Word count today – 1310
It’s so easy to ignore the gentle whispering of the muse.
I’m working a new novel. Brand new. The idea itself is little over two months old and so far I’ve spend a month on very part time planning and plotting.
The idea was presented to me by my muse in a tiny sequence of images that were gone in a flash. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to ignore it, except I’d been actively asking for a new novel idea for a couple of days. It had pitched me a couple of short stories, which was great, but I wanted an idea that would develop into a novel.
Here it was.
I saw someone, I didn’t know if it was male or female or what kind of age, rushing through a barren, snow covered landscape on a buggy or sleigh of some kind, pulled by animals that looked like dogs, but weren’t quite dogs. The wind was howling, driving a horizontal blizzard. The figure in the sleigh was wrapped up tight in furs, no features visible. And they were being chased by someone, or something. I didn’t know what, I just felt the urgency of the flight.
In initial development it’s changed, but that little scene is where it sprang from.
I have my main character, a female by the name of Ranya who is currently in service to the princess of the Southlands.
I have my antagonist – Greyson Blackwolf, the commander of the Southlands castleguard.
And I have my mystery people, at the moment they are The Pale Ones.
There’s a long way to go. I’m right at the start of what looks like growing into a big project. I have about 15 scenes mapped out, not all from the beginning, and have started writing the first chapter.
It feels good to have an ongoing project again. Something I can work at steadily alongside other, shorter things, like the courses and the main website.
My plan is to try and hit 250 words a day. At that rate it’ll take me years to write, and to be honest I expect to write far more than that. But 250 is a small chunk. It’s doable. And if I know that’s all I have to write, I’m far more likely to sit down and do it than if I tell myself I need to get a whole chapter, or even a whole scene done.
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