Pretty ordinary week last week, with 2201 words written, all on the novel. Total words stand at 64591 now.

Laying out the plot in a spreadsheet is working well for me, and I think from now on I’ll have a worksheet ready as I begin a story. I am what we generally call a “pantser”, in that I write by the seat of my pants and don’t outline before I begin. I usually start with a character or two, a location, and maybe a general sense of what might happen, but honestly I have to write my way into the story. I can’t see it from outside.

But novels are really long, and they have a lot of moving parts to keep track of, so by the middle I feel pretty bogged down and uncertain where I’m going. Keeping track with a list of scenes, chapters, characters, and so on, helps me see where I’ve been. Then I continue figure out where I’m going.

Anyway, on to another week of slugging my way through to the finish. I’m slowly getting the parts nailed down.