I’ve been posting about how I had to stop and do some prep work – get the timeline straight, create minor characters and backstories, etc.
Today that prep time paid off. I knocked out a full scene in about an hour. 1663 words. I knew where it came from and I knew where it was going.
That’s not to say it’s a perfect draft, no revisions necessary. Oh, no. Not even close. It spawned a new character I can use in a follow-up scene, which is great. But it’s kind of dark. The scene centers around the primary antagonist and I’m not sure I want him that dark. We’ll see where it goes.
Before we go on, please check out my website, https://ryan-publishing.com/. I promise it won’t take very long.
What Prep Did I Do, Again?
Well, getting my timeline right really, helped. I’ve written about the free tool I found to help me with that. It let me focus.
I also sat down and generated minor characters with sketches. For (waves hand) very good reasons a number of the werewolves don’t live in the tiny town where they can’t make a living. But they’re important for the main character’s goals, i.e. financial success for her bar and restaurant. So I need to know who they are and, to a degree, what they want. Will they support Wendy or oppose her? Writing minds want to know.
I’ve also drawn maps.
And I set out all the remaining scenes to get me to the end of the book. I think I have 14 left. We’ll see what reality does to that plan.
Spammers Commenting
I was excited to get notifications that three of these posts had comments waiting in moderation. I was less excited when all 3 were from the same IP address, used the same format for their gmail addresses, and all 3 comments were just a shortened URL. Come on, people. Nobody’s clicking that. I killed the comments as spam.
I would love your feedback on these posts. Or any part of the website, really. I’m figuring out how to allow signups for a newsletter. Then I’ll figure out what to put in a newsletter. One problem at a time.
But I’m going to do my part as a good netizen to block the bad actors. All comments go to moderation for approval, and I’m not auto-approving anything.
Today’s Word Count and Context-Free Quote
Date 4/12/2026
Words (Draft) 1663
Words (Elsewhere) 67
Words (Total) 1730
Characters (Draft) 9364
Characters (Elsewhere) 417
Characters (Total) 9781
Session Target 1029
In Patricia’s experience taking in strays, some wanted to make sure that never happened to anyone ever again. They tried to make sure no-one got too much power in the pack.
And some wanted to make sure that never happened to them again. They tried to get power as a way to protect themselves.
As she watched Simon clench and unclench fists, she knew which way he was going.