The end of Housesitting is not nigh...

... but it is, as of this morning, plotted.

Late last night, brain fried and unable to write, I found myself plotting further along towards the end of Housesitting. I had several endings in mind already:

• The 'happy' ending.
• The sexy, possibly (probably) twisted ending.
• The sequel setup.

How to get them all together into one place, naturally, without forcing it too much (although, I use coincidence as much as any other writer) was the tricky part.

Particularly the 'possibly twisted' ending. Reading my plotting notes again and again I just didn't see how the characters I'm writing now would possibly end up there, knowing the things that will happen to them in-between.

I could also see, quite possibly, people throwing the book away in disgust at what I had planned, frankly. You can ask me just what this situation was, post-publication.

So, I had to resolve all these things, pull some plot strings together and not make it seem entirely contrived. And I think I have it. I managed to get an extra subplot in which I'm looking forward to writing (which also, bonus, makes sense), I managed to resolve a big subplot in what looks, in plot form at least, to be pretty elegant... and I managed to even resolve the 'possibly twisted' ending into what I hope will be a good, emotional payoff.

There's a strong temptation when you plot, sometimes, to just stop writing. It's easy to do. You've 'told the story' - it's right there on paper. Of course, you can't show it to anyone and expect them to appreciate it. The fun is in the details.

Now of course, I'm staring at all this plot and my head is spinning over word count. But at least I have a map to get to where I need to go. An ending! Hurrah!

Another day, another word count - 86K on Housesitting

Judging by the complete lack of comments on these updates, I don't think I'm thrilling any of you with my tales of gradual progress on Housesitting. I can't say I blame you, but indulge me - these check-ins are a great way to keep me honest, and marking progress feels good. So here's today's update:

As you can see, I re-adjusted the overall word counter, so I'm back creeping towards that healthy green again - I'm in the sickly yellow-green period right now. Happily though, I fully doubled today's word count (and did the same yesterday in fact) so progress is being made. Today was something of a slog but as long as I have the words down, that'll do for me. (I also re-read some of the more recent stuff and it didn't totally suck, which is always good.)

Still not sure if 110K is a reasonable expectation for the total word count, but I don't hear anyone complaining yet. (You might when you read it, who knows.) Want to give you value for money, folks.

Alright, time to get back to it.

Cut

Sometimes I cut things and they seem so nicely formed - like you're putting a really good piece of wood to one side. Rarely I keep them. Sometimes I'll throw them out here. So, this isn't in Housesitting, but something like it is:

Standing, she moved in front of him again. He saw her bend over and begin to pull at the zipper on the side of her boot, slowly moving it downwards. He loved to watch that; the gradual reveal, the slow tease that he knew Linda did so well. She pushed off the boot with her foot, then repeated the process and tossed them away. Now he could see her legs; clad in fishnet-styled pantyhose, like some sort of magician’s assistant, ready to show him a trick. 

“You like?” 

He nodded, again and again. There was something inherently kinky about fishnets, and whenever he saw them he couldn’t help but think lustful thoughts.

 Back to it...

Ding ding, 75K... and with Act III to go

Some good writing sessions on Housesitting the past two days. Found a new spot that I really like, and that always helps. Anyway, it meant this milestone was breezed past this morning:

Ah, those heady days when I figured I'd be done by this point! Not true, and soon I'll be resetting that counter to a more realistic figure - because as the post title says, I'm about to begin Act III of Housesitting. Some big moments have come and gone in Act II, which was plotted, in the dim and distant past, as the ending of the book - but then I just had so many more ideas.

Act III is actually the most loosely plotted part of the book so far. I have a rough idea of where it goes, and thankfully I have an ending, but how I get there will be interesting. There are a few big questions I have to ask, and I'm trying to answer them organically rather than in the interests of plot.

That probably sounds like pretentious rubbish, so let me clarify. I have a few plot points to resolve before I get to the end of the book. What I'm trying to do is actually have them make sense in the context of the book, and make them feel like natural events that these characters would drive, rather than making it feel like I'm shoehorning the characters into a plot. That is actually tougher than you'd think. In some cases - in a few cases actually - there's been a feeling as I'm writing of "No, wait - that wouldn't happen, that character wouldn't do that" and it's changed the book's course.

These are Writer Problems.

Anyway - to the other big question, will I finish by March 1st? I am really not sure. If I had to guess right now, 40K more words isn't even going to surprise me. At my own preferred pace of 1K words a day, I can neatly make that deadline. But strictly speaking my deadline was to publish, not to finish. So... that's going to be harder. Even when I'm actually 'done' there's still probably going to be a period of editing and rewriting. So... don't hassle me too much if March 1st comes and goes, and you're not reading the finished product.

But feel free to hassle me if it's not written by then at least!

Right, back to examining Act III and plotting more shenanigans.

This is how we do it; 70K on Housesitting

A good morning and a good scene. All dialogue, but felt right - and got me to where I wanted the scene to be in an unexpected but natural way.

And brought me here, too:

The 75K target is utterly bogus now, I know that, but for whatever reason I'm waiting until I pass it before I reset. If I had to take a guess right now I'm heading towards 100K, but honestly, I'm not even sure. More on that later.

Scratching at 65K on Housesitting

I'm at just below 65,000 words on Housesitting. It's been a busy week/ten days and I did not get as much writing done as I'd like - in fact I guess if you look at my last entry, I've averaged 500 words a day, which is below what I want. That said, it's going fine, and I'm still moving forward.

Dealing with some tricky scenes recently, trying to ensure character reactions feel 'true' and the plot doesn't feel contrived. I've thrown myself one big curve ball which I'm trying to figure out, to ensure that the plot resolves in a way that makes sense and also, frankly, is kind of sexy....

In the meantime though - going back today to rewrite a big scene that's pretty pivotal. Hopefully it'll turn out well. Wish me luck. Back soon.

60K on Housesitting

Christmas was never going to be a great time for writing - family commitments, blah blah blah - but to make it worse I got sick and had even less energy or motivation. Bah. Humbug.

Still, I'm proceeding, and that's all I wanted to note in this entry. Passed by 60,000 words total on Housesitting today; still going strong. I am now 100 percent certain that the finished book will be bigger than my target (75K) but I'm going to get there before I make a guess at what the final total will be.

Also for the record: 58 days to deadline.

Happy New Year!

Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, I hope you had a fun or relaxing New Year's Eve, depending on your preference.

And whether 2012 was 'one for the books' or an 'annus horribilis' then I hope 2013 is a great year for you and your family. Wishing you all the prosperity and happiness you can handle.

New Year's Resolutions? Just one: finish Housesitting and publish it as an ebook. Oh, and sell a copy. Or two. Anything else will be a bonus!