Another week, another blog. The last few weeks have been quite productive, with good writing progress made on book two. My current working target is one chapter a week. Which, yes, I know, is super low. But it felt like a realistic target to work around other life commitments. It will also stay the target; it’s a good safety net that is achievable. So, at least if it’s a busy week, I won’t feel like a failure if it’s only one.
However, over the last three weeks, I’ve managed to do nine chapters. Which is great! I can now sleep for the next five! No, but seriously, I much prefer writing with some consistency to protect my writing progress. I find it helps, of course, with the writing itself, starting right in the ‘moment’ of the story. But it also just seems to be a self-reinforcing process to see the outline being ticked off. It builds its own momentum, pushing me to want to get more done. Working on one chapter a week is the minimum momentum I can maintain; anything less and it becomes very hard to get typing again.
Outlining for Steady Writing Progress
That all said, without the outline, it would be very hard to see this kind of writing progress. Having detailed chapter outlines ready to go makes it much more achievable to just pick up and write each week. I have my structure, my objectives, and my chapter beats. Without that, it wouldn’t be possible.
So, where are we at? Well, Book Two, currently called Mutterings of the Deceased, is just over half done now. Okay, draft one is over half done. The current outline has it around 55 chapters, not including interludes, the epilogue, and the prologue. So, all in, it’s about 60 chapters, slightly less than Whispers from the Machine, and I finished chapter 37 today. Which, in fact, just checking my calculator, is 61%.
Mutterings of the Deceased: Pacing and Word Counts
Of course, I didn’t want to write a book that felt too similar to book one, but I do feel book two tracking differently. Maybe not in tone or setting, but particularly in pace. Of course, I knew that, planned that even, in the outline, but seeing it come together gives you a better sense of how the writing progress is translating to the page. I’m also worried that it’s going to be shorter. For no good reason, I feel that for a book two, it should be longer. In truth, I just think my writing is tighter. The pace is faster, so chapter averages are down. Where book one was around 2,800 words per chapter, now it’s 2,300. It’s also more consistent. Where in book one the chapters were spikier in length, book two feels smoother. This is again why it feels different; that variance is felt in how it reads.
Timeline-wise, we’re on track. I was aiming for a draft one by the end of the year. That is definitely still doable. We have 30 weeks left and 23 chapters to do. However, I’m tempted, with my current increased pace, to try for an end-of-September finish. This would allow for a first revision and then a developmental edit before the end of the year, putting our writing progress in a good place to start 2027. But let’s see. I’m excellent at moving goalposts; it can be useful, but equally not. Either way, it’s on track. Writing progress has been made, and that should be good enough.
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