Mired In The Middle

I have been very quiet here because I've been posting NEGATIVE word counts, and, frankly, that's just embarrassing.

Part of the problem is that I'm finishing a book, so I've already got a nicely put-together first half, and as I'm writing the second half, I'm having to go back and, you know, DELETE things. The middle has been very bloated and a bit unfocused (so when you read a tightly written, focused, exciting, book middle, write a note and thank the author profusely...she probably worked very hard to make it that way), which makes it tough to move forward in the last third, but I've been recombining and paring down scenes for the most impact and the writing is stronger for it. The book is stronger for it. The characters are stronger for it. The STORY is stronger for it.

So I have something like 46,446 words to make the JaNo count, which turns out to be 2,903 words/day. Not impossible, but improbable. Though only about 20,000 of that is the current story. I tend to blow through the opening chapters in a new story, so if I can FINISH this one, I might have a chance.

But I wouldn't go to Vegas on those odds.

Of course, after yesterday's word count of -247, there's nowhere to go but up, right?