This week, M-F: 13,743 words
Total words in story files is not an indication of actual running words, since there are overlaps and some interpolated "discussion" items in there. But for the hyper-curious, it's around 124,000. The book has "turned" (made it clear it's over half done) but the point of turning isn't that easy to find, so figuring how much is left is impossible.
It's interesting to see how the skills I've gained in the past 25 years are affecting the way I write in this universe now. For one thing, for some months I automatically tried to finesse the noodly part, the part where I needed to be just messing about with it, getting back into it. I had to, because I had to write a proposal to get a contract--but that short-circuited and actually delayed me--the messing about still had to be done, and took longer because the busy, SF-trained writer-skills wanted to dive in from the beginning-as-proposed. Wrong. The messing about was more messy, for longer, than I wanted, and wasn't helped by the multiple (fascinating but long and tiring) trips, resultant illnesses, and the other work I'd previously contracted to do--both short fiction projects that were exactly wrong to dovetail with this.
When I finally got a clear shot at the book proper, with no other intervening deadlines and no more travel, I had recovered the voice it needed and we're moving right along very nicely, as this week's word counts show. This is a universe that generates story for me, and also generates complex story (the kind I like best)--backstory, sidestory, and forward momentum. I can trust that stuff will connect in the end...if I write in the conditions it requires (no interruptions, the right music, enough physical exercise when not writing.)
But--enough for today, the hand is telling me firmly if I want to do anything tomorrow, I need to stop.