As some of you know, I've been working on a new WIP (DL) for the last month or two. Well, more obsessed than working since I'm still dreaming about it. But, its going a lot smoother than Case of the Morning Zombies. I think a lot of it has to do with Case was about finishing 50k words, which I did in 16 days. But, I didn't have the same drive to finish it as I do for DL. Like my first novel, the goal is more important to keep you going. For example, for MG, it was to be published. And I got published without resorting to a vanity press or POD. A real-life publishing company who never heard of me before I submitted.

And then they went out of business.

After that, I realized there was a lot more than just writing to get published. I decided after that first one, that I needed a better goal. Not to be just a published author but to be published with a larger house. Or, more precisely, to get to be a good enough writer I can see my book on the shelf of my local bookstores instead of just on Amazon. So, that is one of the things that lead into Wind, Bear, and Moon and Muddy Reflections. It will also be Case and anything else I write. That new goal.

But, NaNoWriMo turned into another goal that didn't go too far. I wrote for 50k words. That was my goal and I made it, but I didn't have the drive to go far enough. And, in many ways, I did Case a great injustice by doing it for NaNo.

I see that with DL. I did the same thing as Case: 50k words in 16 days. But, I didn't stop. I just hit 90k and I'll be at the 100k mark by the end of the week. It's a nice feeling, hitting 100k words which is what I consider the minimum for one of my novels.

And then there is another problem: I still have 16 chapters to go. At an average of 3k words per chapter (only about 7-10 pages per chapter for this one), that puts me in the 150k word range which is getting to the area I think is a bit long for a novel. Yeah, it's not as long as some of the books I've read, but I think this story needs to run a bit long. And it wasn't a goal of reaching 50, 100, or even 200k words. My goal was to finish a good story. And I think it is a good story. Well, I'm assuming it is good since I've gotten about a hundred comments on it already and two pieces of fan art.

... fan art. I've only gotten fan art for one other story in my life. And, for DL, I've gotten two! That part floored me. Yes, they are from the same person, but I inspired someone to draw the characters I'm creating. In a story I'm not editing, just posting as I write it. It's an absolutely amazing feeling, you know, to realize that someone likes a character so much they want to draw them for you. Its scary, exciting, and I've been floating off the ground for a week because of it.

And the best part? That wasn't a goal for DL. DL wasn't written to inspire or anything besides just be a good story, from beginning to end. Given the feedback, I think I'm doing that. And it feels so much better than just making 50k words for NaNoWriMo.