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Writing Diary of Novelist Holly Lisle
Previous post: I GOT MY RESOLUTION!
Next post: Finished ‘Interlude: Nate The Lesser Evil’
by Holly Lisle on December 16, 2009 · 14 comments
in Big Courses, How To Revise Your Novel, Write A Book With Me
I’ve done just over 4000 words today, and am not even close to finished yet. This is the lesson on making sure the worldbuilding in your novel actually works, and it seems to be expanding like a star about to go nova on me.
Fiction didn’t happen yesterday, and it clearly isn’t going to happen today.
But I did write.
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
511 words.
The Princess takes her simulator test and doesn’t do well. But, because of needs and financial issues and deadlines, the Captain hires her after talking to her about the gravity of the situation. She’s ecstatic because this means income and food. But the XO tells The Princess that she (the XO) knows that she (The Princess) is lying about something and that she (the XO) is going to find out it is.
I had stepped back to pick up a couple of scenes out of sequence. So this jumps forward again.
On the Revision side, I’m seeing a lot of screw-ups I hadn’t realized were there and ways to reorganize the story to bring out totally different stuff. There are some characters and sources of conflict that I totally underutilized.
Yesterday I did a whole lot of writing (about 1000 words I think) then one of my cats cut the power from my computer and I lost all but 167 words. So today’s writing session was trying to get back what I lost.
I got 720 words, and I’m convinced they aren’t as good as what they replaced.
I also feel the need to find out EXACTLY how many ways there are to skin a cat.
Sigh.
LOL… bad kitty!!
KavI: 430
D&DII: 683
OFL: 1031
RFW: 1049
…and some reasonable progress on the D&DII page-per-scenes, and another chapter of D&DI revised.
My story was born a cripple, with extra sets of arms and legs, and I have to cut them off before he’s old enough to feel the pain. I did that yesterday. I chopped out the scene threads that belonged at the beginning but don’t anymore. The bits and pieces that I put in there before my plot changed.
And it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. 10,000 words (for me about ten days of work) down the crapper, but I did save them, and if I dig them out later and give ‘em a bit of polish they might still amount to something.
Whenever I write a story, since I don’t really outline at the beginning, I always have to do this. And it’s always like pulling teeth, watching what I worked on sucked away, but I always feel better afterwards. Now what I have is cohesive. Now it all fits together, and will still fit together when it’s done.
So, for a total word count, 542.
79 before I fell asleep on the bus. Then I just didn’t have the energy to focus. I also want to get this scene right since it’s the lead in to the climax later on.
I am completely bothered.
Working full time is taking all of my time and energy out of me. Well, there are a few other commitments that also eat away at my time and I am trying to get them manageable again, too. I have a few websites I am trying to finish, so we can move into manage mode with them. And I have some neuro-stuff that I have to deal with every day …
I am going to get a Netbook so I can keep a computer with me, so I can write in down moments …
Any other ideas?
I can answer one, already. I need to make it a priority on certain days, a priority equal to eating and breathing, not “after all the other stuff is done.”
Hi HannaBelle
I’m a big fan of the netbook too–very portable and light weight and cheap (for a laptop). I have an Acer AspireOne (and love it).
Work drains all my energy too. :( Last night I just sat and watched Grey’s Anatomy reruns (and it’s a day I’ll never get back for my project!). The hardest part is just sitting down in front of the computer at night (after sitting in front of a computer all day). Then forcing myself to stay there and not surf on the internet too!! I seem to do a good job for a couple days and then not so good again. Tonight I’m going to have to avoid the TV and the internet ’til I get some writing done. :)
Definitely, the priority part is a biggie (and also the freewrites when I’m stuck). I try to just spend an hour cooking and cleaning or miscellaneous tasks (and just leave what I don’t get to until the weekend). Good luck to you! I hope you can get back to Pedastal or another project. :))
You’ve no doubt heard this before but…
For me, I set aside/schedule a minimal amount of time to write. Only in the most severe times (like when I was in the hospital) can I not write for 30 minutes late at night. Even if I get stuck in midnight teleconferences, I can write for 30 minutes before I go to bed. If I can write earlier than that, all the better.
See if you can’t find some little smidgen of time, even if it’s 10 minutes at lunch after you’ve eaten or 10 minutes when you first wake up, to just get a few words down.
If you can’t, you can’t. I remember when I was taking Tae Kwon Do a long time ago and the instructor went on this big spiel about deciding what’s important in life and making it a priority. I had been skipping some classes because of other things I had to do. After he gave me that speech, I quit Tae Kwon Do because I realized it wasn’t as high a priority as the other things I had on my plate.
278 words last night.
I finished out a series a drabbles: 700 words.
Wrote two articles: 800 words (so short :sighs: ).
Prewriting for novel: 206 words.
Total: 1706 words.
Also did 4 novel pages and three other worksheets for HTRYN
1250ish. :)
Retreated, or more like fled, to the coffee shop, where 533 words spilled into my notebook, just getting down ideas kicking around in my head. Not like the ideas are going anywhere, (Holly is right, some ideas stick around!) but if I write them down, it’s like they are out of the way, to make room for new ones.
Thanks everyone, for all your posts today, it really encouraged me to find the time. I’m a better “me” when I write something.
It’s good to know that lesson 7 is on worldbuilding, I know that will be a big hurdle for me in the revision!