I need to establish limits to prevent lots of internal consistency problems.

Some writers need this emblazoned above their word processors.

I'm trying hard to make anything important that magic is used for to have come up before so I don't pull out anything new when some major even happens. I know I'll still have problems.

I just mentioned something you can do with magic in chapter 4. One of the things needed to do it gets acquired, though it isn't explicit, in chapter 14. It gets used in chapter 20 at which time it should click that the object needed was acquired in 14. This will all explain how something improbable in chapter 19 wasn't really that improbable.

I'm finding that there are lots of things I'm trying remember to seed clues for. Tiny hints there's something wrong with the character that will betray everyone. Odd behavior latter explained by a drug addiction. The little items that go missing every once and a while. A couple of odd events from a character that is a spy (not the betrayer). Then hopefully the spy revelation in chapter 15 will explain how something in chapter 3 happened.

Chapter 5 is going slow, I suspect not having much time to write this week may be the culprit. On a good night, I have about 80 minutes of time to write an I haven't had very good nights this week. I still need to go through 600! photos of soccer games and throw out about 90% of them. Time, why is there so little of you?

I have been able to think though and I decided that I'm not going to off a character that was doomed before. That still leaves a fair amount of attrition among the early characters.

I decided that I'm not going to off a character that was doomed before

Has Minear taught you nothing!?

Hey now, of the ten early major characters only 4 make it past chapter 17 with that change. Though it really seems more like 3.

Well, all right then.

::kidding, of course::

Oh crap I forgot a character. How can I forget him? Anyhow he buys it too after a betrayal, so that 4 out of 11.

I got some good writing in last night. Maybe, just maybe, I can knock out chapter 5 by mid-next week.

I did a word count out of curiosity and have come up with 32,000 words. Which, wow, I'm not that far into the story yet. At the average of 443 words per page, that means I did about 1,200 words last night. That was a good night. I out about 2 hours of time so that's 10 words a minute. I suspect I've now overanalyzed this.

To continue my analysis that would put a final word count in the ballpark of 220,000 words. If I already have 32,000 that doesn't really seem all that daunting.