Character study, 468 words

The scene segment I worked on tonight was a study of Aleksa after she was attacked, and how she was dealing with the ugly memories the attack stirred up.

It was all about stillness and control versus the uncontrolled fury—almost a second person—that the attack woke up and set loose.

I learned some interesting information about her, and I think what I’ve done will interest my reader…but I can’t let it go on too long. Introspection and a character whose only action is breathing and controlling her breathing while sitting in a police interrogation room requires focus and a light hand to write.

Not sure if I got it the way it needs to be, but it’ll do for first draft.

How did your writing go?

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27 responses to “Character study, 468 words”

  1. Gabby Avatar
    Gabby

    1559. Well, I have to gush a little bit. I broke 40K. Woot, Woot! I never thought I would get here. And I am inching so close to 50K and being halfway done.

    Scene today was messy going but it ended up perfectly rounded too. I have no idea whether it will need lots of editing but it moved my story forward. Ended up with some conflict I didn’t expect. And probably way too much dialogue. Not sure yet. I’ll leave that for The End when I can take a step back and figure out what to keep. Right now the story is just way too long (or rather I have way too much story left to tell). But thinking about my scenes, I couldn’t face the thought of losing any piece of what’s happened so far. I’m glad I don’t have to decide that yet.

    1. Karen Avatar
      Karen

      Wow and congrats. . . a little late, but still it’s awesome to make that milestone!

  2. Littlesister Avatar
    Littlesister

    Hi all,
    Have been reading along for a while. Hesitated a long time before joining you guys, didn’t feel up to the commitment. Today that has changed. I even think joining a pocketful of words will have a positive effect on my daily wordcount.
    I found no other way than blackmailing myself to get around to it – I get sidetracked sooooooo easily. So here is my deal: I don’t get to do ANYTHING (no internet stuff especially, no piano playing, no nothing, with the exception of breakfast ๐Ÿ˜‰ until I have written my words for the day.
    509 today. Feels good to finally be here. Have a great writing day!

    1. Gabby Avatar
      Gabby

      Welcome to the fun!

  3. Cat (from HtTS) Avatar

    409 words today and I wrapped up the YA story “The witches of Greenwitch”. I’ll post one chapter a week for free some time after NaNo for anyone who’s interested:
    After being swept into a fantasy-world by a magical amber, an orphaned girl has to find her way back to the life she hates without loosing the amber to the dark soldiers sent after it.

    1. Gabby Avatar
      Gabby

      I’d be interested in reading it. I hope you will let us know once it’s available.

      1. Cat (from HtTS) Avatar

        I will mention it here.

  4. HannaBelle Avatar
    HannaBelle

    Hiatus over, back to writing. Will post word count tomorrow, for the 13th. Nice synchronicity. 13 is a lucky number for me and today is the 13th. As I post this I realize I broke through a writing barrier today, on my lucky day, the 13th.

    First, I got all wrapped around how this story is starting to look like historical fiction or not, which I did NOT intend it to be. The idea morphed from a personal reaction of mine to Dante and his Beatrice. But, how dare I. I am not a scholar, I am not a historian, I don’t read italian

    I almost started to dismantle the whole project today, which is a pattern of mine, I abandon a story path to start a different path, then never finish.

    So, I guess my point is that I did NOT dismantle my story, in spite of my concerns. So I sat down to do just 10 minutes of writing and “decide later.” Then I wrote for several hours.

    The story still might change in the future, but not today. That is a HUGE new thing for me, to keep going on the same path.

  5. Larkk Avatar
    Larkk

    2318 words, and more problems with my computer. The story planning is coming along well though; I might even have a Sentence soon ๐Ÿ™‚

  6. Jessica Avatar
    Jessica

    Took the day to rest my hand and my muse but I did get the first paragraph of the next scene before I fell asleep.

    FMC is eating breakfast in the fanciest hotel in town.

  7. Lisa R Avatar
    Lisa R

    1000+ words. The conflict is rolling along wonderfully. I am getting excited because I can feel the end coming quickly. This is so much fun!

  8. Peggy Avatar
    Peggy

    792 on DG, and because the scene between the two bad guys has been giving me fits for … um … four days now, I took a break to start a “busman’s holiday” story, and got 837 on that. (And a title for it: Out of Tartarus.)

    Today, I hope like blazes to finally finish the bad guys scene in DG. I woke up with three lines that might fix everything I have so far and get it to where it feels like it needs to be.

  9. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    793 today, I think. Hard to say. It was split over two sessions, one very early this morning when I was barely conscious. Curiously, my morning session was better than my evening one. I just seemed to find the right words.

  10. Debora Avatar
    Debora

    356 words. Met my goal for the day. I am rethinking my morning routine. I waste a lot of time (the internet is such a vast, seductive wasteland). I am experimenting with some journaling software, hoping to increase my productivity. Journal entry first, then a quick look here.

    Then write!

    1. Gabby Avatar
      Gabby

      I have to agree with you. Yesterday I discovered that google has a blog spot and wasted tons of time setting up a blog. I have decided that, for me, that way leads to another distraction and less and less work on wip… so I better stay away from that at all costs. Now it’s just a matter of remembering that and just ‘blogging’ here instead. :))

  11. Minze Avatar
    Minze

    360-odd words today. I wish I could get out of my mess as quickly as you get out of yours. Still, with every mess I’m learning something new – that’s probably the best way of looking at it.

  12. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    I’m going easy on myself this week, since I’m aware that some days have been a bit chore-like recently. Hence I’ve halved my word count targets.
    D&D: 329 – overshot slightly, but there was some furious dialogue I wanted to get down!
    OFL: 514
    RFW: 511
    Feeling better for the reduced count – will decide at the weekend whether to bump it back up again. I’m hoping to get a few weeks of full time work before Christmas, so am feeling like I should maximise my writing time until then, but at the same time I don’t want it to become a burden.

  13. Teri Avatar
    Teri

    I spent most of the day preparing to start working on the outline for my next project. I have some pre-work already done, so it’s just a matter of sitting down to finish it.

    I’ll be travelling this week, so I probably won’t be posting. With luck I’ll be able to report a good chunk of my outline done when I get back on Friday. (I’m doing a very detailed outline for this one)

  14. Julian Adorney Avatar
    Julian Adorney

    Finished editing Chapter 1 (which is becoming Chapter 2) tonight. So technically two hours for no words, but the finished chapter is tighter. It moves the pace forward much faster and adds some danger for the main character.
    It took two hours to finish the ‘light’ rewrites I figured Prologue and Chapter 1 would take. I have no idea how long the ‘heavy’ rewrites for Chapters 3-6 is gonna take.

  15. The Pencil Neck Avatar
    The Pencil Neck

    614 words – Development.

    I’m really champing at the bit to start writing “for real” at this point. I’ve got almost my entire ending fleshed out. So I know where I need to write to but so much of the story is still plotted at a very general level. I’m considering fleshing out the first part of the book and then going ahead and starting writing. And then when I get to the middle section, flesh the first half of that out and then write it. Etc. The alternative is being patient and actually plotting the entire thing out and THEN start writing.

  16. Ieva Avatar

    500 new words on Vega, 2000 short story words typed from the notebook to the laptop. The short story is darn moving. Not overly original or something, but moving.

  17. Charmaine Avatar

    766 words tonight to finish off a chapter in Dog Show Detective. Kitty was putting together some clues and figured out what the intruder was after – the imposter dog. While I was writing the wind picked up here and then rain tapped the windows and thunder rumbled off in the distance – so I wrote it into Kitty’s scene as well.

  18. JL Coburn Avatar

    Another chapter done…and I finally am going to get to the main protags in the next. I hope the character development they go through in the next couple chapters is as enlightening to a reader as it is in my head.
    Side note, I’ve been reading your books for years, and your advice for the last year. Reading Fire in the Mist was the ‘Yes, I want to be a writer’ moment of my teen years. And its been your blog paired with a few friends I’ve made on twitter that’s made me push aside any doubts that I can be a writer. My only regret is not having the money for your courses just yet. But I will, hopefully the next time you open up Think Sideways.

  19. Michelle Avatar

    694 for me. Prison scenes are the best. ๐Ÿ™‚

  20. Clare K. R. Miller Avatar

    537 words tonight. More of the fight scene. One of Cricket’s friends trusts her immediately, another is unsure.

  21. S. Megan Payne Avatar

    Oh yeah! Also did 176 (took a while to whittle it down to that actually) on the rules of the universe. It was important enough to count it as words. ๐Ÿ™‚

  22. S. Megan Payne Avatar

    588 words of prewriting and pinging off my muse in questions and answers mostly. Would have loved to do some real writing, but it’s growing in my head and that’s a start. My main character comes from a very reserved, stoic kind of culture, so finding out what drives her, getting under her skin, has been coming slowly. That’s not a bad thing though. It helps me understand her a little better as I take my time.

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