"Like Cracks In The Sidewalk" Diary

   In my head, I always give the different plot-points a title, just so I can keep it all straight. I plot very loosely because my stories are always so organic. No matter what idea I start with, once I start typing, things can easily change. So, while plotting Cracks, I had "Introduction", "First night" and then "Stay". I'm almost to "Stay". I started working on this seriously in the middle of August, so it's been two months. I wish I was a faster writer, I wish I had more time. Too often it's a half-hour in the morning, another half-hour in the evening. There are days I can measure by paragraphs, not pages. That being said, I'm over 33,000 words now. And that's the thing. My goal was 60,000 words, and I'm past the half way point, so it should be a reason to celebrate. Except, it seems to me that the first two sections have run over-long. This point is still early in James and Val's story. I'm going to push on and see what happens. Maybe I'll tell the rest of the story in 30,000 words, or maybe it'll run to 80,000. Maybe the narrative is running too sluggishly and I'll have to cut parts (my fear, actually)... or maybe not. I had planned on doing the November Writers Challenge (NaNoWriMo) and work on another story I have in my head, but I don't want to lose the rhythm of this one, so I think I'll use it for the challenge. Fingers crossed, I'll get the first draft done by the end of next month and then have December to edit!