Writing along, writing along, and suddenly there’s another dead body in my path, and it would solve the two deaths upstairs…except the dead guy had nothing to do with it.
I’m feeling my way through this story, and events are building nicely.
How’re you doing?
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Phew! 1061 today. I’ve been having lots of trouble the past couple of weeks… crisis of conscience or however I should put it. It’s been really encouraging to read everyone’s posts even while I was feeling stalled in my own WIP. You all have such nice advice and it helps to see that everyone is pushing along despite facing similar difficulties that I’m having. So many people are finishing their WIP or approaching the last chapter which is very encouraging too. I’m very excited for all of you [!!] and I can’t wait to get there too. 🙂 Trying to focus on Holly’s great advice that I can’t revise a blank page. (I hope I’m not misquoting there).
587 for me.
A lovable minor character called ‘The Pirate’ appeared in his canoe so I spent my time having fun with him.
This guy is a blast.
Haven’t been writing much the last week or so due to life getting a little crazy. I did get some necessary research done, which was nice. Did work on chapter 5 last night; ended up rewriting what I had for chapter 5 after realizing it was more of a character sketch that did nothing to move the story along. After 585 words am back on track and noticed I could use this to lead to another scene that I hadn’t thought of. All is well. ^_^
I went roughly through 3 chapters, rewrote a bit here and added a bit there which left me with 432 words more in the end.
Now the real tough chapters-to-be-rewritten lie ahead.
My biggest problem is that I still have not decided how exactly my kidnapping will happen. Or rather how my leading lady will react to the bad guy and vice versa.
For example: she could mistake him for my male MC who can shapeshift and this might just be another disguise, depending on how the kidnapper reacts to her this might work for some time and be some fun to write.
On the other hand, it might be difficult and out of character to react in a way that she really mistakes him for her friend for more than a minute.
I hate situations like this … it makes me feel like I have to create a mathematical formula to solve this problem, so that it works properly.
585 words for yesterday. The elf said no and left. Cricket tried to chase him, fell down… and broke her wrist. Hmm.
1,987 words on DT today. I’m finally finished with my new introductory scenes and tomorrow I’ll begin revision on the first 30,000 words to make the new beginning fit. Once that’s complete I can go about finishing the rest of the story.
I’ve been eying this for a while, and I finally have my outline finished, so I’m jumping in. Got 517 words, and it’s off to a good start.
Welcome =)
Thanks!
1284 today although I stopped at a point of confusion which is a little annoying. Will have time to think it over though as going on a trip tomorrow so wont be able to write, then have family for the long weekend. I cant actually see myself finding the time for a least another week now, but then school’s back and I will have to write at break neck speed to finish before 21/9.
342, and one of the MCs demonstrates creative uses of euphemisms.
543 words yesterday. I’m finding that around the 500-word mark is actually quite comfortable. Not quite sure where I’m going with it…need to plot out some kind of map so I don’t get lost!
Well…I went back and wrote 337 words on the nightmare that headed up the scene I finished day before yesterday. So now that scene actually is finished as a first draft, but I still haven’t figured out how I want to approach the scene I need to work on today.
1773 words yesterday and forgot to post my count then. Oops. I seem to be having this problem. Words were part of my editing and I’m quite pleased with how they turned out. Lots of character development in this part, and the next scene that I have to do, and I’m hoping it flows nicely. Will post todays words later.
Yeah, that happens. I forgot to update my word count meter last night. I’ll get it tonight. 😀
Okay, 2766 words today on my main tale. Really pleased. Had to have a discussion about being owned versus being a partner between my MC and the woman he set free. Even though I’ve already written it, going from 3rd pov to 1st pov had VASTLY improved the scene. Not just that, but the actual words that were spoken has become so much cleaner, so much more real to me. So pleased, can’t believe what I wrote before sounded so good after I wrote it and now when I look at it I’m appalled that I thought that.
Just a little tidbit, because I feel like sharing:
“You think that since I freed you, I have taken away your advantages. You think that belonging to someone is much better than being their partner. But El-landa, being someone’s partner is just as important, no is much more important, than belonging to them.” A speech, I hated it but she needed it. Perhaps this would finally get through her thick skull. “Belonging to someone means that they dictate your actions, your speech. They decide what you wear, if anything, and how much food you can eat that day. They tell you if you are allowed to speak to someone or if you must hate them, even if you do not know who they are. You are not allowed to have your own thoughts, your own desires, your own wants. You must be as mindless as possible, because you cannot think for yourself if you are owned. Your owner is supposed to take care of you, but if he decides not to, this is his choice and you suffer because of it. Answer me truly El-landa, do you wish this for yourself?” She held my gaze and I pressed her again. “Do you?”
1145 word for me. I could have gotten more, but a few things hit me. The scene I found I needed to add, morphed into at least three. It’s important and needs to happen. It explains a lot of things and ties my MCs together more tightly, but i have to make sure it doens’t take over my story. My MC are going to be so mad they can’t take care of this problem and will have to trust someone else to stop them. But… it really wants to run the show now and it’s goign to be hard to keep the focus of the novel where I want it to be.
Yesterday was one of those days. You know, those days when you are ready to do bad things to people and world and everything. So I pondered about a short story but didn’t do nothing for my WIP.
That’s all right. I’m writing today. 🙂
(Yea, living on the opposite side of the globe is eerie.)
It is. It makes keeping track of the “when” of other writers’ lives a confuddled experience.
1015 words and I finally see the end of chapter two. The sisters are still out drinking hot chocolate (gosh, I want some too!) and talking about what they’ve been up to while separated, and at last some infromation about the younger twin’s new mentor leaked out. Besides, a new character added himself to the cast – an old homeless man who, according to the Celtic Lia Fail (Stone of Destiny) is the true king of Ireland. Oh boy. That’s going to be interesting.
Good luck with your writing!
Wow, that sounds really great. Good luck!
649 today. Not a great day for writing. Mind’s been preoccupied with other matters. Thank God tomorrow is Friday!
586 words. That particular scene is now 2000+ words long. It’s an action scene, and I always overwrite these and have to boil them down to their essentials during rewriting.
1531 words. I am slowly getting back into NaNo-mode. 😉
Funny thing is, my MC ended up in a prison and likes it there. It will take some coaxing to get her to leave. I’m looking forward to that.
The translation is coming along nicely, too. 868 words today.
I’m heavily amused by your MC liking prison! She sounds interesting.
Agreed. Wondering what sort of prison it is, as well as what sort of character SHE is.
543 on D&D and a community debates fiercely how to deal with potential invaders. 1067 on OFL, and a scene that introduces the last main character and his conflicts.
1217 words.
I wrote one scene to the logical end but it didn’t feel right. I went off, watched some TV, and when I came back, I realized that I’d taken a scene and just condensed it down to a couple of paragraphs and piggy-backed it onto the end of the first scene. So, I split it out and ended up getting something really satisfying.
The Thief and his Mentor were leaving the ensorcelled Warrior’s keep when the Warrior came walking down the stairs in a semi-daze and just ignored them. So they chased after him into the city hoping to be able to follow him to the Mage’s lair. But the Thief couldn’t keep up and in frustration and range, discovered another power that he’s not supposed to have*. (And a power I didn’t know he had, btw.)
* In this world, vampires gain powers and abilities as they age and become more bonded to the demon living in their blood. Young vampires are basically just strong and heal really fast. Some powers require training and not all vampires develop all powers. The Thief is displaying powers and abilities that only older vampires usually have. And there’s a reason for that.
1599 for main WIP, wherein my hero faints, then wakes up hearing voices that might or might not exist. 269 in my short story WIP, and the potentate is yanked out of a dream.
45 words, and they are not even the novel. (I figured I’m too tired to do the novel so I started a short story.) I’m trying to figure out some smart way to combine writing with work now that work has become so cumbersome (temporarily, I hope).
Hmmm. Seems that I’m writing with my eyes closed and sound like a spambot in the mornings, and don’t even remember that afterwards.
Please disregard the comment above.
*walks away confused*
I suspect Akismet of toying with people, just to see if it can.
🙂
The best part is that I went back to this enty hours later, wrote another report and then, reading back, saw this one. That was sorta creepy.
Edit of finished draftl: Worked my way through chapter 7 with minor changes still to make to 5 and 6 after comments from my crit partner. Netted +11 words after the dust settled. Finally decided on a title, too. Boy, that was a load off! Still not sure how I managed to write an entire novel without thinking of a title, but problem solved.
WIP: Added 389 words. Need to think of a title, LOL.
Oh, great. Thanks. I just realized that the story has changed so much during the rewriting process that the title I had no longer works.
I’m titleless.
Welcome to my world. I kill several titles every time I start out to write a book. 😀
I like the title I have for my main project, but no one else does. *laugh* I actually just got poked about it again Tuesday at my editing meeting! I keep trying to figure out something better, but for me, that title just works. I’ve decided I’m going to keep what I’ve got for now, and when the whole thing is done, I’m going to look over it all and decide what to change it to. That way I don’t have to pick my brain until the project is finished and fully edited. And maybe by then, I can finagle things so the title I like works!
I’m beginning to think that taking 3 totally different foreign languages in the same (and my first) semester of college was a horrible idea. I’m tired, hungry, and I need a bath…but worst of all, I haven’t written in TOOOOO long! As soon as I have a routine (and energy) back, I’ll write again. ASAP.
I took Spanish and Russian in one semester, but the Spanish was “cheating.” I took three years in high school and spent ten days in Spain, then took Spanish 1 in college and learned to count to count and tell time. The fact amuses me to this day, LOL. (I didn’t crack a book EVER.) Point of all of that being that you are ambitious to a fault, my friend. Good luck! ;c) You’ll be back before you know it! (You know, after the bath. Please.)
Oh, but it’s so understandable. I’m a translator myself, and most of us entered university raring to go, wanting to learn ALL the languages we loved AT ONCE. Of course it’s immensely stressful. Most downscale to two languages, or they learn one language properly and cheat their way through the rest, or they prioritize one language per term.
Don’t forget about watching TV or a movie in your languages, listening to the radio, or reading foreign-language books or papers. And don’t read it while analyzing the text – just read, read, read, and look up as few words as possible. That way you can learn your languages while you’re having a bath or cooking dinner. 🙂 If you’re still a beginner, listening to the radio will work, or watching a movie that has English subtitles, or reading comics or kids’ books. Best of luck.
Ouch.
Double ouch.
Any chance they’re at least languages from the same family, so you’ll have some crossover (Spanish, French, Portuguese).
Or are you doing something like Italian, German, Russian?
The road to madness? It is well sign posted.
For what it’s worth, my advice is learn one at a time. It will bring you more success. Learning languages has much in common with writing books – you never really finish either, so failure stares you back in the face every time you take stock of your progress.
Aim for a graspable amount of words everyday (250 or 25) and after a couple of years, start the next.
I love languages, speaking four and writing in three. It is ‘doable’ so good luck.
got extra time to write tonight, and tackled a scene that has been on my mind for a long time. i’m fairly pleased with what i got so far, but didn’t get the scene completed. also did some rough outlining of what needs to happen after this scene in ch 9, the characters i need to make for these scenes, and how to keep them moving so this flashback doesn’t slow down the main story i’ve been building over the past 5-7 chapters. might end up getting chopped up and put elsewhere or scrapped, but i think it will help the story, not hurt it so we’ll see.
ch 9 is up to 2447 words, so wrote 1584. This was a fun night for me to write.
520-ish for me. I feel like I am never going to get the ball up the hill! I’ve been plagued with doubts and feel like quitting. I’ve got over 100K written so far, and I don’t want to stop until I get to the end. I am going to try some new things to try to get myself motivated again.
That’s the normal “end-of-novel-in-sight-and-I-don’t-want-to-let-go” writer’s blues. Listen to some music that makes you want to sing along and don’t think too much about The End and you should recover.
Patricia, I’ve gotta say thanks! I tried to write without overthinking it and got 1000 words! Really good words too! So I’m going to try doing the same again tomorrow. I’m back on track with my outline and the MCs about to learn more than she bargained for.
My favourite line, from the villain with his ghost eyes and chesire-cat grin: “you split the atom, we split a force of God.”
Awesome! I like that line, and good luck on today’s writing! 🙂
Patricia, I wanted to say thanks as well. Your advice really crystallized for me that I am overthinking things. When I was stressing tonight, I just tried to shift my focus back to keeping the pen (err… keys) moving. It really helped!
I am happy to know that I helped someone achieve. Good luck on your project! 🙂
Not too much written on the WIP today I’m afraid, but I don’t feel too bad about it because I got some stuff done for later books (I’m planning a series). Little scenes keep popping into my head, and I think I’m going to have to organize everything after a while.
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