Just over two weeks after the completion of Chapter 11, Chapter 12 is now done! I seem to be back on track with The Body in the Building and things are progressing well.
Chapter 12 was when the action really started to fire up. Nat’s life has gone from being in possible danger to very real danger as our killer feels the pressure from her investigations.
I really enjoyed writing this chapter. It moved quickly and it was a challenge to write the action in a way that conveyed the fear Nat would have felt. She’s an architect, not Wonder Woman, and it’s important to keep the character consistent.
The story is now just shy of 18,000 words. I have three more chapters planned to completion, so should be somewhere around the 23,000-word mark when done. It’s not a long novel but does sneak into the bottom end of that category with regards to length.
I haven’t really considered word count of length as any sort of measure of the book. It takes exactly as long as it takes to tell the story; if like in “The Map in the Fortune Cookie”, that takes 12,000-odd words, that’s what it needs. USS Montgomery, my fan-fiction short story in the Star Trek universe was only 5,500 words but felt complete at that.
Now that “The Body in the Building” is nearing the completion, it’s time to start looking at some of the elements of publishing. Some time back, I came up with the cover art for it. I was particularly proud of it. I won’t share that now, but I will soon.
At the current rate, “Body” should be rounded out by the end of February. I started on March 6th last year, so that will be near as damn it to one year. I am slightly shocked that it’s been that long, but it has.
I’m still enjoying the ride. I hope you are as well.