Mental Meanderings

The Dating Game in 20 minutes

This mornings 20 minutes was strained. My novel had detoured a little from the outline, instead of having Emma's sister babysitting at Emma's house I had the kids and Emma staying at her sister's house. I had planned for Jake and Emma to prolong the date and then spend the night together with Jake meeting her kids over breakfast in the morning. This idea wasn't working for the story so I allowed the detour but for each moment off the original plan it felt harder to write. I'm starting to look forward to tomorrow however because I can get back on track.

I'm feeling great about the progress I've made. Not only have I been loyal to my promise to myself to write every day but my book is really coming along nicely. I've got just over 10,000 words and tomorrow will be heading into chapter 4. A bit short for halfway through but I did skip a lot of the 'dates' from the game. I only wrote Emma's first date, her date with Jake and their longer date that followed. On my outline I've got mention of all of her dates and I'm still not sure if I'll get into doing all of them although it could be a good way to get to know Emma better.

I've also got to time how long what I already have for each date takes. Since each date should take 10 minutes and then 20 minutes I need to be sure that the conversation etc. extends that long and doesn't go over that time limit. Obviously if it comes in under then the date needs some filling out which will help the word count for that scene.

All in all things are progressing very well. I'm very proud of the progress I'm making and feel really good about this book. Emma is a lot like me and yet already I'm starting to see differences between us. The date Jake and Emma go on with the kids tomorrow to the Zoo is actually a reflection of my own plans this week although my day at the zoo is actually in the company of my ex-husband rather than a date. But since I don't have a car I invited him along. He'll enjoy the time with the kids, the kids will enjoy some quality time with their father, and we now have transport. I think things have worked out rather timely actually. Tomorrow morning before the zoo I'll be writing the scene where Jake comes to pick Emma up. He's going to get invited in by her sister Sue and will join them all for breakfast and meet the kids. That means after my own trip to the Zoo tomorrow I'll have fresh 'research' and lots of information to put into the scene I'll begin on Sunday that involves Jake, Emma, Kayle and Jessie at the Zoo. I'm already excited.