Halfway There (Probably)

I am officially halfway done with book #3!

Well, I am probably halfway done. I have 56,000 words and the longest thing I've ever written was Black & Gold. The first draft of that was 84,000, the current draft sits at 102,000. So yeah, I better be halfway done with this one.

It's an interesting feeling. On one hand, I'm absolutely ecstatic because I've had so much fun writing it and I've been writing it since the middle of May, so I have actually been writing it for quite a while. 

To be fair, I think anything past 30 days is a long time to be writing the same thing. Thanks for that, NaNo.

So yeah, I'm really excited about it. Until I think about how much I still have left in the story. Then my metaphoric self starts hyperventilating. Because how the hell can I finish this book when I have so much going on the rest of the summer? And then oh god, what if I don't finish it before school starts again? What if what if what if?

Then the truly cruel reality hits: I am halfway done with the last book in this trilogy. I will be writing the ending I've dreamed about for two years in a matter of weeks. I will be writing the end (and yes, there are quite a few character deaths in this book, so that will be heart-wrenching) and then it will be over.

Except not really, because revision, but it will be done. There's only one first time for writing this book, for writing with sheer unadulterated joy.

All that being said, the writing itself doesn't seem terrible. This time last year, when I was writing Throne & Fire, I knew it was mostly bad and it was going to require a lot of work. I knew I was going to be adding a ton of scenes. 

This go round, I have the opposite problem. I think I might be cutting some stuff. I will still need to add certain things in. These will be the subtle character things that carry throughout the book and are a pain the frickin ass so I ignore them during the first draft. Why? Snotty writer answer: Because you have to get the bones of the plot down first and then you can deal with the more nuanced character moments.

Real answer: Because sometimes that shit just isn't fun.

Then of course there's the challenge I've never faced before, which is not pulling a Shakespeare. Characters are going to die and most of them are going to die at the end, simply because of the structure of the story. I have to figure out how to make the important deaths memorable and meaningful. I have to figure out exactly how many bodies I can throw on the pyre before I cross over into Hamlet/King Lear/Romeo and Juliet territory.

Oh, and I have to figure out what the actual, words-on-the-very-last-page should be.

But hey, I get to write some scenes where my characters have come to the end of their character arcs, which means they have evolved and changed and questioned themselves and now they get to be badass. Without giving too much away, I also get to write some very cool dialogue and fight scenes.

But please don't ask about the title.