Habitual January: Day 4

January 3: 7 words
January 4: 318 words

[Click to enlarge] If only it were that easy, eh?

Okay, so on the 3rd I got distracted. The positive here is that I wrote something, even if it was next to nothing. The great thing is that I still haven't fallen below my goal line. I'm finding the goal of 200 words a day a great way to keep myself moving forward. Sometimes I write less, and sometimes I write more, but I always move forward, and that's what this challenge is all about.

So I've written 877 words so far this month, which I think for me is great after just four days.

I could have tried to make up my loss from the 3rd, but I didn't. Why? Habitual January is all about writing every day. Did I write on the 3rd? Yes! Not forcing myself to write that extra hundred words felt great, and I'm still beating my goal.

On another positive note, I just passed into the realm of 34,000 words.

The current chapter is, as per common occurrence, turning out quite a bit longer than I had expected. It is currently over 4,000 words, and I have a lot of scenes to write yet before I finish. In fact, I think I might finish it after the current scene and give the readers a break. After all, I do in fact plan to chronicle the journey to Emareus. I feel this would be a good place to break.

Then I will lose a lot of words when I edit a backstory thread out of the chapter, cutting around 500 words. I would very much like to make up for those words the day I cut them. About 600 or 700 would do, but I'm not too worried about it. I'm confident I can make them back over time. It's for the good of the book.

Just a quick mention, if anyone has any ideas. I'm looking for a replacement name for the major character Echo. His name clashes with the main character, Eoin.

Echo is a nickname. I want a nickname that has some kind of relevance to change, as after a difficult past he changed his name to try to help himself overcome it.

I'd love any ideas that are in another language and have some significance that I can change slightly and use it. As an example, I took the Irish word for change, Athrù, into consideration for a while, but couldn't get many second opinions on it.

Anyway, this was intended to be just a quick update, but turned out more like one of my CC thank you messages. It feels good to have let it all out.

Bonne écriture!

6 comments:

Jean Davis said...

I don't mind Athru. It has more flavor than Echo. Why not go with that for now and not worry about it again until the story is done? It's those little details that distract us from finishing. Don't let them win. ;)

Ryan Sullivan said...

Thanks, Jean. I might just go do that right now. :D
I won't let the details win. I'm on a role now. If I can really, really keep this up, I'll have 80,000 words in October. That being said, life will most likely get in the way, but the prospect of finishing is so very exciting, and I know people tend to speed up as they get closer to the end.
I've got nothing to worry about, eh? I think it'll be finished before I know it. So to speak.

Elena Solodow said...

Names are not my strong-suit. Sorry...

Ryan Sullivan said...

No worries. I'm definitely going with Athrù for now, even if it's just to clear up the ambiguity between the two names. It's an okay placeholder at the least, and I may grow used to it.

Anonymous said...

You could go with something like 'Novo', thats latin for A New (according to google translator.) Or 'Vicis', thats Turn. Or just stick with the one you've got.

Ryan Sullivan said...

Thanks, Anon. Always good to have more ideas to bounce around. :D

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Welcome to The Dark Corner of the Mind. My name is Ryan Sullivan and my aim with this blog is to help others with their own writing, as well as to make note of some of my own writing endeavours.

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