Just to encourage myself...

According to Matthew


Man, seeing that meter move is a major motivator! Off to add more!

Not writing because...

I'm too busy biting my nails. I might have really, REALLY exciting news soon or a really crushing disappointment to deal with.

Either way, I haven't a creative juice in my body at the moment...

To everyone who IS writing--yay! Keep it up. Woot, woot!

Why I'm NOT a pantster...

I have lots of great ideas, they crowd onto the pages of my story notebook...but I can't just sit down and write.

Case in point is my current WIP...I thought I could just wing it with the premise. Um....well, my heroine is a spunky, sassy, sexy woman who never in a million years would contemplate suicide. Hmmm.... I have another cool idea for what to do with her...but I'll be sitting down with my notebook today and doing a bit of plotting...I need that roadmap to see where I'm going.

Sigh...Back to square one...

I forgot to say...

Last week, one day ahead of my self-imposed deadline, I finished the first draft of my novel.

This is the final word count:



I know, I went over the 80k mark. How cool is that?

And check this out ---> ytd word count: 101,869

Starting Over

This story was conceived as a companion to my WICKED submission Losing It. It too has an older heroine wanting to change her life.

All Meredith really wanted to do was to get away from it all. Literally. On the eve of her 40th birthday, she's decided to commit suicide. However, her dead husband is determined to have some say in the matter. So, Meredith is visited by three hunky mediums her husband hopes will show her that she has a future with the living...whether she wants it or not.

I nearly scrapped this story. I actually plotted out a different story to write for the same title. I opened the file and started reading...and realized I really liked Meredith's voice and the story. So, the day I spent plotting will have to be saved for another day.

Here's the word count...

Sa-weet!

I did it--I wrote an almost 7,000 word story in a little more than two days!

Comrades in Arms


Now, it's off to Loose Id, and we'll see whether it makes it into the Sweet Sixteen or not. I'm nervous but excited. Either way, I think it's a great story and am very pleased with it. And I know now for sure I can write m/m romance, lol.

Taking the rest of the day off from fiction writing to do some "paying" work and write a blog post. Tomorrow, I'd better get back to Matthew. He's pining...

Checking in again

I haven't popped in here for a while. Just been busy writing and doing a thousand other things too. Here's how my progress meter looks at the moment:



Not bad. I'm hoping to get this first draft done by the end of the week. I'll check back in then.

Have a great week! :)

Sick, but wrote anyway...

First, I was afraid I was going to die. Now, I'm afraid I'm not.

Only half-joking there. I felt better most of the day, but the fever came back tonight with a vengeance. As soon as the hubby gets home, I'm for bed!

I did, however, write quite a bit today, as I finally got an idea for the Loose Id March Madness short story contest, and I only have until March 1 to get it written and submitted. Fortunately, it's short!

Comrades in Arms


By the way, I have made some progress on Matthew since I last posted:

According to Matthew


I wil get back on that baby after I finish up CiM tomorrow!

Breathless!

Thursday was a waste, Friday was productive...Saturday was PHENOMENAL! My family spent most of the day out and about without me. Although I missed them, I really felt like I had to write or go nuts. The story was THERE (not the vamp one, I'm still working on it) but a new/old one that I picked up on Friday. This story started out two weeks ago as a WICKED, it stalled, sputtered and died. Then, Thursday night, I started playing with my characters a bit (sounds kinky, huh?), and then began writing/rewriting on Friday. As I wrote, I realized that there isn't enough sex in this to qualify for a WICKED...but I have a tentative Lustbite slot for 16 June with Total E-bound that this might work for...

Working title: Breathless

Word count:



I have two scenes left to write...the continuation of the black moment and the final HEA/sex scene. I'm so close to being done I can almost taste it!

I'm hoping to write the final HEA scene on Monday~



And as of Monday, I'm done! I overshot my estimated word count by a bit...but that's okay, as 8K was just the minimum. Now, it's off to my CPs...

A wasted day...kind of

Yesterday was my wedding anniversary. I wasted the entire day reading my anniversary gift.

But, I'm back to work today, with a vengence. My morning writing finished off the scene, bringing my word count to:



I hope to be able to put in an hour this afternoon. I'm going to try two 20-minute writing challenges to see if I can use my time more productively (instead of checking my e-mail 100 times a day)

After the afternoon writing stint:



And I have one more chance today to drive up the words...tonight...so we'll see if I can break 3K today.

And I did it!

Totally Blew at Fast Draft

Yep...the harder I tried, the worse it got. The goal is 20 pages a day...I didn't even get my typical 500 WORDS a day. Bleh... Sick kids, family emergencies, friend emergencies, and a well-deserved girl's lunch out threw me off kilter. But despite my kids being home today from school (yet another emergency, but thank goodness it was the preschool's and not ours), I have managed to get 578 words cranked out. Not much...but it's a start and I finally have my characters. The even better thing about this is that I've got a slot reserved for the story at Total E-bound IF I get it finished by 31 March (I'm hoping to get it done well before then...barring emergencies!)



Instead of starting a whole new thread, I'll update today's word count here (2/20) --
Breathless

Passed 200 pages...

I'm totally exhausted this week. Done a lot - edits, newsletter, filled out a bunch of forms for two new contracts, celebrated a new release, and continued with this first draft.

So, here's the progress meter:



ytd word count: 63,366

Have a great weekend!

Words of Various Sorts

Monday was sort of a lost day, new writing wise, but I did pump out a 1,669-word synopsis for an agent request. (Agent request: squee!)

Today, I did some website updates (but still have to upload the files), and then managed to find time for this:

According to Matthew


Regency Wicked

Hey!

I fell a little behind on the word count yesterday, but caught up today. And maybe I'll squeeze in a little more later. Who knows?

Anyway, this is my progress meter for now:



Hope you all have a lovely writing week!

Untitled but going strong...

I snuck off to the library today and got in a rather good writing stint...

I Guess It Counts--Kinda

Since I last posted, I've only managed to add about 400 words to According to Matthew. Yesterday was mostly eaten up by squeeing with a friend over her offer of representation from an agent (w00t!) and writing a chapter for the Manuscript Mavens' Choose Your Own Adventure round robin. But it was almost 1,500 words, though, so I think it counts toward the weekly grand total, right?

And it was a lot of fun to write. If you've got time, check it out and vote on the plot twist of your choice! (All votes must be recorded by 4pm PST today to count!)

Did You Miss Me?

Well, after I finished Losing It, my WICKED erotica, I started two other ones...but neither one would gel...I'd get about 2-3K written and then it would fizzle. So, I've decided to table both of them and tackle something new.

Well...I have three unused proposals left over from The Vampire Oracle...so I decided to dust one off and start writing. I'm not sure exactly what market I'm targeting for this one...but I guess I'll figure that out once I finish it! I had written 1K already...but had to go back and change the POV of the first scene. So I'm counting those as new words...

I've passed the 100 page mark

The hubby's on his way home and I just finished the chapter I was writing. Phew.

I'm tired now. Goodnight. :)

Le sigh times two

Jackie warned me it would be extremely hard getting back on the horse after a prolonged abscene and like most things, she was right. I'm writing. Slooooowly but surely. I've started on another novella targeted at EC. I'll check in tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be further along.

Workin' It

I decided to table my Wicked for the time being in favor of the next Gospel. I figure with as many Wicked submissions as Cobblestone is likely to be inundated with on the first day, Matthew will see print sooner.

So, I had 2,340 words when I started this afternoon. This is how the meter looks now:

According to Matthew


The plan is to add at least 1,000 words per day, but 2,000 would be even better!

Slowly, slowly

Haven't checked in for a while...

But here's where I'm at after today's -- Monday -- writing session:



Moving along nicely. Making the characters suffer a bit (okay, maybe a lot!) and enjoying the ride. There are going to be some strange people (and not people) in this novel. Lol. It's gonna be a fun one to write.

I would like to write 4k every single day this week. Fingers crossed.

Happy writing and have a great week!

Something Wicked is Now Done

Took me until this morning, but it's finished. Came out a little shorter than I anticipated, but not by much.

Wicked 1 (Contemporary)


Monday, I'll tackle the next one.

Mojo

I started a new short last night while the kids were in b'ball practice!!!I got 1000 words PLUS a bunch of handwritten stuff. I'm hoping I can knock it out this weekend.

Busy, Busy, Busy

So busy, I've fallen behind on goal updates. Since the last time I posted, I signed a contract with Cobblestone for Wickedly Ever After (release date sometime in May, unless something changes), completed the first round of edits on According to Luke, and started the first of several planned shorts for the new Wicked line. It's almost done now:

Wicked 1 (Contemporary)


The goal is to finish that one up today and start on the next one, so that I have two to submit when the line opens to in-house authors on February 7. It may be tight, since I expect the second one to run a little longer.

Wicked 2 (Regency)


And what about my full-length request from the agent? Honestly, I just haven't been able to contemplate tackling it. I may decide it's just not worth the effort, but I'm still thinking about it. We'll see.

These will be my last words for the day...

I added 5,297 new words to the novel.



Yeah, I'm all outta words for now.

Goodnight.

Back to school = writing!

Yes, that's right. I got back into writing today. But I'm not going back in with revision or a short story. No, I'm embarking on the adventure that is writing a novel. And baby, we have a progress meter:

Okay, so I was (secretly) hoping to get past the 4,000 word stage. But you know what, after not writing a single new word for several weeks, this is awesome! And I'm loving the darkness of this story already.

There you have it, guys. I'm back. ;)

Fast Draft

Not that some of you need speed demons it, but Candace Havens is doing a Fast Draft (next week I think), if you are interested.

150 words or less

I also write Flash Fiction under my "other" name...and am preparing a submission today (i,e, I hand wrote the story yesterday and it came in over the word count by a bit...so I'll be typing it in, editing, and polishing today. Has to be under 150 words ~ it'll take me as long to finish 150 words as it does some days to write 500. Strange but true...

So, that's what I'm up to today. What about y'all? Got lots of good goals for this week to share? Finishing up goals for the month (there's still a few days left)? So spill...

Gotta Fiinish it

Ok, so I've been working on this story for over a year and only have around 3000 words written. I keep editing the part over and over. So I'm gonna quit and just finish it. I'm thinking this story'll be around 10k. I'm gonna try to at least write 2k a week