One week in, I’ve realized that I need to completely overhaul my main character and the arcs for the supporting characters as well, which means A, I’ve spent at least 12 hours of intense work on behind-the-scenes stuff which doesn’t actually add to my word count and B, most of what I’ve already written has to be tossed as I start over fresh. It’s incredibly frustrating, particularly during a month when I feel this external pressure to make forward progress at a particular clip. But I also think this will make the story work in ways it wasn’t coming together before. And I want to be honest with you guys about where I am instead of pretending everything’s going swimmingly.

So that’s where I am: working hard, feeling good about where I’m going, way behind on my word count but in it for the long haul, however long it takes. And feeling grateful to my friend Trai Cartwright for reminding me that a good manuscript requires a ton of writing that will never show up in the finished product, because that’s how you get to the good stuff.