Barricade the Doors

Kettan is back in her place, considerably shell-shocked and paranoid as hell. Everything checks out fine, but in tomorrow’s first paragraph is going to demonstrate to her that she has a very good reason to be paranoid.

After all the insanity of the EarlyBird sale of How To Revise Your Novel, I spent most of this afternoon asleep.

When I woke up, I got 644 words, and I’m pretty happy with them.

So that’s me.

How’s YOUR story coming?

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By Holly

Novelist, writing teacher, on a mission to reprint my out-of-print books and indie-publish my new ones.

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HannaBelle
HannaBelle
13 years ago

No words, but almost done with scene sentences. I have been doing them on paper first, and today I hope to get them onto index cards so I can move them around. (Thanks to HTTS.)

I should be able to start words again this weekend. Some of that will be re-arrange and re-write from my 30-page-pretty-good-false-start.

Gabby
Gabby
13 years ago

66 words… 66 words. ugh. It’s the second time I thought things were going really well in a scene only to realize the next day that it wasn’t working at all. So depressing. I’ve spent many hours rewriting my last scene (over and over and trying to figure out how to fix it). Tomorrow I’ll have to take a step back and figure out what to do, before I lose too many days on this (like last time this happened).

Rabia
13 years ago

Holly, Glad you’re back!

I’m working on revising a novel, most of which is typing in the handwritten notes on a hard copy of my ms. I’m aiming for 4 pages a day in order to finish Part 1 by Christmas.

Of course, I just hit a point where I was being lazy/tired/rushed and left a note to myself to write a scene in which x, y and z happens. That should take me a couple of nights. *sigh*

red_dot
red_dot
13 years ago

Total derailment no words. Still have a day job that I should be spending my time writing. This is my first attempt at writing, not going to pressure myself to much right now, just want to get through the holidays. On the upside getting ready for xmas and making a D&D campaign for the kids “Quest for Volka’s Fire” I think I see why others juggle mutiple projects when one is giving you trouble.

Adam
Reply to  red_dot
13 years ago

i’m also making a D&D campaign for my kids and a few friends and their kids. should be lots of fun when the time comes to playing, but up until then it is just additional work.

Good luck and let me know how the gaming turns out

red_dot
red_dot
Reply to  Adam
13 years ago

I have played with the kids twice easing them into the game with simple rules and add a layer each time we play. So the kids have to kill the lycanthrope king who resides in a castle but goes into the dungeon and they have to go in after him. They have to befrind the inn keeper(As a boy he found the wolf king’s treasure years ago and only took the skull) who holds the solid gold skull of a wolf with ruby eyes and is willing to trade it for the girl he loves that was turned into a werewolf. Only killing the king can turn her back. They have to survive an assasination attempt for one of the kids will be given a ruby eye for the quest. They need to keep it to pay toll to the war troll and his army in the forest, which after they kill the king the troll requires them to bring him the skull. Ohh the assasination attempt was done by one of the trolls minions. I need to map out a dungeon and make monsters. Document hord of treasure at the end and every D&D player has to fight a beholder sometime.

What about your campaign?

red_dot
red_dot
Reply to  Holly
13 years ago

Thanks Holly!

Patricia
Patricia
13 years ago

Over the past few days quite a lot of things have happened. My laptop died, taking 3,000 words and a few of my more recent digital art works along with it, traveled all day Thanksgiving to be with the rest of the family over the weekend (road trips are fun!), got an awesome new laptop on Black Friday, and now I have all the words I lost written again (only twice as good as they were before) plus 2,000 extra. All in all, it’s been pretty exciting around here, and I’m super excited that I’m almost done with the first draft. Only 20,000 words to go! 😀 Happy writing everyone!

Jessica
13 years ago

474 but not sticking. It was bits and pieces of Cait in jail, hanging with some rebels who aren’t sure what to make of her. The scene is dragging and bordering on useless evil padding.

Hate middles!!!!

So I’m throwing logic out the window, since it’s clearly not working for me, and going to pantser it for a couple of days, flip flopping through scenes out of order.

Lisa R
Lisa R
13 years ago

I took the day off. However, over the Thanksgiving weekend my goal was to write 5K. I ended up with about 5.5K. I do have to say that Candy Bar scenes and I have not been getting along. I was working my last scene before the Candy Bar and it flowed so well and just amazed me. As I went into the CB, I thought now this is going to be even better. But it seems that I get to anxious so my words don’t flow as well. I will have to work on this issue.

Peggy
Peggy
13 years ago

From Friday through Monday, I got about 2000 words, total. And promptly stalled a bit on the transition from set-ups to major complications.

Today, I have a clearer direction of certain events (helped greatly by finding out that I was working from the wrong set of symptoms for the poison) and should be able to revise the two prior scenes that involve the poison, and then continue on.

Once more into the breach!

Adam
13 years ago

Started a short story last night and got 350 words or so.

this is something that i’m writing to put up on my blog as a sample of my fiction. it details an experience Tzal mentions as an aside in the book, and i thought it would be a good scene to expand on for this purpose. it should (assuming i pull it off right) show both the cold calculating side as well as the good natured side of Tzalaran as he performs his job.

also have been getting back on the 3d bike, which has been good. i recently got ahold of an old friend of mine from high school who is in the 3d industry, and sounds like he needs a scripter/tool developer/effects guy for his studio. that would interest me much more than what i’m doing as a career now (doing documentation work for a legal software company), and lies more along the career path i want (start my own studio to make animated movies out of my stories).

Greg
Greg
13 years ago

KavI: 503
OFL: 1045
RFW: 1036

OFL and RFW are starting to irk me a little bit – I keep feeling a little unconvinced by the scenes I’m writing, but soon OFL should get into the last 20k or so, and with knowing how it ends, I’ll hopefully feel better about it then.
Thanks to everyone for the congrats on finishing D&DI. Hoping to finish D&DII sentence-per-scenes by friday and do the page-per-scenes next week…
And congrats to everyone else who has finished something recently – there seem to have been a few of us all at once!

Nancy
Nancy
13 years ago

3400 words and the Nano novel is finished at 63,000. It’s just a skeleton — there’s lots that needs to get filled in. But good that it’s over.

Congrats on everyone else who did Nano too!

Now I’m off to do HTRYN and go back to my pre-Nano project – The Crofters.

Khena
Khena
13 years ago

I have been bad… I finished my nano and stopped writing. But I did join HtRYN, which is great fun so far. But, I have learned a great deal about myself and what I can accomplish during nano. The goal of finishing Dragonfly by the end of this year is looming horribly, though, I have 10 more chapters to write! Hopefully I can get started on it and refamiliarize myself with Dragonfly today and get a few words pumped out.

Cayleigh
Cayleigh
13 years ago

Uhm… hi. Not really sure how this works, the whole “write a book with me” thing. Can anyone pop in, at any time?

If so,

500 words this morning before I got ready for school, breaking 40k.

If not,

Sorry.

Gabby
Gabby
Reply to  Cayleigh
13 years ago

Everyone can just join in- no membership or anything. Welcome to the group! :))

Khena
Khena
Reply to  Gabby
13 years ago

Welcome to the club!

Nancy
Nancy
Reply to  Cayleigh
13 years ago

Welcome! You’re in good company.

Patricia
Patricia
Reply to  Cayleigh
13 years ago

Welcome! 😀

red_dot
red_dot
Reply to  Cayleigh
13 years ago

Hello…..happy to have you here with the rest of us.

Larkk
Larkk
13 years ago

1184 words to end the novel, as the excess caffeine I needed to write 73k in 30 days slowly ebbs out of my system:)
Ended on a keeper scene, even though I’m not sure that is where the scene should go, but the story is done. I had no idea if I could do this, but am really glad I did! It’s a huge confidence boost to know I can keep up with other writers, and I learned a lot about what works for me in terms of creating the story. I also met some wonderful writers in my region. (Don’t know if I’m ready to join a writing group yet though, I’m still pretty fragile…)

HannaBelle
HannaBelle
13 years ago

Back to Bx2. Checking and rewriting screen sentences and The Sentence.

I want to finish Bx2 so I can use it with HTRYN.

Tori
Tori
13 years ago

Managed about 7k words in two days. I don’t think I have ever written so many words in such a short amount of time. I am very proud of reaching such a huge milestone. So, I finished my first year of Nano a winner. I love the feeling, knowing that I could do this. I could write and hit deadlines and come up with some pretty neat ideas as well. I have not written my ending yet, but I do have quite a few ideas in mind. I am very excited to reach the end!

Leah
Leah
13 years ago

Forgot to mention that I am almost done, too.

Leah
Leah
13 years ago

Almost 1000 words. Now that I’m a part of the HTRYN, I want to finish it so that I can stay caught up!!!

Teri
Teri
13 years ago

1,047 words for the 30th, giving me a Nano win at just over 51k. The story, however, is just under halfway through.

I ended up skipping a few scenes from my outline, two I may go back to later and one that wasn’t serving any purpose at all, so it’s not coming back. However, the king has now abdicated, and his daughter has been formally anointed to the throne. She’ll be crowned in two months. Meanwhile, Zhaer is beginning to realise that there are people who may be willing to take steps to ensure that doesn’t happen. His half-brother, the prince, doesn’t seem willing to take the throne, and is strictly speaking too young to rule without a regent, but Zhaer heard someone sounding him out anyway, and has decided to investigate.

I have no idea what his motive is, though. He doesn’t really have any loyalty the country, and is only at court to annoy his father, the king. But he’s going to enter the fray on Laena’s side, I’ll figure out why in the rewrite, though I probably should know it now.

The Pencil Neck
The Pencil Neck
13 years ago

495 words.

The Bodyguard is in his cell, contemplating, and when one of his cell mates farts in his sleep, the Bodyguard decides it’s time to leave. He gets one of the guard’s attention and tells him that he wants to talk to the Major about his offer. The guard tells him to go back to sleep and to shut up. The Bodyguard goes to sleep but he’s awakened by alarms. He watches the guards run out and then the cell doors open. The Bodyguard is the first one out and through the doors into the police station area. And the Princess is walking toward him, draped in guns and pulling a cart full of weapons behind her.

Thanks so much for HTRYN, Holly. I don’t know how you do everything you do. It’s going to be hard enough for me to juggle writing this, revising my old novel, my wife, and my work. And still find time to clean the litter boxes. 🙂

Ieva
13 years ago

I managed to finish my NaNo novel in the meantime (with the ending, too! And a crappy ending is still an ending!).
Am sloooowly working on a new piece, mostly it’s in early stages of pregnancy in my head. Revising a novel actually helps with worldbuilding in a weird way. 🙂

Elise
13 years ago

Had a bit of worldbuilding to do, which is good because typing is hard when your arm is stiff with vaccination 🙂

So now I know a bit more about Merpeople, and the war meeting between the Peoples of the Forest can proceed. I do hope the Queen will let me in on some of her own culture… It would make my task much easier. Tomorrow, I’ll get to meet her for the first time in my story *excited*

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