Working away

I was able to get a little over three chapters worked out yesterday on the fifth Nyx book. The first two chapters aren't exactly the same as the ones I lost, but I think they have the same general feel. Today I have at least doubled that and the day isn't over yet. I should be around 13,000 words by the end of the day and since my goal is at least 50,000 that is a great start.

My writing process is a bit different from most of the other writers I read about. I don't make outlines to organize my thoughts and figure out the path of the book before I start writing. I usually wait for an opening line to pop into my head and go from there. Sometimes it can take a couple of days, but I had this one planned out for the past couple of weeks.

For once in this series, it wasn't Nyx saying something, but rather a little inner dialog working in her brain. It gave me an opportunity to explain something no one has asked me, but something I always wondered for myself. A character having at least a first name is a given, but since Nyx was abandoned at birth I have always wondered where the Slaughter came from. You would think as the author I would know that, but surprise, I didn't. It is kind of a silly idea that I came up with, but I like it.

When I start writing a book, I do have a general idea of where things will lead to by the end of the book. As has happened with the other books in this series, I get about a fifth or a quarter of the way through and the ending just reveals itself to me. Things twisted in my mind and I ended out typing out the last chapter for this book that I never expected. Part of me hoped I could take it there, but I didn't see a good way until this afternoon. My initial ideas for who Nyx's mother was warped into a funny coincidence and is going to only further complicate things. I just love complications. Now the easy part for me is just working the rest of the chapters to get to that point. Most of them are already rolling around in my mind, so it should be easy.

Well I better get back to it. I am really hoping to have most of the book on paper, so to speak, by the end of the week. It will probably run a little into next week, but it will still give me at least two weeks to go through my editing process before I release it at the end of the month.