordcount goal, of wich some of it was for SALANDRINE. And on top of that I wrote a Halloween story!For my new goal I’m going for a little less, for about 15.000 words since I’m having a vacation period during the first week and these last months tend to be hell.
An excerpt from SALANDRINE
It was pure terror. Personified pain shaped like sound that broke the peace Amal and Maysa had finally managed to attain since the horrors of battle. Clearly the violence had not yet ended and now ghosted around their minds. Both their heads whipped towards the source of the sudden outcry and saw Kasim’s little sister crumble down to the floor in utter anguish.
“Sire?!” Amal called out to her, but she didn’t respond to her call. She turned back to the assistant. “Maysa, my apologies but this will have to wait. Please find her healers. Tell them it’s an emergency.”
Maysa nodded, locked her tablet’s screen where she’d been taking notes for Amal’s formal integration, stored the device in her shoulder bag, and rushed off. It had been horrible timing to begin with, but the girl had insisted they start as soon as possible anyway. Given the difference in cultural climate and her novelty concerning that very subject, Amal had decided to listen, but she couldn’t prioritize work over wellbeing. She’d not been able to focus at all.
It had been one disaster after another ever since she set foot in this desert country. She’d expected her new life to grow more difficult, fully aware of the harsh conditions Mnaluria was in from the very beginning that she’d set her mind to become the country’s new Shaper, and yet, she still felt ill prepared. There was no moment of reprieve to take a breath.
“No time for pity parties.” She tapped her cheeks with the flat of her hands. “I can do this,” she said to herself, clutching the cramping muscles in her legs and forced herself up to the elevator panel at the end of the welcoming hall.