Hello, dreamers. Week 3 of NaNo ’24 is in the books. And what a difference a week can make.

After spending last week writing a completely unrelated story (which I dare say turned out very well), this week I got back to Aquarius 1 with a vengeance. It’s gone a bit slower than I’d like, but I’m getting back into a groove. I’ve now written two chapters in two days, approaching my standard daily novel-writing output. And this story finally feels like it has a soul.

That said, I’m approaching a portion of the story I’ve been both anticipating and dreading: the first major action sequence. So here’s the latest on this year’s project:

Aquarius 1

It finally happened: I got inside my characters’ heads. And the change was incredible. The story is starting to flow now: I find it harder to make myself stop than to get myself to start. I wake up twitching in anticipation of the day’s writing session. My, how I’d missed this.

I’m actually writing this during a break in writing a chapter. As I’d anticipated, at least some of what I’d written in the first draft (mostly the dialogue) was salvageable. But I’m pleased at how little I’ve directly cut-and-pasted. I say it often: when it comes to writing, the longer you stare at something, the easier it is to live with it. The harder it is to bring yourself to change it. More than once over the years, when a chapter just wasn’t working, I’ve found it beneficial to scrap the whole thing and start from scratch. And I don’t know if it’s ever worked this well. Maybe I’ve grown as a writer. Maybe I’m just eager to tell this new story. Either way, it feels good.

However, I am now approaching a critical point in the story. In the coming chapters, the crew of the Challenger will face their first major test. The coming action sequence will likely occupy several chapters. More than likely, I’ll write the entire thing as a single block to maintain continuity. That in mind, and with the holiday coming up, I may take time off from the WIP this weekend and work on short fic instead. If only to gather my strength for what lies ahead.

I will say this: the more I’ve worked on this, the more I find it hard to feel too bad about my first attempt at this story. Not because it turned out to be better than I thought (it really wasn’t). But I inadvertently left myself with the bare chassis to build a truly wonderful story. The science and plotting is all sound, it just lacked a soul. Now, I’m able to write from the characters’ heads, with the vital research already done. I really know this story, in a way I haven’t really known a story since Pioneers.

I have a long way to go, but something tells me I’ve caught lightning in a bottle again. – MK