No obvious reason for this post

Except to say I have passed 74,000 words (302 pages) in my story. I'm well into the second half of Act II, but still with about 100 pages to go to get to Act III. Maybe 80, but you get the idea.

It's definitely looking like the finished first draft will be about 500 pages, which works out to about 122,000 words. But of course anything between 100,000 and 150,000 words would be OK, too.

Once completed, I will then begin to craft the second draft. In it I will focus on a few things I left out of the first draft, mainly the mythology and quasi-religious rituals of the sun-skins. I will also shift into third person past tense, which will be the basis of the novel. Before working on the second draft, however, I will attempt to mercilessly cull the bits of the first draft that can be safely lost. Honestly I haven't found much that isn't relevant to the story I want to tell, but we'll see how creative I get.

Some folks have expressed interest in reading what I have, but I hesitate to share because it's a work in progress and because it's a rough draft (well, rough for me). I always like to re-read dialog and action and refine it. Over and over, and over again. Until I can't find a single word I would change. But, that's just a bad habit I've developed, because I really need to get the first draft done. Then (and only then) can I go back and revisit stuff.

Oops, too late for that, I guess.