Evil Overlord progress

I'm about 40% of the way (page 19 of the 50-page first draft) through revising "Road Stretched Into Darkness," my Evil Overlord story from VP. 11,558 words, according to Scrivener, up from 10,500 or 10,700, something like that. (I could roll back to the commit of the completed first draft and check, but it's late and I'm lazy.) I've reached the part where [redacted] gets to the [redacted] Historical Society.

This makes me realize just how much I'm going to have to hustle to have a draft ready for February 1, the date that I set for uploading work to the critique group. That means I'm probably going to have to punt on the notion of doing a short piece as a palate cleanser. Which is a shame, because earlier this week, I finally thought of an ending to a piece I wrote last year called "The Bag" (which will probably become "Lost Luggage" by the time I'm done with it).

On the subject of titles, I don't know if "Road" will stick. I love it, but I'm not in love with it. It mostly came about because the homework assignment required us to use a certain word in the title. (Mine was stretched, in case that isn't obvious. Could have been worse. Claire got laundry.)

Had some other good insights, including the beginning of realizing what the story is about, how important getting the tone right is, and the need for a scene that hasn't been written yet. And I got to use the word zoetrope, how cool is that?

Work-in-progress excerpt, which is probably going to look horrible in my blog theme:

“Normally that wouldn’t help you,” said Mary-Agnes, “since poor Clara only passed about fifteen years ago.”

“Did you know her?” Sophie said.

“Oh my yes,” said Mary-Agnes. “You live in a town of this size for any length of time and you’re bound to know everybody at least a little bit.”

“You said ‘poor’ Clara?”

“Yes, by the time she was my age, all her local kin were gone. Just the occasional visit from out of town relatives. And of course, she never married or had any children of her own. I don’t believe she favored the company of men, if you know what I mean.”

Sophie stifled a vulgar remark, coughed to cover, and nodded.