DTD — 303 words, and a leak in the system

My detectives were beaten to a witness they needed by someone who didn’t want her to talk. The circumstances suggest someone close to them may be working for the bad guys.

Scene bit tonight went well.

I apologize for my scarcity in the WABWM comments. Margaret and I are setting up the infrastructure for How To Revise Your Novel, and I’m also laying out the process for the course, and working in the questions folks asked. It’s surprisingly tiring work—the level of concentration it takes to figure out which thing to present in which order and which examples to use to demonstrate techniques, surprised me with Think Sideways and is surprising me again.

I’m still reading comments, but not commenting often.

Very excited to cheer on those of you who have finished first drafts recently, though, and hit deadlines.

How are your words coming?

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Comments

54 responses to “DTD — 303 words, and a leak in the system”

  1. ceecee Avatar
    ceecee

    Only 275 words today, but that’s way better than zero. Took most of day off of writing to have a life after marathon revisions on Monday. Good words, everyone.

  2. Dena C. Avatar
    Dena C.

    894 for me and things are heating up. I’m up over 62,000 words now, so I have more novel behind me than ahead of me. I find at this point when writing a novel it goes pretty smooth, since I’m well into the story and I know the character’s really well by now.

  3. Clare K. R. Miller Avatar

    Hmm, I think I commented on the wrong post earlier. It was 533 words for Monday.

    1. The Pencil Neck Avatar
      The Pencil Neck

      That’s it.

      You’re fired.

  4. Treelight Avatar
    Treelight

    Yay, 518 new words for me!
    It really is fun to show part of the story from Grevorg’s view now, especially since he allows me to use some new magic now and then.
    Sadly this parallel retelling will soon be over, just one more scene, I think. Then the true rewriting of the following chapters will continue, since I invented this villain to improve that part. And this means I can play a bit longer with Grevorg ๐Ÿ™‚

    By the way … it seems to me he knows more about the background of everything than I do, even if he currently jumps to some false conclusions.

    Oh, and I granted me the joy to write a little dramatic/romantic scene that won’t be due for a long time. In fact it would be part of a third book in a series, if this first story ever goes that far ๐Ÿ™‚

  5. Emily Avatar

    I got another 15 pages (roughly) edited today.
    It’s so fun to see your word count inch forward. I cheer everytime it changes. Thanks for reminding us that writing is a process.

  6. Ceallai Avatar
    Ceallai

    1917!!! On “Eliane”, the high fantasy thing. That is huge for me! I’m really getting into this, and although I’ve planned to work on something completely different at the end of the week I think I might stuff that and keep going with “Eliane”.
    It rained today, which I think helped. Lovely stormy rain. ^^ I might not even have finished, actually, I was just taking a break and realized how much I’d done.

    1. Julie Avatar

      Congrats on the word count – that’s fab!

      Hope you keep having fun x

  7. Scarlett Avatar
    Scarlett

    It’s been a bit busy with lots of people staying over, wanting feeding and entertaining and now I am tired and the children are all fractious. Still managed 389 words today. Not much for me but ok given the circumstances and at least those few words achieved a bit and enlightened me on how MC solves the next part of the plot

  8. Lisa R Avatar
    Lisa R

    0 words. I was just too exhausted. I instead read and hung out with the kids.

  9. Kait Nolan Avatar

    Well after a truly lousy week last week (writing wise), I pulled out 1169 words yesterday before dinner. I’m very pleased, and I feel like I’ll move forward on the next couple of scenes fairly easily. :knocks on wood:

    1. Julie Avatar

      Congratulations on the words. It’s always great to get back into it after harder going days. ๐Ÿ™‚

  10. HannaBelle (aka Belle) Avatar
    HannaBelle (aka Belle)

    Guests leave today. I hope to get quickly back to normalcy. Stilll struggling with who is telling the story.

    1. Holly Avatar
      Holly

      Yeah, guests are a lot of fun, but hell on deadlines.

  11. Steph Avatar
    Steph

    Newbie here! 574 words yesterday, day one, of my first novel. Just a spark of an idea, but growing!

    1. Khena Avatar
      Khena

      Welcome to the fun =)

    2. The Pencil Neck Avatar
      The Pencil Neck

      Welcome!

    3. Ieva Avatar

      Welcome aboard! ๐Ÿ™‚ Good luck with your novel, too, first ones are unforgettable.

    4. Holly Avatar
      Holly

      Hi, Steph,

      Welcome. Have fun with your writing. And I’m glad you’re here.

    5. Julie Avatar

      Hi Steph, welcome! Congrats on the words!

      1. ceecee Avatar
        ceecee

        Hi, Steph! Welcome! That first rush is awesome. Have fun with it!
        ceecee

  12. Debora Avatar
    Debora

    378 words. Still working out what my MC’s motivation is for wanting to remember what her experiences were during the battle and afterward. Figuring out her motivation is my “think sideways” way of figuring out what my *own* motivation is for wanting to write this book.

    Thought of a new must-write scene while cooking dinner last night.

    Looking ahead, I am going to be extremely busy for the next week or so. I will write when I can, but I am not going to beat myself up on the days I just can’t.

  13. Jessica Avatar
    Jessica

    209 for me. The Senator’s son has been brought to trial which is soon to spark some embers in a political fire. I got as far as dragging him to court and stating the charges… just really tired lately, more so than usual.

  14. Laura Avatar
    Laura

    413 words and a few awesome discoveries. Now I know where Dagda’s cauldron is hidden, and the characters are going to go through hell in order to get to it, can’t wait to actually write it! Moreover, I did some planning for the nex two chapters and they should come out quite nicely. A great writing night for me.

  15. Larkk Avatar
    Larkk

    460 words on the novel.
    Then I go back to work on my theories, and making up physics. I haul out the chest of magic, and examine my treasures in the light. Do they still work? Some are negotiable, and can be changed or put away for another story. Some are non negotiable, and the rules of physics have to be consulted. But still, Iโ€™m getting somewhere, and every little thing Iโ€™m doing here is helping the writing as I go.

  16. Khena Avatar
    Khena

    I took a day off from Dragonfly… and for once, I actually didn’t end up writing anyway. I bought a non-fiction book on Sunday, and I just can’t focus on anything until I finish it I guess. Non-fiction doesn’t usually pull at me that hard.

    I did take a few minutes to jot down some notes for my next villian. He is just a horribly fascinating man, I’m an rather sad that his history has no place in the novel as a whole.

  17. Leah Avatar
    Leah

    1797 and the end of Ch. 30! My Spy just killed his accomplice. To further his complications, he also assaulted my heroine, who ran into the creature’s “nest” and learned some new things. One was that the hero really wants to move things along between them. The other: he wants to bait the Spy, and use her as the bait.

  18. Minze Avatar
    Minze

    358 words. Yesterday’s writing went so well, and I thought today’s would be the same, but it was surprisingly flat and boring. It’s probably because I took some time yesterday to get into the moment of this scene. Today I didn’t, because I assumed I’d just pick up the scene where I’d left off. That might have caused the problem.

    1. Holly Avatar
      Holly

      I always pick up about a page before what I’m going to start writing, and do a light line edit on that, just to get back into the situation. Sometimes I’ll go back three or four pages.

      It helps. Gets me in the mood to write the new stuff.

  19. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    D&D: 500, and an ongoing rescue.
    OFL: a very sluggish 1046, but moving onto another scene, which will hopefully re-invigorate my interest.
    Don’t know if the previous scene is all that bad – think I was just having a day where I was easily distracted!

  20. Mikaela Avatar
    Mikaela

    I got 2000 words yesterday. That means I have reached the half way point of the first draft. Yay! Not sure how many words I’ll be able to write today, since I feel a bit meh. I suspect that will change once I open the file.

    1. Khena Avatar
      Khena

      Congrats on being halfway done! I recently reached that point myself (if I don’t go crazy with the last half anyway), and it’s so satisfying to reach those important milemarkers =)

  21. Julian Adorney Avatar
    Julian Adorney

    1010 words today, brings me to around 31,000 overall.
    Good session today. Had to wrestle a lot of the words onto the page, but now they’re there I think they’re good.
    Finished a dream sequence by my protagonist, he gets murdered by his arch-foe in a Gods-ordained duel. Raised interesting q’s about fate and free will that he can discuss w/ his best friend, but that’ll have to wait till tomorrow…

  22. The Pencil Neck Avatar
    The Pencil Neck

    916 words. (Fresh)

    I’m beginning to see a pattern. Between 35,000 to 40,000 words into a novel, I start freaking out and thinking everything’s horrible. I start noticing all sorts of huge problems and just want to chuck it and start over. I did that with this novel 2-3 times before going through HtTS and getting through a full first draft. Then I pretty much chucked the whole thing and started over.

    I’m at almost 37,000 words right now and I had a crisis today. I’m reading through Manuscript Makeover and I’m doing one of the “Bad Things.” And then I realized there was no reason for my entire Sheriff story line. It didn’t really link in. If I go to a standard multiple POV story form, then the Sheriff story line loses a lot of its suspense. I was very disheartened. I like the Sheriff and didn’t want to cut him but it was looking like I didn’t have a choice.

    Then I was driving to go get some cat food. And… it hit me: a link between the Sheriff and the Thief that explains everything and solves all my problems. I can put this back into a more standard multiple POV story format and it’s going to work.

    I work at home and I don’t drive much. I might start driving around aimlessly now when I run into problems with the story.

    The scene tonight had the Thief and his Mentor going to a nasty, run-down old Keep with a foppish vampire and his master, a muscle-bound Warrior vampire. They’ve asked for assistance in finding the mage and the Warrior was dismissive of them. And then for reasons too complicated to go into here, the Thief had to tell the Warrior that he stole the Warrior’s axe (that his father had given to him 1750 years before.)

    The Warrior is about to go Medieval.

    1. Cat (from HtTS) Avatar

      Don’t give up. Somewhere in the middle of a project everybody feels dishearted. I always think everything I wrote is crap but when I read it after finishing the first draft it’s not as bad as I thought. Remember: “You can’t rewrite an empty page” (NaNoWriMo-podcast 2007)

      1. The Pencil Neck Avatar
        The Pencil Neck

        ๐Ÿ™‚

        I’m nothing if not persistent. I’ve been working on this novel for 3-4 years now. I had the original idea maybe 10 years ago. What I find interesting to think about is that the idea for the original story and the story as it exists now are two totally different things; after i get finished with this book, I could easily go back and write the original idea now and no one would be able to tell they started from the same idea or characters. AFTER I get finished with this book.

        I will get finished with it.

        I can only hope that the process of turning this into something worth reading is turning me into a writer worth reading.

    2. Cat (from HtTS) Avatar

      753 words in my WIP and 1382 in my translation. If it keeps running this smoothly I’ll get both projects done way before the deadline. This is a great feeling.

      1. Cat (from HtTS) Avatar

        Sorry, the last comment ended up in the wrong thread.

    3. Julie Avatar

      I’m glad you found a solution to your problem. ๐Ÿ™‚ The descriptions of your story are very intriguing!

      1. Khena Avatar
        Khena

        I agree. From what I’ve read about your sherrif, he’s a very interesting character and it would be sad to see him have to go. Good luck figuring it all out =)

  23. Ieva Avatar

    Nothing, but it’s all right. Mondays always shock me with unimaginable truths as “they want me to do something at work” and such.

    1. Julie Avatar

      Hehe I get that shock everyday at work! I’m hoping one day they’ll realise that what they really want to do is pay me to sit their having fun writing. ;D

  24. Sarah Avatar
    Sarah

    1629, and my beefy guard has just stepped in to assume responsibility for the lost girl. I’m starting to like him more and more.

  25. Sarah Collins Avatar

    I managed to net +742 on the edit. The older chapters are tougher to work with. I’m amazed by how much I’ve grown as a writer since the spring (and almost annoyed by the number of changes I need as a result). I doubt WIP#2 will get much attention until I finish the edit of #1 – or at least not until I catch up on some of the paying gigs. A week of being sick hasn’t done much for my productivity.

    Lots of notes for #3, though. I actually found a notepad so I could jot them down without jumping out of bed and running to the computer. My intention is to write #2 before #3, but at this rate I’ll end up juggling them both with a huge grin on my face. The style for #3 is a switch – gritty, dry-humored, biting – which is a lure next to the more wholesome vibe of #2. I like being able to work to my mood for now, but sooner or later one will win my affections. =c)

    1. Julie Avatar

      Congrats on the words & all that excitement for the next books! It’s inspiring to see people having so much fun writing. ๐Ÿ™‚

  26. KQ Avatar
    KQ

    nothing for me, I’m afraid. Work is going overtime and I feel like I’m at an impasse in the book. Disheartened, but will try again, though.

    1. Jessica Avatar
      Jessica

      I know what that’s like. Just hang in there. I find when I’ve got too much day job work to do it eats away at the muse, takes up all my energy and patience. Don’t feel guilty, it happens. Just try to get back to it when you’ve got a break, or if possible, maybe try to write in the morning before the work day starts. That’s what I do.
      As for the impasse, as Holly has suggested to me before, ask questions. Is there enough conflict? Could you add another twist? Or maybe just try skipping to a different scene.

      HTH. ๐Ÿ™‚

    2. Julie Avatar

      Good luck for tomorrow, I hope work gets quieter and you manage to work your way past the impasse. x

  27. Patricia Avatar
    Patricia

    4,548 words! Oh my gosh! I’m floored…I never dreamed I’d get that much. Excellent day today. Ryan is finally letting loose some pent up emotion, and I know he feels like crap right now, but I’m sure he’ll be much better in the morning. ๐Ÿ™‚

    1. The Pencil Neck Avatar
      The Pencil Neck

      Sweet!

    2. Cat (from HtTS) Avatar

      Congrats! That’s really a lot. keep going.

    3. Julie Avatar

      Congrats – that’s great!

    4. Patricia Avatar
      Patricia

      Thank you. ๐Ÿ˜€

  28. Jim Mitchel Avatar

    My writing was very smooth today.

    It took 542 words to finish up chapter eight.

    The mystery of the nightmare creature deepens. Also, got some back story from a character as she talked about an incident from her childhood.

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