Progress, No Pilgrims Involved

Yes, I *was* just thinking about Little Women. How did you know?  And no, it doesn't have anything to do with my ROW80 check-in.  It's just on my mind right now--Christmas always reminds me of that book.

I'm pretty well on target this week.  Yesterday I wrote 1,651 words, and I plan to do a little writing along with my planning to day to get me to at least 2,500 before tomorrow's writing session.  I wrote 1,557 on Sunday so actually managed a decent day's writing after all my procrastination.  So really not bad.

I need to put more effort into my planning today than I did on Monday.  Monday I just made some notes about what was going to happen in the scene I started writing yesterday, but I didn't dig in to the Act II scenes.  I think I'm a little intimidated by the middle section of my novel, so today I'm going to arm myself with a couple of craft books before diving in.  Maybe one of Larry Brooks' books, and probably K.M. Weiland's Outlining Your Novel.  I'm going to figure out what needs to happen in that middle section, and I'm going to write it!  My past failures to get past the first act are not going to hold me back anymore.

So that's where I am today.  Feisty and plucky and ready to forge ahead. (I tell myself these things because I think if I keep saying them, they'll become true.)

Oh, in related news before I head back to the planning fields, one other thing happened to me this week.  I blame Emily Dickinson.  No, really, I do.  It's her fault.  I know she's there seeming so innocent, all dead and whatnot as she is, but this new development is her fault.  Yesterday, my favorite Dickinson poem landed in my inbox.  "There's a certain slant of light/on winter afternoons..." As always when this poem crosses my path, I stopped to enjoy it.  And it planted a new, distracting story idea in my head (a horror story, too)!  That Emily, such a prankster.  So I took some time last night to write down the idea with a few notes, and I'm hoping it will leave me be and let me deal with my WIP.  Who knows, maybe having a new story to play with just waiting there for me will encourage me to push through this middle section.  I'll take any help with that I can get.