NovMo25: Soul Watchers

Only did 1457 words, but I finished a section! This next section is going to be FANTASTIC so I'm hoping to boost it up today!

Total currently stands at 43457!!!!

AS EXPECTED. The next section was FANTASTIC. We are going to the climax! The climax is actually more simple than I expected it would be, but honestly that will just make it easier to wrap it up, so YEAHHHHHHHH. LET'S FINISH THIS THING.

Yesterday's word count: 3353

Total word count from yesterday: 46810

...so. My plan was to get enough of a padding to have Thanksgiving without worrying about word count. BUT. If I continue this pace, I'll actually finish writing 50k in two days. Like. The writing is going so fast. I've already written almost 850 words today and have less than 2.5k words left.

*flails*

ETA: Graph!

If you're hoping for an inspirational post on how I rose to meet the challenge and hit 50k, you will be disappointed. I wrote in the morning 1181 words when the kids were at school. Then, it was a blur of childcare, all the household responsibilities on me since my husband was just... too sick to move, a fun dose of just... crippling pain. And then Cute Baby decided to stay up till 5am. Also, Thanksgiving was cancelled at the place where we're going because of sickness.

So. I am pretty exhausted and discouraged, honestly.

On the plus side, because my word count is so high, I can still win NovMo fairly easily!

Anyway.

Not sure how much I'll write today. But. I have 47991 words in total to start the day, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. Better yet, my children are word warring with each other, so maybe I should join their write-in. XD

HIT 50K TODAY!!!

Gonna try to finish the story now...

WHOOO!!!!

Thank you! Thank you! *bows*

OKAY. I have NOT finished the book yet, lol. I finished the big climatic battle where they face the big bad. (Actually... is it finished? Now that I look back at the battle scene, there are definitely sentences that go to nowhere and definitely several paragraphs missing, LOL.) So I still have to write a concluding chapter, tying up all the loose ends and all that. Which I will!

Still! I wrote 54186 words for my novel during NovMo!!!!! Which is an INCREDIBLE amount. Most of it even makes sense! (I sent most of it to my niece in chapters and she is waiting for the conclusion, hahahaha.)

Okay! Some thoughts:

It's the little stuff...

Early on, I was really discouraged because I was stuck on this one part that felt really long and dragging and I was Convinced I was the worst writer ever and that this section would destroy me.

LOOKING BACK ON IT... I realize that was like... five paragraphs of material that I almost let destroy all my motivation??? Which, honestly, after everything that I've written, it seems really dumb to let five paragraphs destroy me, but AT THE TIME it almost did.

Also... like... the five paragraphs weren't even that terrible? I mean, yeah, I'll probably rewrite them, but they still advanced the plot meaningfully. I honestly don't know why I was so discouraged by them, hahha. BUT. I was.

So like. Easier said than done, of course, but don't let the little stuff destroy you and don't let your perfectionism get away with something awesome.


Its Own Thing

I started off with a vague feeling of dread... this started off as one of the plot options for Conqueror Rising (if Solea had picked the first path, if that makes sense). But like... when I turned this into a novel, I didn't want to write about Swans because 1) need a break from their avian nonsense, and 2) I wanted it to be a standalone novel. So I hastily improvised a different magical system and threw it in and hoped it would stand by itself.

But also, it starts off with similar characters??? Which made me nervous because what if it was just a rehash of the Swans???

Anyway, looking back... the characters start off similarly. But because of their character arcs, they diverge into different people. So... if I were to compare the main characters...

Spoilers ahead to Swans and this new project, because of course there are spoilers...

Spoiler

Solea -> Adelphina: Adephina doesn't... fail as hard as Solea does, if that makes sense, so she just... feels different. Like... Solea doesn't do things half-baked. Either she's not doing something, or she's all in. She's also pretty manipulative, lol. But Adelphina? Adelphina is... more hesitant and willing to do things.

Adelore -> Damien: Okay. This actually surprised me? Damien is a much softer, kinder man than Adelore. Adelore is sharp, witty, and his tongue and general bravado gets him into trouble so much. Damien is still witty, but he is slower to react, gentler when he does react, empathetic towards the people he meets, and just... nicer overall. He is also more hindered by his tragic past than Adelore ever was. He kind of feels like a nicer Cyrus, when Cyrus is at his best, compared to Adelore, who... um... let's face it, is kind of a jerk, hahaha. (Though, he's a jerk who we LOVE but honestly, wtf man, throwing horseshoes at people just for funsies, wtf is WRONG with you???)

Cyrus -> Lucian: UM. For purposes of how quick this story needed to be, Lucian is a whole lot underbaked than Cyrus, hahaha. Cyrus is a complicated soul whom you feel conflicted about when he becomes more villainous. Lucian? More of a straightforward character who turns villainous. XD I sort of wanted to make him more of a conflicting character and had several other plot lines for him, but this story is such a quick story that it ended up being easier just to play him straight villain. Maybe in the second draft, I can play around with that... >.> (I really hope to...)

Alainna -> Dahlia: HAHAHA. Biggest character change by far. Dahlia is a minor character and a sweetheart who is set to be a queen. Alainna? OH ALAINNA.

Anyway. I am glad it seemed like I was writing a different project. XD

Moving forward...

I'm probably going to spend the next week finishing up the first draft of this project. Then I'll take a break, go back and spend some time working on Conqueror Rising... and then go back and see if I can write this into something special!

I really like what I've written though. Very proud of myself. Can't believe I not only smashed the 50k word count, but wrote an additional 4k words on top of that... very happy right now.

Just a quick note! I finished the first draft of this novel in its entirety yesterday... so a week after NovMo! :3 It's 57341 words long currently.

Anyway, time to set this aside for a bit and work on Swans!