On March 11, I finished writing The Step and the Walk. I posted about it on Facebook to share the good news, but mentioned it was about 26,000 words too short.

I immediately started rewriting it. I had an 1819 & 1820 year calendar printed out where I wrote out the dates Andresh journaled in the book, and it turns out he hardly journaled during almost three out of the six months the story takes place. There were a lot of days that went by with little writing.

I went back to the beginning of the book and started adding more journal entries, and with that, the plots made some changes, and I had to delete old writing to accommodate the new writing.

I am now caught up to the parts where I’ve written plenty and didn’t intend to write more. In other words, I’ve caught up to what should be the end of the book. Everything else that happens in it is what I’d like to have happen.

Only…I’m at 55,044 words. I’m still missing 11,956 words. I do not have a book. I have a novella. This is unacceptable. It’s not even comparable to The Name and the Key in size.

So…I feel like I’ve journeyed right back to the beginning again. Same issue has presented itself, and I’m at the same place in the manuscript again.

I’ve got a month to solve this problem.

I’ve taken a social media break (but not a blog break; to me, that’s different) to try to batten down the hatches and write. I won’t be doing any posting on Threads, FB, or Instagram (my top three) until June 1st.

I’m hoping by metaphorically locking myself away from my largest distraction that I will be able to figure something out and get this book plumped up.

Please wish me luck!