Whew.

I finished editing the second part of The Schrodinger Paradox today. Part 1–Cataclysm–came in at just under 40K words; part 2–Heisenberg’s Point of Observation–came in originally at around 17K words….the revision did a bit more than double that, ending at 35K words. In about a week and a half. With one of the days being totally non-productive due to brain fog and pain.

Yes, I am proud of myself.

I have just finished the first read-through of the 12K words I had done for part 3–currently titled Rewind. I’ll likely go through it again, at least once, before I really start in on it. I’m planning on starting in on it seriously tomorrow.

All told, current word count is just around 87K. And that…that’s not totally first draft, but it’s also not final draft. And not complete. We’ll have to see how it turns out.

I am, for the most part, holding to my goals of 2000 words/week day, 1000 words/weekend day. With the exception of the day I couldn’t focus on anything but the ceiling, that’s been about the average–some days more, some less.

If I can keep this up, I can almost certainly finish this before Christmas. Maybe not before the kids are out for Christmas Break at 11:00 on this coming Friday, but before Christmas.

And then…then, I’ll pick back up with editing and revising Liquid Diet Chronicles: Having a Pint. That shouldn’t take too long, either, and I’ll be able to get that done and dealt with before January, and out to beta readers sometime in early January.

I promise, I also have other projects in the works–these are just what I’ve got going right now, and what’s most immediate at the top of my attention.

Progress!

I mentioned, last week, that I was picking The Schrodinger Paradox back up to work on. I pulled up both the file for the work itself, as well as the file containing a friend’s read-through and feedback on part 1–a friend who was kind enough to help me with the stuff I not only didn’t know, but didn’t know that I didn’t know.

Anyway, I’ve got part 1 read through, edited, corrected, and expanded. I’m working my way through part two. Part 2 is taking a lot more work. It was really bare-bones (more detailed outline than story) in way too many parts.

So, last week’s starting word count was 54,700 words, with just part 1 and part 2 in one document, and 12,000 words in a separate document, starting part 3. When I started working on this, last week, I hadn’t even added in what I had of part 3, and I’d had part 2 only part of the way done. This week, I’ve got everything compiled properly, and I’m about halfway through revising, editing, rewriting, and expanding part 2. Current word count is 77,000, and is climbing rapidly. I’m holding to my goals of an average of 2,000 words per week day, and overshooting that on many days.

I should finish with my revision/expansion of part 2 sometime this week, hopefully before midweek. I hope to finish part 3 before the kids break for Christmas. They’re out a week from Friday, and honestly, at the rate I’ve been going, I think I have a pretty good chance of managing exactly that. Barring family emergencies that require my attention away from being able to write.

If I do manage, the plan is to pick Having a Pint back up, and doing a read-through/revision of that, then sending it to my beta readers in January.

I won’t hold my breath, though. This year has been a massive, nasty bitch about throwing curve-balls at literally everybody.

Yay!

I finished a day later than I wanted to, but I did get Liquid Diet Chronicles: Having a Pint fully finished in first draft form. It came in around 52K words. When I revise and edit and expand, it’ll likely fall around 60-63K words.

I wrote yesterday from the time I got the kids dropped off at school until I broke for lunch when my stomach started growling (around 11:30), then wrote from when I’d finished eating until I was done (around 1:45 or so). And then sat back and took a deep breath, let it out, and checked the day’s word count.

Yesterday’s word count ended up at 4,800 words written. And I felt like the joints in my hands were on fire and my brains were going to melt out my ears.

I have set Pint aside for now–I need some time away from it before I go back in and go through it again–and pulled up my next project: a science fiction project inspired by Starset’s Transmissions album (which I highly recommend). I have about 2/3 to 3/4 of the first draft done–it’s a story in three parts, and the first two are finished, with the third part of the way done.

It took some serious hunting to find the files for that one. I haven’t worked on it since this time in 2017, and I’ve replaced my laptop at least once since then. I have found them, though, so I’ll be starting back in on that today. I’ll probably start with re-reading/revising/expanding/editing so that I can get back into the headspace for the book. I’ve already pulled up the album and set it running on my music player.

Well. Back to work. I’ll try to keep you updated.