I’ve struggled with writing The Blood of Life more than I thought I would. I wanted to crank out this book this month for NaNoWriMo, but I’ve, at best, gotten small spurts of words down. The fact it’s not done is driving me kind of crazy.

I’ve also introduced a lot of elements while writing this that came up on the fly. The story has gone from a tight focus on two characters to having plot threads that span generations. There’s a mystery at the core of this book now that goes back hundreds of years, and that has caused the book to become more complex than I thought it would be.

I also didn’t want to write this like I wrote Scars of the Golden Dancer, throwing down a ton of words to finish it and then spending years fixing it up. In that respect, there’s a reason I pause now and don’t just power through scenes when I’m not sure where they should go. I’m also still learning how to really write a novel, and that’s something that is different than writing short stories.

I’m still trying to get the draft done this year, but wow, there’s a lot going on in this book now I didn’t expect to have shown up. Also, I’m calling it now. What I thought would be a novella is turning into at least a short novel.