That's better.

There's not an END at the bottom of the thing yet, but it's galloping toward a conclusion and I've done over a thousand words on my day. I need to come up with a pithy ending and an awesome last line. There is a light at the end of my tunnel and I may, just may, be able to wrap this thing up in another five hundred words or so. It's at 14,500, and I think I'm going to toddle off to bed and let it percolate overnight before diving back in.

Criminy, I'll be so frelling glad when the first draft of this bad boy is done.

I'm not sure I've ever headdesked so hard over a story in my life.

So, I've had my Epic Bear Battle. The villains are vanquished, my good guys saved the day, huzzah!

And I have now realized that the Falling Action going down to the Conclusion consists of a ginormous friggin' infodump.

I hate infodumps.

Someone just shoot me.

*throws confetti*

There is an END at the bottom of the steampunk werewolf western. Three days late, but the thing is accomplished. Later, I will go back and tie it better to the start, but that's for editing.

15,300 words, more or less.

Good Lord, I am so happy right now. This also means that I have a Writers of the Future entry for this quarter.

And I've done more math...

Math with a better outlook.

So, the last year I wrote fiction, which was 2010, I wrote 28,900 words across four stories in completed fiction.

I skipped 2011.

This year, I've written three completed stories. And, taking the wordcount for steampunk werewolf western as it sits now, I've written 35,600 words. So, that's more, and makes me feel better about my writing and myself.

Not only that, but I started the steampunk werewolf western in late August. Now, I like to write one short story a month, when I'm really cooking along and not struggling. But considering the fact that I consider a "short story" to be 5000 words, and this thing is three times as long... it's right on schedule, really. Practically speaking, I could have the thing edited and polished by the end of the month, start another story in December, and hopefully finish it, if it doesn't turn into another monster.

Or maybe I'll pick up one of the stories I dropped and finish that. It's an open question right now.