Achievement: 90,000 words!

Cue the confetti:  In today’s writing session, I hit my novel’s (very-guesswork) target of 90,000 words.

I did not, however, manage to type “The End.” No, early on, I managed to wander a bit, getting a feel for the flow of a novel instead of a short story. I wrote too much, expanded on extraneous details and expounded too long in the interests of “characterization.” Yeah, this is definitely a learning process for me.

This is a first draft, however, so I’m not going to sweat it (too much). I just keep on typing. There’s time for cutting and condensing later, during the second (and third, and fourth, etc…) drafts. I have a whole raft-ful of things I know I need to cut, to add, to re-arrange. But none of that can happen until I finish! So–onwards, to the The End, wherever that may be, wordcount-wise. The final draft, I’m guessing (still guessing! that’s me 🙂 ) will be right around the 90,000 word mark. That’s the goal. Wish me luck.

Still, it felt pretty awesome when Scrivener popped up with the message “Project Target of 90,000 words reached.” Yay for reaching a goal, no matter how far the goalposts have moved since it was set! Celebrate the tiny victories fiercely, since you never know when the next victory, tiny or otherwise, may come around. Woo-hoo!

It’s also a great “stopping point” for a long weekend with our first houseguest in our new home. See you next week, back at the keyboard, as I dive back in to writing–and finishing–this blasted (lovely, wonderful, intriguing, utterly vexing) novel.