Made the minimum and did an extra 900 words to get my total from 11,100 to 17,000. It was a tough week; the pages I’ve done are full of ‘Fix this later’ and ‘Insert extra scene later’ and in general do a whole bunch of stuff later.
I’ve got whole swatches of dialogue with absolutely no descriptive passages or even connectors to the previous scene – I’m not sure why the first thing I jettison when I’m having trouble writing is the descriptive parts, since they’re what gets the word count up and gets me over my minimum so I can give up for the day. They’re also good for exploring the world a little and seeing what connections might pop up, so can help you through the maze.
At least having that stray 100 words sitting there spurred me to do a little extra. It was just so untidy I had to do something about it…
This week, Lily (Augusta’s sister) gets an outing:
‘Ton, let me in!’ The man sounded as loud and as arrogant as ever; his son’s defiance had not thrown him one iota. ‘I know you and your whore are shacked up in there.’
If he’d issued a genie-wish, he couldn’t have got the door open faster. Ton threw open the locks and flung the door back so hard it bounced off the wall and made it rain whitewash onto the floorboards.
‘Don’t dare address my wife like that, sir.’
Lily marvelled; not a trace of the stammer, not a trace of the little boy he’d been, hiding behind his father’s elbow. For love of her; it was love of her that had finally led Ton to slip the leash, to marry without permission and without the dowry his father demanded, to defy the king and help her steal away with Augusta.
‘I see no wife,’ said his father. His flat black stare indeed looked through Lily as if she were made of spun-glass and air.
