Again, pleased with what I got. Cannot find the damn screenshot, and have to run now because we have a ton of chores today.

But the world flowed, and made me happy, and got 1154 of them — and have 7936 total.

Still working from my line-for-scene outline, today the scene i started yesterday just took off.

I now have 9245 words done on the first draft. I got 1432 words today, AND discovered the thing I needed to see, and it was completely different than I’d been imagining… but I love it so much.

Some days writing fiction can take a lot out of you.

Some days, though — like today — it gives you energy, and excitement, and surprises — and on days like this, you just fly.

I love this job.

Not every day CAN be epic.

I had to do something hard thinking, and some outlining, and some worldbuilding, and none of that stuff counts as words.

But it’s all essential.

However, the part I got, I love.

So now I have to go out into the world and DO STUFF.

I got 1319 words today, nicely over my 1200-word objective. And I like what I got.

Yesterday’s stuff was funny, but today’s words got serious as my main character and a friend of hers started investigating a project they want to take on — and my MC pointed out that there are some significant dangers involved in this project BEYOND the ones her friend has considered.

So as soon as I post this, I’m going to write out my to-do list for tomorrow, and then call it a day.

Oh… BOY!

I knew going in today that I was going to have to beat the crap out of my main character in the plotting.

I did NOT know quite how badly, or how I was going to do that WHILE preventing myself from ending Ohio 4 on a cliffhanger.

(Because we do not end novels on cliffhangers, we do not end novels on cliffhangers, we do not… You get the drift.)

But… I GOT IT DONE!!!

I now have all of my story Sentences written, and I managed to bring the thing to a VERY good conclusion (in outline form, of course), and I LOVE the ending, and at the same time, my MC is going to have a whole helluva lot of work to do in Book Five…

Because while WE (the good guys) know better, right at the moment, the whole planet thinks the BAD GUYS just won game, set, and match.

In the first version of these novels, I had one main character who I was having do a lot of chasing around because my main character was being stubbornly stupid about an activity that was bad for her — except she refused to see it.

I made her smarter.

And because she stopped doing stubbornly stupid things in Book 2, my VERY important character disappeared from the Book 2.

And then, because she stayed smarter, from Book 3.

He’s still massively important to the story.

And this morning, I was outlining him into the next scene, and realized it had been a while since I’d written him…

So I searched back through the first three novels.

And. Yeah. He was well-represented in one. Then gone completely in two and three.

TWO whole books.

So while I’m resting and relaxing over the weekend, I’m also going to be brainstorming how to make him relevant to her my MC’s more intelligent current activities, so I can put him back to work.

He’s crucial for the series. So I need to get this right. His being in those earlier two books HAS TO MATTER, because in this book, he has EPIC work to do.

So this can’t just be folks bumping into him at WalMart, or the equivalent.

I’m so annoyed at myself.

But… it’s FRIDAY. So having discovered my oversight, I’m now heading off to relax for a bit.

And there’s really not a lot you can say about that. It’s one 30-word sentence per scene that has to encompass the essence of the chapter while moving the whole story forward, and it is a pretty fast, efficient way to give yourself a migraine.

It works. It’s essential to my process of getting books done, and when I don’t do it, bad things happen. So I do it.

It just isn’t fun.

I’ll note, however, that today I discovered in the existing Ohio Four first draft one of the best scenes I’ve ever written, which I re-read today while making myself cry again… and that is DEFINITELY coming with me.

Now, however, on to very very much other stuff that must be done.

It happens. You get about half of your 30-word chapter Sentences written, and this GREAT first sentence for a chapter pops into your head, so you go ahead and you write down that sentence because you know if you don’t you’ll forget it…

And about 600 words later, you realize that you haven’t finished outlining the novel yet, so technically those six-hundred-ish words shouldn’t count…

So. Yeah.

I have the first half of Book 4’s outline written, and a bunch of words I got while playing hooky from doing the outline, so they don’t get to count until I finish the thing I’m supposed to have done. But I can’t finish that until tomorrow, because we have a bunch of other stuff we’re supposed to do today.

It was however, while kind of scrambled, a pretty good work day.

Not much to say about that — it’s line-for-scene outlining, and the plotting out of the whole book before leaping in to write it is essential to not wrecking the damn thing going around a hard curve.

I got a bit sidetracked — writing 722 words of the intro chapter (just to get my head wrapped around where and when I’m starting) before realizing that I want to have the whole outline done first.

The God of Barbecue showed up, though. ‘Nuff said.

No word count meter yet, so no picture. But I’m happy with what I have so far.

57,841 words total. I like the story. I love the ending.

And now the novel gets to sit quietly for a while as I plot the replacement Ohio 4.

In revision, it will probably get a bit longer. Most of my stuff does.

Based on some very good advice, I am, however, now considering doing a slower release, and NOT having all five initial books finished before I begin releasing them.

I think I might have a better time of this if I didn’t try anything rapid-release-ish, but instead simply had a nice little reserve in place, and then released them one every six or so months — about the speed at which I can reasonably write one, and revise it, and be happy with the quality of what I’m creating.