Pitch-And-Toss Writing

I threw out 364 words I wrote last week, and wrote 738 new words on TalysMana tonight.

The clue I got while posting my last TalysMana post last week, where I suddenly realized that the story would be more interesting if Bill were present when the next big thing happened, led me to toss everything I’d done on Lightcross, Shadowcross, and redo it.

It paid off. I actually like what I got on the scene—and writing it filled out a couple of neat details of Bill’s personality that made him a smart protagonist, and fit in with who I’d already said he is. And added some good conflict.

Tomorrow I have to see what Kettan does with the situation. But I’m excited to write that.

How are your words coming along?

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12 responses to “Pitch-And-Toss Writing”

  1. Danzier Avatar
    Danzier

    Ok, I’m done lurking now.
    1.5 scenes: 1 reveal that I hope wasn’t an exploding cat (ref Holly’s #1 crit vid); 2-ish scenes that I’ve been dying to write, one since I was 12 (now 27); and 3137 words. Don’t freak out on the word count; that’s over about 4 days of seriously focusing and making my 6-year-old mad at me for not letting her watch videos on my compy. School has started and the story has moved on, goal accomplished yay. And…I’ll be maybe adding a second project, since I’m taking a screenwriting course… we shall see.

    So: The antagonist/former slave owner has displayed the Top Secret Weapon–which is a learned skill, which he’s very bad at. Not so bad as to kill himself with it, but he “didn’t attach his clothes to his skin this time.” ;D

    My favorite scene ever is only half done: protag is masquerading as one of the bad guys, buys his captured friends from a slave trader, and when I finish the scene the deal WILL go badly. This is like Christmas and birthday for the next couple years anticipation, but I promised I’d check back in.

    😀

    1. The Pencil Neck Avatar
      The Pencil Neck

      Thanks. 🙂

      Keep it going.

  2. Gabby Avatar
    Gabby

    I’m with you, Ieva. I took a week off… just doing other things. And now I’m back to it with the daily goal of at least an hour. 797 today. Got the scene going in the right direction (still a little shaky on the details but was lots of fun working out what I have so far).

  3. Elmi Avatar
    Elmi

    Wrote 51 words over weekend. Better than nothing…

    1. Andrew Parker Avatar
      Andrew Parker

      Elmi,

      Keep up the good work. Tell us about what you’re trying to write. You have a beginning, but do you know where your story is going yet? I myself am trying to get past the first page of my novel Bitch Trailer Park about a bunch of psychopathic women living alone in a trailer park because nobody can stand them. I actually have a sister like that. Is your story based partly on your real experience?

  4. Ieva Avatar

    I’ve just braced myself to admit that I am Really Really Writing A New Novel. So for last ten days, I’ve done a bit under n

    I brought my three main characters to life. Bee is a very gifted girl with so much raw magic in her that her village elders decide to stall her progress to avoid trouble. Her husband, Rudd, is the perfect tool to stall her, but neither of them know that…yet. (Although he’s a bright fellow and might figure it out pretty soon.) And then there’s the outcast from the neighbour village, Fox, and he turned out to be quite a poet (he also managed to veer all this romantic fantasy in a literary genre).
    The twisty stuff that I haven’t fully figured out yet? All magic is sexual.

    This is a big challenge for me since I’m not normally taken by erotica.

    Oh, and I’m going slow, 250 words per day minimum, but I’m committing to writing every day because weekends that I used to skip hurt my writing on Mondays.

  5. Bugboy Avatar
    Bugboy

    This looks just the ticket – thank you, Holly. Going to have a go tonight. Best regards to all.

  6. Debora Avatar
    Debora

    Great lesson, Holly. I am busy doing what you suggested. I am nailing my heart to the wall!

    Thank you.

  7. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    I managed to get another 4 scenes of D&DI revised over the weekend, one of which I had to split in two due to a POV conflict, which increased my anticipated workload somewhat. Also did about 5k on OFL revision.

  8. The Pencil Neck Avatar
    The Pencil Neck

    786 words.

    Confronted with a crew that didn’t understand why she released a bunch of prisoners instead of selling them to the slavers for auction, the Princess decided to explain to her crew (and the slaves that she freed) who she really is and why they should be following her. There’s a lot of resistance from the pure pirates. But almost all the freed slaves are agreeing to follow her.

    I’m planning this story out differently than I did my previous one. I’ve got a general skeleton laid out with some events I want to happen, but I go in and write a paragraph synopsis of the scenes every so often. So I’m not working from a complete outline but from a partial outline that’s getting filled in as I go. I wrote out about 11 scenes worth of stuff and that came to about 700 words. So I’ve got the next week of writing planned out.

    I also worked on HTRYN.

    1. The Pencil Neck Avatar
      The Pencil Neck

      946 words.

      The Princess and the crew finished figuring out who was going and who was staying. Then the Princess takes the brawniest deckhand to a strip club on the Auburn Moon filled with Imperial Soldiers and makes eye contact with a certain table dancer.

      Today was the day from heck. One of our horses lacerated his eye. Our car battery died. We called AAA and they said they could change the battery but none of their batteries fit. So I took it to our local mechanic and apparently he had changed the bracket so he could put another size of battery in. He told me it would take 30 minutes to change the battery but then he found some other stuff that needed fixing so I just said that I’d hang there until he finished. I was reading A Game of Thrones and didn’t realize that 3.5 hours had passed until my wife called to see where the heck I was. So I finally get home and work is freaking out. And on top of it all my wife is having some pain in her hip and knee and has to fly out tomorrow. What a day.

  9. Deb1789 Avatar
    Deb1789

    728 Words.
    Wrapping up the unexpected turn my MC took last night, and trying to make it fit with what I want to happen next. . .
    I’m still not sure if this is a good thing, but at least I know EXACTLY where everything went sideways. . .

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