Liberator FP2 novel - 25,000 words - plus I know where the narrative is going, yay!

thanks to my (misplaced at the time?) faith in the simple act of 'writing to character', I now have an absolutely solid and foundationed reason WHY for the Liberator FP2 book. I'm writing it in long-hand again, just like Tandem and I'm at the end of notebook one, which means I technically have another two notebooks of that length, shape and style to go.

Twenty-five thousand words per notebook would give me an estimated novel of 66-75,000 words, more or less, depending on how the novel goes. And I'd be more than happy within that range. How did I do it? How did I find my story?

I simply kept asking the twelve or thirteen characters I've allowed to vent their spleen, "What's the story?" kept demanding an answer to this question of my invented characters as I gave them a platform for their thoughts.

But what's the story, Mike?

Well, you'll have to wait, won't you. Wait until the book's finished and available to read. But be assured it's NOTHING LIKE YOU'D HAVE IMAGINED where the second part a Free Planet trilogy (that began with Custodian) might have gone. I've allowed the characters to take this story into an insane place - as it had to for such a 'free reign' writing engagement. I'm actually getting excited that this story will actually seem like I meant it that way.

But it wasn't me. It was the characters. Writing the reason for the narrative that slices them open and lays their 'raison d'etre' all over the floor.

DAY LATER UPDATE: of course, things are moving on a pace and, as you'll see from the URL for this post, it was only very recently a 23,000 words update. It's now at the 25, 000 words and interest is still rising. Unfortunately it's rising in ONE SPECIFIC BRANCH of the three-branch narrative I'd hoped this book be. So I'm fully exploring the one aspect of the story that's really taken my affection (can't help it) while the other two planned aspects are being hinted at in sporadic chapters here and there but not expanded on to the degree of detail.

Of course, I'm now not sure what I'll do. Where the break-off point, where the fold-in point (or points) will occur. I keep wanting to move the already done 2nd 3rd branch chapters to later in the book but that would leave it too linear as an opening. I could 'easily' ABANDON this initial-interest aspect where it's at NOW until later in the novel, then come back (after 2nd 3rd branch expansion) and show where the other two aspects affected it. Only more writing-to-character will testify to either solution. There may, of course, be more than one solution. Something 'character' hasn't hinted at yet. Kinda scary but kinda interesting is the writing process, for me.

:)