Grinding it out

* Words so far: 34,000
* Completed Chapters: 19 (mislabeling meant prior counts were incorrect)

With a four day weekend I thought I'd get a lot of writing done, but I'm really not liking what I'm writing at the moment. I feel like the train has come off the tracks and I'm having thoughts about different ways to go which would involve major re-writes on earlier parts of the story. I'm resisting that urge at the moment and making notes about those thoughts.

I'm just grinding out the plot movement to get the story to the end. I've got maybe three more major scenes to go and a whole lot of loose ends to tie up not to mention the climax to write.

I feel at the moment like the end is not going to pay off as I haven't set it up well enough. Also Jacob has become a fairly passive character for the protagonist over the last few chapters. I think this is because I am spinning out his story a little to allow Eva's life to move along. The chapters I've just written are filler and they feel like it.

I was hoping the story would have a comic edge that I just haven't been able to inject. There's far to much doom and gloom and I need to go back and add scenes and moments to lift the characters out of the darkness.

Additionally despite the initial impact of his relationship breakdown and the trauma it causes with Jacob's life, by chapter three he's completely over the break up with his fiance and it's all about his work life. That needs to be refined and fed back into the story as it develops so that I can clearly show the impact it has on his life.

Finally I wanted there to be a pivotal moment where Jacob begins to take responsibility for his life and putting things right for himself. Looking back I see that though I've got that moment the events that surround it are all in the same tone and that even towards the end of the most recent chapters he's still making serious mistakes that damage his life. It's not that he can't keep making mistakes but they need to not be constant and exactly the same as the ones he was making before.

As you can probably tell from the above, editing is going to be quite severe when I get to it. Right now I need to get the story done, then edits galore are coming.