First Draft

Hello again! It know it's been a while, but I have an exciting update. Over the past few months I've been going through some changes, so I haven't had time for writing. But things have settled down, at least for a moment, an I've had a chance to do some writing.
For a while I was stuck in my story. I had an idea of how I wanted it to end, but I didn't know the details. After a considerable break I went back to working on my novel.
And I am pleased to say that, as of last night, I officially have my first draft complete!
This is a big step for me, since having the first draft done means I have a pretty good idea of how the story will work. I know that there may be plotholes and times I will need to write characters in more or cut them, but I'm happy to say that the first major step of my novel-writing is finished.

Another excerpt - Paint

Well, as promised, here's another excerpt from my novel. It's a little short, but I hope you enjoy it.

          The table itself was crude. Workbench would be a more appropriate title. It was scarred here and there with cracks and indentations. Paint of various shades covered it. A bit of rusty orange here, violet there. It seemed worn, and yet satisfied. Like an apron passed from mother to daughter, its stains being markers of memories. Abigail pulled out a palette.

            “All right,” she said, “now the first thing you have to know about painting is that I haven’t done it in years. So, if you’re determined to do something-” she spread her arms “-now’s the time.” Robin laughed. She looked from the paints to Abigail and laughed again.

            “I can’t paint.”

“Of course you can’t. But how do you think I got started?” Robin shook her head.

“You’ve been doing this for a long time. I never-”

“Doodled in your notes? Used finger paints in kindergarten? Honey, you must realize that there was a point for me, too, when I had never painted before. Now come on.” Robin sighed, then laughed again. Abigail was squeezing paints onto a palette. Handing this to Robin, she stepped to the canvas.

            “What am I supposed to paint?” The protest was weak at this point.

“Whatever you’d like to paint.”

“Well… how about a tree?” That seemed simple enough. Abigail gestured to the canvas in answer.

Novel in Progress

     Here's a post to give you all an update on my writing. I know it's been a while since I've posted  about that 20,000 word-count.
     Things have been going very well for the last few weeks. I'm off for school, which means I can spend more time working on my current project and planning future projects. And having one of the family cats climbing all over me. Like right now, as I type this entry.
     I've been reading some new books on writing as well as pressing forward with the novel I'm working on. I still have to come up with a title. As you may already know, you can find some excerpts here on the site. I put out a teaser about putting a new excerpt, so I should probably follow through with that.
     Other reading material is made up of Christmas gifts I've received this year. One of these is The Children of Hurin by Tolkien. A bit dense, but an excellent read, especially for those who like older literature and the style of story-telling modeled by the traditional passing on of tales.
     Another book I am very excited about is The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain. This is something of an autobiographical work (I believe) by Twain. He had the opportunity to travel all over Europe by boad along the coastline. My familiarity with it stared as an interpretive speech during my last year of high school. In short, you take part of a book and turn it into a ten-minute skit. No props, no set, and you're wearing a suit.
     In any case, I thought I'd let you guys know that I'm rounding the bend with my first draft I think, unless some big plot development waylays me. My current word count is now well past the 40,000 word mark, and growing steadily. As I mentioned before, most novels (especially ones by new authors) tend to be around the 60,000 mark. Some are as long as 120,000 (or more) but I'm not nearly that ambitious.
     I hope your Christmas and New Years went well. Keep an eye out for that excerpt, I'll pick one and have it up soon.
All the best!