Wordcount Wednesday

Well, friends, as of right now, I am a little over 150 pages into Failstate. More specifically, I've expanded this book to 38,363 words, which means I was able to cobble together 11,416 words. Wow. That's a pretty high benchmark.

And now it's time for me to take a break from it.

I know, I know, forward momentum is my friend when writing a first draft. I'm not entirely pleased that I need to take a break, but I have to for two reasons:

First of all, I need some time to regroup. Failstate is turning out to be the messiest first draft I've ever written. For starters, we have the fact that the first 50 pages are in third person POV and the next hundred are in first person (a good decision, I might add; I think my crazy velocity on this manuscript is due to the POV change). Worse, the structure is a mess as well. I have misplaced scenes all over. One scene should probably come about ten chapters from where I am now. I just finished writing five chapters that need to occur earlier in the book. As of right now, I'm so turned around I have no idea what I should be writing next. So I need a little time to take a deep breath, figure out where I am, where I need to go next, and then get started.

Second, and more importantly, I need to get my entries ready for the ACFW Genesis contest. Yes, I said entries, plural. But seeing as their due by the end of March (and the suggested deadline is actually mid-March), I had better get cracking.

If I'm lucky, my little hiatus from Failstate will only last a week or so. But right now, I need the breather.

So who knows what I'll report next week. Maybe I'll manage to eke out a few more words by next Wednesday. Time will tell.