Okay, it hasn't been a week...

In actual fact it's been 13 days? Well over a week anyway since my last update and when I said I would update. I have no excuse, I was perfectly aware that I said I would update and yet I didn't. It was just pure laze. But here we go...

• Day 5: Final word count for the day was 10,080
• Day 6: 12,419 (2,339 words written)
• Day 7: 14,661 (2,242 words written)
• Day 8: 15,115 (454 words written)
• Day 9: 15,550 (435 words written)
• Day 10: 20,183 (4,633 words written)
• Day 11: 22,335 (2,152 words written)
• Day 12: 25,076 (2,741 words written)
• Day 13: 25,076 (0 words written)
• Day 14: 28,373 (3,297 words written)
• Day 15: 28,373 (0 words written)
• Day 16: 28,373 (0 words written)
• Day 17: 31,365 (2,992 words written)
• Day 18: ?

As you can see I had some fun days of writing. 3 days where I didn't write a single word and 2 days where I didn't even reach 500 words.But I made up for each of those *failed* days by writing almost double what I should have been writing each day. I can explain the days were I hardly wrote anything, I was at work at for most of the day and didn't have time to write. Day 18 is fixed with a question mark because I haven't begun to write yet.

At the current moment my story is seeming kind of slow. I hit 30k yesterday and it kind of feels like I've spent the whole time making my characters raid a kitchen for a cake. I know that's not true, that only took one chapter to accomplish and there were a couple where I discussed the lay of the land, introduced multiple characters and started the main plot. I also began writing out of order. I normally write my stories in order of Point A to Point B and so on. But because of the way my story is turning out I'm writing Point A to Point B to Point D before cutting back to Point C for a couple of line and then Jumping to J, and so forth...

I'm still not sure about the characters. I don't like them as much as I do the ones in my previous books. I just haven't connected, and I don't think that's a good thing. If you are not connected to your characters, they are not connected to you. You don't share the same views on subjects, and instead of them offering their own personal input to where the story can go, they leave it up to you and it feels like you're forcing everything forwards.

I hate that feeling. But maybe it's just the month? This time last year I had hit 50k and was pushing onwards to 75k. Anyway. I still think the idea of the story is sound, but I'm not the best writer to tackle such an idea. I can't wait until the month if over so that I can look at the story in a new light and think about editing it.

So! I promised the Forward of my novel. In its very first rough draft, here it is:

Forward.

The first words are not the first words at all. When one asks what is the first word of a book, people begin to think and have already thunk for years that they mean the first word of the first sentence in the first chapter. For example *The*. *The* is the first word. In actual fact you are wrong. The first word is often the first word in a title, maybe the first in the copy write page. Maybe the book skips all of that to land you straight into the middle of the story. In this case, the first word is the first word in the chapter.

*Forward*. Leading us onwards. This is the first word. And, if I may say so myself, it is far more interesting than the word *The*. That word doesn't leave much to stand on or doesn't really catch attention at all. It is a boring, plain word, that is used so often in story telling or any sort of speech at all that one generally skips over it. Forward, however, grips you. It tells a story. Forward to where? Forward from where? What is wrong with where you are? What is better about where you will go?

All one can really do when one reads that word is to read onwards, which is a word very much like forwards. All your questions will be answered the further you read.

Forwards! To where the tales of many are told, the secrets of princes and commoners laid down in the dust bare to all to see. To each new day beginning with a rising sun no matter where you are and the weather overhead. To each new heartache, sorrow, and joy and gratitude.

Forwards, and one may find peace. Unity from destruction, life from ashes, love... love from the shackles that bind.