Getting Reacquainted with Characters

So, this has been a big week for me.  I've finished the new Cressen Books website design and that's now live.  I published my latest book on Kindle, The Legend of Goat Head Lodge.  And I am now a Goodreads Author...go me! :)

With these pieces accomplished, what am I up to next?  Well, I'm trying to get reacquainted with my characters in Starward, Rosa and Daemos.  I've spent the last several months in the heads of Leyla and Lucien trying to finish up Goat Head that any writing I've done on Starward has been sporadic at best.  And when writing is sporadic, it's very hard to stay in the main characters' heads.

But, I'm slowly getting a good feel for Rosa and Daemos and am very excited to be working more consistently on their story again.  And actually, I should clarify that a little: I'm feeling pretty good about being in Rosa's head (or her being in my head as the case may be).  After all, this first book in the Galactic Dynasty series is mainly told from her perspective with only glimpses from Daemos from time to time.  And I don't want to explain that any further because it would ruin certain plot elements at this point.  *cackles evilly*

So, for a recap, I posted a week or so ago reporting that my progress in Starward is a little over half done with over 55,000 words.  I am now at 58,750 words and things are starting to develop more with Daemos (meaning I get to write more scenes with Daemos now and those scenes are quite, er, challenging).  Geez, it's very hard to talk about Daemos at all without giving certain things away, but I absolutely love the character and can't wait for readers to get to know Daemos. :) 

Anyway, I know that doesn't look like a whole lot of progress but it's more the quality of the scenes than the quantity of the words at this point.  Plus, I have to factor in all the other projects I've been working on this past week and suddenly 3,750 is pretty darn good.  *pats self on the back*

And yes, I know that there are a lot of authors out there now that are using word counters to keep up with their progress (or have been for a long time).  And I'd be happy to use one of those as well, if I knew how many words I was shooting for to begin with.  I think I'm an oddball because I tend to format my stories ahead of time and pay more attention to the number of pages (302 at this time) and chapters (16 at this time) than I do to the actual word count.  Oh, and I don't have an editor demanding that the book be so many words...I get to choose how long (or short) I want my novels to be.  Such a nice, liberating feeling!

Okay, enough rambling.  So, at 58,750 words, I'm going to guesstimate that I probably have another 40,000 words (or less) to write and Starward will be complete.  (I guess I might actually be aiming for a total of 100,000 words, give or take.)  And I will definitely keep everyone posted with regards to my progress, either through future posts or through an actual word counter or both.

And now, it's time for me to return to Rosa.  She's been pestering me for the last fifteen minutes wanting to know why I'm writing a blog post instead of dealing with her latest crisis!  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!