Skipped my first full day of writing yesterday.

Why? I had a restless night on Tuesday and awoke too late to be of any use. Then, after work, I talked on the phone for a time, waited for the landlady to come by (she didn't and so I had to call and reschedule), and I walked to the store to pick up milk and sympathy cards. In other words, mundane life intervened.

Word count = 12,053

I read something over again and cannot remember writing it. "A horse as black as an ancient shadow." I don't know if it's any good. But it's kind of spooky not to remember coming up with it.

Written late 11/07/2006

Today I could not get out of bed. I feel the rain that is forever showering down on this land to be washing the nutrients of everything away and churning up dead dirt and dying leaves. It is not nice (although I like it when it gets too dark to see.)

Word count 10,600 (broke 10,000 - yaah!)

One week has gone by. Although I am behind (should be at 14,000 words I guess,) I have 17 pages and I would say a good idea of where the story is going. I also got a chance to start constructing a "pitch," distilling the ideas down to one or two sentences and then expanding on them if someone seems interested.

Ergonomically, though, I'm a wreck.

11/06/2006 - written late

First Monday. I feel it. I think I pinched a nerve. I don't feel well.

9,881

I can't believe I haven't cracked 10,000. This morning I didn't start where I left off, but at the beginning again and added two or so pages that way. Then I wrote at night as well until my laptop battery gave out. I am trying to find out how much of a story I want / need before the journey to the "other world" begins. And yes, I have been sorta patterning my plot against Joseph Campbell's archetypes.

My arm hurts.

Back at home now. A greasy rain is falling outside, and I hear it is to continue for many months. The inside is not all that inviting either.

Word count to date = 8,009

Another day of pattering down many many words that lead in circles. Today I questioned the time in which I start my story. I had for the most part assumed it would start in the near-modern times and that the fantasy world that my character journeys to would be rather medieval. I have gone back and forth with questions about how women are perceived in my fantasy world, and I many times imagine my main character in a dress. Well, no girl in modern times wears dresses. So today I toyed with the idea of having her start from the 1940 or so, a very female-centric time to be living it (many men off to war). This would also set up the feelings of war within her and ready her to accept them when she entertains the problems in the fantasy world. Huh. I need to go to an antique shop and pick up a 1940s yearbook...