A Slow and Steady March

Writing is a curious endeavor. On one hand, it looks as if I've accomplished absolutely nothing. My writing career hasn't changed status in the slightest. But that's not what I should focus on. In reality, I've done a great deal recently.

I've written, edited, revised, and queried "The Lost Letters of Benjamina Baneridge". It was my first ever attempt at writing an entire book in first person, and finally let me write the "Gothic Governess" story that every Victorian author wants to add to their collection. That novel was a little over 100,000 words when I first finished, but it's been trimmed to a neater 98,000. It's a book I'm immensely proud of, and I'm going to do my best to get it published. I've been querying it all year, and it's gotten some good feedback.

I also started and finished writing "The Ruin of Dunrose Castle" this year. It's at 105,000 words so far, but I expect it to grow as I edit and add in footnotes. I've always wanted to write something with footnotes, so I just went for it. And why not! It's both tricky and fun.

Now, I'm 20,000 words into a new book for NaNoWriMo. It's turning into something interesting, but I haven't quite worked all the details out yet. But that's for after November.

So not including all the "started and quickly abandoned" projects, that's a minimum of  225,000 words in less than two years. Doing all that during the insanity of "Real Life" is impressive, for me at least. I think it's important to focus on what successes I do have. One of these days, one of these books is going to get out there.