Too tired to push on this. Had a long day, and got a lot done on THE WRITING CRAFT. The episode in progress is Doing the Work: Finding and Keeping Your Motivation. I like what I’m getting there.
But it sort of wiped me out for the write tonight, so with an even 300 new words done, I’m going to go to bed. I’ll read comments and answer questions tomorrow.
Had a great explosion at the end of this section, though. And fun getting to it.
G’night, everyone. See you tomorrow.
by
Tags:
2601 for the day. We’ve got company over tonight so I doubt there’ll be anymore. I know I’m still in the honeymoon phase with this project — I expect the word count to drop to a more reasonable level soon (and then will come the days when 30 words seems a Herculean task). But I was so on a roll today — it was all exciting stuff and I just couldn’t stop typing. Gosh, I’d forgotten how much fun this could be when my Me gets out of the way and my Muse can play unfettered!
I’m so glad you’re having fun. I love when the story flows so fast my fingers can barely keep up.
Congrats.
just checking if gravatar works
nope 🙁
Never mind 😀 yeah fire!
885 words for me today, and I’m quite pleased about it. I had considered taking the night off, but I bought a new keyboard (an Apple one to go with my mini) and one thing led to another…well you get the picture. I’m going to relax for the rest of the night. See everyone tomorrow.
Nice. Those bonus words are always sweet.
And Mac keyboards. 😀 Mine (laptop AND desktop) make my fingers very happy.
Okay, I may have jumped into the writing a bit too soon — realized just how much prework is left to do! And I learned my fear of the writing phase was baseless (if I have everything figured out for a scene, it goes fairly quickly). So back to planning and plotting for a while!
788 today, my word count seems to be getting smaller as I write but I think I just had a few shorter scenes recently and this is my inner critic’s way of trying to lure me into editing! Really looking forward to tomorrow’s end of week scene which involves my MC’s love interest/secret antagonist showing off his darker side and pushing her friend about a bit! He’s very conflicted poor chap because he does genuinely love my MC… he just wants to rule the world with his father that little bit more.
Also put all my scene cards onto Super Notecard or whatever it’s called and going through them helped work out a few flaws with up and coming scenes. Very productive, very happy.
Love reading everyone else’s progress too, it’s incredible how many varying stories and immense graft there is between all of us. Good luck everyone!
With my writing i have to do some thinking about the folk on the other side of the BArrier, the ones who created the Barrier in the first place, the ones the evil dudes on this side are scared @##less of , folk who would lock a world of humans in with predators, ones the predators tell their children scary bedtime stories of to keep them good, the ones who, if my previous plot is to be believed, sent twin babies into this world (what purpose??) I need someone on that side to tell me why they did that?
Hang in there, Sari. I know it’s a bad situation. I’m delaying putting my two dogs down that I’ve had for over ten years…both are to the point, but holding on enough to make delaying the decision so easy. We do have a new adopted kitten named Ash who was injured at birth. It left her with one splayed foot and the other leg bowed like a bulldog’s. Been thinking we should have called her Flipper Bo instead.
Adding this afternoon’s writing of 1066 to the mix. And all the pre-planning I did with the HTTS course did help, but finding out so many things are different than I expected about my main character, relationships, and the writing. But I’m much happier about the character and it’s going smoothly.
No words for me today, BUT I realised I need to go across the Barrier on my owrld and see what the folk there are up to. So far they have been shadowy, but….
And just a thought on something Holly said the other day baout the difference in her writing form longhand to keyboarding; I wonder if it is because with long hand we use one hand and that side of the brain but with keybaording(for most people) we use both hands therefore both brains?
wow that’s getting pretty technical, but could be a good point. In all the tests I always turn out to be a leftbrainer, but I think writing is quite a rightbrain activity (with all the creativity that goes into it).
same here, with the left brain right brain stuff.
Hey Sari, so what part of Aussie you from? I spent some time in Auckland way back in the late 70’s. ((My sister lived there and now she lives in Florida.))
Groan gotta go refigure my story, major stuff just not gelling and making it all a pile of cat poo
I was born in Denmark WA, but have spent a lot of time in Perth (that’s where all the Oz half of my family live over there).
I’m living in Auckland at the moment but have also lived in Hamilton and went to uni in Christchurch.
Where abouts are you?
Hi Sari, I am in NSW, the Blue Mts, But I have lived lots of places, a kinda gypsy for years b4 kids. I have lived in Perth, and Kalgoorlie, (1984) as well as Brissy and other smaller places in NSW. My man’s mum and bro live in Perth, was there for Christmas 07. HAve you been to The BAy of Islands? I LOVE that place, want to feature it in a scene one day (well my memory of it). I also enjoyed a forest walk around Rotorua.
499 tonight (It’s 20 past 11 here). Thanks for this. I had just been wishing my motivation would kick in and you have done it for me.
Can I jump in here and start my word count from now?
303 words today. Off to school in a couple of hours, there til’ 10pm and have to get up a 4am to go to work. Oh well, who needs sleep.
Had a fun time jumping into a new character’s POV. With Shamwater losing his mind and on the precipice of becoming a complete idiot, I felt free to write crazy and loose. Hey, If he can’t distinguish his own foot from a fish anymore, who am I to argue.
Big fat zero for me for yesterday, but I’m on a roll for today. I was working until 1:30 a.m. on a project for a client and didn’t feel l could give my best to “Jack” when I finally finished. I’ll report in on today (July 9) tonight, but as of right now it looks like I’ll finish another chapter!
I’m new here. What an interesting concept. Thank you, Holly.
Did just short of 1000 words yesterday, bringing total word count to 21,000. Hope to do double that tonight.
No words yet, I have not written since last Weds. From rereading a couple of times I see why I am a computer guy and not a writer. Scenes are shallow, characters need more development. I have stalled on scenes that require knowledge of the subject I am writing. So now research, research, research. The subject I picked is complex and I have to find a way that is believable for the story to work.
Sory, wron day. The previous post should have been on Tuesday. Today I wrote 416 words on my WIP and roughly 900 in my translation. I’m quite satisfied.
I did 1500 words of translation but none on the novel.
I am so glad to see that I am not the only one with an Evil Day Job that interferes with my writing! Said EDJ decided to come up with actual work for me to do for the past two days (we’re in winding down mode since the company will be closing at the end of September) and hampered my progress.
Anyway, yesterday I wrote 248 words. I decided that the really boring scene didn’t need to be written and came up with another way to convey the information I needed. But that left me short of words and not knowing exactly where I need to go next.
This morning I was thinking that maybe this novel is more of a romantic suspense than a traditional mystery. I’m going to spend the first part of the day mulling that over and see if I can revamp the story I’ve got so far to go that way. I’m getting excited about this new direction.
I think one of the best ways to differentiate between mystery and suspense that I’ve heard is that with a mystery there’s a puzzle to solve (a classic whodunit) and with suspense, it’s all about the stakes and constantly raising them very often against a ticking clock (i.e. if they don’t figure out who the killer is, he’ll take another victim or if they don’t find out where the bomb is, a bunch of people will die–that kind of thing). With the latter you very often have the POV of the bad guy and/or you know who he is on the front end–the suspense comes from the stakes themselves.
Hi everyone, 🙂 🙂 🙂 Yes, I am smiling. I have, at last, started writing, rather resumed it. 997 words today. And, more importantly I enjoyed it. Especially the part where one of my characters becomes a story teller. He really did, told a captivating story to his audiance, still continuing, cheers guys and gals all 🙂
Huge congrats, Anambika—delighted to hear you’re having fun with your story now.
My word count for today is a result of incorporating material from an earlier ramble into this one, so it’s not a true indicator of how much I wrote. But it does tell me how nicely this first draft is progressing.
Today’s word-count: 2674.
640 words yesterday. The next scene struggled along. Actually, I struggled. The scene ended up doing very well dragging me along. I ended with some dialog that was okay. Dialog is an area I struggle with in my writing. I am really looking forward to the weekend so that maybe I can get a little more done. I love the “evil day job” discription!
I haven’t been able to get back here, but I’ve written 4500 words over the last six days (two of those days off for family time). A few days my mind wasn’t in the right place and I wrote 2000 words that I can’t use. Complete dribble, not even worth thinking about, so I scrapped those and ended up with 2500 words total for those days. Not too bad, really.
I’m glad for the dialogue and subtext lesson. There’s going to a ton of subtext work during the editing for this book’s first quarter.
Very glad the lesson helped. And cheers on getting writing done even under adverse conditions.
Finally broke through the pain barrier with this scene. 1680 words today.
Congrats!
59 and that damn smile is back on his face!
Muahahaha! I feel like an uber-evil villain today, sending the male MC to irritate the female MC. She’s seriously pissed but he’s loving it and so am I! This is great. More on my next work break.
LOL! It’s such fun to see other people reacting to messing with their characters’ lives the same way I do when I do it.
I too have been evil today and plan to expand it even further tomorrow! So much fun!
380 words last evening, so right on target with Holly’s pace. 🙂
And my MC said something she shouldn’t have to her husband. Fun times.
I’ve been writing longhand lately. Makes it easy for me to write wherever the baby is since my laptop has been acting flaky recently. Planning on typing it up sometime today, so I don’t have to be anxious about losing it.
Got 200 yesterday. Was aiming for 500 but it was a total disaster at the Evil Day Job and it tied up my attention all day and I was so mad about it afterward, I couldn’t focus on the story.
And you still got something. 😀 Very sorry, though, about the EDJ, though.
Thankfully today is going better. Other than a very very strong desire to have my heroine snark something to the vamp she’s just met about not being sparklay, I think I’ve figured out this stinking transition I’ve been fighting with all week.
A few hundred last night. Developing a good, tight main character, and ideas for candy bar scenes keep flitting in and out of consciousness…
Missed two days of writing, caught up with 539 words today, on Bx. Drove me crazy at night, every time I woke up I was thinking about Bx. Did some planning today, too. Looks like it is two different novels not one. Bx is actually the title for the second novel, not the first, so will have to find a new working title. Need to work on my website today, maybe tomorrow.
Which reminds me, I STILL have to sit down and think of something to call my project. “Dreaming the Dead” is a cool story for how I came up with the idea for the project… but it has NOTHING to do with the story.
I decided that I could handle yesterdays problem and I let it go long enough to write 1,543 words this morning. I’m really pleased that I managed to write today even though I was upset. In the past I’ve used that sort of thing as a reason not to write. It’s not that I don’t think it’s a good reason, but for me once I’ve found a reason not to write for a day it often stretches to a week, or a month.
720 words last night. Not as much as I’ve been getting, but I had to run errands for most of the evening, so I’m pleased I managed to get something done. Before this challenge, Holly, I wouldn’t have written a word. I’d have told myself it was chore night, and writing had to wait. Well, not anymore!
I’m hoping that by the time you end the “Write a Book With Me” challenge, I’ll have built up enough momentum and self-discipline to keep going the same way on my own. 🙂
😀 Congrats. I’ve discovered that the knowledge that I got SOMETHING written every writing day leaves me happy for the rest of the day (or now, since I’m doing this at night, the whole next day).
Got a whopping 64 words done today, between work & trying to wrap up a battle scene. Need to do some planning over the weekend, I think.
Only 146 words tonight, then I got distracted because the cat was not acting herself and I was quite worried about her. Took her to the vet and she has some sort of gastrointersomethingerother stomach infection and had to have a drip and antibiotics injection. Poor baby.
Now she’s on strict fluids only and not allowed outside and another vet check tomorrow.
Joy..
Hope your cat is feeling better. My oldest cat was recently diagnosed with kidney disease, so we changed his diet. Big mistake. Now he’s diabetic again. We’d brought him through one bout of diabetes, so I know the drill. Switched his diet back, but he’s still clearly diabetic, so this morning I gave him a dose of insulin, which is how we got him better the last time.
Really hope your cat is feeling better!
Hugs on the sick cat. And I’m glad it was something fixable.
She’s still not better 🙁
Back to the vet this morning. She’s been doing things that I won’t describe in this note, but lets just say they smell and are full of blood.
Poor little poppit. She’s only a baby too (about 1 year), and has had a rough start to life – I adopted her after she was abandoned and left to die as a kitten. So this is a bit unfortunate for her.
So sad for your kitty. I hope she makes it through.
Oh, no.
I’m hoping she gets better soon. We’ve had some times like that with ours.
Oh, I am so sorry that your kittie is not doing well. As the custodian of three cats at present, or perhaps they are my custodian!, each one of them contributes immeasurably to my life. All of them are rescues, and there’s also my neurotic beagle, too. I do so hope you have better news, but if not, you must take consolation in the fact that the short life she did have she was very much loved.
Really hoping she’s doing better!
100+ words finishing the scene I did before, although I honestly did do my best to avoid writing. I opened my netbook to jot down the rough outline of next chapter in my spreadsheet and then I guess I lost my concentration, next thing I knew I was already typing. *scratches head*
Well, the good thing is I had some quality headache, a good exchange of e-mails with a friend (I hate abandoning my friends like this just because I have some new ones in my head) and some other stuff.
Only 160 words written, but a lot of thinking done. I now feel more confident about the next few scenes; the next few hundred words should flow much more easily, thanks to some feedback here and elsewhere.
Thanks!
Cheers! Thinking is the biggest part of all good writing… as long as you then remember to write what you thought. 😀
404 words.
Yesterday I got to the end of a long, important scene, and I’m always finding it hard to begin a new one. Everything seems so boring in comparison. Today I realized that this is usually because I’m thinking in terms of what OUGHT TO happen next. If the OUGHT TO is a transitional scene or one with plenty of infodump, then I get blocked. And so I should, because who needs transitional infodump? So I changed my tactics and wrote what I felt like writing, a brief scene from a minion’s POV that practically wrote itself, advances the plot and shows the minion as someone who’s unintentionally funny, which is useful because I’m planning to kill him off in the third act.
I spent all day today working on my new website:
http://www.theromanticrealist.com/.
That took up most of the day, but I got some character-building in, too. Prewriting efforts will probably take up the next few days, too, just because of how I have to rework how I perceive my world and characters. I’m getting close.
I was just reading your last entry on your blog, and thinking (instead of working…): would it be possible for you to not have to rewrite everything, instead just adding a few hints here and there that there might be something hidden? Because your world being a utopia may have the reader think: this is too perfect, there has to be something wrong we don’t know about, and then BAM! The big secret is out? There is actually corruption in your world, it’s just hidden… Let me know what you think. Or just rewrite everything and ignore my comment, that would be fine too :-p
Blog looks really sharp. Nice work.
Silvielisea, I like your suggestions a LOT. Unfortunately, I can’t use them because (fortunately) my writing has gotten worlds better since I started learning from Holly. I do appreciate your ideas and really hope that I can bounce some off of you later 🙂
And thanks, Holly! 🙂
Thanks for being so polite about this. It reminds me I’m not here to discuss anything but how many words I’ve written :-p
What was I thinking…
2179 words, bringing the wordcount to 3786 on the short story. 🙂
Wow, that was most of it in one day.
*waves hand*
Hello there… may I jump onboard late on the “writing a book with Holly” wagon?
Here’s DasteRoad, 28, female, Italian and living in Italy (since English is not my first language, everyone around is welcome to point out translation glitches so I can get better :)). I’m a few time zones away, so the game will be a little weird… but I’ll try anyway!
Currently working on a 100k words fantasy project, currently at around 28k… but lately I really couldn’t manage to write! In part because of evil day job, in part because I didn’t clear my mind about what the point of the current scene was *before* starting to writing it. So… I really needed something like this to fuel my enthusiasm again and start working on writing again!
DasteRoad, are you sure English isn’t your first language? 😀 Your website (your blog, no?) has perfect grammar from what I can tell.
Anyway, it’s great to see that this fun challenge is traveling around the world! Welcome, and it’s great to have you here 🙂
I don’t see the link from the blog, can someone post it?
There’s actually no link, in fact I wondered about what website Brian was talking about since my blog on wordpress is private (and in Italian)… I suppose he was talking about the blog space on my deviantart account: http://dasteroad.deviantart.com since this is the only place on the net where I used to write in English, and also the easiest to find given my nickname.
Thanks for the kind welcome 🙂
Heheh yeah, I’m pretty sure English is not my first language… I even never went to England (sadly, because I’d like to). I learnt most of my English playing computer games and translating Queen songs when I was a kid, but I sharpened it a lot after the coming of Internet.
The unlucky side of it is that in Italy a good, solid study of English is not very widespread yet… for some absurd reason. So in my uni (I’m currently attending a PhD on advanced materials production systems) I’ve become known as the English nerd, and I’m the one they usually seek when there’s need of a phone call to companies abroad and the like ^^;
Odd. It definitely wasn’t that deviantart site (I promise I’ve NOT been stalking you! 😀 ) That’s so weird! I must’ve clicked someone else’s website somehow…sorry for seeming insane/creepy! Haha.
In the same way that you’ve gotten a knowledge of English, I’ve gotten a bit of knowledge in Italian by translating Laura Pausini and Antonello Venditti. My love for Italian language and culture has developed so far that I’m going to major in Italian and move to Italy as soon as I graduate university (which I start in the fall)!
You know, I think you are the first person I meet that actually wants to move to Italy… most of my friends and collegues would like to *leave* Italy, and even if it’s a sad thing I admit sometimes I think of it too. I love my country in many ways, I love its ancient history, I love its crazy, simple, good-hearted core, its arts, landscapes and languages… but I’m not sure if I love “Italians” as a people. This is not the place to debate politics (ew, my least favourite topic), religion or social issues, and I won’t do it. Let’s just say that there are a lot of things I’m not happy with, and some things that from time to time really anger me. Were it for me I would never leave. This is home to me, here I have my family and loved ones, I love this sun, the windy days, the scents, the rows of palm trees like waving hands near my city’s port. But there are problems I can’t ignore. So while I can hold on, I strive to make my little corner of the world a better place, hoping this will help to change things.
Sorry for the melancholic post, I think it’s great that you want to approach our language and culture and it kind of flatters me as an Italian that you’d like to move here. But I wish sometimes I had your same enthusiasm, it would probably help me to see some things in a more optimistic way 🙂
Hi DasteRoad,
I’m in New Zealand so know all about the messed up timezones. Currently Thursday night here, first country in the world to enter the new day :).
hey Sari, I am from Australia. I kinda expected quite an international comunity here.
And hey To Daste Road,how wonderful to have more than one language to communicate
Yea I’m from Ausie too :). Was born over there and moved to NZ for highschool. I still consider myself half n half
Thanks for the welcome, Sari and Megan! 🙂
Oh, and speaking about English, I’ve noticed only now that in my original post I wrote “starting to writing it” instead of “starting to write it” XD
Languages are fun indeed. One of the most interesting parts is when you realize that some things make perfectly sense in one language but would be completely lost in another. For instance, English has one simple verb to express affection: you can say “I love you” to your lover, to your parents, to your children. In Italian, there is the general use of “to love” as in “the people we love, our loved ones” (“le persone che amiamo”) including both romantic partners, close friends and relatives. But when you are directly expressing love to someone, the literal translation of “I love you” (“ti amo”) is only used in Italian to express romantic love. It is a rather strong distinction: you can say “amo i miei genitori” (“I love my parents”) generally speaking, but you can only say “ti amo” to your partner. When expressing platonic affection, instead you say “ti voglio bene”, which is a peculiar idiom that can be roughly translated to “I wish you good things” or “I wish to donate you good and happiness” (but neither translation conveys it completely).
You can also say “ti voglio bene” to your partner, but it’s less common, and in certain situations it’s seen as a symptom of decreasing passion in a relationship. Fascinating, isn’t it? 🙂
Hi, Daste.
There’s no such thing as “late” here. I’m writing a 300,000 word novel at between 250 and 500 words a day most days—and I have about 23,000 words done. If you’re writing a book of reasonable length, or write at the same pace I do or greater, you’ll have the time to do a couple of books in the time I’ll take to do one. 😀
Welcome.
1300
A secret was hinted at and there is somebody who doesn’t want to tell my MC which side he is on.
A thought. If your MC is to be someone we can care about, he has to choose which side he’s on. It can’t be something that is dropped on his head from above.
311 words today and I had to push to get them out. I was at the end of a scene, don’t know what the next scene is yet and made up words to get my total over 3000 words.
I need to get an inkling of what happens next otherwise I’ll be writing a soap and then it will die on me.
765 today.
Still worldbuilding and story building. I haven’t quite finished up questioning my aging noble magic-wielding (possibly retired) sheriff. He’s garrulous and sometimes tells a story and forgets the point he was trying to make.
But his nightmare story was kinda scary. Got to find a way to work it into the book as an actual scene.
when I first read this I thought you were saying he was Gorgeous, and I kinda liked that; aging, noble, gorgeous (and garrulous!) hehehe
My first reall collection of a bout a dozen plot cards!! What’s that? Maybe 120 words, but all good for now, I feel Like I might get something out of this, the twists are showing up.
1859 for the day. Plus whatever I will write n my next two hours. Mostly characterization.
I am absolutely dreadful at describing scenery. And somehow, small actions my characters perform are not coming out clear enough.
My husband commented that he could not imagine the what my characters doing and after rereading the piece through, I have to agree with him. Now, I am going to break down for fifteen minutes or so, drink some tea, pity myself, pat myself on a shoulder and get back to writing. Like Edison, I did not really fail. I just found another way things do not work. 🙂
Like Edison, I did not really fail. I just found another way things do not work. 🙂
My philosophy, too. It works really. Freakin’. Well.
Hey Julia, I found for years, thatg when I was writing it seemed like everything was there, but later it looked just like bones, so now I realise I oftern just write the bones, then coming back on the revision, all the scenry and sensory and action meat can go on easily, now that I have time after the rush of getting down my inspiration.
0 words for my story, 1500 for my translation project… And still 5000 to do… I’m so frustrated I don’t get to write my story at all these days. But isn’t it great to have a job!
It is.
650 words for the day for a total of 5500. My word choices are making me cringe but I am wondering what will happen next. The story is very interesting and I have no clue where the characters are taking the story.
A minor character from 10 pages earlier reappeared from out of nowhere, didn’t expect that to happen and now I sense that he is about to have a more pivotal role in the future.
3056, clunky and crappy. I didn’t feel like writing this scene, but I needed to to move forward. I’m taking your advice, Holly, and waiting to revise when I finish the whole thing. However, the scene is done and I can get back to a scene I’m looking forward to writing.
Congrats. Sometimes wrapping up something you’re not enjoying is all you need. It’ll be easier to figure out why you didn’t enjoy it after it’s had a chance to cool.
1,074
The just words just kept coming. 😀 Then I decided I couldn’t quit until I got to the body. I’m not sure about the pacing, it’s not bad, just slightly off maybe.
By the time you get to the revision, you’ll have a clearer idea where it needs to go.
743 words today. The hero bought the heroine some ice cream! And also got her a book out of the library, which is the important part…
Still in chapter 3.
Things are winding down, as the MC is about to leave, and the villain will have a moment with the MC’s younger brother.
Holly, your article on world building was a big help today. I actually knew exactly how they tell time on this world! I didn’t have to make up something on the spot, or stop and do a bunch of research. Thanks a million!
Word count for the day: 670
Today, I crossed well past 5,000 words total! Wooo-whoo! :0)
Jim
Congrats on the wordcount, and cheers on having the research you needed at your fingertips so getting it didn’t slow you down.
1023
It was one of those scenes that got to bubbling and I blinked, and there were more words.
My husband read the scene, looked freaked out and started hugging a pillow.
Why can’t all days be like that?
Oh, AWESOME! Congratulations.
(Freaking out the beloved other is one of the real perks of this job. 😀 )
No words for me today. My studio work has been long neglected due to a move and I really had to do some painting.
Sometimes a day of painting will stir up writing ideas you didn’t expect. Interested to see whether it’ll work that way for you.
I get good writing ideas when I don’t listen to audio books while painting. Someone else mentioned an addiction to audio books. I do like them, but I do find they can lull you into passively listening rather than writing. The muse tends just to float away, miffed at not being able to get a word/image in edgewise.
I love audio books! I listen to them every night while I am cooking dinner. Cooking, not incidentally, is only second to writing as one of my life’s great passions. Listening to audio books helped me find my own true voice. If there’s an author whose work you greatly admire and would like to tweak this way and that to solidify your own voice, then listen to audio books.
It worked for me!
I highly recommend it!
Leave a Reply