Sybilla Palmifera, Gabriel Dante Rossetti
10,010. This morning’s work got me over the first 10,000-word hump in my new version of A Lamentation of Swans. That’s cause for a bitty celebration. February is the official “into the brink” month, and January was for planning, but I couldn’t help myself–so I’m warming up to February. A good thing about this month’s writing is I’m seeing what I’ll need to research. I like to research “on the note”, i.e., I don’t want to read my way through dozens of books making notes–I don’t have the time and I don’t want to be bedazzled by research; I want to read about what I need to know, the exact thing for the story. To help me visualize my settings I’m going to spend time browsing through paintings–I did this once before while working on a Regency historical and it was wonderful for writing both characters and scenes, and I need to delve into my books on medieval commerce. I have an early map of the city of Angharad somewhere; must find it and add to the city’s layout so I can picture my characters moving about their hometown.
Starting in February, my page goal is 100 pages a month–about 3 pages a day. I want a finished draft by March 31, 2008. I’m aiming for 50,000 words to rough out the book to completion, and then, I’ll research for a month, maybe two, and begin the rewrite to expand and deepen. My goal is a finished novel by December 31, 2008, and in 2009, agent shopping time! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
