The Certainty of Dust is now just under 24,000 words. I’m still ahead (basically due to the boost during week one). Although behind on the week – which means more writing over the weekend. Essentially it’s now novella length and half novel-length (if we accept NanoWriMo’s definition of a novel is 50K)
As I tweeted recently: “I’m leaving comments in the WIP that I know future me will curse me for. Like <better description here> but it allows me to work fast rather than spend long minutes trying to come up with something pithy. But is it false economy because I’ll need that later? *shrugs*”
This seems like a common practice for writers. As I mentioned before the way I work is underwriting and I have to add layers later. I tend to need to add sensory detail in later edits as well as descriptions and maybe also character blocking (where they are in the space).
I also fiddle with the structure (with Seven Swords this involved the whole index cards and moving chapters around – but that was much more complicated than this one, which is more linear)
So even at the end of this draft – I know there’ll still be a lot of work to do.
Still, onwards and upwards! Happy Reading & Happy Writing