It’s hard to write with all the excitement of the election! I wrote 1233 at Panera this afternoon, and I’m on target for 50k by November 30. So instead tonight I printed all my (well, Lily’s) diary entries on separate pages and put them in rough chronological order. It might change around more, but at least I have something done… plus now I have hard copy backup for my first 6700 words.

It wasn’t actually that hard. I started by separating the diary entries based on a few storylines that connect entries, and then put each storyline in order. Then I interfiled as necessary to get all 26 pages in order. I know, I know, no editing. Well I’m not, I’m simply arranging. Without deleting anything. So tomorrow I have to read through everything in the current order, and then move things if necessary. Then I want to make notes about what I can add in for the sake of completion. I am really hoping to have 1/3 of my novel as diary entries, which is about another 10k. I have to fill in quite a bit, but it’s nice to see things coming together even as early as it is right now.

I want to make notes about what to add, but I don’t want to add that in right now. I think it’s about time to start writing Emily’s story (I decided that Lily’s parents are Emily and Ethan – I like that both women have in common that -ily ending to their names). Now that I’m getting to know Lily, I feel like I have to start to see Emily from the 3rd person POV, not Lily’s personal POV. Because I have such a limited idea of who Emily is, it’s really hard to see her as a real person. And I want this novel to be about both women, so Emily is crucial to pin down before I go much further.

On a technical note, it’s kinda cool to jump around in the timeline. I’ve always written from beginning to end before, but it’s so freeing to be able to start in the middle, skip to the end, go back to the beginning, to the end, to the middle… and to jump from the tattoo/archery/babysitting storyline to the math/art class storyline, and back and forth within each storyline. Since I am not following the quest structure like I did last year, this is working for me.

Still debating Lily’s suicide. I love the idea of it, but I don’t know. I guess I could always write that ending and rewrite in editing. But her diary isn’t completely depressing, so I’m not sure if it would even make sense anymore. She seems to be on the road to recovery. Then again, that alone makes suicide an interesting twist…