OK, finally got to just over my minimum for Chapter 4. That only leaves me about, oh, 10,000 words behind (give or take a thousand). Still better than previous years, though. I'm up to just over 7,000--which puts me not too far away from the most I think I ever managed to crank out during a NaNoWriMo.

So, not bad at all, actually, when put in context. :)

Counting these blog entries, I'm over 10K words.

Anyway...

In this past word dump, I seem to have introduced one of my "go to" background groups: a still kind of mysterious terrorist organization. They first appeared in my writing years ago in a story set in the far-flung future where they were greatly opposed to humans leaving the planet (or something along those lines... never did finish that story).

Based on some other bits that have come to light as the words pour from my fingers, it seems they may know about some things that most people in the world do not... and things that our main characters are going to be discovering (or, in at least two cases, re-discovering).

Only two chapters left in this section of the book. Which should work out pretty well as I've got one more main character to introduce and then I have to bring them all together so the real story can get started.

So far we've got a bunch of characters and at least as many sub-plots and back story bits that can all come together in parts two and (even more so) three. Since I'm writing this all without an actual plot in hand, it's an exciting ride for me.

It's also making me think of how to better utilize the technology at hand to make keeping track of everything easier. In my planning for a Drupal module (or suite of modules) for writers, I think I've already reached the limits of my own capability--there's definitely some custom coding that will need to be done. I most certainly won't end up with a finished product by the end of this month, but that's just as well as I should be focusing on the story and not the support structure. Right?

The other major distraction has been the new, shiny, Droid phone. I'm still optimizing it and figuring out what new ways of doing things work best. So far, it's mainly let me open up some more time at home as I can catch up on RSS feeds and e-mail on the commute, instead of waiting until I'm on my couch. The possibilities are endless, though, and I can't wait to figure out some more tricks.