During this Scrivener Trial period, every time I log into Scrivener the software program reminds me of how many non-consecutive days I have left in my 30 day free trial. Now it’s 15 days remaining.

What do I have for my 15 days?

1. Not as many overlapping files as in this image, but a few I can easily switch back and forth between.

2. Ten chapters of a novel-in-progress. Very rough chapters. Extremely rough. With lots of comments on the side bar for changes and things to follow through in later chapters.

I’m still not confident this novel will work to the end. But I want to continue, probably on Scrivener. If I do make it, I’d write the second draft on Scrivener because I’ll really need to process all these notes I’ve made in the various files. I see myself transferring it all to WORD for draft 3, mainly because I’m concerned about the transfer process. Will it really work? Also, a friend told me certain things come out strangely in WORD as a result of the transfer. I’ll want to fix those up before I get too far along.

I estimate that I’m a little over  1/4  of the first draft. My goal is to finish it by mid-October–unless I hit a wall.  Already, I’ve cut one character and replaced her with someone I had intended to be off-stage. The first character couldn’t move the story much and she wasn’t a realistic suspect, which felt like a waste of my limited number of new characters.

And I still don’t know whodunit. The story seems to be leaning toward one person, but I’m not convinced. For books one and two, I had a strong feeling at this point about who was guilty.

It’s unsettling, but I expect unsettled is one thing first drafts are largely about.