Hey Everyone,

I’ve been doing some database management. Part of that process involved purging over 5,000 registered users (primarily spambots) and more than 70,000 user_meta entries.

Unfortunately, in the process it is possible I have deleted some real and honourable registered users. For this I deeply apologise. I’m choosing to leave the registration via site closed to avoid another deluge of spam registrations. However, I invite you to email me if you would like to be included as a member of the site. I’ll be glad to add you manually.

There are other ways to stay in touch with the site too, such as subscribing via RSS so that you can keep up with us in your regular feed reader, or subscribing via email so that new posts land straight in your inbox, or like our Facebook page so that you can join our community of writers and stay in touch.

It’s a pleasure to have you as a reader and remember, I love your comments so please, if you have a moment after reading a post, take the time to say Hi and let me know your thoughts.

Until next time,
Rebecca

December 18th, 2012

8.00pm
Ok, 8pm crashed into me today. But I’m here, my files open, I’m ready to go, sorta.

8.20pm
Grr, like pulling teeth. I think it’s because I had a rushed start. Stupid game was distracting me. I’d meant to go home, but didn’t, so I got started at Mum’s and now I’m kind of bound here tonight.

It’s a rough start, probably because of the rush, but I still managed 535 words.

8.30pm
Ok, getting started again. I’ll have to remember to make a cup of tea real quick after this one. Battling a headache, mild dehydration, and a moderate case of writer’s lack of confidence. Still, one must not let these things defeat the art, right? Onward!

8.50pm
*sighs* It’s not getting any easier. Perhaps because I’m displaced and getting distracted/interrupted. People talk to me here. It’s very frustrating. I wish I’d gone home in time to get started with these.

8.55pm
*groans* 423. And it’s still like pulling teeth. I’m afraid I’ll end up having to scrap this whole scene. It doesn’t feel right. I’ve definitely got to figure out the various character voices. Maybe I’m over-thinking the whole thing. Or maybe it’s because I’m scattered tonight and can’t settle into it.

9.00pm
*sighs* Ok, going again. Words is words after all.

SPOILER ALERT!

9.10pm
I have to double check that I didn’t already kill Jackson. I hope I did already kill Carvy. Gotta double check all that.

END OF SPOILER

9.20pm
I only wrote 203 words that time. But really I wrote more, because I took a lot out too. I’ve been having trouble with this scene so I’ve been going back, fitting bits in, fleshing it out more instead of just straight writing. Still, it’s progress, and it’s 20 minutes of focused progress. For me, that’s what Word Wars are really all about.

9.50pm
298 words. *grimaces* Still, that scene has mostly come together and I’m started on the next scene. I’m wading through it because I have snippets from an earlier draft that I need to consider for these next few scenes. It’s a complete rewrite but the story is buried in those snippets so I’m passing back and forth between pages of old draft. Stupid way to write, really. But that’s the way it works after the first (and second, and third) draft sometimes.

10.50pm
I have a problem. The scenes unfolding tonight have rushed too far ahead. Of course, I have pages of old draft that can be woven in and hopefully I can pull these pieces apart a bit to better fit my outline. I can’t rush these last chapters. Yes, the tension needs to remain high but I always hate books that seem to crash to the end. They build up and build up and then suddenly it climaxes in a rush. You want to sustain that literature orgasm. That’s what these scenes need to do. Keep that thrumming tension quivering there as the climax comes together, draw it out, make it a sweet ecstasy of reward for the reader, and then take a soft breath to wind it down at the end. At the moment, it’s rushed like a clumsy teenager.

10.55pm
Ok, done some math. That last word war gave me another 324 words. Bringing my total for today to 2,312. Not too bad. And then *drum roll* my current book total stands at 86,250 words. That’s just 13,750 words until my 100,000 word target. So if I can straighten out these chapters here, get them unfolding correctly and at the right pace it should be a good run down to the finish line. I might even want to cut out a bit.

December 16th, 2012

12.15pm
Ok, I have serious issues with Crey’s voice at the very least. *sighs* It’s going to take some significant editing to work the kinks out of it. Still, I try to remind myself that the book needs to be written more than it needs to have the character voices all straight at this point. I’ll go through and work on his dialogue separately later. In fact, I indent to isolate every characters dialogue individually and work through it to make sure the character voice is consistent. That’s going to be a task and a half, but it will be worth it.

12.40pm
*sighs* It’s so sad to know what I’ve thrown away from the first and second draft. There is some good writing there. Yes, there is also a LOT of bad writing too, but the good writing is sad to cut away. Still, that writing doesn’t belong in this draft and I have to be brutal about not trying to force it to fit. Sometimes murdering your darlings is the kindest thing you can do.

1.55pm
*chuckles* Oh, I like that paragraph. It feels like a transition from one state to another. Embracing yourself, instead of running from it. Theme, distilled in a half dozen lines. I mean it’s not. Every word has lead up to it and it really couldn’t stand alone, but it still feels like a turning point that encompasses that theme. From helplessness, to power.

Trouble is, I feel like the scene needs to end there, but the scene card that follows shouldn’t start from there. I suppose I could chapter break there. It would be a kind of short chapter, just shy of 3,000 words but it’s not the shortest chapter I’d have. I could also, potentially, flesh out the Lucas scene in this chapter, maybe. Yeah, chapter break is probably the best bet.

2.40pm
I’m flagging. It’s different when there is no one here. I mean, I’ve probably written more than I sometimes do at a write in. I’ve certainly written more than I did in the 5 hours at Murdoch yesterday (since I wrote nothing then), but I still feel like I’m struggling. It’s a hard slog. Possibly because I started today with a migraine. The heat doesn’t help either and the sun is starting to come down on this window so the heat and light is getting worse. But somehow, it’s the loneliness getting to me the most. No one else could make it this week. I hope that’s not a sign of these Sunday’s becoming extinct already. Hopefully it’s just that everyone is busy with family and Christmas etc. Hopefully future weeks will pick up pace.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed in Steven Pressfield’s Turning Pro. I absolutely loved the War of Art. I’ve even blogged about the Ten Principles that define a professional writer. I should write a full review of all the things loved about that book. Turning Pro promised to give us greater insight into the concept of the amateur and the professional. It promised to take this concept to deeper levels, to explore it, to explain it. Unfortunately, I feel in this regard it failed.

The War of Art gave us great depth. Through light-hearted and entertaining anecdotes, it expressed some profound symbolic truths. It was blunt and opinionated but it shared insight into the psyche of the artist as a hard working professional, someone to whom nothing is truly gifted, to whom every success was hard won and earned. That is the kind of professional writer I want to be.

Turning Pro on the other hand seemed to suggest some kind of mystical honour that is art. It is almost as if there is an edge of defeat in the book that says, don’t create because you can succeed, create because you don’t give a damn. I felt like the book Steven writes advocates creation for creation’s sake, rather than for sharing something special and meaningful. Rather than putting yourself in that chair ever day because you’re called to do something remarkable with your life, it felt like turn up if you want to , or don’t, I don’t care either way.

I think what appealed to me in the War of Art is the way Steven pushed us to realise ourselves and called us out to achieve our full potential. To me, that was what turning pro was all about. Rather than sitting back and letting life wander into the back roads where life will take us, we command our lives, we live up to the best of ourselves. That is what I want to achieve as a writer. That is what my writing means to me when I face that blank page.

Turning Pro is like the shadow of its older brother. If you have to choose between them then I definitely recommend the War of Art.

December 13th, 2012

8.50am
Ok, so I’ve been telling myself I should write, every single night this week. Then I’ve spend a few hours watching t.v. programs instead. So, no more excuses. I need some friends to pull me out of the mindless stupor of the box and back to the final 20,000 words of this book. So, I’m calling on my Novel Ninja friends (a bunch of local Perth-based writers I met during NaNo) to help me challenge myself with some word wars.

Starting from 8pm I’m thinking 20 minute word wars every half hour from 8-11pm. Everyone welcome.

7.40pm
Ok, pulling myself up by my bootstraps to live up to my promise of Word Wars tonight. First one in 20 minutes.

8.00pm
Doh! No idea what I’m going to write, but it’s time. Biting the bullet. Lets do this thing! 20 minutes, go now!

8.20pm
Ok, that’s 20 minutes. 641 words. Not bad given I had no clue what I was going to write when I started. I need to build on the angst in this scene and I guess I’ve got myself in a good position to get started on that. Next war in 10 minutes.

8.30pm
Ok, next one’s up. Here we go. 20 minutes, starting now!

8.50pm
Ok, 774. A bit better. Raced through some dream sequences I wasn’t expecting. Was fun. Wonder what will happen next. lol

9.00pm
Ok, 9.00pm. time to get going again. Another 20 minutes.

9.20pm
Ah ha! 724. And I ended up starting a scene I didn’t even know would exist. Characters really do write these books you know. We just take dictation.

9.30pm
Time to go again. 20 minutes, here we go. (Or I go, whatever.)

9.50pm
Only 605 words that time, but I stopped about 3 minutes early because I needed to pull myself together again. Crying my eyes out, which is ridiculous because I already know how the story ends. Still, I guess if I can make myself cry with these scenes, I might be able to make the reader cry too. And isn’t putting the readers through hell with our characters part of the whole point of being a writer?

9.55pm
I’m fragile tonight I admit that, but even so I do hope these scenes touch my readers as much as they touch me. Still, I’m very aware that I need to go back and give a good working over on Crey’s dialogue. When I write him it comes out me. But I know he has his own voice, his Italian accent, his correctness of language with those few dialectical quirks that are common to a person who speaks English as a second language.

I also have to work through continuity. Things get revealed to me later in the story and I need to go back to make sure they’re woven through at the beginning. To make sure they’re not in conflict with things from earlier scenes/chapters. My beta-readers are catching up to my well edited chapters so I need to make time to go over the second act. It’s not ready for readers yet.

I have doubts about the whole drafts readiness at this point. I know the dialogue in particular needs careful vetting. Along with the continuity. I need to make sure all the notes I’ve taken are put into action. Part of me hesitates to continue when I know I’ve left so much undone behind me. But maybe that’s resistance talking. I just have to get through this fourth act. Only a dozen or so more scenes.

10.00pm
Ok, going again. two more tonight. 20 minutes.

10.20pm
689. Bit clunky I guess. And again, something weird cropped up I wasn’t expecting. Still, it’s interesting, I’ll go with it.

10.30pm
Opps, almost missed the last roll call. Was writing some more. lol Ok, resetting word count, here’s the last round. Ready, set, go!

10.50pm
And that final run brings me to another 775. Time to add up the total of tonight’s word wars.

Sweet! If I did my math right (and that’s always a big if) I wrote 4,208 words. In three hours. That’s damn good. So, even if I was at war with myself it was worth every minute. Look forward to taking another run at it tomorrow night.

Oh, forgot to add the 395 words i wrote between wars. So that’s 4,603. Nice!

by Moira Allen

You want to write, but you don’t. Or perhaps you start, but can’t bring yourself to finish, leaving a dozen promising articles or stories in various stages of incompletion. Or perhaps you finish, but can’t quite bring yourself to stuff those pages into an envelope and pop them in the mail. Your family, friends, or critique group say your work is wonderful. So what is holding you back?

This scenario is far from rare. It isn’t the same as the dreaded malady we call “writer’s block.” It’s more like “submitter’s block,” and I’ve known many excellent writers who suffer from it. They produce quality work — stories, novels, articles — and earn well-deserved praise from peers in critique groups, yet balk at the thought of actually sending that work to market.

Ironically, this syndrome rarely impairs the clueless, who remain willing to send single-spaced, 40-page, grammatically challenged “short stories” into the market without a second thought. And therein lies the key: A writer must reach a certain degree of competence before s/he can begin to question that competence. And questions of competence lie at the core of “submitter’s block.”

The “am I good enough?” question plagues nearly every writer, from newbies to established authors. New writers find the question particularly difficult, because they have less “external information” on which to base an answer. But even if you’ve sold several pieces, you may feel qualms if you try to break into a different subject area or better-paying market, or to switch from nonfiction to fiction or from short pieces to book-length manuscripts.

It would be easy to dismiss this as an issue of “low self-esteem”. If that were the problem, however, “submitter’s block” would never affect writers who have a relatively high self-esteem — yet it does. I believe another factor is at work: The issue of “image.”

When one utters the words, “I want to be a writer,” one automatically has an image of what a writer is. Often that image is more visual than verbal. One person may “see” a writer as a studious, professorial type pecking at a keyboard in a room filled with books; another may “see” a well-groomed, confident author holding forth at a major talk show. No matter what we “see” when we think of a “real” writer, however, the problem is that all too often, we don’t see ourselves.

If your inner “portrait of a writer” doesn’t match what you see in the mirror, you doubt your ability to “become” what you imagine a writer to be. This concern is often fueled by interviews with successful writers whose work habits, experiences, and, yes, personal appearances, bear little resemblance to our own. If we don’t measure up, how can our manuscripts?

What’s needed is a little healthy myth-popping. Let’s take some of those images out of our mental closets and see how they withstand the light of reality!

Myths of the “Real Writer”

By now, hopefully, you’ve put aside the notion that a “real writer” is paid by the wheelbarrow. But what about some of the other things we’ve been led to believe about real, successful, big-name writers?

1. Real writers are organized. This image is deceptive, because when most of us visualize “organization,” we see “neatness.” An organized writer, we imagine, would have projects filed in neat folders, labeled and cross-referenced, with charts to track works-in-progress. Such a writer’s desk wouldn’t look like ours, with papers and folders strewn everywhere, and notes from our last phone interview scrawled on a piece of junk mail. But does such a desk mean you are really disorganized? Chances are, the answer is no. If you can lay your hands on the folder you need, or read those scrawled notes when it’s time to type up the interview, maybe you don’t need color-coded files. Organization isn’t about neatness; it’s about whatever works best for the individual. And no matter how messy your desk is, somewhere there is a highly successful author whose work-space looks far worse than yours.
2. Real writers are learned. Many of us cherish the image of the scholarly writer, coke-bottle glasses perched on an inkstained nose, surrounded by shelves and shelves of esoteric books. In reality, a great many highly successful (and extremely well-paid) authors never graduated from college (let alone from a college writing program). Some of the world’s most respected authors worked on tramp steamers, or fought in prize rings, or swept floors, or washed dishes. Many had no opportunity for higher education, because of poverty or because such doors were closed to their race or gender. The power of their words did not come from the ivory tower of academia, but from the grubby alleys of life. So don’t worry about whether you’ve taken the right “courses” to be a successful writer; no matter how little formal training you’ve had, you’ll be able to find a great writer who had less.
3. Real writers have lived through lots of gritty, intense, life-changing experiences. Granted, Ernest Hemingway got around. But not every action writer has stood in the bullring or wrestled with marlin on the high seas. Nor must a writer suffer tragedy, loss, depression, rejection (excluding rejection letters), or similar “life lessons” to be able to write about the human experience. No matter what your “condition” may be, you’ll find something in your own experience that resonates with others. The key is to recognize those experiences and lessons that have made a difference in your life — even if you haven’t sailed the world or swept floors for a living.
4. Real writers aren’t like other people. Sometimes, this myth is a sanitized way of saying that real writers are a little crazy, or gain their best inspirations from controlled substances. A good way to dispel the second part of this myth is simply to write something while drunk and read it when sober. As for the rest, “real” writers are pretty much like other folks: They want to pay the bills, eat at a nice restaurant every once in awhile, and put the kids through college. But this myth also has a kernel of truth: Writers aren’t like everyone else. How many of your friends, colleagues, classmates, coworkers, and family members understand your passion for words? How many would give up a full-time job and paid vacations for the uncertainty of the writing life? If you’ve decided that your love of words outweighs your love of evening television or even of a regular paycheck, you’ve already met this criterion: You’re not like everyone else (and who knows, maybe you are a little crazy!). But you are like many great writers who made the same choices.
5. Real writers are confident. Some are. Some aren’t. But if you’re “blocked” from sending that novel to a publisher because you can’t imagine yourself on Oprah, relax and buy some stamps. Even if your book is accepted, it’s going to be a couple of years before Oprah gets a copy of the galleys, or your phone number. Meanwhile, you may find that you do have what it takes to give a brief talk to your local writer’s club, or go online for an author chat, or accept an invitation to speak at a conference. And before you know it, when Oprah does call, you’ll be willing to think about it — because you’ve discovered that jitters aren’t fatal, and that you really do have something to say, even if (like many “real” writers) you have to drink a bottle of Pepto-Bismol before you can say it!
6. Real writers are driven. Here’s one of the stickier myths: If you were “driven,” nothing would keep you from finishing that novel, that story, that article. The fact that you haven’t is surely a sign that you don’t care enough about writing to make it your top priority. The simple truth is that most people have multiple priorities, and writing is very often not the first. Chances are, you’re not going to divorce your spouse or put your children in foster homes (however appealing both options might seem) just to get more writing time — or give up your job and eat out of dumpsters while finishing your first novel. Only mythical figures can afford to focus on a single, all-consuming goal; they don’t have to shop for groceries, wash clothes, or change the oil in the car. Successful writers, on the other hand, are simply folks who have learned how to add writing into life’s complex balancing act.
7. Real writers write every day. You’ve read this advice in every writing magazine, so it must be true, right? Real writers either dedicate a certain number of hours per day to writing, or don’t stop until they’ve completed a certain number of pages. If you don’t write every day, your writing muscle will get “flabby.” If you don’t write today, it will be harder to write tomorrow, and almost impossible the next day. Or so you’re told. Alas, I can’t recall where I read an article that beautifully punctured this myth, so I’ll paraphrase: Do doctors see patients every day? Do sculptors sculpt every day? Do pastors preach every day? No! Folks with ordinary day jobs don’t “work” every day, and neither do writers. Indeed, if we do not take time to relax, refresh, walk around, and interact with the world outside our keyboards, we are likely to lose our ability to remain “fresh” as writers — not to mention the fact that we won’t find very much to write about! That doesn’t mean that a regular writing schedule isn’t important; it is. But a regular “living” schedule is important too. If you’re trying to write every day just because you think you must, writing will soon become a joyless chore, empty of passion or inspiration.

There are, of course, real writers who write every day, real writers with multiple advanced degrees, real writers whose prose derives from the anguish of life experience, and real writers who wouldn’t feel the slightest butterfly-twinge at the thought of guesting on Oprah. There are also thousands upon thousands of others, an infinite variety of “models” from which to choose. The next time you find yourself wondering what a “real” writer looks like, therefore, don’t pick up a writing magazine. Instead, go look in the mirror. Then, finish that piece and put it in the mail.

December 4th, 2012

4.50pm
Got some great feedback from one of my pre-readers today. She’s just had chapter 3 (and I’m about to send her chapter 4). There are two points she’s brought up that I need to stick placeholders on so I’m adding my responses to her in my journal today.

5. I really like Jess, I need to play her out a bit more, make Jess a bit more fun, I think. Trouble is, I wanted to do some research into Irish accents so I could really get a feel for her voice.

7. ‘… somehow just having him here…’ Jess doesn’t know, but she’s so flighty that I deliberately dropped it in as something Jess might miss at the time. Is it too big a point for Jess to skip over? The him kind of refers to ‘police’, but of course Tori means Lucas specifically. I thought maybe Jess would just assume him means them. What do you think? I’ll make note of this one to come back to.

Both these points are probably meaningless to anyone else but they’re enough for me to go back and sort things out when I come back to them.

11.1 I love Darcy. I wish there were more of Darcy in this story. *sighs* That could actually be a plot hole. Tori’s role as a reporter really isn’t brought back into the story beyond chapter five where she actually does follow up on the story doing her reporter thing. I suppose time moves quickly after that and there really is no occasion for it to come back up. Except, oh, it could come up there (there being a spoiler so I won’t specify). I wonder how “reporterly” I should make Tori. Would Tori want to report what she’s learned to her editor? She won’t have time to write the story herself, so maybe she won’t tell him because it is her story and she is directly involved. Still, it’s definitely something I need to make note of and think about some more. Any opinions?

11.2 Another thing that occurs to me is that Tori calls him on a landline. I wonder if I could/should modernise this to a mobile phone. She also uses a voice recorder in a later scene, I tend to use my iPhone to take voice notes. An interesting point to consider.

You know what just occurred to me? I should write a post with her feedback and my response because she’s an excellent reviewer and it would be a good example of a great way people can be beta-readers or pre-readers for other people. Reviewing or critiquing work is a fantastic way to build your own skills. I have a few people I do it for, and I have a few people who do it for me. It’s a great symbiotic relationship. I should blog about that.

December 2nd, 2012

12.30pm
So, it’s Sunday, again. I actually did come down to the library to write, but have spent the first half hour doing non-writerly things. In a way, it is writerly because it organises my mind, ready to begin. But now it’s 12.30. It’s time to stop organising my mind and just start writing already. Music goes on.

1.05pm
I feel like I’m missing something. I thought Lucas had come across Tempany when he came in from the balcony and someone slipped out of the door. But I can’t find it anywhere. Obviously, it has to be an earlier scene. It foreshadows the fact that Tempany knows more about Uriel than she’ll admit. Where is it?

1.35pm
Yay, I’m feeling really good about this. I’ve written almost 1000 words in less than an hour. I’m not certain they’re good words, but they’re there, on the page, after four days of no words. It’s another scene closer to the end of the third act, another scene closer to the end of the book. It also accomplished what the scene was supposed to. I just hope it did it in a way that is both believable and comes across real and passionate. I’m not sure it does. I’m also not sure I foreshadowed the possibility of it happening earlier in the book. It might feel a little deus ex machina (I should totally write a blog post about that!). Although, at this point it doesn’t really serve much purpose. I’m assuming it will serve more purpose in the sequel.

1.40pm
I’m taking a short break. Need some water.

2.05pm
Just went back and tweaked a scene in the first chapter to foreshadow something that becomes a big deal in the third act. I love when there is a feeling of hitting the right note, hitting home, when I read parts of scenes I wrote earlier, months ago. There is this image, I’m describing a photograph, and there is one where a man and woman share a kiss, the woman is clearly pregnant. The line that tugs my heart is fairly simple in the grand scheme of things: “The woman’s rounded belly was a swell that stretched her top and the man’s arms cupped her gently, as if cradling the child within.”

I think it touches me because I know who that child is, who the man and woman are, so I know the connection between them, and the the idea of the man and woman loving each other so much, and the man loving the child so much, tugs at my heart. Perhaps it’s also because I don’t really feel like my father ever felt like that about me. It’s one of those moments where we can put something truly special into a book and touch cords with our readers. At least, I hope it feels as intimate and touching a moment to my readers as it does to me.

Also, it is one of those occasions where using the adverb makes the sentence better. *winks* I could have written, “his gentle hands cupped her” but it needs to be softer than that and the adverb softens the sentence.

2.20pm
Ok, so I did hit the right note with that last scene. I read it over and almost burst into tears in the middle of the library with three other writer friends around me and and seven strangers reading their books. Still, if I feel a wash of sadness, hopefully that means my readers will too.

That also brings a close to Chapter 22. Moving on to Chapter 23, the final chapter, and only a single scene, before the end of act three and the beginning of act four. Rush of excitement and thrill. This book is almost written. About 20,000 words to go.

2.25pm
I just realised Tori needs to have killed someone recently for the Inner Demons scene to work the best. That means I have to go back a few scenes and find someone to kill. No idea who it will be. Actually, I think I do know, he’s the only character I’ve grown to like, despite being a bad guy, his little character quirks kind of make him a fun character, much more fun than the other two characters that could be chosen. And you know, it has to be a likeable character that gets killed. Although, Tori hasn’t had much contact with him. Maybe I need to thread back a bit further to have him in her life a little more.

Ok, it’s possible that I need to get rid of Jeremy. It’ll require a bit of editing but it’s a good way to get the character I mentioned above into the prior scenes with Tori. Although, having said that, I’m not sure if that’ll mean he’s in two places at once. Better check. *groans* I think this sort of thing is why the later chapters are so much harder to write.

STORY OUTLINE SPOILER

Ok, lets get this timeline worked out.

Afternoon: Tori and Lucas are captured in the afternoon.

Evening: The ceremony at the alter happens in the early evening, prior to dinner I would assume. Carvy, Orton, and Jackson get Lucas down to the cells and Crey and Zara takes Tori to her room.

Morning: Tori wakes up, possibly the next morning. She is guarded by two men, unnamed.

Morning: Lucas is visited by Crey. Possibly morning. Orton and Carny come down to give him another beating and Crey sneaks past them back up the stairs.

Morning: The High Priestess visits Tori in her room. Two guards, unnamed, but one is young – Same guards as before.

Late Morning: Zara visits Tori. Two guards, unnamed, one young – Same guards as before.

Late Morning: Zara visits Lucas. Orton and Carny escort her down but then leave as she’s tending to him.

Late Afternoon: Hours later, Tori guarded by two guards, demands to see the high priestess, one guard is killed.
(This is the best place to weave Carny into Tori’s POV)

Late Afternoon: Zara takes Tori away. Dinnertime.

Dinner time: Lucas calls out, Orton answers. Crey comes down to him.

Evening: After dinner, Tori is ‘guarded’ by Crey

END SPOILER

3.30pm
Ok, so I’ve fed the Nagaran person in to an earlier scene where he has a fairly interesting encounter with Tori. I’ll have to edit the first scene of chapter twenty two as well to play out that whole kill someone more recently idea.

3.40pm
Ok, only managed to get 1,325 new words today but I did get a whole scene and some good segments of foreshadowing sorted out. I say that’s pretty good progress for today. Of course, I do feel like I need to do more than that soon because I don’t want it to take 20 weeks to finish this book.