I hit another wall this evening.  I spent the whole weekend working on my latest novel The Beach House (soon to be renamed Secrets of Sandhill Island).  I finished the novel at around 54,000 words but it needed to be 65,000 words.  It had some holes in the plot and needed some fleshing out in places and more explanations for certain scenes.  No problem I can do that!

I worked until I couldn’t work anymore. I wrote new scenes and introduced some new minor characters that helped to draw the plot together. Until I could write no more.  I had self-imposed word-count stress.  I had put the words on paper, but were they any good?  Did it help the story or detract from the main story line?  I didn’t know anymore and had to put it away.  Even though I met my goal and made the word count – almost – I had to quit and come back to it later.

The Beach House a/k/a Secrets of Sandhill Island is a great story about love and life the way it appears and the way it really is.  It is a romance suspense novel that I believe in and I am sure will make me happy in the end.  I just have to let it develop on its own and not push it so hard.

Writing almost 11,000 words this weekend is something new for me.  What did you do that was new?