Last night I got to 22k before bedtime, but it was after 12 and I didn’t update at midnight so my word count graph is not 100% accurate. But I was busy writing so I don’t know what my word count was, technically, for yesterday. Close enough, whatever.

I wrote 235 by hand before work, and then typed it up here and added to it on my lunch. It’s now at 23,013. My goal is 25k before I go to sleep, and 30k before I go to sleep Wednesday night. Even though I know I’m behind, I’m happy where I am. I know the beginning is the hardest part and that once I get near the end it will be easier.

This morning I rubbed an eyelash out of my eye and when I blew it I said, “I wish today’s words flow.” That’s it, a simple wish. So far there have been a lot of days that coming up with scene ideas is like pulling teeth. I sit and stare at the screen and nothing comes to mind.

I don’t understand people who say to just write without looking back on anything. What? Are you freaking kidding me? I can’t do that. I have to look back on what I’ve written and figure out what needs to be fleshed out. Not in the sense of adding to things I’ve already written, but adding to the end of, or between things I’ve already written. I am skipping back and forth and constantly need to look up when things happened. Was X before Lily died, or after? Did Emily look at The Hermit in the Tarot book before or after she painted the lion? Did she ever finish the lion painting? (Note: No, I don’t think so. Gotta remember to finish that part at some point.)

The cool thing about skipping around is that now I have several ends that need more work. Do I feel like writing about the beginning, when Ethan had just died? A few months later when Emily is working on painting her nightmares? Right after Lily’s suicide? I still have parts a while after Lily’s death when Emily is packing up Lily’s room, and after that Ethan’s room, and neither of these sections are anywhere near completion. Then there’s the end, where Emily has decided to learn to read Tarot. Then there’s the very very end that I haven’t written but is in my mind to write last. (I think it’s important to not write the end of the novel until after I’ve written everything else.)

See? I have tons left to write. It’s just a matter of pinpointing what and where. And then figuring out what part I want to write next. The beginning is the hard part. Once you get started and you know where it’s going, that’s when it gets easy. In my case, I think I’m getting to easy, I just need to apply my butt to the chair and make sure I am getting things done.

I started with a few songs in mind that were driving my initial plot ideas. I really like where things have been going based on lyrical clues, but I’m not listening to those songs while I write. As with last year, I have found jazz really suits me for writing! It started out when I was writing Fizzlypop last year. As a jazz-talking gnome, I thought it would be fun to use Pandora to listen to jazz songs. This year, I decided Lily loved Ella and Louis, so I am using Pandora to listen to jazz again. It’s definitely more sad and slow this year, starting off the station with “Gloomy Sunday” by Billie Holiday (as Cher would say, “I love him.”) and Judy Garland’s “The Man That Got Away.”

I like that I don’t know much jazz, so I’m not singing while I’m supposed to be writing. I like that every once in a while I hear a lyric that inspires something in my writing. And I like that the overall mood is dark, like I hope much of my novel is.

Wow, look at rambly little me! I wonder if I could add my blog to my word count? That’s (checks) just over 3k. Plus this entry, over 700. But I’m not a cheater.