Holly Lisle: Writer

Finally rolled over 50,000 words

I wrapped up with 50,176 total words in the story tonight—a nice milestone after the delay that had kept me at 49,590 for what… about two weeks?

My revised plot cards are all in place, my arterial bypass grafted around the nasty clot of wrong turn is working beautifully, and the 586 words I got tonight felt good.

Aleksa is in an interrogation room at the police station, after defending herself against an abduction attempt staged right outside the station.

It was an interesting scene to write.

And after the luxury of a week-long birthday (complicated somewhat by the fact that I ended up working my ass off getting folks into the last Think Sideways class of the year), it felt magnificent to be sitting up here in the bed, laptop fired up, spinning fiction again.

So.

How about you and your words?

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31 responses to “Finally rolled over 50,000 words”

  1. Dena C. Avatar
    Dena C.

    The past two days have been pretty good writing days for me. On Sunday it was 1026 and on today it was 2260. And since I have a day off from the day job tomorrow and my kid will be in school, so I should have some solid writing time.

    Reply
  2. Gabby Avatar
    Gabby

    Congratulations!! I can’t wait to get there. That would be half-way done for me, pretty much. Currently my next milestone is to reach 40K. Scheduled to get there next week but currently stuck. So far 102 words. Need 400 more to stay on track.

    It’s a boring part and just yesterday I thought I’d gotten myself unstuck too. Apparently I drove right past stuck and into boringville and now my Muse is saying ‘nah-uh, not showing up.”

    So I have to figure out a new way to approach this scene (which won’t be boring ‘name… accept your award… next name’)… before my entire evening disappears. A new way to approach the scene… a new way to approach this scene… …must focus… ugh

    Reply
    1. Gabby Avatar
      Gabby

      Ok, I was able to bypass the whole icky american idol feeling the scene was giving off. Just wasn’t fitting with the mood of the story at all. pulled a rug out from my MC. Scene is very messy but so glad to get over that hiccup. Ended up with 589 and a better idea of what still needs to happen–so a win. I wish so much I wouldn’t waste so much time before settling in to actually work on WIP.

      Reply
  3. Cecelia Westrich Avatar
    Cecelia Westrich

    After a weekend plus of “gold-bricking”, as my dad used to call it, I got got back on the horse today. 489 words. They didn’t come easily, struggled more than I have been in the past weeks since I started this, and I thought I was going to have to settle for less than my goal, but then I hit a place where I got rolling. Dialogue. Heaven bless dialogue — that always comes easy to me — and it builds up my word count. I have gotten away from my plot cards and I don’t know why or how I drifted away from using them. But I plan to change that. I’ve already gotten them out and will start using them again.

    Reply
  4. Cat (from HtTS) Avatar
    Cat (from HtTS)

    In spite of my kids being on holiday, I managed 1900 words on the final revision of a serialized novel that I will soon publish online for free (both in English and German). I am glad I’m nearly done. It means that I’ll only have to wait for the illustrations to roll in and I can start posting right after NaNo!

    Reply
  5. Kait Nolan Avatar
    Kait Nolan

    Woo! That’s a great milestone! I took a mental health weekend and only came out with 269 words, but that’s okay.

    Reply
  6. Rabia Avatar
    Rabia

    Congrats on the milestone!

    I took yesterday off to get my lesson plans together for this week. Today’s my husband’s birthday so I doubt I’ll get any words tonight.

    Reply
  7. Lisa R Avatar
    Lisa R

    Congratulations everyone for all the milestones that have been reached. After 1031 words, I actually reached 100,000 words. I still really can’t believe it. I almost feel like I am cheating with this word count because about 11,000 words won’t go in this book, but in a later book. But considering this is my first project, I am taking it:-)

    The writing went really well. The green lady was murdered and the plot is rolling along at a very fast pace. It is going to have to slow down soon so that I can bring it to the crescendo.

    Reply
  8. Jeff Avatar
    Jeff

    I looked like a total tourist running around the Detroit Metro area snapping photos, making notes and plotting story points. A rent-a-cop yelled at me for taking pictures of a Church “without written consent of the owner”. I told him “God refused to take my calls, so I figured he wouldn’t mind”, it really didn’t have the humorous effect that I wanted. (I’m saving that line for the MC – I love it when I can be witty with a witness to prove it.) Said rent-a-cop clicked a radio and I clicked one last pic before hopping in my car and driving off.

    Words of the day 456… plus a number of descriptive notes and scene visuals

    Reply
  9. Peggy Avatar
    Peggy

    350 on Sunday, after none on Saturday. Today, I finish the scene between the two bad guys and if I still have writing energy left, my detective comes face to face with the awful fact that his dead wife was telling the truth.

    Reply
  10. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    1279, all re-written, but the fun is back.

    I was (and still am, I guess) plodding through a travelling section of the story. Getting a character from A to B looks so easy in the plan, but actually writing it… Well, the details rear their ugly head. Fortunately the details led to some interesting developments and suddenly my boring trek from A to B has quite unexpectedly become a mad dash.

    I really, REALLY want to call in sick tomorrow and write instead.

    Congrats on hitting 50k.

    Reply
  11. Charmaine Avatar
    Charmaine

    I am yet to know what 50k words feels like, but very happy for you!
    1948 words for me tonight for Dog Show Detective, Kitty went to training with Shakespeare, met a boy and returned home to find the family’s home had been broken into. Now she has to find out if they got what they were looking for.
    Feeling proud to now have ten chapters and 15,065 words (albeit of a first draft that will need a fair bit of rewriting – I think mysteries traditionally have more than one suspect right?). I had never imagined myself being able to write this many words. It’s definately thanks to the HTTS course. I feel like I could keep writing the rest right now! but it’s 11pm in Aussie land so maybe not.
    I’ve now downloaded the ‘clinics’ series and look forward to using them for my nanowrimo project.
    Thanks so much Holly!

    Reply
  12. HannaBelle Avatar
    HannaBelle

    Cngrats on passing the 50K mark.

    Still felt bad, so spent all day Sunday on the couch. Guess it worked, feeling better today. Woke up a lot last night, thinking about my story, so I am back on track today.

    Looks like I still have to work on the “fits and spurts” pattern. Though I often take a 1 or 2 day break each week, but every 4 weeks or so I drop off for a whole week.

    Reply
  13. Debora Avatar
    Debora

    I learned an interesting lesson this weekend. I was playing around with SuperNotecard, trying to plot my book out scene by scene. But then my left brain reared its ugly head and wanted everything done perfectly. Every sentence had to be exactly right, every card had to have just the right tags, etc. Now, I do know where I’m headed with this book. I’ve got the history figured out, except for the minor details, and I’ve got a really interesting, rich cast of characters, with lots of conflict, both external and internal. And I know, or at least I think I know, both where the story has to end, and who has to be there.

    I really want to get there. To this last scene, I mean. I want to be able to write: THE END. Just like that, in capital letters!

    So I think my best bet is just to keep on writing. I’m going to be extremely busy, work-wise, the next couple of weeks. But not so busy that I can’t crank out 250 words a day.

    Back to writing, then, even though I worry about how long a draft I’m going to end up with. A very long first draft is better than no draft at all. A very long first draft is better than no draft at all. A very long first draft . . . .

    Back to work.

    Reply
  14. Larkk Avatar
    Larkk

    Bad news, it’s a mess. Good news, I’m getting used to it.
    Wrote out 1157 words summarizing the parts of the story I have so far and then cut out the important parts to paste onto plot cards, including parts of backstory that are kind of floating around until I find a good spot to put them in.
    1889 words of filling in more blanks, worldbuilding, meeting characters, finding the story…I should not have any trouble getting more words tomorrow; I have a lot of unanswered questions still on my list.

    Reply
  15. Teri Avatar
    Teri

    Grats on breaking 50k Holly. It must have been a day for milestones, since I wrote more words today than on any other day so far this year. 2,101 words to be exact, that brought me to the end of the first draft! I may need a denoument, but other than that, it’s finished!

    Of course, when I started this story I only intended to write up to the the first battle of the civil war. It’s the story of how Taskh got involved in it, rather than the story of the war itself. Now though, it seems to want me to cover the civil war as well and become a trilogy. Since I just wrote this as backstory for my interest, I’m holding off on more books for now. I have my Nano book to finish plotting, and characters to find for it. Which is what I’ll be doing for the rest of this month.

    Thank you, Holly, for the invitation to write with you for the push to the end. I normally slow down horrendously when I have just a few thousand words to go, but with a daily goal of only 250 words a day to keep to, I didn’t even notice the end sneaking up on me.

    Reply
    1. Debora Avatar
      Debora

      Congratulations on finishing your draft!

      Reply
    2. Larkk Avatar
      Larkk

      Congrats on the finished draft!

      Reply
    3. Gabby Avatar
      Gabby

      Congratulations! That is such a great accomplishment

      Reply
    4. The Pencil Neck Avatar
      The Pencil Neck

      Woo hoo! Congrats!

      Reply
    5. Jessica Avatar
      Jessica

      Way to go!

      Reply
  16. Jessica Avatar
    Jessica

    2991 all handwritten! My hand hurts! And the notebook is almost finsihed! (Ooh soon I get to shop for a shiny new one!)

    Got through several major scenes today. My villain, managed to get FMC to prove on her own that she has both polars of the magic system. She’s an anomally and she’s freaking out. But before she has time to recover, the government agents show up and crazy car chase ensues. Still in shock, she and her BFF and the ashes are brought to a fancy hotel dowtown by MMC. FMC and MMC get into a yelling match that turns into a kiss and then some… and as FMC sleeps soundly in MMC’s arms he encounters a crisis of conscience in dialogue with the ghost of the fiance.

    I could have kept going too but it’s 5 am and thank god it’s a holiday Monday! Need to ice the hand now! and maybe get some sleep if I can. 😉

    Reply
    1. Mark Avatar
      Mark

      2991 all handwritten…

      I am in awe.

      Reply
  17. Crista Avatar
    Crista

    404 words. Even that was a struggle as I really need to figure out where the story is going at this point.

    Reply
  18. Clare K. R. Miller Avatar
    Clare K. R. Miller

    This is the second time in five days I’ve hit exactly 700. Weird. I’m now in an exciting fight scene! In between trying not to get shot and trying to shoot other people, Cricket is arguing with the servant who’s just betrayed them and also trying to convince her friends, who have been hired by the bad guys, to switch sides. Fun.

    Reply
    1. Jessica Avatar
      Jessica

      If you get 700 in a 7 day streak you should give yourself a prize. 🙂 Way to go!

      Reply
  19. The Pencil Neck Avatar
    The Pencil Neck

    966 words – Development.

    Welcome back!

    I’m still exploring my story. While working up my plot cards (which are not in Sentence form quite yet), I’ve realized that there’s a lot of background stuff I need to fill in. There are some cards that at this point are at way too high a level. For example, I’ve got cards that say things like “The Princess infiltrates a military base and blows up the docks taking out a couple of Imperial cruisers and steals one for herself.” Well… obviously, that’s going to break down into almost enough cards to write it’s own book. I don’t want this to turn into a series.

    I’m in the process of thinking about what a Princess could do vis a vis a rebellion starting with one Pirate ship (with more ships added along the way). I’ve got about 15 different military objectives she could go after but I’ve got to integrate this into a complete story that doesn’t get too big but still shows her making enough of a dent in the Empire’s plans for her to be a worthy opponent (and have her win over her people’s heart’s with her tales of derring do so that they want her as their Queen when the Empire decides to leave) while still being somewhat believable.

    I’ve still got a long way to go but I like my direction right now.

    Reply
    1. Larkk Avatar
      Larkk

      Thanks for sharing your specific examples, especially on the plot cards. I’m at that point myself and this is helping me a bunch!!!!

      Reply
  20. Leah Avatar
    Leah

    1583 after giving myself the weekend. It turned out nicely.

    Reply
  21. Ieva Avatar
    Ieva

    Yay! Being back to writing feels just awesome, doesn’t it? As if somebody served you a brand new blood to run through your veins (at least that’s how it goes for me).

    Me, I wrote two good scenes for the short story I’m fighting. Monday brings me back to Vega though.

    Reply
  22. Michelle Avatar
    Michelle

    Yay, Holly! Glad you passed 50k!

    I had a milestone today too- after a marathon session where I got down 3,100 words, I passed 30k! Hooray!

    Reply

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