Today I wrote what is essentially the climax and resolution of the first draft of this young adult novel.

Total word count, Il Maestro e le Figlie di Coro: 53,903
New words today: 3,643

There is a full chapter of wrap-up to go, but the hard part is over. Then comes the rewriting of the uneven first draft and expanding of the basic story. I still have two pages of scenes outlined in note form to expand and insert somewhere in the first half of the book, and I know the timeline is a bit wonky season-wise and needs to be fixed. When it’s over it will be the right length. I have to keep reminding myself I cut five thousand words not long ago, too.

I had momentum on my side today, once I actually got this part going. I kept thinking ‘I should stop and work on that book proposal’ but another part of me would point out that if I stopped I’d just have to work up the momentum again another day. So here we are, and I’ve written what the entire book has been leading up to. It needs more emotional depth, perhaps more detail (although I risk going into territory too technical that may lose the reader if I do), but the basic structure is there, eleven months after I began it.

Mousme came over to write with me today again. I like it when she’s here; I actually sit down and write instead of messing about doing other things. She requested Haydn quartets as writing music and I remembered why I own so many CDs of them: I love the things. And when she left I took a bit of a break, then went back to writing (see above re: momentum).

Now I have to really change gears and get into the headspace for orchestra tonight. And I’ve just realised that because I was gone for four days over the holiday I haven’t practised at all, and there will only be three of us in the section tonight, which means I have to be extra on. Oops. I should put the CDs I have of the pieces we’re doing in the CD tray and listen to them.