David*Macinnis*Gill.com

Awhile ago, another blog­ger posted a ques­tion about the habit of post­ing word coun­ters on our blogs. Why do we need/use them? I didn’t answer then. I will now. The coun­ters keep me hon­est. It’s easy to stop a new project when no one knows I’ve started. Easy to spin my wheels on mid-draft revi­sion and never climb higher on the nar­ra­tive arc. Easy to…you get the point.

When I was draft­ing Soul Enchi­lada and revis­ing Soul Enchi­lada and revis­ing Soul Enchi­lada some more before the offi­cial revi­sions of Soul Enchi­lada, the word coun­ters served has both my pri­vate anchor and my pub­lic nag. As I begin the early writ­ing of the draft of what could turn out to be the sec­ond novel, I’m eschew­ing the word counter. I don’t have the lux­ury of start­ing some­thing I won’t fin­ish, and there is an edi­tor out there to keep me accountable.

I’ve met my daily goal of at least 1k words for four straight days.

The work­ing title of what may become the sec­ond book is Human Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion. It will change. They always do. I won’t know if I have some­thing for awhile, and I’m sched­uled to take ideas with AEV soon, so it’s pre­ma­ture to call this a book, much less the sec­ond book. Let’s face it, though, this is not my sec­ond novel. If I fin­ish, it will be my eighth.

Next week, first gal­leys copy­ed­its will be in my greedy lit­tle hands. A few blurbs have come in, and they are more delight­ful than I deserve. I’ll share when I can.