Word Count Goal: 20,004

Achievement: 22,106

I do violence very well. I’m not ashamed to admit that. In a review for The Edge of Darkness, a blogging and widely-read friend of mine gave it 5/5 for violence, while only 3/5 for sex and language (and none for substance abuse). I think part of my ability to describe violence is because I’m really quite mild-mannered, shy, and and introvert. I don’t really stand up for myself because I think it’s better to avoid conflict at the cost of my self-esteem (which is something I’ve tried to work on in the past couple of years, but it’s really such an ingrained part of me now that I’m not sure I could ever learn to avoid it). But I always end up imagining really horrible things happening to people who’ve been mean to me or walked all over me or just generally not respected me as a human being.

And I know that this sounds really lame and sounds like I think my book will appeal to everyone (which I know it won’t), but my high fantasy that I’m currently querying as Young Adult has its fair share of violence as well (that can easily be re-written to be not so graphic). So much so that I’m quite comfortable adding a bunch of adult fantasy agents to my query list as well. Innocence is 14 when the story starts, but she ages to sixteen in the first book and to eighteen over the next few books, and possibly (because I haven’t written it yet but I could easily make it happen) to her 20s by the end of the series. Some of the violence is passive but graphic (passive violence – think about that for a second, because I freaking love writing it). Some of it’s not very nice. It’s a lot of fun to write and I hope it’s a lot of fun to read, but it’s not nice.

Today I wrote a scene that’s by any stretch of the imagination not nice. I haven’t figured out if it’s a dream, or if it’s a spell that Lachlan’s responsible for, or if it’s a hallucination, or if Tina is going crazy because she’s falling in love with Ten, still in love with dead Noah, and Lachlan is casting spells all over her to try and make her fall in love with him. Suffice to say I can wait patiently and let my brain work out what the hell just happened. And it was a lot of fun to write :P

Word Count Goal: 18,337

Achievement: 20,339

Spent the word count today developing Tina and Ten’s relationship. I don’t mind spending the next 10K or so words on it, tossing in some things about the major plot point (the witches, or most probably Lachlan, even though he isn’t as yet, the Big Bad) and the sub plot (Sarah). The Bleak Mid-Way Point was scheduled to be 23K words but Tina and Ten have only been on two dates and she hasn’t even told him about Noah yet, so I’m happy to push it back a bit. I don’t mind if this book ends up over 50K. There’s some friction between her parents and other demons which I’d like to explore in more detail. I’ve also started hinting that maybe Lachlan isn’t all that trustworthy, which I think is going to be a lot of fun to play out. I really enjoy writing non-POV characters with ulterior motives that the MC seems oblivious about – whether it’s because she’s blinded by his good looks or a magic spell or is simply in denial.

Also, I’ve listened to Nightwish’s Storytime 100 times now, and to a piano cover version I downloaded 10 times. I’ve got this song on the brain. I love the use of the orchestra – especially the horn section.

Word Count Goal: 16,670

Achievement: 18,600 (2016 today)

Now I know why nothing much happens in the first half of Twilight. SMeyer is too busy developing the relationship to develop a plot. And I don’t care what anyone says: Bella is dull enough and Edward overprotective enough to develop a realistic relationship in such a short amount of time. Nothing else happens.

I looked back over my bookcase of books I’ve acquired in the last year to see if any can help me.

Now, I’m stuck here unable to do research because I gave away my copy of the most stupid insta-love I’ve ever seen that made me want to stick my finger in my eye and wiggle it around my brain: Fallen. All I have left to turn to to inspire me is Nevermore, Matched and Paranormalcy, and I have issues with each of them. Fire and Unearthly both developed their romances more slowly and it was much more believable, but I want Tina to be in a romance before the end of the book. In Shiver and Glow, the couples were pretty much already in love, so they don’t help me. In Divergent and Graceling, the romances were secondary to the story and not romances I could be very supportive of or want to think of as my inspiration.

So, guess what? I have to try and develop this romance all on my lonesome. I think I need more time than just November to be able to do that. I will be working on this novel for a few months afterwards for sure.

Anyway, today’s writing was easy because it revolved around Tina actually demonstrating some demon hunting skills in a demon club Tengu took her to. I’m still trying to develop the romance but I think I need to add some things into the back story so it doesn’t just seem like Tina face noms Tengu on her second date. I’ve also started referring to Tengu as Ten, which amuses me because Veronica Roth had a guy nicknamed Four in Divergent. I keep thinking that there’s a joke somewhere there about guys’ names that are numbers.

 

Word count goal: 15,003

Achievement: 16,584  (2829 today, my highest so far)

Tina tricked me.

She’s been resisting the idea of falling in love with Ten because she’s still in love with Noah and feels guilty for being the one who staked him when he was about to turn her into a vampire. Oh yeah, and Ten’s a demon and she’s a hunter.

I discovered Nightwish, my favourite band in the whole world, released their new single Storytime today, so I’ve been listening to it over and over again. It inspired me to skip ahead on the date between Tina and Ten and go straight to the more interesting parts of the romance. Namely face nomming (or kissing, for those of you who haven’t been to my blog for very long).

The thing is, this kind of soul-aching romance, where the heroine is beating herself up over and over again over something that’s out of her control is the type of romance I write best. The type where the heroine’s own head is all that’s standing between her and a really decent guy who just wants to love her. A heroine with abandonment issues, with trust issues. I wrote a scene between Innocence and Garuth (my YA high fantasy couple) earlier this year that had me crying because it was so heartbreaking. Tina’s going through something very different to Innocence, but it’s still really emotional (when I realised what it was, it turns out it’s very similar to Harry Potter’s first kiss with Cho). Tina can’t handle falling in love with Ten while she’s still nursing her broken heart and guilt over Noah. This is something I’m going to have to rectify, but every time I attempt to explore Tina’s emotions on the subject I get overwhelmed and start crying.

I know everyone’s fictional, but I’m an over-emotional weeny.

Tina revealed to me that she has trust issues and abandonment issues. Neither of these revelations surprise me. She’s a little damaged. But I didn’t realise before, and now I know there’s going to be a bit of re-writing in earlier scenes to really get those feelings across.

I am the voice of never, never land,
The innocence of dreams from every man,
I am the empty grave of Peter Pan,
A soaring kite against the blue, blue sky,
Every chimney, every moonlit sight
I am the story that will read you real,
Every memory that you hold dear.

Also – I finally settled on a title: The Oncoming Storm.