Here’s today’s progress on the alternate-history battlefield adventure about a widowed nurse from a Confederate hospital aboard a west-bound train pulled by a Union war engine — now with military intrigue, steampunk Texas rangers, undead political separatists, murderous plots, bushwhackers, bandits, sabotage, and epic scenes of mayhem:

Project: Dreadnought
New Words: 5203 (a 2-day total, but 4K+ was written today.)
Present Total Word Count: 109,014 words
Goal: 135,000 words

Things Accomplished in Real Life: Managed day-job duties; did laundry; went to lunch with Caitlin; exchanged important writer business emails.

Other: I give up. There’s no way this book is going to come in under 135,000 words. My true guess is 140,000+ but I refuse to give in to the inevitable at this time. I still have 1-1/2 major scenes to write, plus the wind-down once our heroine reaches her destination. Oh well. Better too long than too short, and that’s a fact.

Revenge of Other: I also realized that I need to go back and write a short prologue, perhaps in the form of a news article. (For the sake of symmetry, I think a news article might be a good form for the info to take; after all, Boneshaker opens with a helpful expository chapter from a history book. A sort-of history book, that is. One that is in the process of being written by a character from the first chapter. So yeah. I think a news article. Perhaps.)

Reason for Stopping: It’s nearly 7:00 p.m. and I’m exhausted. I didn’t really get any work underway until well after lunch, and had to fit it around laundry … so I wore myself out late today. Yargh.