Weekend Magic, Phase 2

And now it’s Saturday, and I’m still enjoying my time away from words. Deep in thought on my plot, though, which keeps trying to twist the wrong way on me.

How about you? Good words? Any words?

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35 responses to “Weekend Magic, Phase 2”

  1. Sarah Avatar
    Sarah

    @60 words in my short story, and I took the day off from my main WIP to celebrate my birthday with good food and great friends.

    1. Treelight Avatar
      Treelight

      Well, happy birthday to you! ๐Ÿ™‚

    2. The Pencil Neck Avatar
      The Pencil Neck

      Yeah! Happy Birthday!

  2. Sarah Collins Avatar

    I somehow managed a net of 0 words on the edit, although I did make some changes. ;c) I’m through chapter 9 of 25 on that one.

    The WIP gained 139 words on Saturday. I’m pushing 2,500 words and almost to the end of the first chapter.

  3. Rabia Avatar

    Got 1295 words last night, which brought me to the end of the chapter I was working on. My MC is now back in her homeworld and I’m giving her a teeny tiny breather before she goes off to the face her people who want her hanged for murder.

    I’m so glad I don’t live my characters’ lives. ๐Ÿ˜€

  4. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    wrote a scene connection my two flashbacks in chapter 9, but i don’t really like it. doesn’t flow well so i’m going to have to rework it seriously before moving forward.

    did tweak my outline, flesh out the second section, and removed the plot line about city politics. i’m going to leave a few of my foreshadowing scenes with MC getting pushed into the political side of the city, but for this work it makes more sense to stick with the established bad guy, and move the political plot line into a subsequent novel. will allow me to keep this novel shorter, and give me more time to develop more of the movers and shakers in that area, while focusing on the plot that i’ve developed up to this point in this work.

    not going to count my words, as i need to completely revise the scene. get to go watch my sons play football now, but i’ve got the feeling i’ll get some writing done tonight.

  5. Gabby Avatar
    Gabby

    Anyone else find that when they write scenes in which their characters are in a hurry, they write really fast and try to hurry through? I’m finding that I have to keep telling myself to pause and look around and describe what’s going on. I’ve adjusted two sentences to fill it out with more detail and have uncovered all kinds of neat things that happened that I hadn’t even given time to have happen before. (ex: instead of just they went down the passageway and into the room, now they went down the passageway and used a funny key and locking mechanism to get into the room). Sorry hard to explain. It’s just funny ’cause it’s not like they aren’t going to make it in time so what’s MY rush… lol. It’s better to throw more obstacles in their way.

    1. Laura Avatar
      Laura

      I’ve noticed that in my writing as well. When I wrote the final car-chase scene for my previous novel, my pen was practically flying over the paper, and there was this thing similar to an adrenaline rush. But more obstacles are definitely better.

  6. Dena C. Avatar
    Dena C.

    Didn’t do any writing on Thursday or Friday, so I wrote yesterday (Saturday) and got 858 words done first thing in the morning.

  7. Khena Avatar
    Khena

    I wrote a little over 500 last night and found I was missing something. One of my characters is holding something back out of fear, and it’s time to start adding little hints. I also discovered a character flaw with the way I was trying to do things, so I had to add another section in my scene. So now I have a horribly rambling scene in pieces… Going to try to fix that today…

  8. Debora Avatar
    Debora

    479 words. Introduced an historical character, the eccentric John Burns, formerly a shoemaker and erstwhile town constable in Gettysburg. Burns claimed to be a veteran of the War of 1812 and was about seventy years old at the time of the battle. He could not bear to sit idle on the first day of the battle and joined the First Corps west of town, “dressed in a blue swallow-tail coat with burnished brass buttons,” for some of the fiercest fighting of the entire battle.

    Burns was wounded several times and left on the field when the Union army retreated back through town late in the afternoon on July 1. Spent all night on the field, but eventually made his way home. After the battle, he became quite a celebrity, so much so that Abraham Lincoln asked to meet John Burns when he traveled to Gettysburg for the dedication of the national cemetery.

    It was fun to introduce such an eccentric, real character, and even more fun when I figured out a way to use him to further the plot. Not once, but several times.

    1. Gabby Avatar
      Gabby

      Burns sounds like a great character. Is your story fiction so that you use history as the jumping off point? Anyway, it sounds really interesting.

      1. Debora Avatar
        Debora

        Hi Gabby, Yes, I do use the history as the jumping off point. First I spent a good year studying the military campaign as a whole, and then the aftermath of the battle as well. Everything from June, 1863, when Robert E. Lee began the Confederate march northward, to November, 1863, when the Soldiers’ National Cemetery was dedicated and Abraham Lincoln gave his famous address.

        Then I took a good look at who might have been present in Gettysburg during this time period. I wanted to come up with as representative a group of characters as possible. A young schoolteacher, African-American farmer, Yankee surgeon, Confederate colonel, etc.

        Then, last but not least, I had to come up with a story that would make my WIP more than just a fictional recounting of the battle. This was the hardest step. By far! The history is so rich. There are so many fascinating primary sources. How do you come up with a story big enough to hold its own against such a complex historical backdrop?

        My first thought was to tell the story from multiple POVs. The schoolteacher, farmer, surgeon, etc. But I am really not comfortable writing from a male POV. My big breakthrough came when I read the following in the Sparknotes study guide for the novel, REBECCA, by Daphne du Maurier:

        “REBECCA is in large part the story of the heroine’s psychological quest for her own selfhood; and our constant sense that the heroine is in danger of failing in this quest provides much of the novel’s suspense.”

        And I had my story. Substitute “young schoolteacher living in Gettysburg at the time of the battle” for du Maurier’s heroine, put it together with the history, and you have my WIP.

        Sorry for the long post. You got me thinking. It’s been a fascinating journey, greatly facilitated by Holly’s wisdom. I’ve passed the 28K mark in the first draft, with a lot more to go!

        1. Gabby Avatar
          Gabby

          That is nice. Sort of what would it be like to be an everyman thrown into incredibly difficult circumstances, especially if your character is meeting all those real life heroes. (reminds me in a way of Ben Hur. I admit I haven’t read the entire book but it reminds me of how his fictional story interweaves with the more historical parts.)

          1. Debora Avatar
            Debora

            Well, in this case it’s an everywoman:-)

        2. Gabby Avatar
          Gabby

          My comment is now awaiting moderation… lol.

  9. Laura Avatar
    Laura

    No words on Friday, since I went to see the rehearsal of the band where my friend is singing, but while there, I worked out a few mysteries surrounding the treasures of the Tuatha De Danann. So, although I didn’t actually write anything, it was worth it.

    588 decisive words on Saturday and I’m done with the 2nd chapter. The good twin refused her sister’s offer, so now she’s on her own and has to study even harder to surpass her sister and stay alive. Tonight I’ll return to the MMC who’s stuck with a pile of magazines and newspapers looking for a job and cursing his unfeeling parents. That’s his opinion, at least.

    Good luck with your writing! ๐Ÿ™‚

    1. Gabby Avatar
      Gabby

      I feel so bad for your twins. I can’t imagine if my twin sister was willing to kill me to have more power. I guess your FMC is going to have a tough decision ahead: stay alive but kill her sister or die so her sister can live. I can’t even imagine it. Do they know each other/hate each other?

      1. Laura Avatar
        Laura

        They know each other, but not very well – they were separated at the age of 5 when two different witches chose them for their apprentices, and now after 12 years they are reunited. Layla (my FMC) remembers that her sister was quite distant as a child and tried to make profit of each and every situation, but they didn’t hate each other then. Right now Layla has refused to join her twin and her mentor because she doesn’t want to be responsible for robbing the entire witch-kin of their power, but she tries not to think about the final confrontation with her sister that will decide which one of them will live. The decision to fight back or give up will be tough, yes. I feel bad for them as well, and hope that somehow they can both live, although that just isn’t possible if even one of them wants to become a full-fledged witch.

        1. Gabby Avatar
          Gabby

          I like that term “witch-kin.” ๐Ÿ™‚ Your plot sounds like it has a lot of built in suspense too which is really cool.

  10. Ieva Avatar

    700+ words. What started with “I know what’s happening, somebody’s trying to kill my Mentor” turned out to be “my Mentor tells my protag somebody is trying to kill him and it sounds so much like paranoia instead of a real plot”.
    What is *really* happening… well, as far as I understand now, there is a plot, and there is paranoia, and the paranoia is just a different kind of attack at him.

    Now how on earth are they going to figure that out?
    This seems to be my main concern, how do people figure something like this out?

    1. Treelight Avatar
      Treelight

      Are you worrying about the readers or the characters to find out what is really going on? ๐Ÿ˜‰

      1. Ieva Avatar

        I’m worried that I won’t give my characters a chance to figure out what is going on and the book will end up with
        a) everybody dead for no apparent reason
        b) some people alive for no apparent reason ๐Ÿ˜›

        1. Treelight Avatar
          Treelight

          Well, then give them a hint! Or a reason to suspect that what they believe so far is wrong.

  11. Julian Adorney Avatar
    Julian Adorney

    No words tonight. I finished Chapter 5 last night, so today I reread Chapter 6 (an earlier draft), considering its flaws/successes so I can start rewriting tomorrow.
    The bad news: Its puffy, redundant, and the characters are wooden. The good news: I can fix that.

  12. The Pencil Neck Avatar
    The Pencil Neck

    1366 words.

    Today was a busy day. We’re moving our horses to a new stable and my wife’s best friend is getting married so we had a lot of errands to run and things to do. However. I mindmapped and outlined and listed and mindmapped some more and I think I have this all worked out now. More things are starting to fit in together and the theme and the “truth” of the story are starting to come to me.

    The Empress spoke to my Thief for the second time. She was surprised he was still alive and she said that she might be able to “use” him but he had to pass a little test. She would save him on the condition that he bring her his Mentor’s head.

    Now still in the form of an owl and no idea how to get back to human form, he has sped to his Mentor’s manor where bags are being packed. He’s got to figure out how to communicate to his Mentor hoping she can change him back and then he’s got the whole “head” thing to deal with.

    And I know exactly how it’s going to go.

    Unless my muse plays tricks with my heart again.

  13. Clare K. R. Miller Avatar

    Took the night off tonight, as I have been on Saturdays. We had guests tonight, including a tiny fluffy puppy!

    1. The Pencil Neck Avatar
      The Pencil Neck

      Yay tiny fluffy puppies!

  14. Treelight Avatar
    Treelight

    I turned the words over and over. Slept a bit, watched a bit trashy science-fiction, played Wii and inbetween I kept struggling with the current chapter-to-be-rewritten … or should I say I strangled it?

    I tried several versions of the first face to face meeting between Grevorg and Cathrine, but I think now I am satisfied with this last one.
    After all, it ended like I wanted it to … with her having realized that this is a bad guy and not her friend in disguise … and a gag made of magical shaped stone prevents her from alarming the guards.

    Oh, and it was very kind of her to notice that the mental bond she shares with Jheyrien obvisously doesn’t work well when they are not close to each other. I had not thought of that before, but it makes sense. It fits my magic-system and how the story needs to work.

    In the end I have now about 400 words less of a total word-count, but that’s ok. I had part of the old chapter still in it while I was rewriting it and already counting.
    The parts that I wrote today sum up for about 1500 words if I’m not mistaken!

    1. Ieva Avatar

      Wow!

      Feels good after the pause, doesn’t it? ๐Ÿ™‚ Cutting unnecessary parts/stuff that isn’t working feels like a drawback for a sec and then it just gives you a second breath.

      1. Treelight Avatar
        Treelight

        Yeah, some of that stuff really was rubbish. I kept it though, since I might have some use for the ideas at some other point.

        However, there is still quite a lot of remodelling in front of me. I really hope the other chapters will be easier, now that I decided on the direction and fleshed out the characters a bit more.

  15. Jessica Avatar
    Jessica

    Forgot to post yesterday. Got 200 words. MC feels like the soft, comfortable rug has been pulled out from under her. Now the conversation is coming into perspective and she’s going to leave soon, leading to mistake #2.

    A lot of socializing and running after the twins again so I haven’t started writing today yet, but now that I’m home again the muse is poking at my shoulder, so I gotta go! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Oh, and since I haven’t typed up the last 2 scenes yet I can only guess I’m about 100 words off the 30K mark so hopefully I break that in the next hour!

    1. Jessica Avatar
      Jessica

      Ok, it was about 5 or 6 hundred off of 30K (thought I had more) but I typed up everything I had in my notebook and added bits and pieces as I went. Finished that scene and started 2 others. First insight into the villain, from his perspective, how he thinks he’s going to use the FMC according to their “deal”. And I did break the 30K mark so woo hoo! Very pleased! ๐Ÿ™‚

  16. Don Avatar
    Don

    I was temped to do the same but I put in 648 words today I wilk take tomorrow and Monday off to mentaly work out some kinks make some notes, be back Tuseday.

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