#TeaserTuesday: Do As You Are Told

Amelia knew what it looked like when a bath was being prepared, but she still asked, “What’s happening? What are they doing?”

The man sighed again, and headed for the door. “Be sure to clean her hair down to the roots. It stinks of dragon,” he addressed the women, who nodded in silent understanding.

Amelia stood, wobbled, and caught herself with a hand braced on the high back of the chaise. “Wait!” she called after him, surprised when he stopped, and then turned. “Whatever this is for”—she gestured to the bath preparations, water spilling over the edge of her cup, heart pounding—“I won’t go along with it. You can’t make me do anything.” It sounded childish the moment it left her mouth, and his small, tight smile said he thought so, too.

“Miss Drake,” he said, falsely patient, “you are no longer the lone dragon rider amidst an army of Southern misfits. You are here, in our possession. You will do as you are told.”

The or else went unspoken, but she shuddered all the same. 

For reasons I've never understood, every time I reach 50k words on a manuscript, my progress slows. I don't stop writing, and I don't lose sight of what comes next, but the day-to-day composition becomes a slower, more arduous process. Instead of hammering out words, I write a few sentences, then stare out the window; then check my email; then scroll Instagram; then write a few more sentences. I don't know why this happens, but it happens with every book. It's some sort of malaise, that eventually lifts, and then I sprint through the final 10-20k words of the book. I'm trying to learn to accept it and not fret about it. Every time I think "oh no, I've lost the magic," but every time I work through it. Jesus take the keyboard, I guess. 

It might have something to do with the fact that the 50k mark is usually where things start to go really south for the characters. It's the thick of whatever sticky situation they'd landed in, and there's a subconscious part of me that places a heavier emphasis on those scenes. That's certainly the state of things right now in Avarice of the Empire. Our three Drakes are in trouble.