Challenging – that was the best verb for a day with no writing. Sure, a few hours were fun. I reread On Writing by Stephen King, and half of Post Mortem by Patricia Cornwell. Both served a purpose and came with their own lessons. On Writing contains a lot of great advice, the best piece of it might be: write a lot, read a lot. Simple enough. Cornwell offers an another lesson.

The Kay Scarpetta forensic thriller is a good example of a plot-driven story that hooks the reader into staying up way past their bedtime. Some dismiss the “Oreo effect” ( gotta have just one more cookie, gotta read one more page ) as an act of manipulation, and here’s where I agree and disagree with Ray Bradbury and Stephen King. Both consider plot little more than footprints in the snow left behind by their characters, secondary to the story. That’s absolutely correct, if the story is situation based. What if it’s not?

Situation driven stories – like what would happen if a writer was kidnapped by his biggest fan, or mankind had to move to Mars – tell the story slowly. Readers learn of the characters in bits and pieces just as the writers do. Hopefully, this builds to a crescendo. In the hands of a Bradbury or a King, it can be a great journey.

Plot driven stories place the emphasis on engagement. The action pops out front, right in the beginning. The stories burn bright; the stories burn fast. Patricia Cornwell, Dan Brown, John Grisham all deliver plot by the truckload. I’ll argue that Thomas Harris does as well, though he has a few more goodies in the toolbox than the others.

Given the competition books face from other visual mediums, the flat growth of publishing in general, and ever shrinking attention spans, it begs the question – how long will a reader tolerate a slow burn? Myself, I respect the get in, get out, take no prisoners approach. Put the ball where everyone can see, roll it, and keep it rolling. Brand me manipulative, I guess.

Lest this idea seem to come from a vacuum, here’s an article in the New York Times that raises good questions about technology scattering attentions in the workplace. Registration is required, but it’s free.

At 2:28 PM EST, I wrote the last line of the book. The word count meter for the manuscript will remain in the sidebar until copies reach the pre-submit readers for feedback. Only after implementing the revisions and suggestions, will it reach the 100 percent mark. The meter will return remain in place for one day to reflect that milestone, and then the clock returns to zero; a new project begins.

A couple of thoughts for the day:
1) Writing another novel is possible, even starting a new one as soon as the next few weeks. I’m tired, but not burned out.
2) It’s time for a view bigger than the characters I’ve known for the last thirteen months. While the lessons they taught me were invaluable, looking at the world through another set of eyes is a welcome challenge.
3) Still want that bottle of Tanqueray, but I’m too tired to drink it. Maybe Thursday or Friday.

Despite a writing session that netted two thousand words, looks like one final push left for a finished draft. Considering I’ve never estimated a project of this scope and length before, missing the target by a day seems reasonable. At least to me, it does.

When I consulted, if the final code drop ever landed on the initial deadline, the customer would have had a heart attack. It’s sort of assumed that software ships late. Deadlines in that business are suggestions.

Next time, I’ll allow a larger cushion on the back end. Regardless, even with a few more weeks, something tells me the project would have gone much the same way: a long stretch of modest output levels, the pace quickening once across the halfway mark, and a frenetic race against the clock for the final third.

Traveling this far with a novel has taught me one lesson. Well, several, but I’ll write more about those addenda later. My point is, keeping a handle on a novel sized manuscript is not difficult in the way I anticipated.

Finding time for writing is easy, but spending the majority of that allotment on a single project is exhausting. After a few months of facing the same conflicts day in and day out, the mind wants new ground, new adventures. Perhaps working on two projects at once might alleviate that tension. Or maybe not. I can always experiment.

Nearly done with the draft, but it needs one more day of work ( plus the cliffhanger ending). Most of the writing time today went towards editing the whirlwind that was the last 35 pages. For being written so fast, I expected severe carnage. Instead, I uncovered only minor glitches like awkward phrasings and dropped words. A miracle really, because quality control and volume are inversely related. The faster something is written, the more glitches riddle the passages. Years from now I hope that’s a memory, and I’ll write at a faster clip.

And no, the count meter is not broken. Since the new material offset cuts, the net effect is a zero gain in word count today.

Tanqueray is calling my name. I just can’t answer yet…