The Words: 5512 written today. I did again write some after midnight last night to get a head start on today’s words. Then while supper was in the oven for an hour, I managed to make it upstairs for one quick 20 minute sprint. My four-year-old daughter joined me, and did some mazes at my desk next to me. The rest of today’s words came this evening, when I participated in my very first ever word wars! Three of them, to be exact. I understand why people like them for the word count boost. Even though I already write in sprints, knowing I’m going to be comparing my word counts to others at the end of the pre-set time just makes the writing that much more frenzied.

The Story: I’m a little afraid Alexander is turning into a completely obsessional character. This feeling is very familiar, too. In 2009, I wrote another version of Alexander’s story. The plot went a very different way, and even my fictional story world was very different back then. However, the basic idea behind Alexander searching for the truth about his father, and then going on to be hunted and other things I can’t share right now were the same. I’m pretty sure that in that story I also started turning Alexander into a one-track-mind kind of character. Maybe that’s how he should be. I didn’t intend it, but maybe I should just let it go and see how it works out. I just don’t want him to get so intently focused on this path that he doesn’t pay any attention at all to other things around him, because, well, other things are important to the story too.

Total word count: 14954