Well that was quick.

After so bloody long without updates, it seems like I’m on a roll again. Chapter 15 titled Here Be Dragons is done and dusted. Hell, Chapter 16 is almost done, too.

 Shawn Speakman (blog HERE) often speaks about hitting the homestretch of a novel, the point after the halfway mark and how it starts to feel like you’re going downhill from there and gaining momentum with every word. I beginning to understand what he means by that. After finishing off Chapter 14 and the interlude, that marked roughly the halfway point of the novel (about 46k words out of 90k) and also served as the climax for ‘Part One’ of the novel (despite what I said in the last post, this was actually the end of ‘Part One’ not ‘Part Two’…). It seems that since hitting that point, or even a few chapters earlier, when I finished off Chapter 12, the words have just been flowing out of me.

 I may not exactly be able to see the finish line at the moment, it’s still a ways off, but I know that there is less in front of me than behind and that’s an encouraging thought. I find that the second-half of a good book is almost always a faster read than the first half, and I think it’s a good sign when the writing’s the same way.

 Chapter 15 is a bit of a change of pace from 14 (which was balls to the wall), but it was challenging to write in its own part. Without giving too much away, the structure of the chapter jumps around a lot in time and answers some question posed at the end of 14 in (I think/hope) interesting ways. There’s also a lot of room for some neat imagery and it was a great way to explore some aspects of my version of the Fey lands.

One character in particular has really stepped out of the shadows and surprised me. He doesn’t appear in this chapter - in fact he doesn’t appear again for a few chapters - but I’m constantly surprised by how much he and his actions have rippled  through the story. He was originally going to be a bit of a bit character, no more than a plot device, but as the writing has moved on he’s affecting more and more of the story and it’s even getting to the point where he (and his parallels to Rowan) will have a defined effect on the end of the novel.

Now, who said writing isn’t bloody exciting?

I outline in a pretty organic manner, but at the end of the day I have a solid outline for the novel and the first 18 or so chapters. It’s nice to know that even with all that outlining, I can still be surprised by the twists and turns of the story.

Well, onward to writing. Chapter 16 should be done pretty soon!