Aleksa knows she’s being tailed. She has no idea who’s back there, but she’s sure whoever it is has a connection to the murder of her colleague Mike.
258 words today, done early because I also did about 4000 words on Lesson 2 of HTRYN, and when I go to bed tonight, I intend to sleep.
How are your words coming?
all is strangely dangerous and uprooted, which is the main metaphor for my writing.
since my ex and my jobs left, it all seems very uprooted, may i use the metaphor wisely in my writings..any suggestions or thoughts greatly appreciated
L
Finished editing Chapter 3 tonight. I decided to mess with the balance of hero and villain, made the villain more dangerous. I never liked villains the reader thinks the hero can beat, and this chapter helps prevent that. Also fixed some horror scenes, lengthened the prose and cut some repetition to make them more…terrifying.
Hopefully.
On to Chapter 4!
340 for me….not the most inspired stuff, but I can work with it.
Hi! New here. My sister just emailed me with this website and words of encouragement. I’ve been hitting a dead end in a scene of a project I’ve been working on for nearly a year, not sure what to write next and putting off even trying until I had a huge chunk of time away from my kids to stew, but nothing was getting written. Tonight, however I’ve got 368 words of CFPD that weren’t there yesterday. Sometimes when you close your eyes and just put one foot in front of the other you open them up to realize you’re actually going somewhere.
Welcome!! I know it’s a late comment but thank you for posting your process. I will try to remember it when I am trying to push forward on my stuck scene tonight. (I think I need to just refocus …again!!!… on forward momentum instead of perfection for first draft). My inner critic is apparently alive and well, as always.
Been writing all week, reporting the word count however…
4529 words this week.
673 words did a action segment rough sledding, but I’m happy with it it’ll look better after some work.
No words today. My brother married and he didn’t tell us till yesterday (what a cheeky thing to do, isn’t it). So we had to come up with some really fast decisions. We packed the kids and drove all the way to my hometown to be there. It was a great day but not for writing.
Tomorrow, I’ll be in Frankfurt for the book-fair and I don’t think I’ll write for the rest of the weekend. See/read you all on Monday.
I’m a first timer – actually I subscribed, but not sure if I can participate. I’m not writing a novel, I’m writing a memoir. Can I apply what I’m reading so far to memoir writing?
Of course. Welcome to the group.
I’m concentrating on writing novels but I read techniques from screenwriting, comedy writing, etc., and then try to find ways to apply it. I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to sift through Holly’s techniques and find ways to apply it to your writing.
But you can definitely write 250+ words a day on your project along with us. It’s nice to have the community supporting you.
First time here and had to subscribe. I was sent a copy of the newsletter and I was hooked! I got in.. about 600 words last night, and was overjoyed to read this morning that less is just.. okay. It’ll be fine.
Yeah, no matter what you managed (even 10 words), you now have more then you had the day before 🙂
0 words again. I did write out some sentences waiting for a meeting to start. Nothing that I will use in any projects, just simply playing with sentence structure and word choice.
836 on Thursday, plus some research and brainstorming on the busman’s holiday project.
Today, Chase gets to watch the 19-year-old girl he’s interviewing break down in tears.
D&D: 268
OFL: 544
RFW: 519
Greg, how do you keep your storylines straight/separate? Do your characters ever run together? (I’m having trouble with my characterization and am pretty impressed that you can work on so many projects at once).
16 line for scenes. I’m happy, even if I took a pause on drafting. And I’m feeling much better for those who hoped/asked. Turns out I had an infected tooth that is now out of my mouth. 🙂
545 last night after a very successful afternoon of office/closet cleaning which was looooooooong overdue. I love it when I actually get organized. Still have 3 rooms to go, but this was a really good start.
About 760 words for yesterday. I am about burned out on magical ceremonies though. Thankfully I don’t think I will need another one for awhile. Although… crap, my muse just handed me another scenario for why I will need yet another one. This is what I get for writing yesterday that I couldn’t bear to part with any of my scenes. Somethings got to give on this whole ceremony overload stuff.
Muse handed me a neat thing for this one so at least I could write it. Definitely needs some expansion though and modifications because it gives too much away/doesn’t quite make sense how the character knows so much either.
I need a villain and all the muse has for me is a shiny black Jaguar and the fingerless lace gloves. Yes, yes I promise I’ll write those in, but I need a villain, PLEASE! I tell the muse. I need to know who killed his brother and why. His brother didn’t die of natural causes that I know for sure. But the one who killed his brother is after the hero too. (Thanks for the novel prewriting questions Holly!!!)
Words are all over the place, in my notebook and google.docs. I’ll try to give a count when (IF?!) I get my computer back. They are just messy planning words anyway, so the number might not be all that important. So glad this didn’t happen in November though, aaack…
Back from being sick at last. I did about 200 words, mostly clean up on the beginning of the chapter to help me get back into the swing. The week off wasn’t totally without advancement however. I did a lot of reading on locales similar to the one this section of the book is taking place and have a much richer view of the setting. Am really glad to be over the flu though.
Dragged myself kicking and screaming to the 20k mark yesterday. Conscious I was likely writing bilge to get there. Was it Nora Roberts who said: You can’t edit a blank page ??? You can edit bilge, though. I’m about a 5th of the way there now. If I manage even just a further 250 words today with that life stuff going on at the moment, it will still be a triumph.
1444 yesterday. I am finding that each writing session gets longer and the chapters longer too. I got to introduce some cool things in this chapter, like miracles, ghosts and playing cards. It was fun to write this.
I was trying to figure out what to do with a particular character yesterday. Thought of an interesting new twist, but could not make it work, historically speaking. But I did write. 285 words.
I still don’t have a good sentence for my WIP. Got to work on this.
Back to work.
Not a great deal of progress, 235 words. I finished up the scene I’ve been working on for a while. I’ve strayed a little from my original plotline, mostly because there was a huge gap in them getting from point A to point B. But while causing trouble for my characters is great fun, I have to find a way out of it now.
I’m also working on plotting for NaNo, and have been reading some research books. I also have 13 plot cards set out so far for things I want to happen. Now I need to spend some time with my characters to be able to fill in the rest. It’s probably not a good idea to do NaNo, but I think it will be fun… =)
Just a spouted out 460 words on a scene I didnt know was going to happen until I was suddenly writing it. ^_^
786 words – Development
Most of my work was on the motivations of certain nations and why they’re supporting a particular coup in a backwater hole of a star system. And how the rebels can convince them to get the heck out of Dodge. And trying to think of as many different possible endings in the relationship between the Queen and the Princess as I can. I’m really leaning towards a pointless sacrifice/betrayal. And I tried to explore the various ways I can approach the question of Loyalty and how it applies to one’s life and how I can illustrate that in various subplots in the story.
An interesting night.
No words yesterday. I did some planning for my next novel and did some absolutely crazy OMG OMG session because I got a rewrite request for my short story.
I’m taking the break from my WIP anyway; the true ending is still eluding me.
Congratulations!!
Well, I still have to rewrite it. 😉
522 words on a scene I completely forgot to write.
I can’t remember my last post. I’ve had a busy week but that’s no excuse. My plot went so far off on a tangent that I found the roadmap had gone out of date and I got totally lost. Instead of fixing it, I took the cowards’ route and tried to ignore it. Not a good idea, but I’ll never learn.
So tonight I took a bite from a candy bar scene way ahead of the current action, just to get the fingers moving again. Gnawing off 382 words was enjoyable and now I feel good.
I hope everyone’s projects are going well.
I’m actually on my way to write right now. Hopefully I’ll have some words to report later!
And Holly, I just printed the first 14 lessons of HTTS (as far as I have gotten in the course) to have a hard copy, just like you suggested. I think someone owes the environment an apology 😉 I’m glad I finally have a hard copy, though! It’ll be much easier to look up specific lessons I’ve forgotten.
646 words tonight. Decided to switch to Jack’s POV for this scene–mostly, I think, so we can see how his feelings for Cricket have progressed.
As for me…221 words of that pesky scene down and still working. As soon as I wrap it up I’m moving on to the next chapter. It would be going quicker though if the unpotty trained daughter [Princess] wasn’t drenching her cloth diapers every 20 minutes it seems. Seriously going to have to start working on her too.
I’m still alive. Hubby just got out of the hospital for surprise colon surgery. The surgeon was fantastic as were the hospital staff. He was good for riding in the truck and even going to Wal-Mart one week after his surgery. It was the old fashion open him up from stem to stern to make sure they got all of the cancer. Needless to say, writing has gone by the wayside.
I will get back into the groove. There have been a few upheavals in our lives but they are starting to settle out.
I am looking forward to writing. I can’t tell you how happy to be home and in my own bed and sleep for more than three hours at a stretch. I stayed with him the entire eight days.
Glad to hear he’s doing well now. My grand father went through all that a couple years ago and he was the same way, getting back to his usual self a short time later.
Glad to hear it went well, and hope the recovery continues that way.
Well, that must have been quite an ordeal. Glad your husband is doing so well!
Good to here all is well.
Hooray, Beverly! I’m so glad he’s doing well, and you can get some decent sleep.
Low day today 373 making progress, need to turn it up a notch, after taking so many days off. Hope everybody is fine and the writing is going well.
590. I went back to add in what was missing from the transition and it really works wonderfully. Now FMC looks much stronger as a person and not so much the childish, grief-striken, can’t get on with her life archetype. Very happy with how it went. Plus, now things are set up nicely for the next time I rip out the rug from under her, which is only a couple scenes away. 🙂