I have started working on a book (again). I have gotten started a couple of times… but didn’t really get very far. This year, on January 1st, I started writing with the goal of writing 100 words every day. So far that has worked out well for me.

The first few days, it was easy to write 100 words. After all, 100 words isn’t that much. But, after the first few days, I hit a spot where I wasn’t sure what to write next. So, I thought a little bit and started writing an outline. Not so much to outline the whole story, but to have a way to organize some of my thinking on this thing I am calling a book.

That worked for a couple of days (and I give myself credit for 100 words regardless of whether I think those specific words will end up in the published story.) And then I had trouble figuring out where to take the outline next.

I hadn’t made it to the end yet, although I did have a lot of ideas on what the story would look like as it neared the end. I was definitely lacking the middle thoughts though. You know, the story part.

That is when I decided to go back and write about some of the things in the outline. The more of that I did, the more I feel like I was making progress. I still feel like I am making progress now. I managed to cross 10k words yesterday, which was Valentine’s Day. I am still creating story. I have hit a few spots where I am stuck on how exactly the scene should play out, but I have just moved on to other parts. I have it on good authority that just because a book ends up in chapter order, doesn’t mean it was written in chapter order.

I hope to be able to reach 100k words in this book by October. I might try to do something like edit the book in November. I think I have a rough outline (mostly in my head) for two more books after this one, to end up with a trilogy. I may find out that I don’t have 10k words after the first draft is edited, but I am going to try to remain optomistic.

I think when I hit 40k, I may start investigating beta readers. I hear that is a thing.