And…I think…

I think the first draft of Fire and Forge is finished.  The last chapter isn’t wanting to come, and the chapter I just finished seems to be a good conclusion/foreshadowing of the next book. 

Final count of the first draft of the story proper is 87,000 words.  There will likely be quite a bit added, within the next couple of weeks (setting it aside for at least one, before I dive into revision–I collected papers to grade this morning). 

And editing, for me, never takes as long as drafting, unless I end up writing multi-thousand word additions to more than one chapter.  Which has happened in the past.

And for week two of semester…

Week 2 is over, now.  We’re going into week 3 (and I need to go leave an announcement for my students on Blackboard for the week).  I’ll have a workshop day to oversee on Wednesday, and the second paper to introduce on Friday.  Yes, that means I’ll be collecting the first paper on Friday, after my office hours.  That means I’ve got four office hours free this week for writing.

Speaking of writing, I got a bit more done last week.  I’ve gotten down to the last two chapters of Fire and Forge.  Currently, it’s sitting at about 83,000 84,000 words (edit: I went back and added a bit more to the last chapter).  I’m thinking the first draft is going to top out around 90,000 words.  After that, I’m going to set it aside for about two weeks, so that I can see where revisions and rewrites are needed.  I’m hoping to have a second draft done by the beginning of October.

After that’s done, it looks like Detritus is what’s going to be coming up.  The main protagonist is a homeless, drug addict veteran who decides to take responsibility for two small children orphaned by their junkie mother drowning in the street during a hurricane.  The story is one of change and redemption: the character cleans up for the sake of the children, claims them as his own, and takes them on a long walk from the East coast to his family’s home in western Kansas.

Yeah…not genre.  I don’t really know where the story came from, only that it’s not going to go away and let me write the stuff I like to read until I get it out.