Word Count:
Day 27: 1729
Day 28: 2340
Energy: exhausted when I started, merely tired by the time I was done

I goofed. When I skipped a day of writing earlier this week, I didn’t skip the matching line in my word count spreadsheet. The result: I was actually behind on my word count the last few days and had to do some serious writing today to get back on track.

It didn’t help that I discovered my error while I was agonizing over what to write. My reluctance to write today was monumental, and I went through a page of notes exploring my options before I started. I realized I needed to stop forcing myself to go through the story chronologically and just move on to something that actually interests me right now. So I summarized as best I could the two threads of the story I hadn’t finished yet, and came up with something fun to write: how Wren and Roderick finally meet. I had the idea that at some point Wren and her friends would disguise themselves as servants to attend a feast without detection, only I had no idea why they would do such a thing. Then it occurred to me to make the feast in honor of Prince Roderick and to give Wren an attack of nerves. She knows he’s at the castle and all she has to do is go introduce herself, but she wants to get a look at him first, without him knowing about it. So I am building towards their meeting, which is complicated by the fact that Roderick believes that Wren is dead and is looking around frantically for someone to marry so he can avoid Princess Priscilla.

Now that I’m actually working on something closer to the ending, I see that knowing what finally happens could really help me to unravel the boggy messy middle of my book. I have a character ready to mislead Roderick about Wren’s death. I just have to take advantage of him. But that’s for later. Right now, it’s time for the minstrels to strike and the guests to sit and for Wren to finally see Roderick for herself, just as he is coming on to every pretty woman at the high table.

It should be one heck of a party.