Autumn and Life
Happy Samhain and Halloween!
It’s brisk morning—cooler than usual at this time of the year—and I am relieved to be off on this final day of harvest. I’m grateful that the leaves are turning slower this year. I actually have the time to admire the change, and have spent quite a few weekdays doing short hikes after work to unwind after the long, chaotic hours.
Snippets from October
A good hike with a sexy leaf! Pho noodles after my car broke down. A melting mushroom. Shared workspace with kitty. An adventure antiquing. A gorgeous moth encounter while shopping for flowers.
How Goes the Writing?
Eclipse is currently at 77,581 words. I want to say I am officially halfway through my planned story, although I am still unsure whether or not it will be a single volume or forced to be a duology. It will depend on how certain plot points are resolved throughout the story.
Writing the middle is usually where I end my pursuits. It is where I typically have no direction, no sense of fulfillment, and become terrified that the exposition of my story is too long. I nearly went through this again, the panic button within reach. This time, instead of knocking the table over and starting fresh, I went for a walk instead with my notebook and sorted my messes out.
It was a tough October, seesawing between self doubt and writing frantically. When the full moon arrived on October 26th, the doubts free-flowed out of me and I was back to writing with a flow, weaving together loose and questionable plot points. At the end of the day, new pairs of eyes will see the final draft and help me solidify the story.
It is an exciting time filled with uncertainty, but books must still be written by humans. I strongly stand by this conviction, still remembering the days before mass book consumption.
