I've got about 77,000 words written (which, given that I had about 70K written at the beginning of November, that's really pitiful progress). It looks like I'll be confining my story to what was originally conceived to be just the first act, so we can cut around 6,000 words or so from that total. D'oh.

Nonetheless, there's steady progress to report. The final couple of story arcs to take shape are finally coming together (well, okay... *one* of them is starting to take shape), and today I began work on The Last Scene. That's not too terribly impressive -- I am, after all, writing out of sequence. Nonetheless, this last scene is quite an important moment for a number of characters, and it's such a thrill to be here and now look back and say, "A-ha! This is where those arcs need to end up!"

Can you tell I'm excited? The critique I've received so far on this scene leads me to believe that I'm track; that I've brought the characters convincingly to this point. This only energizes me more to go back and fill in the holes that still need work. Woo-hoo!

My current plan is to have a final book proposal and to have a finished first draft absolutely no later than the last week in May. I have a plan to accomplish these tasks. And, every week that I make progress on the writing, I get that much closer to the goal.

In the meantime, I will be taking time out this weekend to write a short story. It's all part of the master plan, I assure you. This short story will be a part of my application to the Clarion West writing workshop for this coming June. :)