Slowed Down a Little, but Progress is Progress

As the title says, my production slowed a little over the past couple of days. I only got 1,200 words on Tuesday and 900 yesterday. I blame my heroine for this turn of events. She went and did something I didn't expect, leading to a mini black moment/turning point I didn't really anticipate and the need to write a few additional scenes I hadn't originally conceived. I'm pretty sure she made it a better story by doing it, though, so I don't have complaints.

Of course, because her actions added a few scenes and I was already pretty sure I wouldn't be able to wrap this baby up in 12.5K, so I've had to extend the word count projection significantly. Which makes my progress look much less impressive, sadly.

According to Luke


In other news of the ironic sort, Unbridled (the manuscript I have finally and forever decided to consign to the Magical Mulch Pile) finaled in the Launching a STAR contest. No, I won't be tempted to pick it up again, even if it wins.

Much...

Barring a Stunning Breakthrough Tomorrow...

I'd say I'll be foregoing the Golden Heart after all.

I had the day off today courtesy of the remnants of a migraine which, believe me, wasn't bad enough to explain why my word count went backwards and I added only three paragraphs worth keeping.

I'm forcing it and it's not working. And there's no way I'm entering something that's not ready just because I paid my $50. I need to go back to writing something I'm enjoying. This isn't it.

Which is a shame because it's my only full-length historical and that market's hot now. But I can't make myself feel the story for the market. It's either there or it's not and right now, it's SO not.

Progress!

I started out the day at a little over 10,000 words and added about a thousand.

Unbridled


Rock on.

Synopsis Conquered

Thanks to crits from Ericka and another CP of mine, the synopsis for Unbridled is complete at 2,185 words and exactly seven pages. I don't see how I can get it any shorter without losing important elements of the internal and external conflict. I've got a couple more people to send it past, but I think it's in good shape.

Now, I just have to write the new scene that rounds out the Golden Heart entry. My goal is to write the first draft today and tomorrow then send the contest entry out for crits on Wednesday. Since I expect the long weekend to be a lost weekend, writing-wise, that'll give my critters five days to read, comment, and return. Then I can polish the heck out of it and put it in the mail to Dallas at the end of next week.

So, go me.

(If only I had the opening line for the next scene. Once I have it, I think the scene will flow like butter. But I gotta have it!)

Finished!

With the synopsis, anyway.



Since I cut a little here and there to get it down from 1750 to about 1550 before I reached the end, I reckon I wrote a little over 500 words. Considering everything else I had to do today, not bad!

Today, I...

...wrote a big chunk of the synopsis for Unbridled. And though I didn't quite finish, as I was putting the Cornish hens in the oven, I had a mini-breakthrough and realized how the ending should go now. Woot.

Here's the meter:

Unbridled Synopsis

Unstuck (Sort of)

So, QB chatted with me yesterday and helped me solve my plotting dilemma. Thanks, QB! Of course, having got out of that one, I immediately fell into another. Sigh...

Here's a screen shot of the spreadsheet I'm using to try to replot the book:

The color coding identifies the point of view for each scene: pink for the heroine, blue for the hero, yellow for the villain. There is a fourth POV in the book, but I haven't got to that point yet. When I do, her POV will be coded lavendar.

My goal for this week (what's left of it!) is to hammer out the scene goals, motivations, and conflicts, the plot elements handled in each scene, the location of each scene, and then identify the major turning points. I'm not normally a very structured plotter, but because large chunks of this book are written and some of them can probably stay with tweaking, I need to see the whole thing laid out before I can tackle the rewrite. Plus, I need to know how it all fits together to write the synopsis.

So, does this method work? I have no idea. But I guess I'll find out!