Plugging Away

I'm deep in the thick of this novel, and things are getting pretty heated between my characters, so they're demanding all of my attention! As of last night, I'm about halfway to my arbitrarily set goal:

The need to set a word count goal is interesting.  On the one hand, I know that I will tell the story in however many words it needs—whether that's 50,000 or 90,000. On the other, having a specific goal allows me to measure my progress in a more quantifiable way, for instance via the graphic above, and I've found that helps me appreciate and strive for that progress. So how did I choose my goal of 75,000 words? It's approximately the length of my previous novel, and I know where it fits in the industry standards, having researched them a while back. For more on word counts and setting a reasonable yet marketable goal, check out this post.

As I mentioned, I'm also in the midst of some steamy scenes. I know this can be a point of weakness, anxiety, or even contention for some writers and readers, which is something I recently addressed in a guest post, Shifting the Spotlight on the Deed.

I hope those provide some food for thought as I plug away on the muddled middle of this manuscript.