Dunno. When you resort to Bay City Rollers puns, it may be proof that Hell has frozen over.
Anyway…
This is the official Write A Book With Me Saturday thread.
How’s it going? How are the words? How’s the story?
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y! Write!
read with hunger, write with joy, live with passion
Ieva, that sounds like a great story. Good luck with it. All of you have been doing great at posting and at least doing some writing, which is great too. I’ve been lax at posting here, but read off and on as I could. Now that I’ve come up for air, relases and things out for the week, I’m enjoying the rest of my birthday weekend. And one of the to-do’s for me, as a writer (I publish too) was to come to Holly’s writing site. I’ve always been a big fan of Holly’s and have bought many of her books in the stores over the years. So “writiing” with her is a pleasure. My results: two short stories in the last week. Both about 8K. The first one actually took me about two weeks to finish in between other things, but the second I got in two days. I was just thrilled to have that much done. This weekend, I’m being selfish and writing for me. Good luck to everyone here and I’d love to read some excerpts. Mae
I absolutely forgot to mark my progress Friday and Saturday. Too much going on at work and at home and when I was finally crawling to bed each day my brain was absolutely blank. So, 1200 for Friday and 2400 for Saturday. Not very productive but alas. There should be days when I slack a bit.
Don’t put yourself down – a lot of people (myself included) would be psyched to get that many in a day! Every word on paper is one more closer to the end. Good job!
Jessica,
There are days and weeks I don’t get a chance to write, the brain too tired, so I totally agree with you. If you can jot down ideas or one word sentences on paper even, you’re writing. I found a terrific way to write when I have time to do it, or recall to do it.
If you open a blank email and consider it is a piece, perhaps a synopsis you are sending to that publisher or editor for considerations, you’ll be amazed at what you can write and how much. My best time was 1577 words and I saved it in my email and later on created a novella from it. Hope that helps. Happy readings and writings. Mae
Don’t feel bad about that, Julia. I’ve been meaning to since Holly started this. I really got lax. Post when you can. Good luck.
Although I didn’t always manage to write the desired minimum of 250 words per day, I wrote on 5 days during the last week. Considering that I was quite busy with loads of stuff (some of it rather unpleasant) and that I’ve been in a bit of a writer’s block for the past few months, I’m quite satisfied with that result.
Your word-game was really very helpful to make me write again regularly. Thanks!
I’m glad it’s helping. And when you’ve stalled out for a while, writing even a few words every day is enough to start reminding yourself why you love this.
So true, Holly. Writing, like life can be difficult. Make your own kind of muse and she or he will sing back to you in sweet words.
Hey that’s great, Treelight, keep up the good work.
200 on saturday and nothing on Sunday.
I got 2068 words out today (Sunday) which brings my total to 30,091. Which means I’m a third of the way through my manuscript since my goal is around 90K. I’m a little in awe with how much I’ve accomplished this week. I’ve actually written over 11K words and that was with taking a day off too. The great thing is that I didn’t feel stressed at all writing them. This write along rocks!!! It’s back to the day job tomorrow, so I don’t expect to get the huge words counts that I did this weekend, but I’ve proven to myself at least that even the smaller word counts do add up. Have a great night everyone.
WTG , awesome Dena. We can’t always get what wordage we want, but every little bit or large bit helps. Good luck with the novel goal. Let us know what it’s about. mae
2840 added today (Sunday).
Total is at 14936 right now.
I’m back went from 10,029 to 11,151 by this time next week cites will be burning monsters running amok, and plague will descend on one species bad things wil walk the streets in another. Love my night Job.
LOL, Don. Very interesting night job.
1094 for me today. Not bad considering I was going to take the day off. I might even take the laptop to be and do a bit more tonight.
That’s good. Hey if you have to get out of the house to write, both Starbucks and MacD’s has free wifi. Starbucks if you have ATT that is, but I believe most MD’s are free to go to.
Saturday I researched some stuff and spent a long time deciding on names.
Then woke up Sunday morning and felt inspired. It’s been getting better since I’ve really been trying to write SOMETHING everyday. So a whopping 1526 popped out of me! An awesome fight scene with more magic than I intended – but it works perfectly! And the villain surprised the hell out of me when he randomly decided to kiss the FMC before jumping out a window – after spending most of the day trying to kill her!
Congratulations on the words, and your surprising villain. Nice twist there.
Hey, that’s a good pique of interest there. lol. Sounds like that’s going to be a lively story. Good going and good luck. Mae
707 words into the story and ready to hit at least 1500 by tonight to finish the opening scene. Then, it will be back to reworking the outline to fit in the new twists I came up with. Good luck to everyone!
Good luck to you too, Talina. Sounds good.
Didn’t write anythign new today just started typing up the 8000+ words that have accumulated in my notebook this past week. I can’t beleive I’ve written so much. Also did a little soul searching with my disgusting villain today as he has been pretty quiet in this story so far and we realised that actually he needs to open the story not the MC. He’s really very pushy when you get to know him, but I guess all wannabe dicators with plans for world destruction need to be a little bit pushy!
Let’s see, how many dictators do you know personally? The world is full of them. Lucky they like being written about. LOL. good luck with it.
I’m still working on plot dots for Evening Falls for now, and when I get off work at 10 I think I’ll start Week 7 of Think Sideways for both stories.
Doesn’t her words and sides inspire you, Brian? I think you have a good plan. I like that title by the way. Good luck.
355 words for Saturday. People are being much too nosy. Little does the MC realize that these people are okay, and she’s already told exactly the person she shouldn’t have…
Sweeeet!
730 words! Of course, it’s Sunday for me. 🙂 But I’m happy with what I got! Total is over 10k now…turns out more was salvageable than I thought.
Saturday is my day off, but of course I had to do something. After a quick group interview with my characters so far, I’ve realized how big the story is. So I got down some plot cards, flushed out some background on the MC’s, wrote my sentence and an outline for the final chapter. Excited to get working later today. 😀
1200 words yesterday, found a way to express an important learning on the part of B’s husband, which is part of the theme of both books. I am averaging over 400 words on writing days, so I guess I am a “beginner and 3/4.” I like that designation. For my own metaphor, that writing is my personal Mt. Everest, I finally made it to base camp!!!! Now I need to get organized and get my tent set up!! I have my index cards and Holly’s articles in hand, the one about starting a novel and the one about rapid plotting. I am reading online about the place and timeframe, as much as I can find, but I hope I get to the library today, too. This week might be more about research and planning than writing. Also, this week, I want to pick a short story to revise and identify some markets for short stories or flash fiction.
Good luck. I love the planning stages.
You already sound like you are planning well. Don’t overwhelm yourself with research. Jot down what you need, what strikes your fancy for scenes, write down name of book you use so you’ll have if for future reference too. Good luck on it and I think you’ll do fine. Mae
I spent the first part of this morning posting on my blog ( http://www.theromanticrealist.com/ ) to get a to-do list started. I can’t function without a to-do list.
I’ll spend the rest of this morning deciding which path to take on each decision I have to make concerning my writing. By tomorrow afternoon, I want to have plot dots/lines done for both stories I’m going to be working on. By Tuesday afternoon, I want to have each story caught up on Think Sideways through my latest lesson (7).
Holly, did you get the Facebook message I sent you on June 16th-ish? It has a few links to some sites with illegal downloads of your clinics.
Crud. Haven’t been in to Facebook in a while. I’ve been swamped. I’ll get in there.
And thanks.
Like Holly, I don’t get on Facebook much or Twitter, I have barely enough time for emails, so I check the pertinent ones like this blog of Holly’s and must say there are a great group of people here. Brian I agree, a to-do does help. I occasionally use a to-do list of scenes. Whether I use them or not doesn’t matter, but it jots down ideas to use for a story or for use in another piece. Sounds like you’re getting it together. Thanks to Holly too for starting this. I may not repsond more than once a week or every few weeks, but I’ll look in. Mae
These past couple of weeks have been a bust, writing-wise. I’ve been running all over the place doing errands and other bits of this-and-that and I haven’t had time to write a word!
Oh, well. Excelsior!
I took the day off. Back at it on Sunday.
Skipped a few days last week when my day job (which also consists of research and writing) and my kids wiped me out. Not a tragedy – I;m giving myself latitude to get into this project (then I’ll start hitting myself over the head for missing word counts even though I know I shouldn’t!) Last night (Saturday) = 767 without trying and I was tired. That helps ’cause it reminds me that I don’t have to feel super inspired (or even awake) to get something onto the page. And it was even good!
I frequently surprise myself (as tonight) with how quickly I hit 500 words, and how excited I am about writing the story when I’ve done them.
And feeling inspired when I get started doesn’t need to be part of the equation. I know where you’re coming from.
I can feel for you both. And Danielle you did great considering you were tired too.
702 words yesterday on the short story. I added characters that I am not sure if the quite work or not. The MC future character may know more then he should. I can fix that later though if it doesn’t work.
1533 word count on an ongoing project that I take notes for from time to time. I have two novel ideas that I want to write someday that will make me face some demons in my life. This is one of them. Not bad numbers for a Saturday!
Not bad at all, and a lot of thought going in to it too.
Had a great writing day Saturday! 2120 words! I had sat down with my little laptop in the morning while my husband distracted the kids and managed to get over 800 words. So, I thought it would be good to shoot high and aim for 2k words for the day. It was a little difficult keeping the momentum around 1800, but I managed.
This story is about a group of 4 people, but the woman just keeps stealing all the thunder. (even from the 2 dragons, which is impressive) I may have to work with her insistence and just keep her the main focus, despite everything else that is going on. Hurray for Isotte!
If I can manage to write anything today, I’ll hit the 10k mark, yay!
WTG, and impressive, those dragons better watch out.
Thank you Holly, for doing this on the weekend. Your devotion to your fans is remarkable 🙂
I know not everyone writes Sunday through Thursday. 😀 No sense ignoring folks who aren’t on my schedule.
And I love coming in and seeing how things are going.
Glad you do, Holly, you’re a woman of many talents and amazing thoughts. That’s good. Good luck with everything you do, you deserve it. Thanks for all the help you give to other writers too. I tell everyone to come here, especially beginning writers. So much information, so little time. Mae
Emily, couldn’t agree with you more, she is a gifted and wonderful person. NO brown-nosing there, plain fact.
1295 words, and very intense scene. My evil ancient creatures, the hreel, somehow unlocked Vega’s deepest fears and she almost ended up succumbing to them *and* killing Daar, her supposed love interest. Actually, I start to realize why they could love each other, but it seems they’re too busy locking each other up, planning murder, hiding things from each other etc..
Besides, I have a feeling Daar will do something incredibly nasty to Vega at the end of this chapter, due to him being such a damn goodie.
Yea, and this was a shivers-down-my-spine-tears-in-my-eyes scene. I’ll see what has that done to my style; perhaps this will all go to drain in edits.
I like the story line you have going on. Bet it will be a great book to read too. Keep up the good work. Mae
2086 words. Best writing time I’ve had in months, probably thanks to the storm. My MCs have successfully infiltrated the corporation, although I’ve no idea how / if they are going to get out. Getting ready for the grand finale.
Good luck everyone!
530 words for me tonight, 30,791 total. My MC has found a new companion, but she still misses her old one. Why, she doesn’t know, because he was rude and furry.
Hopefully will be picking my kitty cat up from the vet tomorrow!! They had to keep her over the weekend because her temperature wasn’t dropping. I miss my writing buddy.
Back to EDJ in the morning (Sun night here), so gotta get some z’s.
Happy writing everyone!
Good Writing Sari. And Good lucky with your kitty. ( I have 4) And thanks for your comment on the previous post.
Today I have to fix up the rewrite of my short story then post it to my critter. (too cold here to write at night in bed)
Just got back from the Renaissance Festival fairgrounds (can’t wait till next season) and I’m tired, but I still want to write tonight. Not going to type- don’t have the patience for it tonight. But I really want to write tonight, so I’m probably not going to sleep for a while. Hooray for a (rare) insistent muse!
I didn’t add anything new today but I did transcribe about 2000 words from my old notebook into my computer. (Editing a bit as I went I suppose.) I will probably take tomorrow off and get started writing during my commute again on monday. (I bought two new moleskine notebooks, any excuse to shop, right?)
I love Moleskines. I do all sorts of background and talking to myself about what I’m writing in them. Scans of my Moleskine for Dreaming the Dead (with audio explanations of what I’m doing on each page) is part of the grad novel program at Think Sideways.
Oh My Lord. Another one.
Now you guys who are *not* infected yet, run for your lives.
(I can stay, however, my moleskinese cannot get much worse… probably.)
Well, I started a new story when I started this, and my muse got very angry with me. She refused to help me with anything new while I have all the ideas for a big project already. So I’m reworking/finishing my outline which I intend to write.
Um yeah….188. Not awful but not as much as I wanted to get. I REALLY have to kick it into gear of I’m going to make my weekly goal and avoid punishment in my accountability group. The good news is that my villain is beginning to have a voice.
After Anambika’s help I threw my ms away and got out my short story doing a final rewrite, so that is progess, mostly deletes, and cut and paste but now it feels ready for my critter. words 20.
Today was the first day since I started that I *really* didn’t feel like writing, but I pushed through and did it anyway, since Wednesday and Thursday were my days off this week. I wrote 261 words, and while they may not be great words, I sat down and I wrote even though I didn’t want to. And that’s what it’s all about.
My short story is still stuck, so I’ve been working on world details. I’m writing about the different races and geography in one region of the world. It’s not very exciting, but it’s reassuring to know that I’m gradually filling in details while I think about characters and stories.
I gained a lot from the process of building my worlds in advance when I was getting started. I seriously overbuilt, but at the same time, while I was building, I was able to ask myself questions about the sorts of people who would come up with the world I was creating, and what sorts of trouble they would cause themselves and each other.
It’s a good, grounding process.
After getting rid of 7,685 words earlier today (sob, sniff, hiccup) I managed to move forward with 749 new ones. I edited chapter 11 so I was headed in the new direction, giving it a new ending in the process. Tomorrow I start over with a very different chapter 12. I’ve moved past my initial discouragement over the big delete to a courtship of complete enchantment with the changes I’ve made. I’m still waiting to hear back from my crit partner, however, so I reserve the right to be childish and mopey tomorrow if she hates it, LOL.
Just remember it’s worth it! Congratulations on making your project so much better!
I just started a short story that jumped into my head the other day. I *have* to write it, just to get it out of my head. 🙂 Used lessons 7 and 8 for doing some planning and minor character building.
The working title of the story is Remembering the Future.
Nice title. Evocative.
That is a good title, very thougth-provoking indeed. Draws up great imagery.