Category: Writers

  • A very good Ohio Wednesday… and a disturbing twist

    A very good Ohio Wednesday… and a disturbing twist

    I got 1319 words today, nicely over my 1200-word objective. And I like what I got. Yesterday’s stuff was funny, but today’s words got serious as my main character and a friend of hers started investigating a project they want to take on — and my MC pointed out that there are some significant dangers…

  • The Other Shoe Dropped — Ohio 4 and the Friday “Say WHAT?!”

    The Other Shoe Dropped — Ohio 4 and the Friday “Say WHAT?!”

    In the first version of these novels, I had one main character who I was having do a lot of chasing around because my main character was being stubbornly stupid about an activity that was bad for her — except she refused to see it. I made her smarter. And because she stopped doing stubbornly…

  • And… YEP… Still outlining on Ohio Four

    And there’s really not a lot you can say about that. It’s one 30-word sentence per scene that has to encompass the essence of the chapter while moving the whole story forward, and it is a pretty fast, efficient way to give yourself a migraine. It works. It’s essential to my process of getting books…

  • Ohio 4… The outline is now in progress

    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…

  • Ohio 3 is now done in first draft!

    Ohio 3 is now done in first draft!

    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…

  • Technically, I finished Ohio 3 this morning…

    Technically, I finished Ohio 3 this morning…

    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…

  • Evil Afoot — 2077 words, and I got a nice bit of a cliffhanger at the end

    Evil Afoot — 2077 words, and I got a nice bit of a cliffhanger at the end

    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…

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

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

    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…

  • A tricky bit to figure out for tomorrow… BUT done for today.

    A tricky bit to figure out for tomorrow… BUT done for today.

    Tomorrow my MC has to figure out how to contact (and then rescue) someone important trapped behind enemy lines without breaking the rules that forbid her from having any contact with the enemy. I already know how she’s going to do this. I just need to figure out how to make it smooth, and clean,…

  • Today was SOLID — and eventful: 2121 words, and 51,559 total

    Today was SOLID — and eventful: 2121 words, and 51,559 total

    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…