Holly Lisle: Writer

DTD—287 Words, and blood on the wall

I made it to the explosion. I didn’t get as far as the death. But my characters are coming together, and the scene is developing a nice shape. So I’ll probably end up killing off my unfortunate guy tomorrow…or maybe the next day, because I don’t see him being someone who’s going to go down without a fight.

Between having the weekend off and the B-12 and other goodies, I have a bit more energy than I did last week. Still going to call it a night, though.

I’m very pleased with what I got.

How is your story coming?

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56 responses to “DTD—287 Words, and blood on the wall”

  1. Lacey Savage Avatar
    Lacey Savage

    So glad you’re feeling better, Holly!

    I had a fabulous day on Sunday and got over 1,200 words written despite spending most of the day playing World of Warcraft on the couch. Talk about feeling productive! 🙂

    Reply
  2. Red_dot Avatar
    Red_dot

    629 words today (Monday) now writing a book has become way more complex. Multiple scenes, moving story and developement forward. Well at least I am not surfing the internet all day and then going home. Starting to have a harder time writing now, but I just keep on going.

    Reply
    1. Nancy Avatar
      Nancy

      That’s the way to do it. One step forward, every day. Even if it’s just a little step. Good for you!

      Reply
  3. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    Only 622 words today. Short of my quota, but it’s been a long day and I’m out of steam. Did get 1100 yesterday, though. I try to get my writing done in the morning, so I sometimes forget to post my results for the day here in the evening. 🙂

    Reply
  4. Gina Avatar
    Gina

    401 words today. First chapter is complete. I’m very happy with my progress, or should I say surprised. A chapter in 5 days of writing. That’s great for me.

    Happy writing everyone.

    Reply
  5. Sarah Collins Avatar
    Sarah Collins

    Holly – I just wanted to let you know that I saw a random rave about Talyn out there in www-land. It was in response to one of those “What are you reading right now?” messages. I can’t remember her exact words, but she was definitely digging it! =c)

    Reply
  6. Sarah Collins Avatar
    Sarah Collins

    Sunday count was 419. I’m obviously running behind for the day, LOL, but I did give myself an hour to work on WIP before returning to the paying gigs. Not expecting a stellar count for Monday, but progress is good enough!

    Reply
  7. ceecee Avatar
    ceecee

    1509 words today, plus second pass through scene cards, after which ensued much wailing and gnashing of teeth. I had to be tough though–I do not want to hit a brick wall thousands of words into the book.
    Fun factor–planted an audio bite of a goshawk’s call into manuscript at appropriate moment in scene. Sometimes these little inserts really help me to recall both mood and scene/setting, esp, if I come back after being away for a couple of days.
    Glad you’re on the mend, Holly!

    Reply
  8. Don Avatar
    Don

    It’s Monday the 27th stayed home today I have an mild ear infection. I got started working in the love story MC love insterest is Army First Lieutenant Adam Peters Special Ops officer and wildly in love with Doctor Hannah Maxwell. Got a little extra in today 1,290 words help make up for some of the low days.
    Have fun everybody.

    Reply
  9. Colleen Avatar
    Colleen

    316 painful words. I don’t know what my total word count is, as I’m at work. I brought the scene I was working on to an entirely unsatisfactory close, but at least I managed to end the mammoth thing. I still haven’t decided if the shoehorned ending is a Muse Bomb in disguise, or an awful bit of writing that will need to go. Right now, I’m just happy I got the words.

    Reply
  10. Mike P. Avatar
    Mike P.

    I managed 483 words today (Monday).

    I just stopped wanting to write for a few days. I was really battling with the next step in the story. I didn’t want to write what I saw coming. I didn’t exactly take Holly’s advice. I didn’t kick my character’s in the head and make them do what I wanted. I compromised. The MC accepted a call from his wife. In return he gets to kill a bad guy in about three more pages. We both win because he isn’t going to discover a dead cop anytime soon.

    Reply
  11. Treelight Avatar
    Treelight

    I wrote 270 words for my story on sunday. That’s ok with me, since it was my first day at home after my holiday.
    I didn’t write anything while I was away, but on the train home I had some fun with a scene that most likely will never appear in the book, so I don’t count it.

    However, I really need to get some more action back into the story, Jeremy and Cathrine have talked long enough now.

    Reply
  12. Michelle Avatar
    Michelle

    Hi everyone!

    I haven’t posted in awhile, although I’ve been lurking every day! I had to go back to the plotting stage- things weren’t going the way I wanted. So I’m still working on the book, but I don’t have any word counts to report. Hopefully this week!

    Glad you’re feeling better, Holly! 🙂

    Reply
  13. Danielle Meitiv Avatar
    Danielle Meitiv

    Wrote 950 words of world-building and 500 or so of story- so far so good!

    hey Holly – I was planning to check out one of your books, since I’m enjoying your blog so much. Looking over my bookshelf this morning, I realized that I have read one – Night Echos – and I LOVED it! So spooky that it actually made it hard to fall asleep at night. I loved the whole paranormal storyline. Makes me even more inspired and excited to be writing a book with you!

    Danielle

    Reply
  14. Beckie Avatar
    Beckie

    Oops, posted on the wrong day, I think. Sunday word count 2978 on the Intrigue. 4347/2978

    Reply
    1. Nancy Avatar
      Nancy

      Wow! You’re burning up the keyboard! Way to go!

      Reply
  15. Lisa R Avatar
    Lisa R

    691 words and my short story is finished. Well, the first draft is finished. I am not sure what direction I am going to go in next. This spring I left my novel at chapter nine due to sickness. I am a bit nervous to go back, but I do miss my MC.

    Reply
  16. Dena C. Avatar
    Dena C.

    I’ve taken a break from the book for a few days. I’m officially on vacation for the next two weeks and I don’t if I’m going to be able to check in here every day. I will be working on the book though. 635 words yesterday.

    Reply
  17. Jessica Avatar
    Jessica

    Did some recalculating on Sunday to see where I was in with #scenes and word count because of some scene cutting a few days ago and realized I’d derailed and at the current average words/scene would need another 60 scenes! Eeek!
    So I spent all day re-ordering things, throwing in twists, changed and extended the ending (which was lacking connections anyway). So now if I can up my words/scene average it should be closer to the 100K that I want.

    Reply
  18. Debora Avatar
    Debora

    Got 714 words yesterday. I am getting close to the 20K mark, which is both good and bad. Good, because I am writing. A lot! Bad, because I’m still at the very beginning of my book. Have a long way to go, and a lot of ground yet to cover!

    But I tell myself not to worry. I can decide what to keep and what to toss later. You can’t edit a blank page, which is what I would have if I started worrying too much about my narrator being way too verbose. It’s not useless verbiage. It’s always got a point to it, and it’s all fun to write. So I tell myself, just let it happen.

    Glad you are feeling a little better, Holly.

    Reply
  19. Belle Avatar
    Belle

    I wrote about 700 words today, but only 250 towards my novel. Sometimes details from other stories crowd my thoughts so I got them on paper.

    Reply
    1. Sarah Collins Avatar
      Sarah Collins

      That happens to me sometimes! I’m glad I’m not alone. If I don’t write down what those little voices tell me (wow, that sounds scary LOL) then I can’t focus on my WIP. Nice work!

      Reply
  20. Suzanne Avatar
    Suzanne

    Had a really bad week due to some family issues, then wanted to write a lot yesterday but then couldn’t really get motivated. Finally, when I was just about ready to go to bed, I thought I would just force myself to write a few words so I had something to post, and lo and behold I got the 500 and it actually came together pretty well. Glad I was able to dive back into the story without problems; and Holly, I’m especially glad you’re feeling better.

    Reply
  21. Minze Avatar
    Minze

    320 words, and something’s not quite right. I’ll try again tomorrow.

    Reply
  22. The Pencil Neck Avatar
    The Pencil Neck

    1128 words.

    Our good sheriff, who now knows what the problem is, had a talk to his boss about it. He asked for some more resources to help deal with the situation. And got promptly fired. His assistant with the cockamamie idea a few scenes before is now in charge of the investigation.

    And tomorrow (or sometime resembling tomorrow, I’ll be on a plane to India), our good sheriff is going to get home to find that his wife of 33 years has had enough of his single minded dedication to work and has left to go live with one of their daughters.

    But, that’s tomorrow.

    Reply
    1. Nancy Avatar
      Nancy

      Poor Sheriff… What’s-is-name. Work hard for The Man, and The Man sends you packing. Insult to injury would be that the wife is leaving him for his boss!

      Sounds like you’re doing great!

      Reply
  23. Blair Avatar
    Blair

    Huzzah! Hard-fought though they are, I have 753 great words this evening, and an opening line that — if y’all don’t mind — I just have to share:

    “At the end of her life, Sister Adolphus Bovary began to talk without pause about a man called Earnest Fife and how he died, which caused an unprecedented stir among the direct-care staff in the third-floor oncology wing of St. Ignatius of Loyola Hospital.”

    I’m just so pleased with what I’ve gotten so far. What a terrific evening!

    (Also, I’d be absolutely rude, Holly, if I didn’t pass along how glad I am that you’re feeling better this week! :))

    Reply
    1. Debora Avatar
      Debora

      Like your first line!

      Reply
      1. Blair Avatar
        Blair

        Thanks, Debora! I’m hopeful it will lead to many great lines following.

        Reply
    2. Nancy Avatar
      Nancy

      Wow. Great first line! I’m ready to read more!

      Reply
    3. Sarah Collins Avatar
      Sarah Collins

      Mission accomplished – I’m ready to read the rest! LOL.

      Reply
      1. Blair Avatar
        Blair

        Thank you both for the kind words! Now if only I could pry myself away from here and delve back into the story!

        …I fear I might be unsuccessful. 😉

        Reply
  24. Brian Cansler Avatar
    Brian Cansler

    Holly, it’s great to hear that you’re feeling a bit better 🙂

    I’m so thrilled to report that I’ve finished the preliminary plot cards for my story, “Love Thy Enemy.” (Trust me, it’s much less cliché than it sounds!)

    The next step is paring down my longer cards into Sentence Lites. Some run almost to 50 words, and I agree that that’s way too long. I’ll get that done by the time my next lesson for HTTS comes.

    (By the way, Holly, nearly all of your techniques work very, VERY well for me. The prewriting lesson [week 7], although longer than a Titanic marathon, was amazingly helpful. And the plotting system you have really helps, too 🙂 )

    Reply
  25. megan Avatar
    megan

    Good t hear you are back and feeling better, Holly. I had some strange idea to try , just once more to see if my laptop would boot up, and low and behold!! A screen. I have about 50 words(we have visitors), but I know a bit more when I am going and my half angels name and where and why he is here. Thanks, Holy for your PRe-wrting worskshop

    Reply
  26. Carly Avatar
    Carly

    Glad to see you’re feeling better Holly and enjoying your work. I may seem to be one of those people who dropped off the radar but I am still here and I am still writing, just haven’t had much chance to post in the last couple of weeks. But there is no way I’m giving up any time soon. I started this three weeks ago with 26,000 words and have added 15,467 since then, I have never written this much in such a short space of time! This is exactly what I need to keep going.

    I’m going to take a few days to work through the Think Sideways lessons though because something is bugging me and I’m not sure what it is. Worked through my Sweet Spot Map yesterday and got a load of new interesting stuff, Wolves really peaked my interest so I’m going to play with that for a bit today.

    Overall though I wrote over 5000 last week and going strong, will keep writing in between the Think Sideways stuff.

    Reply
  27. Dana Avatar
    Dana

    I’m off to a slow start for the week. I had to take my husband to the E.R. Saturday and didn’t do much today on account of extreme tiredness.

    On the up side, I seem to have overcome my extreme phobia of outlining.

    Reply
    1. Sarah Collins Avatar
      Sarah Collins

      I hope all is well!

      Reply
  28. Brent B. Avatar
    Brent B.

    1136 beep. beep. beep. beep.

    Thanks for asking about story.

    Currently, story in hospital undergoing major surgery for extreme undernourishment. story is emaciated and, well, thin. story’s breathing is real shallow, pulse is real faint, but vitals are holding steady. story’s surgery is expected to be lengthy, and recovery even longer. may be a while before we know if story pulls through. But not to worry, story in good hands. cross fingers and please wish story well. thank you. 😉

    p.s. flowers for story would be nice, too.

    Reply
    1. The Pencil Neck Avatar
      The Pencil Neck

      Here’s a virtual bouquet for story.

      Reply
      1. The Pencil Neck Avatar
        The Pencil Neck

        OK. That didn’t work. (I tried just putting some fake tags in.)

        Let’s try something a little more real:

        Reply
      2. The Pencil Neck Avatar
        The Pencil Neck

        http://www.bridalwhimsy.com/images/bouquet-jewels.jpg

        Reply
        1. Brent B. Avatar
          Brent B.

          story laughs and sends regards.

          Reply
    2. Nancy Avatar
      Nancy

      Ding dong. Flower delivery. A lovely nosegay full of Forget-Me-Nots and Bleeding Hearts. Hope the story gets better soon!

      Reply
      1. Brent B. Avatar
        Brent B.

        story hugs you.

        Reply
    3. Sarah Collins Avatar
      Sarah Collins

      Daisies. My favorite! =c)

      I hope your story is in one of those soap opera hospitals. Those patients can flatline on Monday and blink to life on Friday without so much as smudging their makeup!

      Reply
      1. Brent B. Avatar
        Brent B.

        Sarah please not pushing daisies on story and saying flatline at the same time, story already scared enough watching Dark Shadows.

        Reply
  29. Ieva Avatar
    Ieva

    Family day, with no writing (but I built a marble run using almost all 16 meters of the railway…).

    Reply
  30. Brian P. Avatar
    Brian P.

    275 words today, and about half of scene 2 done. I find I’m kind of struggling between humor and serious. I know any good book should have both, but I feel like I’m mocking the fantasy genre, and I’m not sure if I want that. I decided not to worry about it right now and just keep writing, but I wonder if there are some opinions about the matter out there?

    Reply
    1. Jessica Avatar
      Jessica

      Speaking for myself, I find that if I try too hard for humour it doesn’t work. And if I try to be serious it tends to get very dark and depressing. So now I just focus on picturing the scene – who the characters are, how they will react to the situation they’re in. I let the characters natural reactions flesh out the mood. For example:

      One scene in my current WIP has a split POV between the two MCs – one is serious because the girl is running for her life, desperate to get away and collapses from her injuries, the other is humourous because the man who finds her can’t help but laugh since her last desperate attempt at self-defense is untying his shoelace.

      Overall though, the only way I know I’ve pulled off the “right” mix is by someone reading it and telling me.

      Reply
    2. Sarah Collins Avatar
      Sarah Collins

      My favorite books are full of clever “wish I’d thought of that!” lines. They’re not always funny, but they make me smile! I like to say that I “can’t write anything with a straight face” – no matter what I’m writing, my natural style is to find the humor of the situation. But that’s somewhat beside the point, because I tell you that to say this: if I try to detour from that comfortable style, my writing tanks. I had a scene last week that I just knew I had to take seriously, and getting the words in place was like herding cats. Once I came to my senses and realized that my characters were not on board with the straight-faced gig, the words started flowing again. (DH would be so thrilled to know that I’ve managed to outsmart myself on this one. When the people I’ve invented won’t even listen to me, surely he and the kids get a pass!)

      Anyway, my “what works for me” advice is not to TRY to go in either direction. Do a little crowd surfing on your characters – they’ll get you where you need to go. (Or they’ll drop you on your rear, but hopefully your characters were raised better than mine, LOL).

      Reply
    3. Brian P. Avatar
      Brian P.

      Thanks Jessica and Sarah for your responses. I discovered that the reason humor wanted to creep into scene 2 is because scene 1 was so serious and dark. I always strive for balance, or my subconscious does, at least!

      Reply
  31. Ramble Avatar
    Ramble

    B-12, a wonder to behold. Good to see you’re feeling a bit more spry!

    Well, only 500 words or so today, but it’s adding a little depth to some shallow characters, so that’s good. It’s also setting up some stuff to come later. I’ll probably write another quick 500 since I want to try and hit 1000 a day for a while until I get to 80,000 words. About 25000 to go…heh.

    Reply
  32. Clare K. R. Miller Avatar
    Clare K. R. Miller

    I decided to take a break yesterday, but am back on track today with 626 words. I’ve finally introduced the MC’s very important cousin. (Important both story-wise and in his world!)

    Reply
  33. Larkk Avatar
    Larkk

    Really wanted to move the story forward tonight, however 2184 words didn’t get me as far as I hoped. (especially since I had to cut about 200 words when the dialogue went off course) The pillow on my chair helped keep my butt from getting sore though…

    Hope everyone’s writing is going well tonight!

    Reply
  34. KQ Avatar
    KQ

    About 1000 for the whole weekend. Wrapped up a scene, got a few surprises, we’ll see how it comes along

    Holly-good to know you’ve got your energy back!

    Reply
  35. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    605 words for the day. Don’t usuallly write on Sundays, but I had about twenty minutes while waiting for a friend to meet me for coffee, so I figured I might as well get a few words in.

    MC is in a town for the first time in her life. Lots of fun. And tomorrow, she’ll meet the young acolyte from the monastery. Cruising along.

    Holly — really glad you’re feeling better!

    Reply

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