Progress At Last!

Finally I've managed to write a good amount in one sitting. About 1200 words in only an hour and a half--not bad! The best part was that I hadn't planned this particular scene very well, and yet it really came together much better than I had dared to hope. I've been agonizing over this and other upcoming scenes for about two weeks now, so it's a huge relief to see how it actually worked out. It's amazing how much more vivid my actual end scenery always is than the vague scenery that I always picture in my mind while preplanning.

The other thing that really helped me in this scene is something that Chandra said to me about characterizing early. I've always been a bit afraid to head into emotional territory too soon with my lead characters, but I don't know exactly why. It doesn't really make sense; when done well, that can actually make characters much more accepted by the reader. Normally I tend to hold back a bit at the start of my books, but this time I've really let the internals of the characters present themselves much more quickly--and I really like the result.

9,035 / 95,000 (9.5%)