RoW80 Check-In: October 26th.

“Tenenshe’ean held the goard to her lips and it trickled into her mouth slowly. Still, she could not swallow quickly enough, and some of it dribbled down her chin, wasted. He ran his thumb over her chin to wipe it away and, swallowing hard and remembering to breath, Auferrix almost thought of sucking on that thumb to get every drop of moisture she could. She was not that desperate yet, though. She would rather die.”

I am happy to report that things have nicely turned around since my last check-in for A Round of Words in 80 Days! Usually, it seems that, after I spend a lot of time bitching and moaning about being stuck in a rut, the next day, I find myself out of it. I’m still stressed out from work; but I think now I’m using all my projects as a refuge from the stress, so I’m enjoying it much more. Of course, I’ve got a busy, busy, busy, high-pressure weekend coming up, and a full week at the one job while trying to decide what to do with the conflicting hours at my other job, but, in the world of my writing and the world of RoW, things are wonderful and blissful and exciting. Allow me to elaborate:

Serpent in a Cage: Breaking past Chapter Seven really propelled me forward into the new territory I was craving, got me past the rut it had put me into and things are coming along nicely with the POV switch! It’s a shame that Auferrix doesn’t come in until this point; I wonder if there’s something I can do to bring her in earlier, but this really is the best place for her with the rest of the narrative to consider. Chapter: Eight. Page count: 107.

750 Words: Still going strong in the October challenge as far as word count goes; still not getting much finished by the way of stories, but there’s nothing unusual there. The fairy tales have abandoned me for the time being, but the Cake songs still keep holding me up. I’m hoping today to maybe start something a little different that I might be able to complete.

Novel in 6 Months: Some big action has happened, but the story itself is still a great big hodge-podge of whatever comes to mind as it comes to me, that will be whittled down and sharpened once it’s all written down. I did get a handy little progress bar for my sidebar, which will also be useful come November for NaNo as well, and things continue on steadily. Page count: 32. Word count: 21,011/80,000.

NaNoWriMo: I was really feeling unsure about whether or not to pursue the next book that comes after Serpent in a Cage for NaNo, but now that I’m writing the chapter that shows the dynamic between Auferrix and Tenenshe’ean, I know for sure that I want to write their story more. The next book focuses on Auferrix’s new queenship and Tenenshe’ean’s attempts to thwart her; I was worried that it might be a little too political for what I’d like the second book to be, but writing them in Chapter Seven has me realizing that I’d have way too much fun writing this book to pass it up for November. So I have an idea, I’ve done a little outlining, and I think I’m finally ready for it to be November!

0 to 70 in 69 Days: I’m still failing miserably on my short stories. Most of the attention has been going into the 6 month novel, but we’ll see if I get a chance to stab at “Just Right” a little later today before my evening shift at work.

The 100 Books Project: I was crunching some numbers and realized that I’ll have to read about 4 books a week to get past the number of books I got to last time I did this project. So I better get reading! I’ll be on crunch time and I’m thinking of cutting out a lot of TV watching and substituting it for reading, which is better for me in the long run, anyway. Books read: 47/100.

So the progress is about the same as it was on Sunday, but my perspective has taken a swing upward, which seems to change everything when you put it into perspective. I’m expecting to have a good week, despite the craziness of my jobs. How is everyone else doing? Are you ready for NaNo yet? Do you feel the need to grab a watch and stop time for just a little bit before we dive right in? Let’s hear what you’ve got planned!