Milestone

Though a month later than my original goal, tonight I finally reached the 60,000 word count mark in my novel in progress.

Only 40,000 words to go. Funny thing is, I actually feel like I'm gaining momentum! I am enjoying the writing process more than I ever have before. I find myself thinking about the book even when I'm not sitting in front of the computer working on it. I've started reading books on craft to help me create better scenes, more textured descriptions, more interesting conversations. Currently I'm reading Make a Scene by Jordan E. Rosenfeld, which I find to be a terrific book with plainspoken, practical advice.

I have moments when I wish I was one of those writers who outlined before writing, because from one chapter to the next, I'm not really sure how I'm going to get from where I am to where the book ends. In fact, at the moment I'm not entirely convinced that the person I thought 'done it' really did do it. Still I can feel myself making progress, learning as I go. And I remind myself that this is just the first draft, I get to be terribly horrible right now as long as I continue to put words down and move the story forward.