I wrote a somewhat similar-sounding post here talking about some of the earliest issues I’d run into while writing a diary novel. To avoid reusing the same title, I decided to use the technical term for the book I’m writing–epistolary. The Step and the Walk, which I finished drafting March 11, is an epistolary novel. It is written as Andresh’s diary, and while he doesn’t come right out and say, “dear diary,” he often directly refers to Lily, to the gods, or “whoever is reading this,” etc.

The Step and the Walk was a lot of fun to draft, but it finished at about 146 pages, which is waaaaay tooooo shooooort. So I’ve been scrambling to add more words to the manuscript. I posted the momentous occasion of writing “The End’ on the manuscript and noted that I needed to add about 26,000 words or so to get it comparable to The Name and the Key.

Part of the problem is that I wrote Andresh’s diary like how I write my own diaries: letting lots of days pass without writing in them, and only updating when major things happened. For example, Andresh started university in August and wrote maybe six journal entries that month, but only three times in September. SO MANY DAYS without writing! Meaning, SO MANY UNWRITTEN WORDS!

I have been working with a historical calendar from the years 1819 and 1820 (I tried to link to it but the site has been disabled! Thank God I printed the calendars out!) Anyway, whenever I wrote a journal entry for Andresh, I would mark it on the calendar. There were so few days, no wonder the actual manuscript for The Step and the Walk felt so…anemic.

I went back and added journal entries to August–there are now 22 days where Andresh has written something. I’m onto September, and…I’m stuck. I’m only on the third day of journaling and I’m having a hard time trying to fill it with things for Andresh to do and write about. October has a festival in it, as well as the midterm exams and midterm break, so that month’s pretty much covered.

Because a huge chunk of the book is set when Andresh is in university, I’ve wracked my brain and tried to come up with things students would do for activities. I relied on what I’d experienced when I was a student at Capital and at Trinity College; and then I also relied on some of the traditions that take place in Japanese high schools, like the opening ceremony at the beginning of the school year, which is a pretty somber tradition. I blended that with some of what I’ve witnessed at high school graduations in Japan, too, like when parents or grandparents or teachers wear kimono for graduation. In the book, I have Andresh wearing traditional Sindalian costume for the opening ceremony (he will also wear it for closing ceremony and graduation, which he is required to attend as a student).

Anyway, the tricky thing about writing entries is what they communicate about Andresh. Not only do I have a word count to fill, but if Andresh writes a lot in his journal, that shows that he is diligent in his habits and works consistently. He also writes in his journals to share how powerful of a magician he is, since he has to keep that a secret from the world.

The good news is that I have only 15,187 words left to write as of April 5th (I had to stop to focus on teaching work). What might happen is that I write so much for the university months that what follows–when Andresh has left university–might seem weak in comparison, since I didn’t write as much. So there’s potential for this book to balloon. I’m not sure yet. I want to keep the trilogy book sizes consistent, if possible. But, if the story needs more, I’ll give it more.

Wish me luck! I still have a lot of work to do!