The Black Moment

"Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite." ~C.S. Lewis

Well, I've just started the final stretch of One Night in Napa (current WIP), which means tackling The Black Moment. This, of course, is the point in the story where Everything Goes Terribly Wrong and the readers thinks there is No Way The Hero And Heroine Will Ever End Up Together. Black Moments are usually challenging for me to write, though this time I feel a little more secure in the way the story's going up to this point, so that helps.

One thing I have to remember, which a well-published author once told me, is that my sentences and paragraphs at this point should be short. Lots of tension, lots of movement. No dilly-dallying around with lengthy sentences of description. So that's what I'm keeping an eye on. It's only a first draft, though, and I really want to just push through it. My goal is to finish by the end of this month (and really, I'm only 12K words or so from my projected word count), and since I began it totally from scratch on March 1, that will mean 3 months to completely write a 60K word first draft. I'm pleased. After that, I'll let it sit for a month or so, and then do a first revision. My end goal, I think, will be 65K - 70K words. That seems to be a solid length for Samhain novels, which is where I'll pitch it.

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And speaking of new works, Marianne's Yellow Rose novella "A Change of Heart" released this week, over at The Wild Rose Press. I had the pleasure of reading this gem when it was in its first stages, and as usual, she's written a charming story with great characters. She's gotten some terrific reviews on it, too, so take a look!