60,000

I'm taking a novel writing workshop on Saturday mornings for 6 weeks from my feature writing professor and newspaper colleague from 20 years ago, David Coddon. I knew when I started that I needed to move chapter 6 to chapter 1 but what I've learned so far in the workshop is that I needed to change which character is the actual protagonist. An editor friend confirmed that agents and readers would care more about the new protagonist than the old one. That has affected a lot of things, including the ending, which I needed to change anyway because I learned the ex-protagonist has another adventure coming up after she is rescued that I need to set up at the end of the book. I'm also doing a lot of work on pacing and making sure the stakes are clear and compelling, capturing how the characters change, and keeping the momentum moving forward. Great class. David's the best. I am also lucky there are other very talented writers in the class who have given me some great feedback and writing wisdom. So much work to do. 

The textbook is Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird about writing, the title of which David explained comes from someone in the book being overwhelmed at the idea of writing about a whole bunch of different types of birds. Someone told her to write them bird by bird. It's such a great description because that's exactly how I wrote (and am revising) this novel, and it was so different from previous writing. As it developed in my mind, I knew what scenes I needed to write, and I just wrote the one that was pounding loudest on the door and set the others aside until I could get to them. Then I'd pick another one up when I was done. It made writing seem less crazy and chaotic, and it was amazing to be able to trust that the material would be there when I got to it. The only part I really had to either capture or lose was the beginning, because if I hadn't gotten enough down on paper when it was ripe, I would have lost the whole thing, and I knew it. That's why I rented a hotel room for one night where I could focus without distractions to get it started.

Writing started January 31, 2021 at the Candlewood Suites in Burlington, WA:

Oh, and the book is now over 60,000 carefully-chosen words.