Homefront: Week 7

This last week has been chock full of creativity. From where things were last week, Homefront has advanced from 31 1/2 chapters and a somewhat defined final act to a 99k juggernaut showing no signs of stopping.

Which is a good thing, for despite the 15,000 words and seven chapters I penned/typed/writered this week, I have exactly two weeks to finish the final nine chapters of this book.

No pressure there.

At my current pace, next Saturday should see the end of my first manuscript pass, and the start of the “what the hell was I thinking” phase currently expected to last until the end of time.

Again, no pressure.

I’m very happy about this week’s chapters. I finally feel I’ve caught up to where I think I should be (never mind any previous predictions that had me finishing the book yesterday). I did do very minor blocking for the rest of the book, mainly by combining the relevant sections of both the synopses I’ve written and assigning them chapters and PoVs. And as today’s efforts bore out, those aren’t entirely written in stone.

I jettisoned a plot point today, one I used to think was important but now I know would have just added needless complexity to the book. I also pulled a plot point from the future that’s never been on a synopsis and made it a central theme of redemption, which had the side effect of paying off on a hook I’d thought already resolved in a completely unexpected way.

In other words, I’ve been writing, and it’s been a lot of fun. Mind you, I jettisoned nearly every other bit of fun I usually engage in to get more words on the page, and expect to do the same in the next week/two weeks/nine chapters/you’ll get it when it’s done and not a moment sooner!

Ahem.

My brain is still buzzing from this week’s cover reveal, and the flurry of Facebooking I did to cement it in people’s minds. Responses have been really favorable so far, but I know I’d feel better if I was a little bit farther along. This may seem arrogant coming from a man who’s attempting to write a breakthrough science fiction novel in just under two months, but I am a writer, and everyone knows we’re full of all sorts of repressed feely things.

There’s a word for those, I think. If I could just remember what it was… Until I do, here’s a blast from past, a song from a really cool cat I’m sure everybody’s going to love. Hit it!