Beth Alvarez's Blog, page 26

Free printable schedule stickers for authors

I saw some schedule stickers in colors I loved when I was out shopping, but they were for teachers, so the labels didn’t make sense for me. I made my own when I got home. I feel like I do better when I have everything on my calendar. I broke mine down to social media platforms, too, since I use a lot of different ones, but I made a set of flags specifically for other authors, too.

I cut them out using my Silhouette Cameo 3’s scan and cut feature, but they can be cut out by hand if you lack a machine. All you need is sticker paper!

Here’s the free printable set I made for authors. The stickers are an inch wide and a quarter inch tall, so they fit into tiny planners, too. There’s a blank column so you can pencil in specific needs as they crop up. I like using a white gel pen, just so the colors match.

These are obviously more geared toward indie authors, but that’s all I know–if you’re publishing traditionally, you already know you can’t make your own release schedule.

Mapping Orrad, capital of the southern Westkings Empire

I love maps, okay? Fantasy maps are something I just absolutely adore. I always knew I wanted maps in my books. I always figured they’d be world maps. Then To Steal the World came along.

I knew the map for that series would be a little different. The tale takes place entirely within one city, which meant a map of the world was cool and all… but not really important. So instead of the world, I decided to do something crazy and map the city instead.

Cartography is not one of my strong suits, fantasy or otherwise, so I had to make the most of tools available to me. In the end, I surprised myself with how tickled I was with the end result.

I’d planned on putting a more polished, professional map in the ebook, but I think I’m going to use this one instead. I certainly hadn’t planned on making the map look like it had been stuck in Tahl’s pocket, but that’s the way it just naturally went while I was working. While I’m not totally sold on the uniformity of the river–I think I’d like it better if it looked more hand-drawn–I don’t know if I’ll revisit it or if this will just have to be good enough. It seems like a natural addition, though, and I’m excited to see bits and pieces of the book coming together. Once the chapter headers are complete, the story should be edited and it’ll be on to the next challenge: Formatting!

King’s Blood

There was something unusual about the king.

Tilda knew relatively little of men. She was a good girl who heeded her father and paid her respects to Brant each Somnday, and her few stolen kisses with Addan, the particularly handsome stable boy, precluded any great knowledge of the opposite sex.

Yet despite her inexperience, she was certain the king was abnormal—even considering his station. No doubt being a king was a burden. It was a difficult job for the wisest of men, and the feud with the southernmost empire must have magnified that challenge a hundredfold. But even that challenge did not seem weighty enough for the hollow set of his eyes, the vacant weight of his stare, or the deep cruelty that marked the nature of his rule.

Stranger still was his tower in the garden.

It was an ugly thing, erected before she could remember, built like a fortress in the center of the palace garden’s most beautiful plantings. It bore no windows and only a single door, which was barred and barricaded and locked at all times.

“A king is allowed his follies,” Tilda’s father had said when she mentioned its oddity. “Had we the means, perhaps we’d be allowed our follies, too.”

She supposed there was merit in that. Yet why, then, did she hear the soft tinkle of water when she pressed her ear to the door as she passed through the garden? And why did the king visit but once a month, in the darkest hour of the moonless night? That was a question Tilda dared not ask her father; if she had, she’d have to explain why she’d been there, crossing through the garden for a single midnight kiss from her dear Addan. Once, it had been a fluke. But the second time she had seen the king unlock the tower door with its strange, arrow-shaped key, it had dawned on her that the situation was purely strange.

Despite the uneasy turnings of her mind, Tilda took the same path as ever, toward the fir-sheltered corner where her sweetheart waited for the innocent midnight rendezvous that had become their monthly ritual. She was there for Addan, as always; that her path meant she might see the king again was purely coincidence, in her mind.

A splash of gold light opened across the path. It widened, then narrowed to a sliver. Tilda paused. She was no later than usual, yet it seemed the king had beaten her there. The faintest outline of gold rimmed the tower’s door and, against all her better judgment, Tilda could not resist.

The soft melody of water reached her ears long before she reached the tower’s door. She did not mean to do more than peek, but when she touched the door, a low, mournful wail rose from the other side.

“How long?” a man moaned. The king, she decided; she’d heard his voice often enough as she worked within his palace. “How long will you torment me?”

“Why should I keep you, if not for torment?” the same voice answered, harsh and yet gleeful at the same time.

Tilda urged the door open an inch, just enough to allow her to peer inside.

The tower was empty, undecorated, lit only by the golden light of the torch in the king’s hand. He stood beside a fountain with his back to the door. The water splashed as cheerily as if it were not trapped where no one would ever see.

“You have what you wanted,” the king cried, and his voice cracked like that of a man who had run out of tears—the way Tilda’s father’s had cracked, when her mother had returned to Brant’s boughs. “Kill me. What more do you stand to gain?”

“I will, someday, perhaps. Yet not now. Not while a shred of hope still remains. You do still bear it, don’t you? And you will, until the last drop of king’s blood is shed and there is no chance for freedom.” The king shifted and the fountain came into view. Water filled the basin almost to the brim. It rippled with the splashes that poured from the fountainhead, yet never flowed over. And within the waters of the basin, the king’s reflection moved the other direction.

It was a kinder king, a younger king, with fine lines that skirted the kind eyes Tilda’s father once described. A king from a different age, whose kindness was renowned throughout the Westkings, both north and south. The king as he was before the princes were slain.

“King’s blood,” the reflection wailed, his voice hollow and mournful. He buried his face in his hands.

“You have the power to end your own torment,” the flesh king snarled above him. “Just tell me where you’ve hidden him. Your whole line will be dead and you… You will be free.”

A spark of energy returned to the reflection and it spun to face the man above it. “I’d sooner remain here a thousand years!”

“Pah!” The king spat into the water and for a moment, the reflection dissipated. “Don’t challenge my patience. I’ll keep you as long as I must. I’ll hunt your blood for ages, until every last drop has been spilled.”

Tilda drew back, her throat tight. A voice rose from the far end of the garden, calling her name. She hurried on to the shelter of the fir-trees, but she feared there would be no kisses tonight.

The king was in the fountain. Who, then, wore the crown?

~ : ~ : ~ : ~ : ~ : ~ : ~ : ~ : ~ : ~ : ~ : ~ : ~ : ~ : ~ : ~

King’s Blood is a snippet of a random story idea set in the northern Westkings, part of my fantasy world.

This is kind of a new idea I had–writing out the random ideas I have and seeing what’s worth expanding into novellas or full novels later on. My writing schedule is pretty full for 2020, but it’s never too early to plan ahead!

So what do you think? Is King’s Blood novel-worthy? Maybe just a novella? Skip this one and plan on something else? Weigh in with your opinion in the comments below!

To Steal the World

Not that long ago, I mentioned a new series of fantasy novellas that would be set in my primary story world. These happen around the same time as my Snakesblood Saga, too, but in a different region. To the west of where that dramatic story unfolds is a landmass known as the Westkings, a continent almost as neatly divided as the two kingdoms that control it. This is where our new hero is found.

I spent two whole weeks thinking about what to say about this series, but I think I already covered a lot of the basics. It’ll be a series of three novellas following Tahl, an ambitious thief with a love of challenges, who wants nothing more than to take refuge under the thieves’ guild’s protective wing. If only winning membership were so easy.

The first Westkings Heist novella, To Steal the World, is coming out in January of 2020. Even better, the next book in the series will be available for preorder the same day. They’re fun little adventure romps in a rich fantasy world I’ve been building for the past two decades, so I can’t wait for them to hit the virtual shelves. Due to the length, they’ll be available in digital format only.

I’ll be sharing some tidbits about the story world, the characters, and the inspiration behind all of it later on. For now, I’ll leave you with the book’s cover. I’m so excited to share this story with you!

Editing books, editing maps

June was a big month of editing. I tore through a good portion of the third book in my Snakesblood Saga—still tentatively titled, I suppose, as I’m never fully happy with most of the names I manage to come up with. I’m mostly happy with the individual book titles, but that perfect series title has always eluded me.

One thing I didn’t expect to revisit during the editing process was the world map. I know I need to finish it if it’s going to be printed in the front of the books, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it made no sense to put the full world map in the first two books. The first two books in the series take place in one specific locale; there’s no reason to focus on places that aren’t even mentioned until the third book. So for the first time in ages, I cracked open the image files for the map I drew for Elenhiise Island.

My first map of Elenhiise is still tucked inside the massive three-ring binder that holds the first draft of the first book. Its edges are tattered and its surfaced is creased, but it’s still the best representation of my original idea. And like the books, the vision I originally had was close, but not quite there. Though I’d redrawn it a few times, I didn’t realize until my most recent trek back through the first two books that it needed to change.

Overall, the changes were minor; a few years ago, I’d drafted a version that included lakes and rivers, as well as the names and locations of minor cities. Not all of those cities are noteworthy in the first book, but some of them come into play later on. A few important locations were slightly misplaced, though, and after refreshing my memory as I went through the story, I knew the map needed a few little updates.

A few locations were moved—Ilmenhith pushed closer to the sea, and a boundary between the two halves of the island shifted to better reflect placement described in the second book. Minor changes, really, but jarring after so many years of picturing things a certain way.

The spelling on a few locations and markers was changed as well. Ironically, I’d gone through a few iterations of city names and then cycled back to what I’d had in the first draft. Funny how that works, sometimes, but learning to trust your gut is an important part of storytelling.

Despite the care I put into the original map, I also realize I’ll have to redraw the graphic altogether before anything goes to print. Print editions demand I convert the whole thing to vector format—at least, if I want a good-looking image in the front pages. I’m not looking forward to the process, but it’s a necessary evil. With luck, I’ll figure out some shortcuts along the way. On the plus side, though, I can use the version I have for ereaders and web graphics. Like on this blog, here!

Almost good enough to put in the front of a book, I think…

New stories, new writing, and getting back to the grind

It’s not the fastest I’ve ever written a story, but let’s be honest–I hadn’t written anything new in over a year.

Between the middle of 2016 and the middle of 2017, I had my most productive year ever. I wrote several full-length novels and novellas. I think I released five books in 2017. They rolled out one right after another, and trying to keep up with that workload made me ill. I gave myself a few months off and then blogged a rough, unedited draft of a story, The City of Arches. By the end of May, I’d finished.

I didn’t write anything new after that, burying myself instead in the task of heavy editing and revision. In the seven months that followed, I wrote and rewrote, but only completed revision of one book.

Writing is hard. I think the idea that it must be easy is the most pervasive myth about the job, followed by the mistaken belief that most writers make money from their work. The truth of the matter is writing is exhausting and it takes a lot of time. I try to give myself an hour a day to write. A good day is 1,000 words. Anything beyond that is phenomenal.

Most people who write more than that don’t have the same demands on their time that I do. Many write full-time, for whole eight-hour shifts or more. Being in some online communities with very successful authors, I see a lot of people who write for ten or more hours a day as full-time authors, or people who get home and write all evening. Unsurprisingly, most of them don’t have children. The few who do acknowledge that they spend no time with their families, in favor of spending their time writing.

I don’t want that to be me.

Cutting back on what I allowed myself to cram into a day meant fewer books. In the months that followed the cut-back, I began to understand why people think it’s outrageous that authors like Stephen King and Danielle Steel are as productive as they are. The secret is they aren’t. Not really. Even giving myself two weeks of “emergency days” where I do no writing at all, my modest one hour of writing time, 1,000 words a day, is enough to produce four novels ranging between 80,000 and 100,000 words in length each year. Or seven 50,000 word novels, as if I write that short. Or sixteen-plus 20,000 word novellas, which I do occasionally write.

A novella was where I decided to pick up after I finished revising a book this year. I gave myself a month, figuring it would keep pressure low. I drafted an outline on a scrap of paper, projected it would be about 25,000 words, and started on May 1. I finished 5 days early at approximately 22,500 words.

Not bad.

In case you’re curious, the chart is from Pacemaker Press. I love the site for tracking my productivity. Seeing the little dots fill the chart brings me a big sense of accomplishment and I don’t really know why.

I’m sure there are a lot of things I could share about this project, but I’m not ready for that quite yet. It’s with an editor at the moment, so I’ll follow up after she’s done. Right now, though, I’ll say that the novella is a fantasy story set in my primary story world. It’ll be part of a series, eventually, but the first is written so it can be read by itself… just in case I don’t get to the rest in a timely fashion. Right now, I plan for three novellas and one additional short story, but there’s room for expansion if it stays fun to write. Fun is what I’m focusing on for now, but I expect to publish this story in January. More info, such as the cover and title and series title, will come after the editing stage.

I’m still working on Spectrum Blade, but I want that series to be complete before it starts going out, since its pieces can’t stand alone like TSW can. So for now, the schedule looks like TSW first–and maybe its sequel, if I write it–then the Snakesblood Saga, then Spectrum Blade.

It felt good to write something again, though I’m back to revising and rewriting now. The third book in my epic saga is about 2/3rds done, which means I’m about to hit the hard part. But things are finally moving again. Most importantly, it feels good to have completed something again.

I think I’d forgotten what that felt like.

Revision wrap-up

Toward the end of summer in 2017, we took a short trip into the nearby wilderness and delved into the only old growth forest remaining in western Tennessee. It was beautiful, and one of the most inspiring places I’ve been, though we haven’t been back. Now would be a good time to rectify that, I suppose, before it gets too hot.

I came across the pictures from that expedition while attempting to free up some space on my hard drive. I shared this one photo from the expedition on my blog, here, a few months after it happened. I probably should have written about it; the dense growth reminded me of the fantasy world in my head. I didn’t take many photos, and most of the few I have are similar attempts at getting one specific shot.

The mile-long trek we took was beautiful, a well-beaten path winding through the forest. It sometimes twisted close to itself, but the growth was so dense we couldn’t see the nearby path through the trees.

It was peaceful. Tranquil. Restful. And it felt like I’d been there before, though I hadn’t–and have never been again.

That’s probably what writing a story should be like. Yeah, I figured after a few paragraphs of rambling about forests, you were probably starting to wonder what that had to do with books, or my writing projects, or the novel revision process, like the title says. That’s the thing, though. Writing books should feel fresh, exciting, inspiring, encouraging. It’s hard, too, but so is a mile-long trek through a dense forest in late August during 105-degree weather with 90% humidity. And the mosquitoes. Oh my goodness, the mosquitoes.

Revising Serpent’s Tears has been most like the sweat-and-mosquitoes part of the slog. And unlike the forest, I’d been there before–I’d been there quite often. It was my tenth time writing this story and while I hope it’s done, I still have a lot of doubts. After writing a few books, I know that’s normal, but it doesn’t make it easier. It was painful work. It was a struggle. The difficulty will linger.

But the story grew a lot, and I hope for the better. I got to spend more time on my world building, more time on developing my characters, more time on making everything more. I streamlined a lot. I cut a lot of words. I reworked a number of long sections from the ground up. I put back pieces I’d cut from the very first draft of the story, back when I’d been afraid of letting the story be long. I don’t have the initial word count I started from, exactly, but I do know it was a bit over 89,000 words.  After the heavy revisions and rewrites and restored content, the book is finished at 115,000 words. It grew by almost a quarter, and I hope that was for the better.

The hardest part of the revisions was the way it made me doubt the first book, too. There’s a part toward the end that keeps nagging at the back of my mind–maybe I should change it–but I’m trying hard to silence that whisper, because I need to learn to let go. I’ll send it off for editing. Then I’ll ask my editor what she thinks I should do. It may not need the addition I think it does. It may be fine as-is. But I can’t continue to let myself stress and fret over something I’ve already devoted 18 years of my life to creating. At some point, it’s the best I can do. Maybe not the best I’ll ever be able to do, maybe not the best I wanted to do, but it’s there, complete, and I need to move on.

So as I mentioned previously, I’m taking a break from that series to refresh my mindset and learn a little more by drafting a new story from scratch. That’s still on my list of things to talk about, but I’ll get to that eventually. While I work on writing that novella, I’m trying to decide what to do with the next book in the series that’s up for revision. I had planned for Serpent’s Wake to be split in half like the other three, but I need to consider that carefully to make sure it’s what’s best for the series overall.

That’s it for now, though. Here’s another picture of some trees.

Scaling back

When I made my wild plans for crazy productivity this year, I didn’t know we were going to be moving. Had I known, I would have planned differently. Had we not, everything would probably have gone just fine. Our schedule wouldn’t have changed, I wouldn’t have spent weeks showing the house, I wouldn’t have scrambled to pack and then spend weeks trying to get to those last few boxes that need to be put away. Those boxes are still sitting around, but at least it’s something like one box in each room now, instead of piles.

But we did move. And I’ll have more to say about that adventure later, but right now, this is about the impact the whole thing had on my writing.

The plan I had before was not unrealistic, given the amount of work I can achieve in a typical day. Writing 1000 words is about one hour of dedicated work for me, though I do better if I break it up into short sprints. Sometimes it’s faster, sometimes a bit slower. Another hour would let me edit 5 pages or so on average, which meant there was plenty of time left for everything else. I toned it down when it looked like I needed to spend more time working to prepare for our move, which I didn’t really talk about when we were going through it. As in, I don’t think I talked about it at all outside private updates on Facebook and occasional story posts on Instagram.

Needless to say, the preparation for buying a house, selling a house, and moving in between took a toll on my ability to work. I went almost a whole month without working on stories at all, which was miserable. I feel best when I’m writing regularly. I’m working my way back up to it now, but it wasn’t until the last week of April that I actually got to make progress. So with April out of the way, I sat down and made a new calendar: a story schedule with half the workload, because the other half of my time needs to be spent on house repairs and settling in.

So where do things stand now?

Here’s a quick rundown:

• I finally finished revision of Serpent’s Tears, the second book in my epic fantasy series. I’ll come back with a breakdown of how that went in a week or two.

• I decided to wait to work on Spectrum Blade until it’s what I can focus on.

• I decided to work on a few novellas here and there when I need a break from my epic series.

• I reworked my schedule completely.

My new schedule is much more relaxed, with nothing overlapping until we get to the end of the year. Ideally, it’ll let me finish things earlier and I’ll be able to pull things up and work at a comfortable pace until the year’s end.

The first weekend in May–tomorrow, now, I suppose–I’ll work on making one last adjustment to something in Serpent’s Mark, then the first two books are ready to go hang out with my favorite editor and fellow author, Megan. For the rest of this month, I’ll be working on a novella while I stew over what needs to be done to the next book in my epic.

I’ve given myself June and July to edit the first half of the third book. I originally planned to split all 3 volumes, but I’m not positive if this book can stand to be split because of how the story is paced. I’ll be rereading the book to determine what needs to happen before I commit–so while I’ve planned June and July for the first half, assuming it does need to be cut in two so it can be fixed like the first one, I hope it won’t take that long. In August, I’ll address the second half; that only gets one month, because Little Bit will be back in school and I’ll be back to having days mostly free to work once we hit the second half of the month.

The first week of September is dipping my toes back into balancing multiple projects; I’ll be editing the novella I’m writing this month during that week, so it’ll be ready to publish in either December or January. The rest of September and October will be devoted to the next book in my Snakesblood Saga, which will be either the fourth or fifth book, depending on how things shake out with the third. I’m positive that volume needs to be split, though, so I’ll do the first half in September/October and the second half in November/December. By the end of this year, Megan’s going to hate me.

Last of all, there’s the orange line in November and December, which represents a second novella–the companion to the one I’m working on this month. I’d like them to go out back to back, so it’ll go up just a few weeks after the first one, if all goes according to plan.

That last part’s the catch, huh?

That’s it for this general update, though. Next I’ll talk about about what happened with ST, the big move, what my future publication plans are shaping up to be, and what these new novellas are about. Ta!

Oops

Editing and rewriting definitely counts as writing. Unfortunately, they count better when I remember to count them.

I’ve been editing Serpent’s Tears every day for the past week. Some days I’ve made great progress, and other days–like today–it’s been more of a struggle. Still, I’m moving forward at a steady rate. The book has grown some more; it’s just over 96,500 words right now and I’m not even to the parts that need large chunks of content added back in. I was initially a little worried about trying to fit in all the content I cut, but whatever. It’ll be around 100,000 words at least, and I like long books. Long books are good.

But while I’ve been editing, I’ve forgotten to track what I was editing.

Oops.

I usually write down a number of pages, or which chapters I completed. This past week, I was busy enough that I forgot to do that at all. So when I opened my planner to see what I’d done, I had one day where I remembered to write I’d completely rewritten 5 pages. And then the rest of the week was blank.

I filled it in with line after line that just said “editing” but hopefully, I’ll remember to write down what I’m actually accomplishing.

So I don’t have an exact word count or page count to share this week. What I can say is that I’m almost a third of the way through the book now. I’m sitting at page 95 of 320, which is up a good bit from the page count I had prior–both in pages edited, and total pages. It was somewhere just over 300 when I started, if I remember right. I could be wrong.

Anyway, that’s it for writing updates. I’m still editing, and I hope to finish editing by mid-February like I originally planned, but I’ll give myself as long as the end of the month since we have so much going on. I feel like I’m going to lose my mind, but I’m still just doing my best.

Since there’s nothing else to say about writing for the moment, here’s some art:

This one was inspired by a picture I saw on Pinterest and forgot to save. It had mossy rocks, a foggy background, and a tree curling over the top part of the picture. I tried to paint what I remembered of it, but also added in some walls from the ruins, which are a focal point in the book I’m editing now.

It’s a tiny painting, 5×7 inches, but it was a fun and restful evening while I was sick. It also turned out way better than the painting I’ve been working on that’s sitting on my desk, where I am repainting large sections as I can. I’m overdue to finish yet another painting, which is sitting on my easel, but it’s been giving me trouble, too. It could be that I’m trying to expand what I do in each picture a little too fast. But I’ll figure it out, and even if it doesn’t turn out great, I’ll share something. Even if it’s not remarkable, it may just mean it’s a picture destined to be painted over.

That’s it for today, though. I’ve got to get back to packing.

The January gear shift

After I talked about my progress on Spectrum Blade last week, I took some time to reflect on what I was doing and what I should prioritize. It’s not the same as changing my plans, but changing what I’m working on right this minute. I made some great progress on the book, so it was tough to reevaluate the direction I’m moving. I’m now more than 30,000 words into the first draft of Spectrum Blade, but as I write, I’m seeing the book will be a lot longer than I initially planned. Probably closer to 100,000 words than the 75,000 I was originally shooting for. Which, that’s fine–epics are my thing, and 75k was too short for anything with the potential to be an epic anyway.

But watching the project expand also meant coming to understand that I was probably focusing on the wrong thing. While writing the first Spectrum book has been a blast and has done a lot for rekindling my love of words, it also doesn’t make sense to devote all my energy to a series that won’t be published for a long time… especially while I have an unfinished six-book series sitting on my desk, which I intend to see published before Spectrum is ready for the world. The Snakesblood Saga needs to be finished, and I’ve put it off for years too long.

The original plan was to write and edit the two projects alongside one another, but that was before I knew how little time I’d have as we prepared our house for sale and hunted for a new one. I think the biggest reason I prioritized Spectrum was because it’s easier to quantify progress when I can look back and see a clear word count showing what I’ve done. I’m going from zero to story, as opposed to editing, where I can spend hours trying to work out what’s wrong with one particular page in a 300-page story.

I’ve since reminded myself that editing still counts as writing, even if I don’t have an exact word count to track at the end of each day. If I’m editing and rewriting, why wouldn’t it count as writing? I can track the number of pages I’ve edited, since I can’t always edit a full chapter each day. That’s still preparing content, and as I work through Serpent’s Tears again I can see it will be growing a lot. There were so many things that I cut before, trying to keep the book short enough that agents wouldn’t immediately turn up their noses at the word count. Well, that was a mistake, and I’m glad I’ve gone back to make the books what they originally should have been. There was so much nuance and subtext that vanished, and now I’m spending a lot of time putting it back where it belongs.

I think my revised goals for this year will be focusing on the Snakesblood books, pushing Spectrum to the back burner for a little while. For now, I’ll be focusing on editing, counting up the pages and considering the word counts of those pages to be my words of work. Moving on. New day dawning.

Speaking of dawning, I gave myself permission to work on my 4th and 5th paintings this past week. I had a lot of fun, and I’m starting to expand my color palette. The above image was still only four–ultramarine blue, cad yellow medium, cad red deep, and titanium white–but I used some shades of green in my 5th, and I’ll talk a bit about that painting when I put it up next week. My birthday was on Saturday, and Joe gave me an awesome set of acrylic paints. I haven’t used them yet, since I’d gotten myself a cheap set that I want to use up first, but I’m looking forward to giving them a try. I’m going to start incorporating buildings in my paintings soon, to see if I can work up to doing fantasy book covers or something like that.

Word counts for this week:

Monday: 758 (Spectrum Blade)

Tuesday: 305 (Spectrum Blade)

Wednesday: 151 (Spectrum Blade)

Thursday: Edited 6 pages

Friday: Edited 8 pages

Saturday: Edited 3 pages

Sunday: Rewrote 3.5 pages

Total for Spectrum Blade: 1,214

Total for Serpent’s Tears: 20.5 pages (7,161 words)