End of Act 1

Time for another “brain-dump” draft. (Part 1 is here if you want to start there.)

You might have noticed I did not succeed in reaching my deadline. But it’s all good, having that deadline kept me pushing forwards when I might otherwise have rested or had a beer.

Main reasons for not reaching my deadline were (in no particular order):

  • Analysis paralysis (7k+ words of notes and lots of research about writing structures)
  • Too many beats (most of which will never be used)
  • Fear of writing so badly that it would be embarrassing and possibly career-limiting
  • Lack of energy (good habits will help with this)

It was father’s day today and as well as WordCamp YYC, we took it pretty easy yesterday, so not much progress but I did figure out a bit more of the magic system and some more words.

I have found I can do around 800 words an hour of this type of writing. Meaning … Totally uncensored and probably bad.

Again, I haven’t even read it back. It might not make any sense.

I’m intentionally not describing everything in these writing sessions, it’s mostly dialog and “character does X”. Not just because sometimes I get irritated with too much description (George R R Martin, I am looking at you), but I figure the main thing is to get what broadly needs to happen down first, give the story a shape. It might be a terrible idea, but it is helping me get the word count done.

This piece brings us up to the end of Act 1. We have met the majority of the characters and we know the “ordinary world” and a glimpse of the new reality. Next is the second act where I need to inflict pain on them. Should be fun 😉

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