Not too much to report for this mid-week ROW80 check-in.  Blogwise, I’ve been keeping up with my theme days — I wrote a steampunk fashion post on Monday and a fun music post yesterday — and I’ve got drafts of the remaining two posts for the week queued up.

In the realm of writing, tell me no lies is coming along.  I’ve been tweaking the plot, and taking time to work out the kinks and details for the latter half of the story.  My MC now has a fleshed-out backstory that is much more, and I have a better idea of what the climax will look like.  Better yet, my antagonist, a sociopathic serial killer, is sending very creepy letters to my MC (creepy to the point where I am getting the heebie-jeebies).  The story has reached 16k, which means that I have another 34k to write in order to ‘win’ CampNaNo.  Shockingly, this doesn’t seem too far out of reach, so maybe, just maybe, I’ll have a working draft of this novel by the end of the month. *crosses fingers and looks hopeful*

If I can maintain the pace of writing roughly 1500 words per day, I might consider giving my other two WIPs the NaNo treatment, focusing solely on one for a month or so, hammering out as many words as possible, and then setting it aside to move on to the next tale.  I am almost certain that I am going to attempt NaNo in November, and if I indeed do so, I am going to take the month to edit and finish Path to the Peacock Throne.  I’ve had glimmers of ideas for the latter two-thirds of the book, and I think by the time November rolls around, I’ll be more than ready to get back to my world of magic and legend and lore.

The other thing I’ve been doing this week is playing around with flash fiction.  Up till this point, I’ve avoided it like the plague, mostly because I tend to be quite a wordy sort of writer.  I like detail and backstory and description, and the thought of having to cram all that into a teeny tale was more than I could bear.  But I figured I’d try out a challenge involving the seven heavenly virtues, and surprisingly, I’m having a blast.  I’ve covered the first four — Chastity, Temperance, Charity, and Diligence — and I have some ideas simmering in my head for the final three.  At 100 words each they are a bit of a challenge to write, but oh my, I’m having fun doing it.

-oOo-

And now for a cool historical tidbit! For this check-in, I offer a collection of pretty pictures, courtesy of the Library of Congress’ Photocrom Print Collection.  This collection showcases travel photographs taken around the world between 1890s and 1910s, and are all in color.  I highly recommend checking it out, as the photos are all incredibly gorgeous.

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