Wednesday 7 March 2012

The Final Stretch

Okay. I have a little confession to make. I haven't been very productive these last few days. I've spent most of my time lurking in the awesome Kindleboards Writer's Cafe. Last month, I managed to write 10,000 words in the first 5 days alone. This month, my present word count is a measly 220 words. And they weren't even my best 220 words either.

This downtime could easily be blamed on burnout from last month's writing challenge. But I know it's really laziness at work here. Me and laziness are well acquainted you see, so I know whenever he comes around and tries to put the muse to sleep. Do I have a remedy for any of this? No. Not really. But I also know that if I just keep at it, at whatever pace, I am bound to reach the finish line sooner or later.

The good news is I've been doing a bit of brainstorming during this downtime. With the way things are shaping up in my head, there might not be a book 7 after all. In other words, I might be closer to the end than I originally thought. The reason for this is that I believe a narrative should be as straight-to-the-point as possible. I am not a huge fan of stories padded out with extensive descriptions, flowery imagery or gratuitous dialog. My stories are usually limited to the bare necessities, hence why I feel that merging books 6 & 7 would help foster that approach whilst also making for a much tighter narrative.

So? What do you think? Should I stick to the original plan and draft 7 books? Or would merging books 6 & 7 into a single volume be just as swell? None of this is set in stone of course, so I'll keep you posted either way.

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