Holly Lisle: Writer

The Whisper of a Devil

My red head dropped her bomb tonight, allowing me to sliver a bit of backstory and foreshadowing into a nice dialogue scene.

And exactly 600 words later, she was out the door and on her way out of the country.

I’ve run out of new scenes. I’m back now to the original beginning, and I’m going to end up spending the next couple of days doing a quickie index card replot of each of the scenes I’ve written. I don’t want to mess with the words or any editing yet—that’s a sure way to get bogged down and screw up my progress.

So my wordcount for tomorrow and Tuesday is likely to be zero in the ‘real words’ department. If I can rethink what comes so that I don’t end up tossing 25,000 words into the can, though, it’ll be worth it.

Word count tonight: 600

Plus three words that I love enough to claim as the book’s real title. Not going to post it, though. I need to see if the story keeps growing into it.

How’s your story coming along?

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47 responses to “The Whisper of a Devil”

  1. Glynis Smy Avatar
    Glynis Smy

    I wrote the ending of my first novel yesterday! Still got a couple of chapters to link in and a couple to write. Then the work begins, but the ending is edited, I love it and it feels good. So I have beginning, 3/4 of the middle and the ending in the bag and all because my laptop power cable burnt out. I have limited access to a computer and no distractions, it is amazing how much I got written this last week. I have the opening of novel two and three now as well, boy am I happy. Soon be searching for an editor. Oh my gosh, did I really say that? *Dancing with joy* 🙂

    Reply
  2. T.C. Avatar
    T.C.

    Well, a paltry 579, tonight.

    Don’t mistake my adverb to mean I’ unhappy, on the contrary everything really good, I am right in the middle of the juciest part of the whole story.

    Saturday I was on a roll with 2800 which finished chapter 8, my monster chapter which is about twice as long as all my other chapters, which is pretty nice because chapter 7 is such a clifhanger, but chapter 8 is a break from that story line so you read so long you almost forget and then you come back 24 pages later and go, oh yeah! Now I remember.

    So I started chapter 9 tonight, and I have given the impression that my main character has died, and that belief though being utterly rejected by common sense is being cemented by the actions of my characters and the descriptive scene of his “death,” but of course he is not dead, though extremely close, so close in fact he practically is.

    Anyway, the long and short of it is that this latest scene is extremely powerful and I am glad to have it done.

    Reply
  3. Treelight Avatar
    Treelight

    Somehow I created 647 new words, while Larasse persuaded an unsuspecting boy with his magic to help him with the first step to free Cathrine.
    This was the first time in which I needed to show or describe how exactly his special gift works. Before that it was merely mentioned as a side-note. I might have to think it over in the revision.

    Reply
  4. Don Avatar
    Don

    Did 691 making up for cut words things just feel right. BTW MC BFF is still alive.

    Reply
  5. June Avatar
    June

    For Monday, around 400 and the end — or at least what feels like the correct break point — for the Iliana scene.

    She’s been told by the Guolian royal that her father (and really everyone she’s been loyal to) has lied to her about why the army invaded Guol. Next for her is whether she’ll choose to believe the royal or not.

    Before I get to her choice, however, I’m doing Esteval’s first scene. Esteval is the closest thing I have to a wizard so far — he’s what’s called canja, which means he’s been given magic by the Venjan god. He’s on a mission from the Venjans to bribe the Guol to screw over Iliana’s father (who is also Esteval’s father). Yeah, it’s already getting complicated, but I like it.

    If I have time tonight I might try to get some words on this scene as I’m eager to write it.

    –June

    Reply
  6. SCBrazil Avatar
    SCBrazil

    I missed the last couple of Mondays. Taking the weekend off takes me out of my story.
    So….683 today and 398 on Saturday also.
    Hector has been rescued by Anaje. They are currently hiding in a bamboo thicket deciding what to do next.
    Although I’m not surrounded by bamboo, I know how they feel!

    Reply
  7. Jessica Avatar
    Jessica

    Pretty much slept all day with a horrible sinus headache. Took meds that normally I refrain from, since I prefer to let my immune system do its job solo (and because I have bad reactions from said meds thanks to a stupid doctor prescribing an OD when I was a teen).

    When I was awake, I watched Jim Henson’s “The Storyteller” series on DVD and let my muse enjoy. It gave me a great inspiration for Monday’s write-in. Which, again, had a late start as I stayed home from work and slept in. But the offer made to FMC has shaken her up something awful and I’m loving it! 200 words of her running home and I’m not nearly done! Things have literally exploded and are going from bad to worse, much worse… fast!

    Reply
  8. Beverly Avatar
    Beverly

    1085 words and a mind map of what I’m going for that takes up one corner of the bedroom wall. I watched hubby stare at it and try to figure out how this connects to that and finally walk away shaking his head. I could just see his left brain/logical self spazing to put it in better order.
    I never realized how right brained I am till I put up that map. A good deal of it is made up of pictures. Worldbuilding. Vatican City. Angkor Wat. Aztec sunstone.

    Reply
    1. Debora Avatar
      Debora

      Angkor Wat. I once spent time working on a short story set there. Very cool place.

      Reply
  9. Ieva Avatar
    Ieva

    I spent the weekend reconnecting (ahem) with friends, but somehow I managed to finish a short story that had been bothering me for who knows how long. Now I’m putting back the polishing part and returning to my novel. 85% done, yay.

    Reply
  10. Lisa Avatar
    Lisa

    762 words, and *so* close to the end! I can’t wait to finish this draft. And then I really won’t be able to wait to get the HTRYN course. 🙂 In the meantime, HTTS is cooking up some new ideas for me…the one I’ll probably go with next will be the sequel to this novel, so that’ll be nice to have in the works.

    I really didn’t want to stop today, but paid work is calling me, and Baby will wake up soon, so…

    Reply
  11. Red_dot Avatar
    Red_dot

    Finished research on fuel cells, wrote 660 words today. Now well into CH8 with 27k total. Since I have started writing my first anything, I find now that I can settle in and write out a scene with pumping out between 500 to 1500 words at a time. When I first started it was difficult to get out 150 words. Is the book getting any better? Don’t know, looking back at it, I don’t know how I will ever polish this turd to print. I will try and get a second session in later today.

    Reply
    1. Larkk Avatar
      Larkk

      Red-dot
      Just want to send some encouragement your way, from one first timer to another. I kept a journal about how the novel was developing, and I noticed the same thing at about 30k, that the words started to flow much better (and that I stopped having stage fright at the very thought of sitting down to write!) Then at 50k, something even more special happened, and I got metaphors, symbols, motifs, mythology, and well, a whole mess of fun things to play with. So my advice: Keep going, it gets easier. Can’t help you with the “better” part yet, although I think being here at Holly’s website is a great start.

      Reply
      1. Red_dot Avatar
        Red_dot

        Thanks Larkk, it helps so much to hear how others are doing. I went through a second session of writing today. 900 words 28K total.

        Reply
  12. Sarah Avatar
    Sarah

    0 words- settling into the new place. BUT- I am taking Wednesday off from my day job to work, and get something whipped into shape to submit to the WotF contest, and hopefully get some words added to the novel, as well.

    Reply
  13. Lisa R Avatar
    Lisa R

    0 words again. I am completely drained from all the company. My husband did take my dad away for a little while and I was able to work with lesson 4 of HtTS. I wrote four sentences. They do need some work, but it was enjoyable.

    Reply
  14. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    It’s late Monday night, and I just finished 286 words. I really had to wrench each one out. It’s difficult to have characters being honest without being corny.

    Spent the rest of the evening reading a friend’s first few chapters. It was only a first draft, but I really enjoyed it. There’s something so incredible about reading the work of someone you know. I can’t get enough of it, it’s like a drug. I’m really proud of her.

    Reply
    1. Holly Avatar
      Holly

      I agree. I’ve read a number of friends’ manuscripts, and every single time, I come away happy.

      Reply
  15. Debora Avatar
    Debora

    974 words. Got myself actually writing again (as opposed to plotting or planning), after a long dry spell. It feels great.

    Reply
    1. Beverly Avatar
      Beverly

      Way to go!!!

      Reply
      1. Debora Avatar
        Debora

        Thanks!

        Reply
  16. Peggy Avatar
    Peggy

    1310, and my detective now has the lead that will, ultimately, allow him to tie the murder more closely to his girlfriend’s grandfather. Which, of course, is about the time the real bomb drops into his life, in the form of his dead wife.

    Reply
    1. Holly Avatar
      Holly

      Yeah. That’ll wreck his day.

      Reply
  17. Leah Avatar
    Leah

    300ish words. Not as many as I wanted, but for a loooonng day filled with physical activity, it’s much better than nothing at all from a tired brain working worn-out body parts. And, having gotten nothing accomplished at all for at least a week, it’s a triumph, especially since I’m happy with the words.

    Reply
  18. Charmaine Avatar
    Charmaine

    1301 words for Dog Show Detective. Everyone is trying to convince Miss Norfolk that this dog is her missing dog. Kitty is starting to believe her, but why would someone substitute the dog, and where is the real Ozzie?

    Wrote between cooking a roast and serving dinner. Have the Think Sideways course to thank and my inability to write anything until I have a plot outline for every chapter – it’s easy to just fill in the blanks.

    Reply
  19. Khena Avatar
    Khena

    Finally finished the tricky scene I’ve been working on. My little group captured an assassin sent to kill them, and they had to question him to find out who sent him and why. The assassin, of course, had no interest in talking, which wasn’t really an issue because the POV character can read minds. Well, he can read surface thoughts that people are thinking, not anything else. So I had to make the scene interesting and yet give them the information they needed. It was a little hard, but i think I pulled it off. 860 words to finish the scene, but some were handwritten from the day before, so I’ll just say 500 for my day =-)

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

    1643 words on my translation and 340 on my WIP so far. I might be able to write some more in the afternoon since the kids will come back late, today.

    Reply
  21. Minze Avatar
    Minze

    442 words. My male lead and his landlady are examining a headless corpse they found by the woodshed. One or two clues so far, and they’d just found the clue that will let them identify the body when my timer went off.

    Reply
  22. Julian Adorney Avatar
    Julian Adorney

    Got 520 words today. I know there’s some good stuff in there, but right now it feels like crap. I feel like I’m overanalyzing everything I write. Or maybe underthinking. I’m not sure.
    I’ll clean it up tomorrow and fix this. Until then.

    Reply
  23. The Pencil Neck Avatar
    The Pencil Neck

    1534 Words – Development.

    So, I spent the past couple of days wondering what to do next. I considered just reading and taking a few days to decompress and whatnot. I considered revising the short story I finished shortly after Holly started this WABWM thing. I’ve decided to leave my short story and my revision stuff on my novel until I go through Holly’s revision course.

    And I don’t particularly like sitting around and doing nothing so I’ve started work on my Pirate Queen novel. I’ve got a ton of research already on this novel and like my Thief/Sheriff/Mage novel (A Tear in Windhaven), I’ve started and stopped this novel on multiple occasions. This story originally started off as backstory for another story but then the backstory started getting more interesting than the story I was working on and one character took over.

    This is the story of a mean, hateful, spoiled, naive princess who cobbles together a fleet of rebels from the dregs of space and fights against the Empire that covertly overthrew her father to get her kingdom back and learns the value of people and friendship and loyalty along the way. Only to be betrayed by her mother when she is at the brink of success. And then it gets nasty.

    So today, I created a new book in LSB and I began working through the HtTS worksheets.

    Reply
    1. Holly Avatar
      Holly

      😀 Very cool. I think always having something cooking in first draft keeps life fun.

      Reply
  24. Teri Avatar
    Teri

    375 words today, though the going was tougher than it should have been, considering Taskh is actually doing stuff again. Specifically, hunting down the scouts in danger of seeing Heidol’s army. He’s already taken out two in very quick succession that I will have to fix later, and is trying to catch up with another pair.

    Reply
  25. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    sat down and wrote until ch 10 was done. got through all the scenes i’d envisioned, and another small one just kind of appeared as i wrote. i think it sets up where the next section goes, and i’ll have to read it straight through before jumping back into ch 15.

    after the main character’s girlfriend threw a heavy glass mug into his head because she thought he was there with another woman, and he gets kicked out of the establishment he is running through the city filled with rage and looking for a victim. he hears a muffled cry from an alley as he moves through the night shadows and comes upon a feznar (think wookies with evil tendencies and more bearlike facial features) and moglith (think a cross between Uruk orcs from LotR and Oriental Oni) assaulting another Tillian (generic term for a bunch of races). he kills them both before they move, and the woman looks into his face, and he comments that killing those two did nothing to lessen his rage before melting back into the shadows and going to his brother’s home.

    2150 words today to finish it up. i’m very pleased with the surprise scene. i’m in a bit of trouble, as this brings my wip to 70,000 words, and i’m not halfway done with my outline. hopefully during the first edit i will be able to cut alot in order to get it to an acceptable length.

    Reply
  26. Patricia Avatar
    Patricia

    746 words here, and I’m happy with what I have. Ryan manages to build a fire in spite of the rain (lucky him), and then I got a chance to sneak into his brain a bit and see a small snapshot of his past, which was interesting. Learned about the special people in his life, and finding out exactly how much he cares for them (though that wasn’t very apparent in the beginning at all). It’s a nice bit of peaceful memory in the midst of all the chaos, and it feels good to have a change of pace every now and then.

    Reply
  27. Larkk Avatar
    Larkk

    I think I’m done.
    1303 words, not watching the word counter, holding my breath, finding words, flying. Fun.
    It’s amazing how many different ways it is possible to do one scene. I will have to do a few different versions and pick one.
    I think I will feel a little lost without my novel to work on though, so since it doesn’t feel done yet I guess I’ll pick at it a little more, until I have to put it away, and work on something else.
    Until I’m the writer that can write it properly. Someday, hopefully. 🙂

    Reply
    1. The Pencil Neck Avatar
      The Pencil Neck

      Congratulations!!!

      Reply
    2. Patricia Avatar
      Patricia

      Wow! Congratulations!

      Reply
    3. Adam Avatar
      Adam

      Congrats! i’m sure it is a nice feeling to finally get done. 🙂

      Reply
    4. Teri Avatar
      Teri

      Congratulations!

      Reply
    5. Holly Avatar
      Holly

      Congratulations on finishing your first draft. That’s fantastic!

      Reply
    6. Red_dot Avatar
      Red_dot

      Hurray!!

      Reply
    7. Beverly Avatar
      Beverly

      Wow! Go you!

      Reply
    8. Ieva Avatar
      Ieva

      Yay 🙂 Congrats on that!

      Reply
    9. Larkk Avatar
      Larkk

      Thank you, everyone !
      It’s starting to sink in today. I finished the first draft of my first novel!!!! (Kinda tired last night…) Who would have thought that I could actually get this far?
      Yes, it is a GREAT feeling to get to the end. Yippee!!

      Reply
      1. Don Avatar
        Don

        Congrats!!!!

        Reply
        1. T.C. Avatar
          T.C.

          Well done!

          Reply
      2. Debora Avatar
        Debora

        Yeah!

        Reply

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