Onward Ho!

With The House of Mercy, I didn't set out with any goal, other than to write a story - a good story, the sort of story that I want to read. "The How" of The House of Mercy is a blog-post for another time, but let it suffice for me to say that I wrote the first sort-of-kind-of draft (though should I even call it that, as it was so different - practically unrecognizable - from the final draft?) about ten or twelve years before the Lord led me to publish the novel. Until a few years ago, I had no end goal in sight ... I just picked away at the storyline, adding here and there, changing this bit and that. Eventually, by God's grace, it was finished, in almost-final-draft form, without me really needing to set daily or weekly or monthly goals for myself in order to do it.

That's not so much the case with my writing at present. For years, I've kept a file on my computer with story and character ideas, like a gardener storing away seed packets for her spring garden. When I look forward to these ideas blossoming within my writing, I'm filled with joy and delight. Yet the hard work of tilling the soil, dropping the seeds in just the right places, watering and feeding the tender plants lies before me yet - oh, so long it seems! - before I see the full or results of much hard labor.

Yet now, as August turns into September, my story-garden ripens. And grows...

The story I've been telling you about - "the Geranium story" - I thought I would be finished with the rough draft last week; I also thought it would be a "short novel," running about 70,000 words. {My "rough drafts" aren't that rough. I take a little more time with them and then have less revisions to do.}

Then, around last Wednesday, I passed 70,000 words and knew the story hadn't finished. {I actually have the ending basically done. It's the middle that needs some filling... rather like a donut, stories taste better with jelly or frosting stuffed inside them. :-)}

So I reset my goal: Finish the story this week. I write between 2,000 and 3,500 words a day, depriving myself of all forms of carrot cake unless I do so {just kidding}. So I figured, "the geranium story" can't have more than 10,000 words left, can it? I have the rest plotted out already...

Guess what? Yesterday, I hit 78,000 words. And the story isn't finished. Not yet.

But soon. Very soon indeed.

Thank you, friends, for covering my writing {and me} in your prayers.

Onward ho! I see the camp in the near distance...