We discover—me along with everyone else—that Aleksa’s favorite graduate student not only is in love with her, actually proposed to her … and got shot down because he was fifteen years younger than her.
Exploring the theme of aging and mortality and the barriers both create. I like the part of the scene I got tonight. Have a significant amount yet to write in this on. But not tonight. My synapses are playing Wipe-Out on the inside of my skull.
So.
How did your words go?
1345 today. I thought I was stuck again and, in the process of getting unstuck, I uncovered some cool muse bombs to set off later. 🙂 Right now I’m really enjoying what I’m getting–the little character quirks that come out and the things they say that surprise me. I had no idea most of these minor characters were even going to be in here and now they’re parading through scenes and giving my MC a hard time (poor girl). But she’s also made some friends I wasn’t expecting so it’s all good. And, most importantly, the story is still moving forward in the right direction. so yay! 🙂
As always; visitors, drink and samba over the weekend. Ah, Brazil, the antithesis of centred writing habits but I love you for it.
Yesterday I couldn’t get myself going either so today was make or break time to maintain my rhythm.
I realised I hadn’t given blind Hector a profession. It didn’t seem relevant when I planned him but I discovered tonight that he is/was a geologist.
At the moment he is very bemused as to how the (future) henchman was once again able to get right up behind him without his perceiving – he can usually hear a roach belch at 30 yards and then tell you what it had for lunch. He’s starting to believe this guy can appear out of thin air!!!
I had 543 down before the blackout and now that the lights are back on, I will be moving forward once again.
I hope all you guys also had a great weekend.
I didn’t have much time to write because the kid is still recovering from the hernia operation from last Friday. Nevertheless, I managed to get 388 words in about forty minutes. Sort of a miracle really, and part because I was thinking during the day of this particular scene I wanted to write…
Well what a writing day it’s been today. The hero came home to find the heroine bashing man’s skull in with a coat tree. And very shortly he’s going to learn that she’s a demon and that he’s half demon. I got a whopping 1942 words which puts me up over 52,000 in total. I’m up over the crest of the halfway point and am now bombing down the hill on my way to those two magical words…THE END. Can’t wait to write more tomorrow. Hope everyone else’s writing days good.
Oh wow, you’re hero must have been shocked. That’s such a neat twist!
Yes, he definitely feels like he’s stepped into the Twilight Zone… and it’s only going to get worse… (insert evil laugh here). The twist wasn’t planned at all. It all happened in the heat of the moment. The coat tree was handy and the bad guy was trying to wail the tar out of her, so what’s a strong, demon woman to do. Bash his skull in with the coat tree with a coat tree. Then of course the hero needs to know the secrets she’s been hiding, and what better way for him to find out. LOL.
I bet that coat tree didn’t come from Walmart. We hung a winter coat on ours and the dang arm fell right off! Wouldn’t do much damage to your man, I’m afraid, LOL!
Seriously, though, that’s quite a scene you’ve painted. I’d love to “see” the finished product!
The coat tree was one of those old fashion, heavy wood ones with sturdy legs at the base. I have one at work, and you could do some damage with it. She had to use what was handy and she swung it at him like it was a baseball bat.
I believe you, and it sounds like a great scene! I was just kidding with you. =c) I bet you could do some damage with one of those suckers! My grandma had one and it fell over on my cousin one Christmas years ago. I thought all of that wailing was exaggeration, but maybe not, LOL.
I’m glad it was a good, productive day!
I’m continuing with small but steady steps: 301 words.
However, on my way home from work I finally had an idea how to improve the last few chapters and make the story (I hope) better.
Even if I liked part of what I wrote there, I was aware that it was rather boring.
So now there will be some rewriting necessary, but first I have to make up my mind what exactly I want to do there.
At last I’m now in a part of the story where I can continue even without doing the changes right away, because my MC’s and their current companion will end up there anyway.
Oh, and “there” is a beautiful little town calles Ahrruru. I loved to create it, although I never had planned to go into much detail there. But I think this will become a save haven for my characters.
No words, but I did do some free writing on what I want to accommplish when my MC visits with her brother. I discovered I need tension and a little conflict between the two of them.
Hi Lisa
Wondering if your free write was directed to discover the need for tension and conflict. Did you free write and discern this from what you wrote or did yo dialogue with your MC in your free write, or something entirely different?
Write well..
Laurel,
I feel the MC is reaching goals too easily even though in secret. I had planned her life more difficult in the beginning, so my muse and I aren’t on the same sheet. Also, it just doesn’t fit that her and her brother have the same relationship they had a couple of months ago (in the story) because too many things have happened to change each of them, with change comes “growing pains.”
I discussed my concerns with my husband and I pretty much came up with the conflict. However, until I wrote my concerns down and the potential to fix the concerns, it still didn’t feel correct. I realize I am going on a bit.
In short, my process when I struggle has been to discuss problems with the husband and/or I journal all my thoughts and feelings. I have also daydreamed my scenes at night and fallen asleep to the story only to wake in the morning with ideas.
I have never dialogued with my MC. I like that thought. I might have to try it sometime. Thank you.
Lisa
” I have also daydreamed my scenes at night and fallen asleep to the story only to wake in the morning with ideas.”
Thank you for your helpful response. I’m going to try, in a more focused way, to conjure what you wrote about, above.
I have done 600 words. Yay!! I got a niggling feeling that something is missing from the scene I am writing.
Two or three hours of revisions and 896 words yesterday as I hung around campus while my son got oriented. A laptop with no Internet, a remote place with no TV, Muzak, and few cell-phone abusers–it was like a little retreat. Fun factor: got my heroine together with the Bad Guy and I’m learning so much so fast about the BG I can’t wait to get back to watching him get his nasty little freak on.
Cheers and Good Words!
Sorry Erin- good luck getting unstuck tomorrow!
1008 words for me today, and they came super quick.
Thanks. I just had a breakthrough. 😀
Cheers,
Erin K.
356 words and horribly stuck. 🙁
Cheers,
Erin K.
I know the feeling and I hate it.
Is there anyway one could help you?
Thanks, Treelight. Actually, I just had a major breakthrough! I’m sooooo happy.
No wordcount at the moment, but the skeleton of the scene is there. 😀
Cheers,
Erin K.
Yay for breakthroughs. 🙂
Great! I’m sure you will tell us tomorrow how this skeleton of yours got filled with words.
430+ words, and more than 23.000 all in all. Nearly a third of the book done, and I’m getting closer to the end of act one.
Well, I added 537 to my main WIP yesterday. The scene I’m working on is a train wreck. I’m trying to figure out if I’m just doing a lousy job writing it or of it’s just a poor fit for the story. Didn’t write but about a hundred words on the novella yesterday. Had to give some serious thought to what I was doing with the next scene, as what was planned didn’t fit with the hero’s character.
500 words yesterday. I pass the 10% mark toward my goal!
I also ran across some more research items, and feel like I need the help of a good librarian and excellent database access. I did not set out to write historical fiction, but I got the idea from an old poem and my reaction to it, as a woman. Now, I am deeper into the facts, as few as there are, so I want to get at least a few details right, in case it does turn out to be hf.
600 words yesterday. Crappy, horrible words. I finally stopped writing the scene because something just seemed wrong. I think I’ve figured out part of the problem, so I’m going to toss that scene and start over. Almost a thousand words gone, which hurts, but I think the new scene will be much better and have a greater purpose. I know I’ll be cutting more than that when I finish the first daft, but I’ve never gotten to the rewrite stage… =)
Worked on yesterday’s dialogue section and then added 553 new words. Some fun things did happen in the dialogue (which usually does) but maybe if I come back to it later I’ll be able to see what is missing.
Also did a bit of research, topics included marine chronographs, range of helicopters, the 57 stars used for celestial navigation, and the horsepower of a 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse.
497 words yesterday. Meeting one of the main characters for the first time. I’ve known what he looks like for quite some time, and his function in the story. But I’ve not stood in his presence before or actually talked to him. This is a new experience for me. I’ve always been full speed ahead during the planning stages, but stopped cold when it came to the writing. Bringing a character to life like this is hard work. I need to get a closer look at his face. He has just climbed down from his wagon!
Need to stand in my map and be fully immersed in the moment.
Best wishes to you all.
582 words for me and the start of chapter 10 🙂
My MC has woken from a coma only to find that her body is consumed in fiery agony which is coming from inside her. My MC’s future potential love interest, who currently is a man trapped in a dogs body (which she doesn’t know), rescues her from her inner termoil, at great cost to himself. She has just reawoken to find herself alone and in a strange place.
It’s good to be back! How are things going?
I hear you with the Wipe-Out and synapses. I barely sit down at my computer and the humidity zaps me. 536 words for the count.
Still working at the new story. I’m calling the storyline about the MC and his lover, “My Lover is a Bunny from Another World!”
Cat-shifted off Earth to a parallel world, Randall gets his butt saved from some nasty evolved doggies (long story) by Baby, an evolved female rabbit (longer story). Randall and Baby start to fall in love. With each passing day, their desire to be together grows. Can either one of them really give up their home? their entire world? for the other. Oh, if only they had more time to figure it all out. Unfortunately, in a few weeks, the cat-shift will end and there will be only one opportunity for Randall to get back to Earth. And there is still the matter of the doggies to contend with. And why do they want Randall’s dog so bad?
519 words for me today. A bit sluggish, but got there in the end!
614 words.
This is where the structure of the story gets odd. We leave our Sheriff in a bad state and won’t resolve that story line until much later.
Now, we start a new story with a fresh main character a few days before the Sheriff’s story even started. (When we get near the end of this story, we’re going to do it again. Take up another story line with the villain as the main character starting a few days before this.)
A young man who’s trying to stay “legal” and is working as a janitor for an artist (hoping to get apprenticed) is offered a high-paying job in his old profession (thief). He turns it down. He meets his girlfriend and is walking her home when she stops by to look at a piece of jewelry she’s been trying to talk her father into buying for her. The jeweller suggests she get her boyfriend to buy it for her. She laughs at that. The jeweller laughs with her.
Lio doesn’t laugh.
That might be heavy handed but there it is.
Hi Pencil Neck,
I’ve been having computer problems and seem to have lost my previous post. I really liked your previous scene where the villain said “sacrifices must be made.” He’s great! And the way you put it made me LOL. 🙂
This new section is pretty cool too. I was curious– do you have the story plotted out, every scene in detail, or just a vague idea with sign posts along the way? I know I am only seeing pieces of it but it seems very well thought out. I’d be glad to hear what your process was.
Hey, Gabby, thanks. That’s a huge compliment. 🙂
I plot out everything but only roughly. I’ve got a signpost for each scene with the main characters, the conflict, and the setting. Then I throw them all together and it just works out how it works out.
Ok, thank you! I appreciate the help. 🙂
800+ words for me. They’re still talking. It’s important stuff, sure, but I can’t figure out whether it’s boring or not.
Anyhow, some action is about to begin, like, NOW.
Also, I feel stuck. The good news is that now, I feel stuck when I see only two scenes ahead. My headlights are getting stronger.
Hi Ieva
What changed so that you don’t have a clear sense of what works well and what does not in terms of your writing ideas. You posted something about this yesterday, or the day before.
Is there a way we can help? or is it just a phase along the way that you are moving through? Well done with word count and I am benefiting from your suggestions, thank you.
I think it’s because I don’t have my gravity done and I always get this kind of blues when the novel is over the middle. I feel like I have to cover *everything* and alternately worry that I won’t be able to or that I will cover everything in next 10 K and the novel will end with a splud (a thud with a splash, if this word wasn’t really English).
I think I’ll get out of it though. I just did a pretty good action scene (rare for me), and stuff.
Thanks for concern 🙂
Cool about the action scenes. I don’t get a sense of any spluds for you.
(grin).
No words today. Hope everyone does better.
I’m doing world building research, tonight, to deepen my understanding of the laws of the forest that I discovered when writing my scene, last night. Thank you Ieva.
It feels painstaking and I have to remind myself often, this is fun. And it is fun, wonderful pleasure and delight in discovery, and still I need to remind myself and to be reminded, ah well.
1255 for me, I feel like I’m getting back into the swing of things. It’s great to read other people’s comments and watch everyone’s progress. Way to go, everybody!
260 today…small, but it’s progress. My hero is currently trying to be nice & make amends by protecting the heroine from a reporter, but it’s going to end up making things worse for her. Poor guy can’t catch a break, and unfortunately, he’s dragging her down with him.
I submitted the novella to the anthology 🙂 Yay…
Thanks for doing the WABWM thread. And ‘How to Think Sideways’. It really, really helped. It got me to this part, to submitting. Wow.
This is the first time I have submitted anything of this size for actual paid publication.
Thanks again, Holly 🙂
Congratulations!
Thank you very much 🙂
Congratulations! That’s amazing. Will you start something else or bask in the glory a while longer? =c)
Thanks Sarah! Basking sounds good but no, I’m starting something else already. One of the things I learned long ago from Holly is that when you’re writing you’ll get a ton of good ideas and they’ll make the one your working on seem dull and listless. Instead of scraping one to work on the other, write them down and keep them for later.
Well because of the ‘Think Sideways’ course and the Sweet Spot Map, I have been raking the ideas in constantly. There is one in particular that I have been plotting, so I’m working on that one now.
I hear you on that! I’ve got a few computer files to jot notes for the other stories that muscle their way to the front of my conscious while I’m working on my WIP. It never fails to amaze me how the ideas come when I’m not the least bit interested in entertaining them! I can be on serious roll with my WIP and BAM – out of the blue – something in me thinks there’s a brilliant idea that just can’t wait. *groan!* Either Holly really knows her stuff or she’s been riffling away in my head. That little tidbit you just passed on is dead-on, that’s for sure!
I read somewhere a while ago that writers look forward to finishing one WIP, and when they do they just start another one and they’re “not finished” all over again. “Ain’t” that the truth?! LOL.
Congratulations! You should reward yourself for a job well done!
Thank you! I did, I celebrated a bit with a good book and a beer 🙂
Yes, congratulations! What an exciting accomplishment.
Thank you, yeah, it’s incredibly exciting.
603 words today. I went back to Jack’s perspective, dealing with the council. They’ve decided not to do anything about the threat, which is partially stupid of them, partially deliberately obtuse.
I also had a minor epiphany! I’ve been thinking for a few days that my heroine doesn’t really have a psychological arc and her story is therefore less complex than the hero’s, which is inconvenient, as she’s meant to be the main character. She’s spunky, resilient, and determined, but that’s not really enough! Today I realized that her dead mother gave her a task that she hasn’t completed (and was possibly passed from her dead father to her mother), and she feels guilty about it. I haven’t figured out yet what the task is, but I will!
So I saw this just only recently, and decided to join, even if a bit late in the running. I had started my novel this summer and did really well in the beginning then for like a month and a half I got hardly anthing down. This game has inspired me to continue writing and make sure I write each day. Writing at least 250 words a day isn’t as bad as trying to do like 5 pages a day like I was trying to do in the beginning.
Overall I have roughly 34000 words (it’s actually more than that tho) and I don’t have a word count for tonight since I am in the middle of writing right now.
Tonight resulted in 814 words. ended on scene and began another. not bad.
Welcome Lindsay,
And don’t worry about starting off now, because as Holly said, a lot of us are going to be at it for a while :).
Enjoy!
Welcome, Lindsay!
Hi and Welcome 🙂
1240 and MC has learned how ot jump off a 6th floor balcony and land safely on her feet and still in one piece… unfortunately the same can’t be said for the tree that stood in her way. Now she is off to visit some flowers and try to figure out some self-control.
But in trying to make her life a bit better, a bit easier, she is making a huge mistake and the person she turns to for help will betray her, and put every character in the book in trouble.
It all comes down to the ashes.
I am definitely loving this scene! And the fun has just begun!
1507 for me and I finished Chapter 21. I felt good about it and my crit partner found very little to shoot daggers at, so YAY! I’m into the next chapter now and things are ROLLING! I’m also blissfully past one of those lingering question marks I had in my head over how exactly something would play out. Overall, a great day – particularly since I’m still slammed with nonfiction. Maybe 3-4 chapters until I’m finished with “Jack” (less than two weeks, easily) but it’s not over yet, and I don’t entirely trust my characters not to pull a fast one on me. =c)