Holly Lisle: Writer

DTD — 556 words, and leading up to a first truth

Aleksa faces her adversary/ rescuer across dinner, hoping for an explanation for the chaos that has descended on her in the past three days.

I used the scene to plant some tiny teasers from her past, and a couple of little clues of things that will show up in the future.

Writing went very well, and I didn’t actually want to stop. I want to find out how Ki is going to break his bombshell news to her, and I want to discover how she’s going to take it.

At the moment, all I know is what the news IS… and I can hardly wait to see the fireworks.

So.

How’s your writing coming.

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54 responses to “DTD — 556 words, and leading up to a first truth”

  1. Laura B. Avatar
    Laura B.

    I reworked the theme of my WIP and it made a big difference. When I was writing, I felt something was still missing; I decided the theme didn’t seem quite right, so I did some brainstorming. What surprised me was to find that the theme is love (with trust as a side kick). At first, that seemed much too lofty a theme, or much too easy a theme (cliche?) for this story, depending on how I chose to look at it. But I came to see that this attitude is just plain wrong. (Besides, one of my characters had already let me know that love was going to be a focus for him with regard to the MC.)

    This is helping not only to round out my character but it gives the action already planned much more meaning. And it was “meaning” that had been the missing element for me.

    My character yearns for love, but her biggest obstacle and flaw is that she believes herself to be unloveable (her past seems to support this self-image). She’s thrown into a dangerous environment where nothing is what it seems–very deceptive elements. As she solves the mystery at the heart of the action, she also goes through a clear transformational arc–necessary if she is to love and to accept love from another. As a reader (and movie viewer), the transformational character arc is important to me. I like the work done this weekend even without the word count.

    Reply
  2. Debora Avatar
    Debora

    615 words. That seems to be about the right amount for me to shoot for. I like to write a big enough chunk to feel I’ve gotten somewhere, but then take a step back before continuing.

    I need time for my brain to rest and recover in between.

    Reply
  3. Leah Avatar
    Leah

    Well, after a restful weekend and a lymphatic massage, I got sick Monday and have been fighting it since. No words Monday, but today I will get some, even if it is 5. Last week was an awesome week though. I hit 13K 🙂 Thanks for asking. And I’m excited too for you, Holly!

    Reply
  4. Gina Avatar
    Gina

    350 words for me tonight.

    Reply
  5. Stormlyht Avatar
    Stormlyht

    Monday night, and I’m 773 words into my second part. I think the part is going to be way too big, but *shrug*. Guess I just need to go back to the first part and flesh it out a bit more. I really wanted to leave it at a cliff hanger, so I could get the hang of doing such a terrible thing, but it also has to be interesting. Ah well, the only way to get better is to keep doing, so I am!

    Reply
  6. Don Avatar
    Don

    Things writing wise is going well 1,016 words today. Work is taking up some time I’m going to have to scale down by production this week to 500+ overtime at work. Still on track to make 20,000 words by 7/31 took a week off in Sept. plan to be around the 40,000 mark by them.
    Well see.

    Reply
  7. Dena C. Avatar
    Dena C.

    1349 for me. The day job was really boring today, since 99% of the work I have to get finished before I go on vacation next week is done. It did give me some time to write though. Now I’m off to put my feet up and relax for the rest of the evening.

    Happy writing everyone.

    Reply
  8. Lisa R Avatar
    Lisa R

    I have taken 3 days off. The break was well worth the lack of word count, 0. I don’t know if I will get anything written tonight due to a potluck that I have to attend, but I am antsy to write. That is always a good sign.

    Reply
  9. Carly Avatar
    Carly

    It feels like forever since I’ve been on her to post an update but I suppose the main thing is I have still been writing. Managed about 2 and a half thousand overall the past week which wasn’t great but boy did we get it thrown at our family. The first half of the week was biting fingernails over my mother-in-law being rushed to hospital with chest pains. She’s fine it was nothing to do with her heart and she only had to stay in one night but still…

    Then the second part of the week hit us with my sister-in-law learning that her baby hadn’t grown at all for three weeks and they wanted to induce her as soon as possible. She went in and yesterday afternoon I became an aunty to my second beautiful niece. Boy am I broody at the moment!

    Anyway back on the horse this week, I want to get some serious writing done before I have my shoulder operation at the beginning of September. While it isn’t on the arm I write with it’s still gonna be a pain in the bottom!

    Happy writing all!

    Reply
    1. Debora Avatar
      Debora

      Oh, congratulations on your beautiful new niece! What a terrible scare, but a wonderful outcome. Hope your mother-in-law is really okay!

      Reply
  10. Clare K. R. Miller Avatar
    Clare K. R. Miller

    543 words yesterday, and my MC is getting away from that city. Well, she’s trying, anyway. I probably would have gotten more but I was hungry!

    Reply
  11. Emily Avatar
    Emily

    I’m on the rewrite, and have actually lost word in the process. Still, it’s progress. I’m trying to figure out how long this will take.

    Reply
  12. Gina Avatar
    Gina

    I have committed to joining you all today and have written my first 300 words to my novel ‘ Ante Up’. Thank you Holly, for coming up with this! It’s just what I needed to get me off my @#&* and writing again.

    Reply
  13. Michelle Avatar
    Michelle

    Hi, other Michelle! 🙂

    833 for me today. Plugging along!

    Reply
    1. Michelle Avatar
      Michelle

      Hi to you as well, other Michelle. Hey, that rhymes. I’m getting into a really good scene now. I think I need to work on shorter sentences to build up tension.

      Reply
  14. Michelle Avatar
    Michelle

    1200 words yesterday. So far today my main characters have arrived at a horrendous battle scene that I haven’t quite figured out the importance of. I know it involves tensions between the neighboring countries but, meh. Still working on it. 500 words and counting 🙂

    Reply
  15. Suzanne Avatar
    Suzanne

    Okay, did barely 500 last night before I collapsed into bed. But it was knowing I could come write how many I did that really motivated me to at least write something. And I was happy with it, too. Thanks, Holly, for this challenge that is keeping us going

    Reply
  16. Anambika Avatar
    Anambika

    Two — Three — Two — Seven words hooo!!! hooo!!! My highest ever word count in a single day. I am exhausted; I am enjoying though. bunking class has turned out to be fruitful, but, Alas! I cannot have a repeat-performance, I am running low with available day-offs

    Reply
  17. Laura Avatar
    Laura

    3575 words and I’m done. The end was easy – I knew what had to happen, so I only had to put it on paper. Feeling a bit ecstatic right now, but I’m sure that feeling will go away once I start editing (which won’t happen for quite a while). Anyways. It’s good to be through with it. Now I’m going to take a little break and tune in to the next project, which I abandoned more than a year ago. I’ve got some new and shiny ideas 🙂

    Happy writing!

    Reply
    1. Khena Avatar
      Khena

      Congrats!! I’m so glad you finished!!!

      Reply
      1. Laura Avatar
        Laura

        Thanks 🙂 Feels great!

        Reply
  18. Jessica Avatar
    Jessica

    Another 1260ish for Sunday. But somehow the story skipped over a bunch of scenes and MC’s interrogation turned much more violent than I’d intended. It does add a major barrier early on though – which in this case is a good thing – and I can still shuffle the missed scenes to later (because they are still vital to the main and sub conflicts).
    I left it in a place that my muse is eagre to get back to, but I’m not sure how much time I’ll have today – day job just dumped me with another person’s work for the rest of the week while they’re away.

    Reply
  19. Sarah Collins Avatar
    Sarah Collins

    Sunday I added 1017 words. I made up all the ground I lost on the rewrite (yay!) and finished chapter 15.

    Reply
    1. Anambika Avatar
      Anambika

      Another word count above the 1k mark? rock Sarah rock! I think we all are enjoying a nice green patch. Look at my word count below 🙂

      Reply
  20. Khena Avatar
    Khena

    Unfortunatly, I developed a bad headache yesterday, so I didn’t do much actual writing. I had handwritten about 250 before it hit, so that is my total.

    However, in between trying to sleep it off, I had a few trickles of ideas to complicate my plot. Hopefully I’ll be able to remember them when the times comes since I was unable to write them down =)

    Reply
  21. The Pencil Neck Avatar
    The Pencil Neck

    683 words.

    I expected to get more today but ended up having to work a lot more than I expected.

    My MC has escaped the temple but he ran into the Empress on the way out, and I didn’t expect that. I wasn’t even really planning on her appearing in this novel except in effigy. If she’s going to be in this thing, then stuff is about to get much more complicated.

    Reply
    1. Anambika Avatar
      Anambika

      Blast the Empress, or? bless her for appearing? anything above 500 is OK. . . . to me at least 🙂 keep going.

      Reply
  22. Minze Avatar
    Minze

    682 words, even though I don’t usually write on Sundays.

    Reply
  23. Gerhi Janse van Vuuren Avatar
    Gerhi Janse van Vuuren

    Not writing at all. Not on a story that is. I forced myself to write at least 250 words on “The novel I want to write”.

    I am waiting for my muse to kick some some reference points from which I’m going to develop the story. I have only got one thing so far and it is so obscure it is not going anywhere by itself.

    Reply
    1. Kevin Jackson Avatar
      Kevin Jackson

      Good for you! I wish that I had made an effort to write something during the times I didn’t have a proper WIP going. It’s too easy to get in the habit of not writing if I don’t write.

      Reply
  24. Brent B. Avatar
    Brent B.

    I worked out an 1181 word rough outline today. Before I convert the outline into a scene list, I need to do some more character development and lay down some rules for the magic. Gave that all mighty force threatening them an Achilles heel. Hopefully its subtle enough the characters will have a nice hard time figuring it out.

    Reply
  25. CLNorman Avatar
    CLNorman

    I planned on work being slow today and so brought a notebook with me to write in between customers at the register. I wrote the entire rough outline for a short story I want to get out. It probably works out to about 350 to 400 words handwritten.

    I have been having trouble working on the fortunetelling con artist story lately. None of the basic elements of the scene were the issue. I finally figured out that I sucked away her confidence too easily. Got to stiffen up her backbone and get back to work on it.

    Reply
  26. Kevin Jackson Avatar
    Kevin Jackson

    I wrote about 500 words of plot outline, after cutting out about 1000. Tossing that other plotline was very positive. There was way too much of my MC sitting at home while all the interesting stuff was happening somewhere else, and the story was heading for a nice conflict-free happily ever after ending. Now there are some agonizing choices and heart-breaking sacrifices awaiting her, and I don’t even know what path she’s going to take.

    Reply
  27. Ieva Avatar
    Ieva

    600+ words (well, actually 697). A flashback (I don’t know whether the story needs it, but I certainly did as it revealed very interesting details about how magic works).
    I’ve figured that editing short stories while writing a novel helps a lot. It reveals things about my writing style (and editing style) that allows me to mutter “yup, this scene is fixable” and move on.

    Reply
    1. laurel Avatar
      laurel

      A magical idea, I like it.

      Reply
  28. KQ Avatar
    KQ

    2792 for the weekend. I tried a new technique, allowing myself to write for only ten minutes at a time. It worked really well, made my scenes very electric and exciting. The only drawback is I have to have the scene well detailed in my mind. We’ll see how it goes tonight (I’m in Korea, so I update these at work).

    Reply
  29. Dana Avatar
    Dana

    1,445 words for the day, 992 of which were done at way too early in the morning! I finished 2YN lesson 19 and am moving right into lesson 20.

    Reply
  30. Jamie D. Avatar
    Jamie D.

    Took the last two nights off after all, and got 434 new words this evening. While reading the plotting course, I figured out that I need to start with a more “explosive” scene in the first chapter, so I’m going to write that tomorrow. It will make the whole thing bigger, more dramatic, more humiliating. Nice.

    Here’s to another steady writing week!

    Reply
  31. Larkk Avatar
    Larkk

    Decent wordage of 1835 tonight.
    Nick and William forge an uneasy alliance. Learned a bit about each of them as they found they had a mutual goal, to find Libra.
    Tried to do a teensy bit of plotting in a freewriting session. Then was glad I’d had the foresight to make Nick’s father a marine biologist. Going to need one of those soon!

    Reply
  32. Eve Avatar
    Eve

    Two whole new scenes and some changes at the beginning of another. I managed somehow to knit things together so that the direness of Ursus ailment has been somewhat ameliorated by Master Rah’s terrible draught.
    I also managed to put in a bit about Liam and a hint that something isn’t right with him. Right now we only think that he is very tired because he nursed Ursus all night, but later we’ll find that isn’t what it is.
    1055 words

    Reply
  33. Lacey Savage Avatar
    Lacey Savage

    I hope you had a lovely weekend, Holly!

    My writing day was surprisingly productive, considering it’s my birthday today and I figured I wouldn’t get anything done. I sat down sometime around 1:00 PM with the new WIP, and an hour later, I had 1,052 words.

    Reply
    1. Jamie D. Avatar
      Jamie D.

      Happy Birthday, Lacey! 🙂

      Reply
    2. Holly Avatar
      Holly

      Happy Birthday, and awesome count!

      Reply
    3. Ieva Avatar
      Ieva

      Happy Birthday! And what a beautiful way to celebrate it!

      Reply
    4. The Pencil Neck Avatar
      The Pencil Neck

      Happy Birthday!

      Reply
      1. Brent B. Avatar
        Brent B.

        Happy Birthday! & Happy Writing!

        Reply
    5. Michelle Avatar
      Michelle

      Happy B-day!

      Reply
    6. Mike P. Avatar
      Mike P.

      Happy Birthday

      Reply
    7. Anambika Avatar
      Anambika

      Happy birthday to you 🙂

      Reply
      1. laurel Avatar
        laurel

        happy birthday – well done – auspicious start of your personal new year

        Reply
    8. Nancy Avatar
      Nancy

      Happy Birthday!!

      Reply
    9. Lacey Savage Avatar
      Lacey Savage

      I apologize for the delayed reply — it’s been an insane week.

      Thanks so much for the birthday wishes, everyone! You all made my day. 🙂

      Reply
  34. Mike P. Avatar
    Mike P.

    150 hard fought words tonight.

    Reply
    1. Holly Avatar
      Holly

      Cheers on winning that battle.

      Reply

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