.

While I had hoped to get writing done at last week’s World Science Fiction Convention, the stress of the unhappy events made that nearly impossible. Oh, I managed to complete a scene I was in the middle of with an additional 600 or so words written during one session, but that was the sum total of my writing during the five days.

Yesterday, back at my day job, at lunch I got down 800 words on the next scene, and I can feel the narrative moving again. With this act nearly completed and only one act remaining, I can see the end of the manuscript, and I should reach it before September is done.

That leaves a lot of work yet to be done on it, though. This is the only novel that I have written by the seat of my pants, no list of characters and their traits, no outline showing all the major events, I just sat down and started the thing with scarcely any idea of where it was heading. That means that there is a lot of ‘reconstruction’ to do once I reach the end. For example, I now have a much clearer concept of the story’s themes, community being one of them. The communities that betray you and the ones that defend you has emerged as an element of the plot. It is also about outsiders to the wider culture and the insiders, and how that dynamic puts pressure on the individual. All of this I had no conception of when the first words hit the page, and now the revisions much strengthen and elaborate on these ideas.

Still, with luck and determination, I may have a completed novel ready before the end of the year.

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