I missed posting last week, since I spent the whole of Friday curled up on the sofa with the worst headache I've had in ages. I can't remember why I missed the week before, but you have my apologies!

It's been an odd week - I've only managed to write on three days, but my overall word count for the week is higher than last week. I'm experimenting a little with the best methods to encourage myself to write more, and it turns out that aiming to write for a particular amount of time, rather than aiming for a particular word count, seems to work far better for me. There's something far less pressured about it, but somehow I end up producing more that way.

I'm still fairly pleased with the plot points I've planned out, but I'm happy to report that I've also managed to go 'off piste' a little and have found myself wandering through detours I didn't expect - namely a rather spooky forest. I love the excitement of that - while it's great knowing where I'm going, finding those secret passages is a thrill unlike anything else.

I'm not sure I'm on track to hit my goal at the moment - I have nine days to finish this first draft. I really hope I manage it, if only for the thrill of meeting a deadline. I suppose it wouldn't be the end of the world if I didn't, but that will mean that my next goal - to complete NaNoEdMo - will be made all the more difficult.

Current Status
Current Word Count: 83902
Sentence of the Week: There was no echo, the words falling dead in the air, and not even a murmur came back to me. I looked around carefully, through the trees that were no longer quite so close together but which seemed to go on forever, but he was nowhere in sight. Seconds before our hands had been clasped tightly together, but now he had disappeared and I was completely alone.
Best Moment of the Week: Writing 2K in one sitting. Delicious.
Worst Moment of the Week: Realising that I hadn't written for three days straight. Yuck.

This week's big moment was figuring out my plot. It means there will be a lot of editing to do, but frankly, I knew that anyway. The important thing is that I actually know what needs to happen. I haven't done a full line - I can't work like that - but the key points, including all the details of the face-to-face confrontation, are there. Which means I have things to work towards. And knowing that has left me free to consider other things I could put in, and allowed me to figure out how to deal with other, smaller problems without having to worry about the really major issues.

It's been an okay week words wise too, although not as good as I'd like. Tomorrow is the end of WinoWriMo, during which I've written around 20K. It's not quite up to NaNo standards, but it's pretty good considering there were about ten days in total where I didn't write a word. Some of those days, I plotted - not all of them, but since I actually started on the 5th I have managed to do something every day. That was my goal, so I guess I've done okay.

For February, my goal is to finish this. I don't know how many words that's going to take, but I know that it's approximately 15 days in my characters' timeline, most of which don't need to actually be shown. I feel like I'm about three quarters of the way there, maybe slightly more, which works quite nicely at 72K.

Current Status
Current Word Count: 72189
Sentence of the Week: As always, I disguised myself carefully, making the most of a spell I could actually use to my advantage. A lightening of the hair, lengthening of the eyelashes, and slight reductions around the waist always made me feel rather more self-confident as I walked through the city, and the addition of my pretty blue cloak completed the look to my satisfaction.
Best Moment of the Week: My plotting breakthrough. Utterly exhilirating.
Worst Moment of the Week: Last night when I realised that despite my plotting, I couldn't write properly when I was completely caught up in someone else's story.

For the last couple of days I've stuck with the getting-up-earlier plan, and it seems to be working. My daily average has gone up from 700 to 1100, and although that still doesn't quite feel like enough it seems to be working with the rather 'bitty' way this is progressing. I know there's a lot left to do, but I'm struggling a bit with seeing far enough ahead to just write for more than a few minutes without pausing to collect my thoughts. And it's really frustrating. I've made notes all over the place about things I'll need to go back and change later though, and every time I've done that it's helped clarify where I am, which is good.

My aim's to reach the end of this story before the end of February, so that I can have a couple of days off before jumping in to NaNoEdMo. After that... well, I'm not sure. I think I might let it sit for a while and work on one of the other ideas swirling around, but I'll see how I feel when I get to that point.

Current Status
Current word count: 66537
Sentence of the week: I couldn't see anything in the dark misty world of our minds, but I could almost feel the world we were passing over below us as we headed west. I could sense when we were above a large town, and when we passed a pack of wolves hiding sleepily in their den. Most vividly though, I sensed when we began to approach the Elves. - It's not that it's particularly well written - it's just that it really feels like fantasy, and I think that's something I've been struggling with a bit.