And… I have it again! I have my hand on the pulse of the story, I think. In a way that will require massive revisions in my second draft, needless to say.

28,333 / 65,000 (43.6%)

26,767 / 65,000 (41.2%)

I still feel like I’m grasping for purchase with this novel; I still feel like I’m trying to get my claws in it and it’s eluding my grasp. But I saw something in it today – a certain desperate hunger. If I can put that hunger into the book, I think I can make it work.

I’m about to take a short break from writing, I think, as I tend to do when I have guests around from out-of-state or when I’m wrangling a particularly difficult life problem (like moving). So let me get my word count in now:

16,496 / 65,000 (25.4%)