Second Guessing and Second Victims

I've been a bit of a slacker and didn't write anything yesterday. But the word count I was supposed to be at was only 2,333 and I stopped at 3,028 on Wednesday. So I think I'm all right for now. As long as I don't give in to the siren call of sleep and laziness too much more.

So where are we at? I'm sure that's what you're all wondering. What progress have I made in this story. It's funny you should ask, because I'm now at the point where I'm beginning to realize that I went astray somewhere in the past week. I've started to make notes along the lines of "Wait, it would make more sense if…" As though any of this makes sense.

When I started this, before I started this, really, I had in mind two particular moments in the life of one character. They existed devoid of any context, and for the most part, any other characters. But now that I've thrown a whole world in around those moments…  things get messy. Both these moments are of psychic visions revealing some piece of the puzzle. They were the first and last visions he had. Whether that's "last in the story" or "last in his life" is still to be determined. But the events that lead up to the latter kind of hinge on someone believing him. Otherwise he's just a guy, saying crazy things, and maybe he's the killer. But someone needs a reason to believe him. At this point, he barely believes himself.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that imagining a scene on its own, and fitting that scene into a longer narrative are very different things. Like… a push pin and an octopus. Very different. Okay, maybe not that different.

Moving on.

The other overarching question in all of this is really the question I have all the time. Should I kill more people? On the one hand, it makes the situation seem more perilous. On the other hand, Mary Jane Sebring was killed for a reason (whatever that is), and a second victim is unlikely to fit into that reason. Unless they stumble too close to the truth. So I don't know. I think it might be better to leave the body count at 1. For now.

I haven't had near enough sleep, and just trying to make this make some kind of sense has been difficult. I'll try to add more to the story tonight, but who knows.

Oh, and for those of you following along at home (all of you, I guess?) you can see my progress in the little word count meter to the right. I have to update it manually, so I'll probably only update once per day, but that gives you an idea of where I am with word count. You can chastise me in the comments if you think I'm falling behind. And please do. I do my best work when I think I'm letting everyone down.

I will see you all Tuesday. I hope to get a bunch of words written this weekend. Maybe I'll even finish the whole thing by Sunday. I would get too attached to that idea.