Seeing Is Believing Update

I haven't given an update on Seeing Is Believing for a while and there's a very good reason...I haven't had much to update :p.

However, I am actually nearing the end of this novel, which has taken much longer than I am comfortable with. I like to complete a novel in a 3-4 month span. This one is heading into its 6th month and I'd had high hopes of finishing it before the end of August so I could participate in another writing challenge for a new work. Honestly, I don't think that's going to happen without a scary push that'll exhaust me. Besides, I started Seeing with March Madness oh so long ago and it's taken me this long to get toward the end. If I start another novel now, what are my chances to participate in NaNo with a clean slate?

With regards to the story, I think I started writing before I had the shape of the novel fixed in my head, or maybe it's because this novel has fought me much of the way. I don't think this will turn out to be one of my more coherent drafts, though I'd be happy to be proven wrong. Still, I like the characters and I can feel for the push pull struggle Brian finds himself in, unsure what to believe and what to do as he works his way through the puzzles. With any luck, this will turn out to be a good, strong piece once I'm done editing it.


And stats:
New Words: 1,414 words
69 scenes
59 complete - 86% of the novel
10 Scenes remain
13,646 Remaining word count
94,157 Estimated length - with an average of 13,65 words per scene.
80,511 Current Total

Inspiration

I know, what on earth am I doing posting twice on the same day, but I just had to say something about what has happened to me.

I was feeling a little bereft and dependent on old ideas as nothing new came in to sweeten the pot. Then I caught the frame of a new romance novel, enough to give me something to pitch if Heart is accepted, but it didn't fill me with energy, probably because my hind brain isn't done tweaking.

So I've been glum and tired out. It's not that I don't have enough to do. At this point I have enough backlog to keep me busy for years if not decades. It's more that the ideas that catch hold and drag me along even kicking and screaming are so powerful, so overwhelming, that they fill me with drive and energy no matter how busy my life becomes.

I love all my books and short stories. Nothing I've written has ever been a pain overall, and nothing do I feel less than happy with what it will become when the editing is finished. That said, there are some novels that hold more power over me. Selkie was one, and its power is still strong despite my being in the middle of the second edit before even getting the first full critique.

With all that build-up, I guess you've figured me out. Yes, I've got a brand-new, fresh, overwhelming idea that's trying to steal the spotlight for Labor of Love...or NaNo if I don't finish Seeing Is Believing in time. This novel, currently called Con Shirt, is a stretch in so many directions that I feel like one of those old plastic hulk hogan dolls that you could pull the arms and legs out until the shape was distorted beyond human limits only to have it snap back into place. At least I hope it'll snap back into place, because it doesn't look like this book will agree to linger in the "Books to be" folder with the other ideas for very long.

The essence?

Can a neophyte witch track down a demon portal she opened with her own blood in time to stop the string of deaths and before a sorcerer lays claim?

It's an urban fantasy thriller or mystery, none of them genres I've written in before, though I do read quite a bit of urban fantasy as of late.

So anyway, wish me luck :).