Day 3: 1,500 words

Extract:

“Your father is dying,” Broder said once they were outside the hall. “Kjalsi tells me he is past hope now.”

The news was something Hemming had expected for a long time. His father had been ill for two weeks, each day worse than the last. Now he would only speak to Kjalsi, and even then only in whispers. Hemming was not so much hurt by the news as he was concerned for his own future. His father had loved him little, preferring to dote all of his time on Hormund the Younger instead. “Just a little rat who scurries in shadows, too afraid of the firelight, that one,” his father would always say of him. He had tried to teach Hemming the way of the axe, which was the way of their family, he said, but Hemming could never get the hang of it.

“Will you be taking up the earlship, then, Broder?” Hemming asked.

Broder grimaced. “Me? No. No. I have no wish to be an earl. And these lot would never accept me anyway,” he thumbed back towards the hall.

“You are his eldest brother,” Hemming said. “You could always claim it. I’d back you, that would convince them.”

Broder chuckled. “So eager to shirk responsibility? I wonder how much of that comes down to your friendship with the girl of our friend Earl Icel.” He rubbed his chin. “It must be you, Hemming. You are his eldest son, ever since little Hormund died. Besides, they say that those who are eager for power are the very last ones who should have it.”

I should have mentioned this before, but Chris Baty's novel-writing kit comes with a card for every day of writing, which comes with little anecdotes, words of inspiration, and useful tidbits of advice.

The card for day 3 was simply titled: Aim Low. It makes the point that aiming for completion, rather than perfection, relieves you of pressure, which makes your writing more ambitious and, paradoxically, better.

This is what I aimed for today. I didn't read back once; I went with what came to mind, completing one thought and moving straight to another. The sentences are all probably awful, and there will be bits missing that I will fill in on my second draft (which will probably bring this section up to about 2,000 words), but I managed a scene change, the introduction of a new location, three new characters, and a lot of background information. Tomorrow I will get into the juicy dialogue between these characters - definitely the more fun part - but I am happy with the ambition of the scene that I produced today.

My progress feels even slower now that I have a good idea of how the first part of the story will pan out, especially as this part today - the introduction of a new POV character - was something I debated over. My story has now made the transition to a multi-cast novel, with all the book-lengthening complication that that brings. I just hope I can keep it as neat and tidy as it has been so far.

(Spoiler warning: I won't.)