Day 86 – A Bolt of Blue

Sorry excuse for a word count today. Various reasons – lack of focus is certainly one of them. Also did a bit more “on-the-fly” research than normal, nailing down a few details about a couple of locations (yes, our heros are on the move again…)

That being said, there were some good breakthroughs. I came up with a second working title today. I really like it, but it might just miss the mark. Trying to be ironic, but it’s coming off as cheesy instead. (Happens to me all the time…) Of course, I’ll not decide on a title ’til the whole thing’s finished. Titles always come last in my book (pun definitely intended — also speaks to the cheesy in me, eh?)

Also got to a new level with the Voice. This one’s kind of laid back, easy going, maybe a little more acid tongue. I swear, the novel’s looking like a photo mosaic of voices. If such a mixed metaphor is even possible. (Mixed metaphor? Mixed something. Anyway.)

I think I’m basically riffing on things: the Voice, certainly. But also storyline, characters, themes, storytelling techniques — all of it. You know, those song writers mostly just play and a song comes out of it sometimes. I mean, like, play around. Have fun. Tickle this string here, slide down that string there. Put together a hook or a riff or whatever, and build from there. Makes me lean more towards pantsing, that’s for sure.

Harder to do (perhaps?) with a novel. A slide here is like, what, a chapter? A chapter that leads nowhere is a short story. Or a vignette. Not a novel, in any case. Which is what makes riffing in novel form so difficult — you have to at least maintain some semblance of novel-like appearance or it will all fall apart.

So yes, it’s patchy right now. But it will come around.

Looking forward to exploring some new territory in the coming days, both within the story and in terms of writing it.

~Graham

P.S. – for all of you keeping score, I lost a day in there somewhere. Today is actually Day 86, making yesterday Day 85, not 84. My god Jim, I’m a writer not a mathematician…

(Novel Writing Totals)

Hours Today: 1
Words Today: 783
Hours Total: 60
Words Total: 80,907