2, down 78 to go

So I'm slowly getting into Wolf 2. Still trying to re-orient myself in the heroine's head and the world and see what the plot holds in store. Looking at the progress bar is always kind of depressing at the start of a book.

One hundred thousand words is a lot. Most people freak at the idea of writing a couple of thousand. I tell myself write 5 pages, repeat 80 times and you have a book. But it's not quite that simple. During those repetitions you've gotta somehow hold a world in your head and make a plot hang together and world build and establish characters and keep the story interesting. Simple? Not always. Not when you know there are interested parties at the other end of the process. But I've written for interested parties before and writing for interested parties is part of the biz. And what I've learned is, you still have to write for yourself, love the story yourself. Or one hundred thousand words could feel very long indeed.

But none of this is stuff to worry about in a first draft. First drafts are for discovery. For playing. This is the first time I'm deliberately writing a sequel rather than just having the story maybe have some familiar characters but focusing on different protagonists. So it's new territory. And the first one was a gift book, one that flowed easily and fast for the vast part. Even the revisions have been relatively straightforward. I'm not expecting this one to be the same. Those books only come along once in a while.

So I have to focus on the little steps. Having fun and knocking over five pages at a time. 2 down. 78 to go.