April 28, 2022
Daily Diary, Day 606: Yesterday started well in terms of writing, had 386 words written by lunch time, but after lunch I realized it was time to fill out the rest of the outline a bit more. Since my daily goal is 500 words (3500 for the week), and I already have written 4155 this week, I felt it was a good time to stop and get ready for the next chunk of writing.
I’ve gotten to the point where I have described the crime that poor Mrs. Stein is trying to solve, but it was now time for her to figure out who, how, and how to prove it. (I know the answers to these questins, but she doesn’t—smile)
I’ve completed the draft through Chapter 8, and after the work I did today, I have 8 more chapters planned. What this means, basically, is that for each future chapter I have day, time, setting, characters in the chapter and which character is the point of view character (you might read my substack post yesterday for why that is important to me.) I also may mention main points I want to hit in the chapter, often related to clues.. This leaves a lot of room for spontaneity in the writing.
I still have a lot of filling in to do for the chapters I’ve already written––in some cases simply finalizing a name or a description, in others introducing or expanding on a minor plot thread. What I don’t know is if this is a good time to fill in that material, or just forge on. But that is a decision for Friday since I am off to the dentist this morning (appointment is at 7, may take at least 2 hours) and I suspect that I won’t feel like doing much besides muddle through my noon zoom meeting and a possible phone chat afterward.
Meanwhile, I will leave you with a bunch of cute flowers from yesterday’s walk.