Six Hundred...

That's how many words I wrote last week. While it wasn't great, it was better than the big, fat zero from the week before.

This weekend, I have a challenge going with a friend: 7500 words by Monday morning. We gave each other one line to use and ten random words. I love prompts.

Wish me luck.

Finding The White Heat

I've been in something of an energy vortex for the last several months, so one of my writing buddies challenged me to find The White Heat. Totally on board with the idea, I struggled to find time to look for it.

But, today, I found it.

2266 words. 11 pages.

And I have tomorrow's work all lined up.

Can I get an, "Amen?"

challenged but still game

I was going to wait and make my confessions tomorrow, but I just received the most wonderful email from my accountability partner and felt ready to hit the blog tonight. Anne, you're my hero.

This has been a very challenged week--not challenging, as that implies a lot of highs--but challenged, as in I had to push a lot to get through each day and its barriers. I've allowed myself to get into one of those pragmatic moods, where I don't allow myself to expect things to get worse, but I keep saying "isn't something going to go easy?".

So why did all that change with the email from Anne? Simple--she put the week into perspective. She can see my life more clearly than I can right now simply because she's 1500 miles away and looking in via my daily messages. She reminded me of how I didn't kill a doctor I was sent to interview who was a complete waste of time, and still figured out how to get an article despite his attempt to torpedo my efforts. She reminded that I will be able to send out at least 6 contest entries Feb 1st for a big yearly contest one of my writers groups holds for members, and may even squeak through with a 7th--and best of all, several of the entries will mean probable sales in publications, and will definitely lighten my load in future months as at least one of the entries will mean I will likely already have three monthly columns completed way ahead of time. She reminded me that I had an epiphany in my JaNo fiction project this week, and though I may have to push to get my goal by the end of the week, the fact that I hit this "mountain top experience" means "it's tough then to come down from the mountain."

So what if I didn't get my fiction writing goal yesterday. I still have a few hours to double today's output to make it up and congratulate myself.

Part of my way of starting the new year was to get a calendar just to document my writing each day. Mine has beautiful pictures of gloriously green Ireland, and at the end of each day I hurriedly sketch out how many words I've written on each project I've worked. You would think that while I was feeling challenged I would have the simple brain power to go to my calendar, look at the progress I'd made this week, and just shrug everything off. But I didn't. It never even came to mind.

Instead, it took someone half a continent away to bring it all into focus for me. And having to account here makes me push harder each day to not look like a slacker to any of you either. I know that none of you are going to judge me--but if this group weren't here, who knows if I would push through at all. Those stone walls are awfully hard to break down, but luckily I have so many helpful people handing me the figurative sledge hammer.

Mired In The Middle

I have been very quiet here because I've been posting NEGATIVE word counts, and, frankly, that's just embarrassing.

Part of the problem is that I'm finishing a book, so I've already got a nicely put-together first half, and as I'm writing the second half, I'm having to go back and, you know, DELETE things. The middle has been very bloated and a bit unfocused (so when you read a tightly written, focused, exciting, book middle, write a note and thank the author profusely...she probably worked very hard to make it that way), which makes it tough to move forward in the last third, but I've been recombining and paring down scenes for the most impact and the writing is stronger for it. The book is stronger for it. The characters are stronger for it. The STORY is stronger for it.

So I have something like 46,446 words to make the JaNo count, which turns out to be 2,903 words/day. Not impossible, but improbable. Though only about 20,000 of that is the current story. I tend to blow through the opening chapters in a new story, so if I can FINISH this one, I might have a chance.

But I wouldn't go to Vegas on those odds.

Of course, after yesterday's word count of -247, there's nowhere to go but up, right?

Word Count Is A Tricky Thing

Not only did I start late, but then I got sick. Bleah.

But that's not the biggest conundrum. My biggest conundrum right now is: from where do I start my word count? I'm starting in the middle of a book, so I figured pick a starting word count and build from there.

I did not count on the delete key figuring so prominently in my early efforts.

I'd originally posted a starting count of 26,461. Then I started writing, deleted 1,457 words and finished my day up only 413 words from the starting word count, but actually wrote 1,870 new words that day.

Well, they were all new words, so I think I'm going with that.

'cause I can, that's why. Marianne said the count was NEW words. NEW words.

Which would make my progress so far look like this:


Onward and upward, right?

Out Of The Gate Late

If it's Monday morning....everyone has left (I hope. It's snowing as I write this, so there is the possibility I'm looking for my sanity under the sofa cushions because the kids are STILL off school) and I'm ready to get down to the business of words, words and more words.

My starting word count is: 26,461.

I've got a through-line chart for the story, which plots the different threads that weave in and out of the book. The chart is divided into four acts, and each thread has a complete arc across the entire story. It helps me keep everything straight as I'm writing each scene, which allows me to write the spine (rough draft) of the story faster.

It's been working well so far. We'll see how it does when I ratchet up the daily word count.

Running Late... As Usual and WC

I haven't contributed much to the discussions lately... sorry! Aside from health issues I just wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do. I have an idea that started with NaNo and just petered out when other stuff interrupted. I had a hard time making the time to sit down and write. Soo... I wanted to keep working on that one. So far, this is my word count widget:



We'll see if I can keep up when I don't have holidays to try and work around.

What to write?

For the last month, I was sure I knew what project I wanted to work on during January. I have done lots of pre-writing (plotting, characters sheets, all the stuff I never, ever do when I write a book!) on an idea since the summer because it's a little different from the regular Harlequin Romances (HR) I write, and I've always intended to write the entire manuscript before submitting it. That's called writing on spec for all you non-writers out there. I haven't done that since my very first sale to Harlequin Yours Truly.

Of course, now an idea for an HR is keeping me awake at night. I'd asked my editor about making one of the secondary characters from my recent November release a hero of his own book, and last week she said to develop the idea for her. Granted an idea is far from approval to write a book, but at least this one has a great chance of publication since I owe them another book in the fall of 2009. The other idea is something I really want to write, but I can't say anyone will buy that manuscript.

Still I really don't have much on the new idea. If I write this one for JaNoWriMo, I would be flying into the mist so to speak with a hero, his dog and a setting. Nothing else. I wonder if I'd be writing it too soon since I usually let ideas percolate in my head while I write another book.

So today I have to decide which one will be my JaNoWriMo project. Any suggestions on making that decision?

Preparation Pie

If preparing for a writing marathon includes much time in the kitchen baking pies and much time in the music room composing, then Groovy is ready to go. I've already got music worked into novel number two. Now I just need to throw LOTS of baking by a dieting pastry chef into the mix!

I'll be working alternately on three projects:

#1. A YA I started in NaNo 2007 called The Molasses Swamp.

#2. A YA I started for this year's NaNo called Linear Equation.

#3. Something really spectacular (*cough*) for this contest.

In between writing I'll be at the piano composing tunes for the songs that go with Linear Equation and homeschooling my girlies and helping Mulletman keep the driveway clear of snow.

My only actual writing prep is researching mental illness. Other than that I am going to use the week after Christmas to eliminate distractions by finishing up a few naggingly incomplete projects and making sure my house is clean.