Update: Progress, and discovery writing is sometimes hard

Okay, so plenty of progress with Silver Circle this past week, which was very nice. I mean, this is definitely not as fast as a Tuyo-world novel; in fact, it’s slightly less than half that fast. But movement forward has nevertheless been decent. I’ll tip over 100,000 words sometime today or tomorrow, I expect. This is the sort of thing that makes me wish I were writing tightly plotted romances. I’d be finishing the draft for sure. Well, I knew perfectly well this story was going to go long, so whatever, it’s fine.

I had a four-day weekend, so that was nice, but the kittens had their spay/neuter appointments this past Thursday, which was distracting that day. I set up the puppy room to once more be a kitten room. Would you like to know how fast the kittens bounced back to normal? Maximillian bounced back THE SAME AFTERNOON.

^{Play with me! I’m totally fine!}

A spay is a much bigger surgery, but Magdalene seemed almost back to herself the same day as well, and totally back to normal the next day. I wound up opening the kitten room back up Friday morning and letting them have unrestricted access to the house, though not letting them outside because, I mean, I know they had surgery even if they don’t.

^{24 hours after the spay}

You know how big a spay incision is for a kitten? Three stitches! Wow! It seems practically not there at all compared to a C-section incision. (Those go to about eighteen stitches for a Cavalier.) I was going to take her in for a tech to remove the sutures because I assume she will be more wiggly than a cooperative dog, but three? Ha, no, I think I can manage. Huge shaved area is huge, but whatever, as long as Magdalene doesn’t care, I don’t care. While Maximillian could probably climb trees with no ill effects, I don’t expect I’ll let him out in the yard until Magdalene can join him, just to be fair.

Meanwhile, on Friday, I was a lot less distracted by The Horde of pets. Though I did take dogs to the park Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I also got quite a bit of work done.

Let’s have a fake interview!

So, where are you in Silver Circle?

I’ve completed 21 chapters, not all in strict order. Nobody has died (yet), but a very dramatic event occurred yesterday. I wasn’t sure I was going to do that until it happened, but I think The Event is probably going to stay in the draft now that it’s there. Everyone is moving into position for the endgame now. Nobody is actually in place yet. I think I’m probably about 2/3 of the way through the book.

How confident are you about that?

Everything always takes more words and more time than expected, so … not very sure. But I’ve outlined the rest of the book!

No! Really?

Well, no, I mean, not really. I’ve added a list of upcoming chapters with a very, very brief note about whose pov each chapter is in and what should happen. I mean, a couple of phrases or maybe one sentence each. I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen in some of those chapters, besides a three-word hint.

I don’t know if I’ll even stick to this. I wouldn’t be surprised if some chapters go long and get cut in half, or if new chapters appear because I need the action picked up somewhere else for a bit. However, for me, this is sort of close to an outline! There are currently 36 chapters total, counting a denouement [still can’t spell that right without spellcheck, grumble] and an epilogue.

You’ve decided you like epilogues, apparently.

Well, that’s not really new. I often like epilogues; I just didn’t used to feel they were necessary or useful for my books. I guess now I sometimes do. The end of a long series like this does seem like an appropriate place for an epilogue, although what I might actually do is nod forward and then write a separate long epilogue next year.

I suppose you might call that a “Gratuitous Epilogue.”

Or some variation on that, yes, could be! If AKH could do it, I can do it. I’ve been thinking about how to structure that and how far in the future to put it for a while now.

Just how many books are you planning to write next year?

Good lord, don’t even ask. Maybe, I don’t know, four? Five? None of which exist even in draft form yet, but I hope the Tuyo-world ones are fast. (Extremely fast, I hope!) I might not get to a Black Dog epilogue next year, I admit.

This coming week should be more of the same, minus any surgeries for pets, I hope!

I know what happens at the climax of Silver Circle, but figuring out what exactly is going to happen in some of the upcoming chapters probably won’t be necessary this week. Probably by next week. I sure hope I know what should happen by the time I really need to!