My deadline for the next 10,000 words was January 14th. Of course I was hoping for 10,000 words in 15 days, but you know how little things like Christmas and New Year's sometimes gets in the way of writing.

Anyway, I'm at 40,205 on The Straw Doll Cries at Midnight: A Tiger Lily Novel.

Strangely enough, or maybe not strange at all, I even have an outline of where this novel is going to end up. I'm usually a total pantser. However, this story has enough characters, motivations and secret alliances that i had to start writing stuff down to keep track of it.

Because, yo konw, my brain is a sieve. I'd give anything not to have to look up, like every two days, how long my character's hair is or what color their crest is, or how old they are......

I might break down and start keeping notecards for each character, like I've seen other authors describe. But that would be organized, and then I'd have to give up my pantser badge.