AQATDR: And the winner is...

[inverarity]

Initially I considered the title "Alexandra Quick and the Dead," but that struck me as more cute than clever. Also, Alexandra is not Sharon Stone.



So, the good news is that the pace of my writing has picked up recently. I haven't managed any 5K-word days lately, but I have written over three chapters in the last two weeks.

The bad news is that I was feeling quite pleased with myself at having worked out most of the plot points, so that it was now just a matter of getting everything written out. Then, there I am at the gym, going over the story in my head while working out, when suddenly I saw a great, big, humongous effing plot hole yawning widely and threatening to suck my entire story into its inky black depths.

Unfortunately, this revelation occurred to me while I was pressing more than my body weight; not exactly the most opportune time to be exclaiming, "Oh, s***!"

Happily, I didn't drop the weight bar and crush my chest, and I think I've worked out a solution to the plot hole that won't require too much rewriting.

(The great thing about Harry Potter fan fiction is that you can fix a lot of things with magic. You just have to avoid pulling sudden convenient spells and magic items that have never been mentioned before out of your ass, and then forgetting about them once they've served their purpose. *cough* Time-Turners Felix Felicitas Fiendfyre Wandlore *cough*.)

Alas, I think my plan to have AQATDR finished by the end of the year is looking impractical at this point. I don't want to rush it just to meet some arbitrary deadline I made up months ago.

The current word count stands at 115,000. Right now, I am sticking to my prediction that book three will be longer than book one, but not quite as long as book two. However, chapters still have a habit of multiplying on me, and the chapters in this one are long, folks. (Right now, average chapter length is almost 7000 words.)

I am probably going to start letting my betas rip through the first half of the book pretty soon. Depending on how that goes, I still expect to complete Alexandra Quick and the Deathly Regiment by... well, I'll keep you posted.