…but in some ways, it also keeps getting better and better…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I wrote 1,600 words tonight and broke the 111,000 word barrier. This made me realize, though, that this novel might<\/em> get up to 200,000 words.<\/p>\n Yikes! Talk about long winded! Hopefully, my future novels will not be anywhere near that length, without good reason.<\/p>\n However, the way this story is going, 200,000 words will be just about right. I do<\/em> have an ending planned for it–or at least a general idea of how everything will be tied up in the end. And as I take a really broad look at the story, I can see that it has evolved and is evolving, and I’m really satisfied with the way it’s turning out.<\/p>\n The problem is, if I’m going to finish this beast by April 25th, it’s going to require a lot of work–at least 1,000 words a day. And I’ll do it–I’ll have to cut out computer games and other stuff from my life for a while–but I’ll do it.<\/p>\n The problem is that having a job now complicates things. I’m already up too late tonight, and it’s only 1:30 am. If I stay up much longer, I’m sure that I’ll sleep past my alarm, so I won’t say much more in this post.<\/p>\n I will say, however, that it’s really interesting how stories change as you’re writing them. Virtually every time I sit down to write in this novel, something happens as I’m writing<\/em> that surprises me. At this point, as I’m moving things closer and closer towards the final climax and the end, a lot of thematic elements are popping up that I didn’t plan whatsoever. Concepts and ideas that I highly value without knowing that I valued<\/em> them <\/em>are popping up and manifesting themselves prominently in the story. I put my fingers to the keyboard and watch my characters do things that I didn’t think they would do. And, at the same time, I realize that I can’t constrain this story without killing it. It may be a bit longer than I expected, and all I can do is serve it, not force it.<\/p>\n I just hope that I can gain the skill with language to do this story justice when I go through and rewrite it. I know that the basic story is good, but I feel that I have many things I can do to improve as a writer.<\/p>\n