I’ve finished tidying up my novel word document, and while it feels good to have everything in order and everything usable, I deleted so many words that my word count is now about 30,000 words instead of the 50,000 I wrote during NaNoWriMo.
This is necessary for the story I’m writing now, and I have so many more chapters to write that I know the word count will rise without much hassle. Though it is equally discouraging to see so little words and encouraging to see such a clean word document with the scenes clearly laid out, ready to be written.
I haven’t been this excited about creative writing in a while, and it feels great to have a project with an end goal, an obvious finish.
Even though I wrote a novel last year (coming in at about 60,000 words), this one feels different. You could blame the excitement of having a new idea, but I do believe that this is the story God wants me to tell.
I think the first novel I wrote was for me, and God wanted me to write it for numerous reasons. But the novel I’m writing now, while it is for me too, feels like God is more involved with the process. Like it’s for other people, and not just myself.
I feel weird about showing people the novel I wrote last year. But the current one calls to be shared.
I don’t know what that will look like, and I’m not near the end of the writing process, let alone the editing, but it would be nice to get feedback on it.
This story is focused on the everyday things.
I don’t want my novel to be dependent on something dramatic and intense. Sad things, important things, happen to everyone, and these things don’t need to be traumatic to be worth writing or reading about.
In saying this, maybe my novel is boring? I’m enjoying writing it, but I look forward to hearing if other people are engaged in the content. (There is a hint of ~romance~ if that helps.)
If you want to read about why I want to write a novel in the first place, you can click here.
I’ve been listening to Christmas music while writing today, and it’s all been very lovely and wholesome. I love me some wholesome living.
Happy Friday!
Sarah xx
the softest words 