Still outlining Ohio 4, but got sidetracked by writing the first chapter.

By Holly Lisle

It happens. You get about half of your 30-word chapter Sentences written, and this GREAT first sentence for a chapter pops into your head, so you go ahead and you write down that sentence because you know if you don’t you’ll forget it…

And about 600 words later, you realize that you haven’t finished outlining the novel yet, so technically those six-hundred-ish words shouldn’t count…

So. Yeah.

I have the first half of Book 4’s outline written, and a bunch of words I got while playing hooky from doing the outline, so they don’t get to count until I finish the thing I’m supposed to have done. But I can’t finish that until tomorrow, because we have a bunch of other stuff we’re supposed to do today.

It was however, while kind of scrambled, a pretty good work day.

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Ohio 4… The outline is now in progress

By Holly Lisle

Not much to say about that — it’s line-for-scene outlining, and the plotting out of the whole book before leaping in to write it is essential to not wrecking the damn thing going around a hard curve.

I got a bit sidetracked — writing 722 words of the intro chapter (just to get my head wrapped around where and when I’m starting) before realizing that I want to have the whole outline done first.

The God of Barbecue showed up, though. ‘Nuff said.

No word count meter yet, so no picture. But I’m happy with what I have so far.


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Ohio 3 is now done in first draft!

By Holly Lisle

57,841 words total. I like the story. I love the ending.

And now the novel gets to sit quietly for a while as I plot the replacement Ohio 4.

In revision, it will probably get a bit longer. Most of my stuff does.

Based on some very good advice, I am, however, now considering doing a slower release, and NOT having all five initial books finished before I begin releasing them.

I think I might have a better time of this if I didn’t try anything rapid-release-ish, but instead simply had a nice little reserve in place, and then released them one every six or so months — about the speed at which I can reasonably write one, and revise it, and be happy with the quality of what I’m creating.

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Technically, I finished Ohio 3 this morning…

By Holly Lisle

I’ll start my read-through, Monday. And I am considering the possibility of a final very short chapter to point the book toward Book 4.

I have the empty file sitting in my template.

But I’m not sure the “summation” chapter is needed, and I won’t know until I’ve finished the read-through.

The book is currently 57,040 words long, and will gain a few thousand words during revision as I find places where I wrote thin. (It always happens in first draft, especially to me.)

Meanwhile, I made myself laugh writing the ending.

ANYWAY… I’m looking forward to outlining Ohio 4 starting on Monday, working off of what I’ve now built into the first three novels, and seeing if there’s anything in the first draft of Ohio 4 that will be worth saving.

I’m not holding my breath on that. But I did find some things worth keeping from the first drafts on 1, 2, and 3. So it could happen.

Have a fantastic weekend!

I’m looking forward to mine.


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My daily words are funded by my Ko-Fi supporters.

All supporters are thanked by name (withheld by request) in
each book’s acknowledgements.
To add your support, use the orange Support me button
on the bottom left corner of this page.
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Evil Afoot — 2077 words, and I got a nice bit of a cliffhanger at the end

By Holly Lisle

Very pleased with the nasty situation in which I’ve dumped my MC — she’s going to have a rough rest of the week, too.

Evil is a foot (it left its footprint all over everydamnthing, in fact…) and my MC is in the process of using what she discovered to lead the bad guys into helping her.

So, with that done, I’m now going to work for a bit on the new Big Course for Writers I’m putting together.

Not going to discuss the course, or give hints about what it is. I’ll have it pretty much done when I take it live.

It will fill a big hole in my current classes, though.


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Solid complications in Ohio Three today. 691 words, and 54,188 total

By Holly Lisle

I love what I got. I didn’t get a huge wordcount, but I did get some spectacular complications to throw into the plot.

The story’s coming together well. And now I’m at a tricky bit of plotting that is going to affect not just this book, but the next two, and probably have significant impact on any books I might want to write in the series after the first five.

So I’m having to think about future ramifications at the same time that I’m trying to write stuff that is going to take me to the ending of THIS story.

So… FRIDAY. Which means I get to give my brain a couple days off to let the stuff I planted today put down roots in my imagination.

I’ll come back Monday, and see what grew.

Now I’m going to work for a bit on the surprise thing for writers. And then go have a weekend.


•·.·´`·.·•·.·´`·.·•·.·´`·.·•·.·´`·.·•
My daily words are funded by my Ko-Fi supporters.

All supporters are thanked by name (withheld by request) in
each book’s acknowledgements.
To add your support, use the orange Support me button
on the bottom left corner of this page.
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Today was SOLID — and eventful: 2121 words, and 51,559 total

By Holly Lisle

I’m over the hump and heading toward the ending now, and today’s scene and tomorrow’s scene are dark, and pretty scary for my MC and her folks, with a massive chance of things going so wrong that she could — with just one mistake — lose everything she has come to love (and not just for herself, but for everyone she cares about).

I love what I got today, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s words.

Now, though, I have to do non-fiction stuff.


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Happy Writing… and some love

By Holly Lisle

My MC has discovered that she is not alone in the world, or the universe… and today I finally got to do some of the happy stuff with that.

If I’d been able to keep all the words from today’s scene, the word count would have been a lot bigger. But I had to rip out a chunk, so I got 880 that I could keep, and 49,500 (and actual round number on BOTH stats today).

And I fell in love with the story and the MC and the MC’s new (very temporary) house guest all over again.

* * *


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It’s “Make Yourself Cry” Day…

By Holly Lisle

I got good words. 997, to be exact. And I love what I got today.

But some of what I wrote was pulled out of my real life, and part of it was me getting to do in fiction something I never had the opportunity to do in real life, because my real childhood was a never-ending series of ill-considered and poorly thought-out moves into bad places and worse places, with no consideration — EVER — for the people those dumb-and-dumber moves left behind.

I wrote today the scene I would have given anything to live through in real life, and writing it helped.

It also happens to be a really solid scene right before TSGD (The Shit Goes Down)… which is what I get to write tomorrow.

So not only am I happy with what I got today, but I’m really excited about tomorrow.

Now, though, on to all the other work that must be done.

 

WITH ONE RATHER DROLL OBSERVATION… (ADDED AFTER THE EMAIL WENT OUT)

I’ve been working on the same part of the book for three days, and had not noticed (until I read my own blog posts for these last three days, that I have, in fact, made myself cry three damn days in a row.

Here’s the bright news on that. These are in general, pretty funny books.

There is just this one little section here where I gave my hero some bits of my own childhood in her past (heavily altered), and threw in one person in my life who meant the world to me. And she and that one special person got to do the one thing I never did. Which is why there were tears.


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Ohio 3, and the Shoe-Drop Moment

By Holly Lisle

There’s the “make yourself cry” moment, and there was some of that today. I did, indeed, make myself cry. Again.

There was a bit of making myself laugh.

There was giving my character one moment I would take in a heartbeat if someone could just stop the world and roll back time.

And there was the bit that you couldn’t even pay me to sit through watching in a movie in a well-lit room.

So… big story day, and the moment where the other shoe dropped gave me a terrific place to pick up tomorrow.

So now, on to the OTHER STUFF.

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