Very nearly halfway now …

This week’s Naylor is up. The project now clocks in at five draft chapters at 22, 873 words, about half a 50,000 word “typical” novel. Alright, fine, I’ll probably pass half-way two weeks from now.

Still, the reason I’m reflecting on the progress today is that this week’s portion is the first “completely new” part of the project I’ve put up in blog format – everything I’ve posted before now was at least a rough draft before I left Sydney last October. A good portion of it I’d even had the chance to workshop with my writer’s group.

But now, the plot is changing a bit and the section that came this week needed a total re-write. Also, somehow, I lost my electronic copy of that bit. Only around 500 words, but whatever, it sucked.

It’s funny, the writer’s group was a big part of the last three months of my Sydney experience. I really liked getting to know the other writers as storytellers. I got involved with their stories, week to week. Most had finished draft novels they brought in to share with the group chapter by chapter. I learned a good deal from what I saw the others doing well, or less well.

I haven’t missed that though, I suppose the blogging community gives me the same sense of fellowship with people who are writing because they enjoy it. The Naylor site has also attracted some useful feedback, some in comments, some in e-mail. It’s been rewarding. I hope I manage to finish the bastard.

I’m already getting an idea for my next project, but maybe it’s just those China Mieville fuelled, insomniac semi-hallucinations I’ve been having when I should be sleeping of late. Yes, this would be odder than some of my old fantasy novel ideas. (I’ve kinda written the Jeeves and Wooster as twenty-something lawyers piece already – just as a thousand word short-story.)