Crawling to the Finish Line

I don't know if it was that burst of writing 4 in 5 days or if I did something else stupid I didn't notice at the time, but the spine called it quits and I spent all of last week in bed more or less, in an extra amount of pain.  So, not a lot of work done.  Did finally get back at it yesterday and pumped out about 3k.  Going to have to be very careful with the urge to rush to the finish line on this one.  Same when we're in Edit Hell.  Only three scenes left to go.  All wrap up and launching us into War to End All Wars.

SO CLOSE!!!

July is $*%#ed

So, I'm starting next month off with my usual monthly appointment at the Spine People, then we're getting into my branch block as prep for the RFA later in the year on my C4-C7, so that's three appointments, two of which will require three days to a week of recovery time.  THEN, my tooth that had a filing fall out is in need of a root canal, which starts on the 3rd.  If it goes the same as my first root canal, that means crown prep, root canal part 1, root canal part 2, and final crown placement, all in a miserable dental chair pressing right on my spine.

TOTAL EXPECTED JULY APPOINTMENTS:  8.

In 100 degree weather, such an added bonus!

Thank you, Fresno, love you too!

I have zero hope for any new writing to be done through this hassle.  It's probably when I'll do the full series readthrough I've been procrastinating.  If I can even do that, since that's like a LOT for my spine to recover from one after another.

But..

THE GOOD NEWS:  finished the penultimate chapter and I'm now 5k words into the last chapter.  5 scenes and one transition left to write.

I went...maybe too far in that penultimate chapter.  Not sure.  Didn't escalate quickly but once it escalated...it's all earned, just...how I wrap it up also needs to be earned.

Have two appointments left this month, so its going to be about sneaking in time here or there to finish it.  Might not make it and will need to push finishing it to August, which would likely push release back to November.

Wish me luck and cooler weather!

June Seismic Semester Tease

Listening to Miss Strange chew out Singles for being stupid fucktards was the unexpected highlight of my night. 

“Why did you climb up the rock in the first place, Yates?” 

“I was trying to see over…I suppose over the trees. It was completely logical at the time…” 

Could easily imagine Strange's furious expression.  Ya know, having been responsible for it a few hundred times. “And was the rock taller than the trees?” 

The small boy didn't answer, you didn't answer when Miss Strange used that tone, or you'd get an orange across your forehead.  Boy might have been a coward who abandoned two of his classmates, but for a mentimancer he had unexpectedly solid interpersonal skills.

It has Happened

THIS IS NOW OFFICIALLY MY SECOND LONGEST NOVEL, surpassing Mancy Martial Artist in size.

Somehow.

700 PAGES OF MAGIC HIGH SCHOOL BULLSHIT!!!

YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!!!

A Rather Stunning Statistic

Went through my numbers and realized that since the end of last June when I finally felt decent enough to start using the phone, I have somehow written over 100k words and counting.

When I was healthy and focused I almost always set 200k as my yearly goal, so still some to go, but it's a pretty significant amount.  I very much had "bad" years in there where I only wrote 120-140k and this isn't that far off.  Considering how much of it is from stolen days here or there...well, was a morale booster.

Is any of it good?

I hate how back and forth I go on that question.  This will be my 14th novel and STILL.

Last week was prime This Is Shit, I'm Shit, It All Must Be Shit, Why Am I Writing This High School Bullshit territory.

Last couple days...felt like I'm pretty awesome.

Writing wise I have maybe a couple more days on this chapter (three max) and then will need to tackle all the resolution...which is considerable.

Editing...I have no clue how that's going down.

We will see when we get there!  But apparently...we WILL get there!

6/2 Update:  Some clarification.  First, thanks for the kind comments.  But...I don't think I'm bad overall or like...whining for the sympathy you all so wonderfully supplied, however in the middle of writing a novel, especially while you're looking at a first draft that you know needs so much more work before it's published, you can really feel miserable about how you've gotten yourself into this situation and just get occasional periods of intense self doubt.

This has been especially bad with Seismic Semester due to a plethora of reasons.  Health problems limiting me.  Having to split the story into two books because I didn't accurately outline and had no idea how herculean the task of adding a whole new class of students (30 new characters) at once would turn out to be.  The chaotic plot style.  The biggest being...its complete school story.  I've fully enjoyed writing just two of the school stories (FM1 and FM3) and its given me the most headache out of anything in the whole series.  There's a reason why this was supposed to be the last one.  I want to get back to the mainline SO BAD.  Only now I have to write a whole new one to wrap up War to End All Wars.  Which shouldn't be as bad since I've introduced 90% of the new characters in this book, but...

But then you write a great scene or start editing a scene you wrote previously and think...man, I'm fucking good!  I can pull this off!  I'm not fucking crazy!