Well, waking up a bit anxious and in a panic this morning. I have a week left, before my first book goes off to emily for editing, and I really am behind on getting the work done that I wanted done before then. This whole30 is sucking up more of my time then I had wanted it to and I’m not sure where to go next with it. I really wanted to have more content added, so I think I’m going to have to back away from the character sketches, and figure out how to make the novel two books. That would likely start with a look at the over all outline, and mapping out some new scenes. All the while, I think that I should be look at some of the choppier narrative and dealing with that as well. I started to do some of it, with the first scene yesterday. That likely wouldn’t take very long. I was just combining a few sentences and giving a bit more variety in terms of sentence length. It’s not really a matter of more content or story tell, as much as having a more varied rhythm with sentence structure. I think, if I went through, and came up with a few more scenes just using yWriter, and outlining some details about those scenes, meaning actually filling out all of the text for the scene, and leaving it in outline status, then I could come back to it, and actually write out the scene. That wouldn’t be that difficult. If you got a bit gung ho about it all you could probably do the outlines this morning. We’re probably, only taking about another 17 scenes, if your scenes averaged 1500 words or so. Which, I do think they tend to be. Some are much shorter, and definitely some are much longer. Instead, of spending time writing back story, then definitely, you could actually be writing the real story. So, look at your outline today, and see where you can put another 15-20 scenes. That shouldn’t be too hard right. You know you want more conflict, you know you want more motivation for Chaz to just up and leave his platoon. You could most certainly expand on that. Maybe, spend a night where he anguishes over his decision. Maybe make one of his kids sick. Give him some more backstory, so he doesn’t seem like such an ass when he moves on. Maybe, bring up some of his troubled past with his father, and throw in the whole motorcycle gang thing and him killing someone as part of his initiation to that gang. That could be a whole sordid secret, that he’d kept from the military. Actually, something that he should have kept from everyone. It would basically, end up putting him in prison, if anyone found out. Maybe make it, so that Abby knows about it or found out about it, and somehow tie in that she could be a threat to reveal it. You could also make that a part of why she is divorcing him as well. That would certainly give him the motivation to leave. I do like that angle of things. It makes him a much more complex character, and adds to the drama of the story. So, yes, go through and do some more scene creating, with an eye to still breaking out the novel into multiple novels. You have just these five days to get the damn thing to Emily, and you need to add as many words as possible. Even, if you only get another 20K words by spending a day (today) adding more scenes that would be fine. This doesn’t have to be pulitizer material, you just need to make it happen. So, make it happen. Get those extra words into the thing. Clean up as much of the exisiting as you can with a little more showing and less telling, and move on. Once you get this to Emily, you can start looking into covers, and getting everything else done over the time she is spending editing. That includes, doing that admin thing for withholding taxes and the US government. And, even writing some blurbs, and, maybe even starting on the next novel. The number one priority, has to be getting enough words into this friggin thing to make it more interesting. Not just filler words, but enough words to make it a better reader experience, and really make them want to read the next novel.

TIGERBLOOD: yes DAILYMOOD: pissed off all the hell at karen LOCATION: home office WORDSWRITTEN: none PUSHUPS: none TODO: outline 15-20 more scenes for the novel TV: some youtube videos BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: walked on beach WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: none LUNCH: none DINNER: chili SNACKS: almonds ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 12:00 AWAKE: 6:15