Not much progress to report so far. As far as word count is concerned I've occasionally managed to touch my 1000 word limit, but mostly it's about 700 words a day.
Which is an improvement on my old 500 words a day.
One thing I can report though - the story is developing in a rich and varied manner.
This is my sequel you see, and for a while I did wonder whether I would have enough to make the second book equal the first (never mind exceed it). The first book took three years to write and got redrafted nine times. That was a learning experience, but it also meant a greater amount of time to dream up new stuff, sub-plots, scenes etc that helped to enrich the novel (it was 127,000 words).
I don't want to, and won't, take three years for this next novel, but I didn't really know what the effect would be of writing it to a shorter deadline. Would the story be simpler and more formulaic because I had less time to mull it over? Would I, in fact, simply grind to a halt halfway through because, in spite of a few sketched out thoughts, I only really had one book inside me?
So I'm happy to announce that, as I grind my way through the various characters' motivations, dilemmas and sub-plots in the opening chapters, the rich tapestry that is the rest of the novel is emerging in my head like finished fabric from a machine (I used to be a textile factory mechanic, so that metaphor works for me, even if it doesn't for anyone else
) and it looks already as thickly plotted as the first one, which isn't bad after only a couple of months.
It answers the question of 'Do I have it in me?' Because I really didn't have enough to outline the plot before I began. The process of writing however has itself produced more writing.
You know, I could become a writer yet.
First draft is done! 
