Not much to say tonight. I think I’m coming down with something, and I feel like crap. But I did get 339 words, and moved the story forward at least a little.
Implemented an idea I had over the weekend, too—I’ll see how that pans out.
How are your words coming?
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Not many words over the past couple of days. Mostly on the warpath for passive sentences and checking continuity issues between the new stuff, the old stuff and rewrites of old stuff.
Kinda struggling with a conflict between two of the mains and figuring out how that will play out over the course of the story…
Wow.
Welcome, I think you’ll like it here!
Thanks! 🙂 Now where do I start…
Just joined… looks like a good way to keep me honest about sticking to my writing…
I haven’t written in over five years. The reason is both stupid and painful.
about 2K3-ish I suffered a hard drive crash and being an idiot had not back anything up, so I lost pretty much my life’s work which was around 7 novels in a detective series I was getting small press published, a fantasy novel I wrote for an RPG gaming company back when I was writing source material for them, and my magnum opus science fiction novel (tongue firmly in cheek here). Along with a slew of short stories, assorted research materials and maps, etc.
Fast forward to 2K9-ish. I been looking at old printed copies of some of my stuff and started messing around here and there with notes and plot maps–nothing really serious until one day I looked up and I was well into the second book of my SF series. So I was in a suitably “WTF happened?” frame of mind. (by this time I’d been able to actually recover a good 85% of my work through various sources, including the first novel to the series)
Then disaster struck again. Through some bad circumstances while I was a trucker, I lost every scrap of hard copy research I’d ever done on my world building–all of it irreplaceable.
For 5 seconds–I counted ’em–I seriously entertained the notion to just stop writing completely. Ever. I’m done with this. Through. Fini.
I couldn’t tell you how I got past that. I have no idea. But I did. And cracked open the first novel. Initially with the insane idea to try and reverse engineer my research material from the novel itself.
But while reading the novel with an entirely new set of fresh eyes, all sorts of things about the story in general and the characters in particular started jumping out at me.
The next thing I know, that drive I thought for sure was dead and buried reached up and grabbed me by the throat–and is not letting go.
I can’t honestly tell you if I still *have it*. Maybe it’s like writing a bike, once learned never forgotten. I think that’s the case–as I go through the novel, I’m pulling it apart (spaces between scenes and sections) and dropping in search markers and editing/rewriting notes.
The first thing that stood out to me about the story was that I was doing a whole lot of telling and not showing. I’m like, by God we need to change that.
So I am suddenly began digging deeper into my characters than I’ve ever done since I first started the damn thing. And they’re telling me things about themselves I had completely overlooked or never considered. Things about who they really are, why they are the way they are, what pasts haunts them, how many Persons Of Power they’ve pissed off in the course of their lives, how many family members they’ve pissed off, etc.
So now I’m into this and I can’t even entertain the barest notion of quitting. It’s too late.
I am a writer. Always was. Always will be.
But that’s the easy part. The hard part is now I have to work at being a GOOD writer. A Professional Writer. A publishable writer.
And I’m scared to death… 🙂
Seriously.
Nothing for Sunday- it was my anniversary! So I took the day off and spent it with my husband.
Some serious butt kicking on the WIP. 569 over the weekend and a whopping 3091 words during today’s writing marathon.
Mine are going great and I’m healthy, got 434 words in today I’m over the 40.000 word mark.
651 words today, on the beginning of the scene that was seriously intimidating me. The beginning flowed all right, but my POV character just launched a small verbal hand grenade at someone and instead of going ‘boom’ it went ‘KABOOM!’ He’s all tense and confused and doesn’t know what to do, and I think I co-opted a bit of his unease because the words dried up about halfway through the scene.
So, gonna let my Muse play with it while I sleep and come back tomorrow.
I can sense the Law of Unintended Consequences pulling a huge big number of the story from hereon in – having set everything up, the main thrust of the story from here to the end is feeling quite inevitable. Though maybe that’s just because I know the ending :).
Jheyrien found a trace of Cathrine just in time to safe him from insanity, but now he is busy in trying to find out why and where to she has disappeared.
That gave me about 700 new words.
It’s nice to finally write my male MC again, for my focus in the last few chapters was on how Cathrine got kidnapped by Gesem.
However, that was fun, too, and now I’m looking forward to the chase. I just hope I don’t mess it up, because I never have written something like that before and had not planned this, too.
Did alot of editing while out of the house this weekend. put down 500 words in ch 11 last night, and am going to spend most of today working on that chapter and into the next if i get this one done.
looking forward to this section of the story, as the brothers get jumped and fight their way out, revealing a new group that is after them. after that, the Zultan attempts to imprison Khalgar, which sparks off a riot in the Hollows that will rage for most of the day, spilling into other areas of the city. should be a fun series of scenes to write.
925 words for Sunday.
I didn’t write on Lusus Naturae like I have been, I started a short story that was inspired by the title Glass Roses. I plan on finishing the short story today and getting back to Lusus Naturae tomorrow.
I worked on the edit, but the wordage remains the same. Go figure! On the WIP, I added 741 words. I’m still in the second chapter.
I took a long weekend from the writing myself and didn’t write on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. I did write 1121 today and now I’m going to relax and enjoy the rest of my day.
I’ve finally done it. Draft 1 complete at 85,000 words. In the end it is a little shorter than I thought it would be, but I’m really pleased to have got this far. There are still quite a few footnotes to deal with, but on the whole the story is complete now. Good luck to the rest of you, keep going, you can do it.
Congratulations!!! That’s great news!!!!
Woo hoo!
That’s great!
I’ve still got quite a distance to go to that word-count or the finishing of the 1st draft.
Awesome! ^_^
Congratulations! Revisions might bring you some words you didn’t know you needed.
Must feel awesome to be finished!! Congrats 🙂 And thanks for the encouragement…
Oh, wow! Congratulations!
Thanks to all of you. Sorry for late reply but have been away from computer
Around 1300 words for me yesterday, and I finished up chapter 17. I also had started a scene at the beginning of the chapter a week ago and decided it wasn’t really important yesterday so I tossed it.
I finally figured out a way to make a twist in the story work. A few chapters ago, the gods made an offer to Isotte to become one of the Chaliun, champions working for the gods for their particular country. It created a problem for my character since she would have to give up the duchy she had just seized control of, but it would help her force her King to cooperate. Unfortunately, the gods like to mark their own, and they were leaving the country in the next few chapters. But, I found out in my last chapter, the brilliant markings are only visible to people from the champions particular country. Now, the people on the other side of the island won’t attack her on sight when she goes there =)
392 words. I’ve run out of scenes. There’s got to be more stuff happening between now and the next turning point, where my protagonists realize that (a) they’re both in danger, (b) there’s a killer loose out there, and (c) the McGuffin the heroine has contains clues they need to decipher and follow. So, how is this going to happen? Besides, my last scene got my male lead shot. He needs to recover ASAP, or he won’t be able to do more than lie on the couch looking pale and interesting when he OUGHT to be fighting a killer. I think the wound will turn out to be less serious than everyone thought.
Ahh.Well, I slacked on Sunday. It was a good Sunday though, with lots of special time with husband and some special time with the kids. Returning to day job invigorated.
A bad weekend, nothing flowing. However, I’ve switched to writing longhand in a notebook, and words seem to be coming. 760-ish for the whole weekend. Not great, not even good, but words, at least. I’m doing alright in longhand, so I’m going to keep at that until I dry up again. It gets so frustrating sometimes!
Every word is good. It’s a word you didn’t have before.
1397 words on my translation. That means I’m still on schedule. With a little luck, I’ll be able to write some more on my WIP in the afternoon before the kids come home.
552 today. Short day; holiday. Getting somewhere thankfully. Got to get a chance to post a few things on my blog. Will do so this week (hopefully!).
1835 words.
I spent quite a bit of time re-arranging everything and creating the necessary scene cards for missing but required scenes. I think it was time well spent. I found several holes. Also, while writing, I normally just run my iTunes and set it to play my instrumentals. But someone mentioned Pandora in another forum. I had totally forgotten about Pandora. So today, since I was writing some “quiet” scenes, I used Pandora as my soundtrack playing guitar oriented jazz like Kenny Burrell, Joe Pass, Herb Ellis, and guys like that. It was great.
Two scenes. Going back and picking up things that I hadn’t originally planned but now seem vital to the understanding of what’s going on.
Scene 1: The Mage went to the library to convince a reknowned linguist and sage to come look at book of “great antiquity.” The sage refused citing his family and his work. The Mage offered money. The sage reluctantly refused citing his relationship to his patron. The Mage offered more money as long as he told no one where he was going and assuring him he only wanted him to look at the book and not do a translation. The sage agreed.
Scene 2: The Mage goes to a party being held for a famous dancer. In his somewhat out-dated and ill-maintained clothes, he expected to talk to her and get her to go to dinner with him. But surrounded by more prestigious Lords and Ladies who are fans of hers and fans of Dance, he can’t get a word in edge-wise. He stalks off and sees two woman who frighten him. He hides in a closet. And finds the Dancer’s coat. He places a spell on it to bring her to him at the appointed time, grabs his coat, and leaves feeling all smug.
Love Pandora!
I can’t believe I forgot about it. 🙂
Fixed the computer over the weekend, had a big breakfast out today and a long nap this afternoon. Finished off by spending 414 words picking on my male lead. I had a blast letting the female lead, who has some long-standing prejudices that apply to him, meet him for the first time and hate him on sight. And I can’t wait to write their next scene together, when I get to turn the tables on her. Laid the ground for my secondary plot too.
And, to top it all off, I worked on plans for my blog and got an idea for a column that I can’t wait to do. I’m in that great mental place where every word I write generates another hundred and ideas come faster than I can get them down. Life is delicious right now.
Oh, the flu. No words, again.
But the good–no, GREAT–news is: I finished the character creation worksheets for my protagonist, antagonist, and love interest. And they give me so many options for my story.
I took the last two nights off–partly because I was busy, partly because I wasn’t feeling well–and it was pretty weird to get back into an action scene tonight! 633 words of injury, death, and vomiting. Jack is injured and vomiting. The guy shooting at them is dead. They haven’t yet noticed how strange the wound is.
Aww, hope you feel better soon, and yay words!
Speaking of words, I got 373 today. Not sure that’s a good thing as it was another rewrite of chapter five. But have finally come to the conclusion that chapter five will be short otherwise I risk giving too much away too early; assuming I haven’t already.
Hope everyone else is doing well.
Fleshing out “Letters to My Grandchildren” outline.
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