Word Count: Where is this going?

I started writing my novel with a robust outline. Mr. Mulcahy style.

Who is Mr. Mulcahy? The man, the myth, the legend. He taught senior English at my alma-mater, Benjamin Banneker Academic High School.

To graduate from Banneker, we were required to complete a senior thesis. Mulcahy, if I remember correctly, was the only English teacher. So you literally didn’t graduate from Banneker without successfully completing his method for writing a ten page paper.

It was a beast of a process that began in September of senior year. Immediately, we knew that senior year wouldn’t be a year off. Just the opposite. It was ON.

The process included choosing your senior thesis topic, which had to be approved. Then beginning research, and recording that research on index cards. A certain number of cards were due on a weekly (or bi-weekly basis). He checked them all.

Then we had to convert the index cards into a coherent outline, which he also read.

And from the outline, we produced a final paper.

This method was so thorough and effective that the night before the senior thesis was due (by 8am, promptly), when my computer died and my paper disappeared, I was able to take my index cards to a functioning computer, and re-type the whole thing.

I was one of the very few to earn a perfect score on my senior thesis.

So of course I wrote an outline for this novel of mine.

Except there’s a gap in the outline. And in today’s writing, I got to that gap. And had to decide, quickly, which way to go.

Writing is about making guesses and decisions. And I don’t know until later if it was the right or wrong decision.

Mulcahy may not approve of this method. But at least I have logic, and faith.

Word count today: 923 words. Not quite a 1000, maybe I’ll come back for those last 77 words.