*Puts on Mel Dunay hat*

I just reached 25000 words on book 2 of my paranormal romance series (the one that was supposed to be book 3, until it changed its mind). Since my novels tend to run about 50000 words apiece (blame NaNoWriMo), this means that I’m probably halfway through it. This is the tipping point. Based on past experience, it’s not necessarily going to get easier from here, but generally if I’ve managed to get this far on a project, I can bring myself to finish the first draft.

My novels are typically written in two-three weeks over the course of November, during the National Novel Writing Month challenge. I’ve spent about a month and a half this summer (with many interruptions) working on this one. It’s unusual for me to take this long on a project without getting bored or losing interest in it, and I attribute that to a couple of things.

One, this one’s been aging in my mental wine cellar far longer than usual: it was originally conceived in summer or fall of 2014 with an eye towards being written up for NaNo2014, then I got distracted with another idea (that didn’t work out terribly well), then I flirted with it for NaNo2015 but found something else I liked better…you get the picture. Two, I outlined it more aggressively than usual, starting with the ending and working my way backwards.