Book Update

This fucking ball/high society shindig they're at is going to be the death of me. I can write thousands of words with just the two of them in the scene, so when you add dozens of people I get totally overwhelmed. Bah. But I'm more than halfway through so we're through the worst of the storm. 

I thought there was like maybe two dramatic moments at this ball but there's like 5+. Freaking drama everywhere, which means the tempo of up, down, up, down emotion-wise is like me trying to hang onto ten Great Danes. There's drama with Roth & Jasmine and then drama with father's cronies, new bitches... IDK. This is just a wild scene that has me researching charities, Gilded Age mansions, watching documentaries on the Rockefeller's, watching tutorials on basic slow waltz, perusing Forbes lists, looking up jewelry, dresses... SOOOO not my territory.  At the moment, I'm just trying to get through this scene and am careening toward that reveal at the end... Almost there. There's a pretty big blank after that snippet I showed at the end of BS, so we'll see what churns up once I get there. Roth & Jasmine aren't on the terms I wrote in the draft so that changes things... 

I've officially passed the word count of Bitter Secrets and feel like I just finished the first third of the book...? I estimated the word count at 180k but now I'm wondering if it'll be 200k+. I have no idea what plot lines will/will not pan out. I was feeling a little discouraged because I wanted to be at least halfway through (or done) at this point, but I feel like I'm inching toward the halfway point. 

It wasn't until I looked at the word count for the first 11 chapters that I realized under most circumstances, I would be writing "The End." The first 11 chapters are 100k words and I haven't even done a Christmas scene yet. I knew this book would be long, but I had no idea it would be THIS long. 

The second half of the book, a big portion of which was written in 2021 or whatever is 41k words. So the manuscript is around 141k. Bitter Secrets was 136k. I've considered cutting some storylines just to finish the first draft, but discarded that almost immediately. If there are cuts, they'll be made during revisions. The first draft is to write everything out in its entirety and then cut it down in revisions if parts are excessive or boring. Also, for me, the beauty of writing this series is to go through the whole year and watch how they handle holidays, public events, and every day things that complicate matters such as Ariana's addiction and the dozens of other things that crop up. They're trying to balance business and personal along with this marriage of convenience and it's not easy. It's messy and complicated and I love letting it play out. Maybe too much. Like I said, we'll see what needs to be cut in revisions, but right now I'm letting my muse do what it wants. A lot of these scenes are a little surreal because I imagined them in 2019 when I published Bitter Heat and now I'm finally writing them out in their entirety and they're better than I thought they could be.  

I just wanted to give you guys a progress update and bitch about this ball that's driving me cuckoo. I'm doing a progress update for the blog on my website this weekend as well, so I was reflecting a bit on where I'm at in the book. I can't wait to go back to writing regular sized books because honestly, this is insane and seems so daunting, which is why I chip away at it every day, trying not to look at the whole thing but just the scene I'm on or you'll go nuts. I hope that I just feel this way because it's Roth & Jasmine and all future series I write are more manageable.