Friday, July 3, 2015

Birth of a Novel Week 4

Week 4

  • Every Friday post a quick update on how you're doing on your writing projects. 
  • It can be combined with Camp Nano or whatever personal goals you've set. 
  • All you need is a line or two added to the beginning or end of whatever post you already had planned for the day.
  • Then visit the others in the list to encourage them to keep moving forward. 
Help spread the word so we have more folks to visit.

This week didn't see a lot of writing. I spent time helping my daughter get her first job, ran errands and co-hosted for IWSG on Wednesday. Let me tell you that felt like an all day thing. I loved it, but not much else happened on the writerly front until later at night.

Best of all, Thursday I ran away with my hubby. (yep, this is pre-scheduled and it will take me at least a day to respond to comments and visit the other people in the list.) With the stress of trying to sell our house, which is taking Five-EVER (because it's longer than forever according to my kids), we've been picking at each other. We really needed to get away from everything and remember how much we enjoy being together.

I spent one day reading over Demon Rising in an effort to find my train of thought. In the process I deleted a few things resulting in the lower word count. No new writing, but I did have a great new idea for why there are demons on the planet in the first place. Their origin story is still percolating, but I'm excited since it ties in with the dragon mythology I'm building. Hopefully, it will be something no one has ever seen.

There was one new scene for Eleena's Tale. I skipped ahead and wrote the moment she first meets the Tamati. This is the man she's hated for the last seven years of her life, or at least she thinks so. She's confused because he's much younger than she'd imagined and way hotter. What she doesn't know is the tyrant that destroyed her homeworld died months earlier and his son is now the Tamati.

I'm not perfectly satisfied with the scene, but I have to remember I'm drafting not sculpting yet.

Perhaps the biggest achievement of the week was with Search for Knowledge. Although I sent it to my publisher in May, I haven't heard anything yet. You'd think I'd just leave it alone while waiting, but I knew there was work to be done when I sent it. I just wasn't sure what. Thus the desire for feedback. Since then I've received the comments from three of my wonderful beta readers. Two of them in the last two weeks. I spent most of my writing time going through their comments and tweaking the story.

Little things here and there matter! There is now an additional 4227 words. And I've strengthened Talia again. For some reason I want to make her weak and childish in my early versions. She's not either of those, but she likes to whine until I get it right.

What made you the happiest about your writing this week?

Week 4 Stats:
Demon Rising--7689 (down 16 words)
Eleena's Tale--6616 (up 878 words)
2 Complete walk throughs of SFK from critique partners

Week 1 Stats:
Demon Rising--5475 words
Eleena's Tale--2119 words

Week 2 Stats:
Demon Rising--6718 (1243 word increase)
Eleena's Tale--4823 (2704 word increase)

Week 3 Stats:
Demon Rising--7705 (up 987 words)
Eleena's Tale--5738 (up 3034 words)
Addie's Song--1535 (up 935 words)
Plus SFK edits!

Join the fun and visit the others in the blog hop! Please link to your page, not the actual post. Thanks!

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6 comments:

  1. Glad to hear that you are getting stuff done, writing wise. And getting away with your husband--- very important. Because that's what really matters in life.
    I had a relatively good writing week though I didn't get as much work done as I would have liked.

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  2. "Train of thought" Or yes. Sometimes I'm on the caboose or left at the station.

    Congrats to your daughter for getting her first job. A Work Ethic is born!

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  3. Five-ever, I like that. It's cute.
    This week I got the last proofread from my editor back, so last night I was up until almost 2am going through his notes and then formatting the story. I think I need to do one more editing pass, but almost there. Squee!
    Have a wonderful weekend, Charity.

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  4. My husband and I have been needing one of those nights, too, so we're taking it tonight. I think sometimes you reach a point where you're living parallel instead of in tandem.

    This is a good way to keep up with progress!

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  5. I hope you're enjoying your getaway.

    I'm happy that I got my chapters 8 & 9 sent off to my writing group. I've hit the section of the MS that doesn't need much more work at all. I think. Happy days.

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  6. I've been making good progress with my revisions, which including strengthening the ending. One chapter left.

    Five-ever is funny.

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