As always, I’d like to begin this week’s progress report by thanking all of you awesome people who’ve followed, liked and/or commented on my blog!

Here are this week’s stats:

Words Written This Week: 5,614

Words Written For Book So Far:  51,282 in order/ 74,419 total

Last Chapter of Rough Draft Completed: Chapter 15 (about halfway through Chapter 16)

Chapters To Go (subject to change): 9

Days Until October 11th Goal Date: 47

Thoughts:

A little lighter this week, but still productive. Unfortunately, I had a very Chapter-9-like crisis with Chapter 15. Originally, I’d planned this gushy, over-romantic scene between my two main characters. I’d played it over in my head dozens of times and I loved it…until sometime last week, when I realized it was too easy. It was too perfect. I could hear the echo of all of the books and articles I’ve read about writing recently. There was absolutely no conflict in the scene I was imagining. Did it pull the heartstrings? It certainly did mine. But…then, this other idea surfaced. At first, I dismissed it. It stung too much. Poor Character-A. How much more could I put the poor guy through?

And that’s when I realized, I’ve been playing it too safe with Character-A. I’ve been protecting him too much. I told my sister, Vic, I’ve been trying not to put him through anything I don’t think I could survive myself. But then, Wednesday evening, I had an epiphany. Though Character-A is my proxy, he’s not me. I know this sounds weird, but, I think Character-A is stronger than me. And braver. Not to be self-deprecating, but it’s true. He’s taught me how to be stronger and braver, which doesn’t seem possible, because I’m the one who created him.

And I’ve been holding him back.

At this point, there are only certain things I know for sure are going to happen in my story. The old outline is like an outdated road map. The major landmarks are still there, but the path between those landmarks has changed drastically.

A couple of cool things happened this week. First, on Monday, I completed my 2017 Goodreads goal. My goal was to read 25 books this year and I’ve already accomplished that, with no intention of slowing down. Could this be the year I read 50? The second cool thing to happen is that Kristen Kieffer (see Wednesday’s inspirational post) actually saw my Instagram post for the blog I wrote about her and commented on it. Talk about a confidence boost, even if it was only to thank me. Little things like that make me feel like I’m finally on the right path. I try not to get down on myself, but sometimes, I just wish I’d done all of this sooner. I’ve been so happy writing this book, even when it forces me to reflect on things I’d rather forget.

My goal for next week is to complete Chapter 16, as well as Chapter 17. I’d also like to finish the final writing book that I rented from my library so I can turn my reading focus back to fiction. The extra instruction has been extremely helpful, but it has been a bit tiring to read the same advice over and over.

Note to self: Don’t underestimate Character-A. He’s a bad ass. Be proud of that.