The Bad and the Good

Yep...the whole holiday thing waylaid my writing...I got no words on paper, nope, nada.

This weekend will be a bit of a wash too...what with a soccer party, a baby shower for my friend, and "the kids" being home...

I'm hoping to get at least 100 words written in the hour I've crowbarred into my day for writing...

Hope all of you had a great holiday (for those who celebrate)...and hopefully you got more writing done than I did!

Update: My hour ended up being slightly longer than that...and I was able to get some good words written...still no "nookie" yet...that's the upcoming scene...

Hey!

Okay, how's everyone today?

I've updated my word meter accordingly:

As you can see, I've finished the first draft. Yeah, I got through it yesterday. But you see, everything tumbled out of me in such a crazy rush that I'm sure I've left off a few nitty-gritty bits of detail. But that's fine. I just need to go back and read over the last two chapters. Layer it as I go.

Then, I'll print out the novel and put it aside for a month. I like to get a little distance from it. Lol.

But I won't be doing that today. I'm off to do some more edits.

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.

Pixels on Paper...

I'm adjusting the anticipated word count up a bit as I just hit what I feel to be 1/3of the way through...and I'm looking forward to the next chapter...my characters are finally going to "get some nookie!" Hopefully they're as excited about it as I am!

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!)

It's me again!

Okay, I just had to stop because my hand and arm hurt. :/

Here's the updated word meter:



So take a look at this:

Yay! Yay! Yay!

Still, after all of that excitement... the novel's not done. LOL. Here's hoping that tomorrow is the day. ;)

New week, New goals

It's early Monday morning.

Got the third round of edits for VB completed and emailed yesterday afternoon. Yay!

Also added a little bit to the NaNo novel before my daughter woke up:

Hoping to cross the 50k today. I'll post again later.

Outlined...

Well, I probably got well over 2000 words written at the library, but they were by hand and didn't add any words to my story(ies) -- but they were necessary. Since Mojave Moon ended up "backwards" from my original outline, I needed to do some more thinking on my hero's GMC. I got what I needed (yay!).

Then, because my Alphasmart was almost out of juice and I wasn't sitting in my usual corner by the plug-in, I outlined a quickie I'm hoping to submit to Ellora's Cave by 1 Jan. It's tentatively titled Ruby's Tuesday (or Tuesday's Ruby or Ruby in the Sky instead of Diamonds...)...it'll be my first romance with BDSM elements...so I'm hoping for a catchy title to come to me before I have to submit (no pun intended there-- LOL)

So, no new word count thingy....yet...

Update: Got some comments from my CP and started incorporating, so I added a few words...

Done

So I got my Untitled story finished. It finished at 19,365.

I'm checking in.

My last check in was Wednesday, November 14th @ 12:24am, so I'm checking in a little less than 48 hours later.

I started with 13,389 and have 19,365 so that gives me a total of 5976 an average of 2988 per day. And a total of 13,181. WOOT! An average of 2197 per day.

Untitled - COMPLETE


Untitled - EDITS


And my SVEN up to date as of today


I'm thinking of today and tomorrow off and hoping back on the horse tomorrow. *shrugs* We'll see.

Productive, but not with NaNo

Well, I got stuck into the third round of edits for Valentine's Beast. I had to stop because the lappy almost died on me, but I did get halfway through. So that's cool.

Oh, and I finally got my November newsletter done and emailed last night!

Now, I hope you all...

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!

All by myself today, so...

Here's where I'm at right now:

Not sure how many words I added today, but man... I'm totally into this tale.

And I really, really need to thank this wonderful, most awesome band.

You see, right now I'm in the thick of things. A sequence of bad things are going to get this novel to the end. And although I knew what had to happen, the order in which it should go was starting to feel a little murky. So, this morning after I dropped my daughter off at school, I stuck the headphones into my ears and played their album A Beautiful Lie.

During three of their songs -- From Yesterday, The Story and R-Evolve -- it all just came to me. Honestly, I kid you not.

Their music is my muse for today. And for that, I thank them.

xxx

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

Plodding along...

Well, the words just flew out of me a few days ago, then plodded out of me yesterday. I got some new words down but not as many as I would have liked. Perhaps today I'll make better progress. I'm still shooting to be done with this story so I can submit it by the end of the month --Here's hoping!

Update: After 1.5 hours of writing time today


So...I made some progress. This is all the "writing" time I have today. The rest of my free time today will be spent critiquing and proofreading. But, tomorrow is Library Day...I should be able to get in a good crunch of writing in the afternoon.

Checking in

Well, the hubby was sorta home today. But I did get some writing done. :)

Here's where I'm at now:



Going well, but I really have to get my notebook out now.

Bad Jackie. Bad!

I didn't work on Unbridled at all today. Instead, I wrote 1,200+ words of my contemporary project. And I'd write more if I didn't have to get dinner on the table and homework done. I'm so loving this story again.

Going Greek

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!

Quick Check In

I'm going to toot my own horn. I am proud of myself. I set a goal and I'm seeing it through. WOOT!

So I last checked in on the 12th at 2:32am. A little under 48 hours ago. When I check in last I was at 8365. I didnt set another goal but my ultimate goal was to have this story done by 11/14 and right now I'm at 13,389. 1611 words from finishing! WOOT! WOOT!

I started with 8365 so that gives me a total of 5024. WOOT WOOT! And average of 2512 per day!

And brings my handy dandy SVEN o METER to...




Untitled


I plan on getting this sucker done tomorrow and polish till it shines and sent off by the due date! WOOT! WOOT!

Checking in a little earlier today

Not sure what happened, but I've met my target by 11:30am. The words were just zooming out of me today.

So, here's what it looks like now:



Crossed the 40k mark. Yay.

Now I've got this afternoon to work on the second edits of Valentine's Beast.

Write on! :D

Moving Right Along...

I got NO writing done yesterday, but did get a new refrigerator instead. Our old one was rattling and moaning as if it was possessed. Luckily it held out just long enough...

Today, I threw myself right back into the story and it's moving right along -- lots of mystery -- I'm really enjoying this. And it's fun to do research as to what existed back in 1943 (not only objects but expressions). I have to be careful my "research" doesn't shadow my writing time...

Frustrated!

So, I wrote myself into a corner in Carnally Yours, which currently sits at 20,800 words. Knowing I must whip Unbridled into shape ASAP for the Golden Heart, I started working on reoutlining yesterday. And promptly worked myself into another corner.

The problem I'm having with Unbridled is balancing the competing needs of the story. On the one hand, there's the sub-plot, which is what brings the hero and heroine together in the first place. Without the sub-plot, there'd be no romance. On the other hand, I can't let the sub-plot overshadow the romance.

So, what I'm finding is that the sub-plot is keeping the hero and heroine apart in the partial, but I need them to be together because the romance is the main plot and should develop first. At the same time, I can't figure out how to make the story develop in a logical, step-by-step fashion without developing the sub-plot in the partial.

Argh! I may just give up and put the story in the Magical Mulch Pile under the bed. I'm out $50 for the GH entry, but maybe I'd rather be out $50 than nursing a massive headache.

Checking in for Tuesday:

Very happy.

Left it mid-chapter, in a fun spot. ;)

More tomorrow.

Exhausted but damn it feels good...

I'm checking in twice tonight. I set a goal of getting to 8 or 9k tonight and I made it to 8365. I started at 6184 so that gives me a total of 2181. WOOT WOOT!

And brings my handy dandy SVEN o METER to...




Untitled


I've hit the halfway mark! Woot! Woot! Go Emma! Go Emma! I'll be by in the morning to encourage all of yall in the morning after I get some sleep!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr and SVEN check in. I HEART SVEN

Le sigh. Why am I stuck? Seriously. Okay so I'm going to watch The Simpsons and then turn the TV back off at 8:30pm and try it again.

Right now I'm at 6184 so since my last check in on Saturday at 3:49am and it's been less than 48 hours since my last check in.

Started off the Untitled project at 4012 and I'm now at 6184 for a total of 2172.
Untitled



I checked the numbers twice and hot damn came up with the same number both times.

Since the 4th of October until today I've written a total of 12,508. HOT m-f'ing DAMN! In a fricking week! A week! WOOT! WOOT! A total of 1787 per day. Damn Sven, do you know much I love you@

Into the (writing) Groove

Yep. It's the start of a new week. I've got 5 new and very shiny days ahead of me...

Of course, one of them is now gone, I've gotten some edits, I need to get my newsletter together, and there are a million other things to deal with. Still.

Here's my progress so far this week:

I've decided that it would be fantastic if I could get about 5k written each day this week.

Progress...not so much

It's been a slow weekend but I expected that with having kids home this weekend. I did get 20 pages of The Right Moves edited yesterday, and I got the third novella plotted, but the issue with Novella One is still plauging me. I'll figure it out AFTER I wrote novella three though and give the old subconscious time to work. Am I the only one who relies on that part of her brain?

SO now it's time to write and I'm going to try for five pages today on the third novella whose name I haven't decided on yet. LOL

Bleh....

Well -- today was a total bust when it came to writing. I had hopes that with my hubby gone I would have *lots* of spare time. Instead...my daughter's soccer game ran late and the boys have been hellions (to put it mildly!) In other words, s-t-r-e-s-s city! Hubby has promised to be back as early as possible tomorrow, perhaps noon (okay, I know him too well, if he gets here before 6 pm, I'll be surprised!).

So, I decided to just do writing "related" stuff today. I played solitaire (snicker)...proofread a story for Dark Eden Press, submitted a story, *thought* about updating my website, surfed the internet...and discovered Duotrope's Digest. It's a publication resource with TONS of information. It has submission guidelines, a publication search engine to find new and exciting publishers, actual response times -- and percentages if there's enough data, and a cool submissions tracker. So, I entered all of my 2006-2007 submissions (short stories and novellas). You can find this nifty resource at: http://www.duotrope.com/index.aspx

Tomorrow is update the website day (and boy, does it need it) and try to get in a few words --

And, I have claimed Monday as a writing day...

Doing what I gotta do...

Last check in was November 8th at 11:30pm.
11/09 (24)
11/10 (24)

48 hours have passed since my last check in. I had a tiny melt down but I put on my big girl panties and did what I had to do. I've been telling myself it comes how bad I want it. Well I want it more than a chubby kid at a fat camp wants a Snickers. (Mmmm...Snickers)

Anywho lets get to it. The New Life project hasnt moved as much as the Untitled project but here are the numbers.

Started off with New Life at 1849 and I'm now at 2032 for a total of 183.
New Life


Started off the Untitled project at 756 and I'm now at 4012 for a total of 3256.
Untitled


3256 + 183 = 3439

An average of 1720 per day. Whew! I'm gonna sleep a little while and get back to it in a couple of hours.

Ooh you may have seen the word count has changed for the Untitled project, right now I don't know that word count is going to be so it may change from time to time. I need to get the story done by the 14th no later than 15th so I could get it polished and submitted by the 17th.

Progress on a Saturday!

Yeah, I don't write on Saturdays, but since this week's been a little wonky... I thought I'd write until the lappy ran out of juice.

So here's the updated word meter:

Although I'm not halfway through on the 60k I want to reach, I am technically halfway through the NaNo 50k! Yay. Can't wait to see how the word meter changes next week...

Happy weekend everyone!