Big Step Forward, then Work

Good day of work Wednesday, but today will be a different story, I'm afraid.

Gotta work. Gotta cover the V.I. Senate online. It'll be a long day of listening to them talk – and talk and talk and talk. Last time, a couple of weeks ago, I ended up listening for about six hours, had more than 6,000 words of notes that had to be turned into a 1,000 word story. This is potentially much worse, since the last time it was one topic. This time there's a dozen or more bills.

Fortunately, this is the final vote on them. I imagine the senators have said all they need to say on the subject. Although, being politicians that's never stopped them. Give them five minutes to ask questions to witnesses testifying about a bill, and they will talk for five minutes and usually never ask a question. Sometimes they ramble on about things completely unrelated to the topic at hand. Just once, just once, I'd like to hear the chair say, "Sen. So-and-so, you have five minutes," and the senator reply, "No, I'm good, keep moving." It would be refreshing.

But Wednesday was a good day. I worked over 4,883 words of almost three complete chapters. Just need a couple more grafs and the chapter is done with a scary discovery. Again, some of it was just tweaking existing stuff and some was new stuff, so it's hard to say how much actual writing I did. Most of it was taking out a long boring part and creating a new, interesting bridge. I got them right to the point where they're about to find the cave – a completely different cave than the one in the first draft – then stopped for the day. But the next dragon is coming.

I also had the villains do something that really makes them villains. It's the most villainous thing I've ever had a character do. Think of four or five things a character can do that marks them as a villain – this is right at or near the top of the list. There will be no mistaking who the bad guy is here.

And it gave me a nice moment with Spider, finally got a name for one of the bad guys who has been called "the big man" for far too long, and sets up something really nice for the conclusion.

I had a good day. Now I'm gonna have a long one to balance the tables.