Sesquicentennial

Back when I was in fifth or sixth grade, the town I grew up in went through it's sesquicentennial anniversary. There was a bit of fanfare as I recall. I didn't really care much about it then and I still don't, but I always thought the word was pretty cool.

This morning I finished book 3 of the second novel and it's one of those books that I just want someone to read right now so I can gauge their reactions. Ideally, someone should read it and after finishing they should decree aloud, "Oh, that's kind of sad." I just want to see if that's the reaction I get. Alas, it'll be some time before I get to test that hypothesis.

I generally use these points to take a little stock in my progress (for now, that's numerical observations) and I was surprised at how many "perfect" stopping points today represented. First off, I stopped with 6015 words so far for the week. Pretty cool as I wasn't looking to break the 6000 word barrier at all and certainly not so closely.

I also started a file that holds all of the chapters of the second novel. Checking the word count, I have 46187 words completed so far, not so cool until you add that total with the words for the first novel, 103914. Giving a grand total of 150,101 words. (That's why sesquicentennial popped in my head.)

Now that's pretty cool. As you can see, if I was actually going to finish the main story in two novels, I'd be approaching the half way point of that second novel. As it stands, I have no idea how close I am. I suspect I'll need that third novel and thirty years or so will have to be skipped between the second and third. Bummer.

Still, I have little to complain about considering I have written 27,000 words in the month of July. A pace I'll have to hope continues. If I want to have any chance of finishing this story before I get kicked out into the street, that is.

Honestly, I didn't think, at first, the pace that I have been writing would be sustainable for very long, but I feel that I still have a long way to go before I get burned out. The truth is, I feel as though I have finally gotten myself into a solid routine. It may not be the typical nine to five job like routine, but I write pretty much every day and the days that were average when I moved out here, I find a little embarrassing now. The few days that I do take completely off are generally the "in between" days after finishing a chapter or book and I am in preparations for the next one.

I guess for now, I continue to feel mentally strong. It won't last forever, but I am good at riding the wave once I get it going. If I weren't, I never would have finished that PhD thing.