Yes, I’m in Banff, enjoying a Self-Directed Writing Residency at the Banff Centre. And, no, I haven’t posted anything about it because…well, mainly because I kind of got out of the posting habit while on a long vacation in August and then I promptly became very very busy getting through my editing tasks for Fine Lifestyles Regina magazine.
But, hey! I’m here! And here’s a post! Which would be even better if I had a photo to upload, but the only couple of photos I’ve taken were with my cellphone and I didn’t bring the cable allowing me to transfer that to my netbook, so, sorry.
I may have been a failure as a blogger at Banff thus far, but certainly not as a writer. I’ve turned out something over 25,000 words on Magebane since arriving, with a full 10,000 of that coming yesterday (today I only managed 7,500…which is still pretty darn good). I don’t think I have ever in my life written 10,000 words in one day before. If I could keep that up, I could crank out a 125,000-word novel like Magebane is supposed to be in less than two weeks! (Except my brain would explode, of course. Which would be a bummer.)
The story is flying because I finally pushed past the stalling point and everything has been brand new. It’s also true, as I Twittered, that I’ve outwritten my outline, which is bearing an increasingly small resemblance to the way the plot is actually proceeding, but that’s not too surprising and I’m confident the book that’s taking shape now is better than the book I originally outline.,
Of course, it was that original outline that actually SOLD the book, so it’ll be interesting to see what my editor thinks!
I’m here through Saturday, and should be able to get another 30,000 words out in that time, minimum. That’ll put the total word count somewhere close to 100,000 words, so I don’t think I’ll finish my first draft here…but I’ll have broken its back and should be racing for the finish when I get home.
Oh, and if you are somewhere other than Banff, where today was one of the most perfectly glorious mountain days I’ve ever experienced, I pity you.
