Tag: novel


Onward

24
June

Another 700+ words last night, half of which were new. I’m not sure how much ground I covered of the earlier draft, (2k! Really?) because I deleted as I went.

But this section is definitely tighter.

Minor quibbles to start with today–I had Mareet in a crouch, staring at the crowd inside. That’s going to have to change if she can see people enough to know who they are. I’ll have to change the angle of her view, too, because I didn’t incorporate that. But overall? It was better on last night’s read than I thought, and needed fewer fixes.

Tonight, I’ll start there, but I should be able to move on to Kalim’s section–and that shouldn’t need much tweaking. Then I’ll hit Bashak’s next scene, and we’ll start the dragging process all over again.

Next up, sewing more coffee-cup sized circles down the white panels of a baby quilt. Technically it’s the Slug’s quilt, but it needs to get finished. The way it’s going, it’ll be Sunday before I’m done. Which is longer than I really want to spend on it.

After that and my walk, it’s off to school. I’m hoping I can finish it off and clean out two file cabinets. I hope. I hope.

Yes, it’s vacation, but it sure doesn’t feel like it. I have some harvesting to do (tomatoes! Zucchini and crookneck squash! Green beans!) and weeding. The gopher seems to be gone, since nothing else has been devoured in the raised beds. A little cyanide gas will do that to them.

Don’t quite know when I will get it all done, but I’ll continue to plug away at it. I’ll definitely need a vacation after my vacation, though.

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Let there be progress

23
June

Another night of writing, another night where Harley decided the outside world was a threat and must be vanquished by barking.

Since it wasn’t coyotes (they announce their presence) I’m figuring an oppossum decided to tightrope along the back fence, and since possums freeze when confronted, the barking only prolonged its visit.

We all slept in a little later this morning, which is a miracle in and of itself.

I managed 700+ words last night, most of which were new, which meant that I rewrote a section of about 1400 words. Still slogging through this, trying to get Mareet’s POV nailed (not successfully yet), pick the parts that she would notice from her hiding spot, and write new bits that weave the old bits into a cohesive narrative.

Mostly I’m hating writing the beginning again, and the fact that I will most likely have to rewrite this draft again now.

But I’m still determined.

I’ll have more hours to spend on writing this afternoon, since I’m not going out. All I have on my schedule is finishing up a baby quilt (tying and binding) for the Slug and getting that ready to mail.

So, right. Onward.

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Beating my head

22
June

There’s something so satisf amusi annoying as hell when you’ve done your due diligence and actually stuck your butt in a chair with the laptop open and all other distractions silenced–and the words stick in your craw.

Well. So be it. It’ll be a fight all summer, but I won’t back down.

So, 550 new words last night in an attempt to transition from one scene to the next with a POV switch. There were rewritten words there–mostly ones I dumped, but they count, right? Although I didn’t count them.

Meanwhile, one of my more sinister character’s lost his evil gleam when written from an outsider’s POV. There will be polishing until he regains his luster, although it’s also going to be a gradual growth into mean and evil, I think. These perception changes suck, because I’m having to spend time thinking about what I want to have happen rather than just write. And my mind boggles when faced with a plethora of choices.

More slogging on the horizon this afternoon and evening, but first a walk and then I’m off to beat the classroom into submission again. I’ll have to return on Friday, because I didn’t get that file sorted yesterday.

Ah, vacation. To put off things until tomorrow. Or even the next tomorrow, without fear of reprisal.

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Wish I could say the livin’ was easy

21
June

But the rewriting was a long hard drag last night. I only got 1K rewritten and of that, only about 100 new words. Dratted brain.

Part of the difficulty stemmed from the spat the two protags decided to have when I replaced Bashak’s POV of the scene with Kalim’s. Kalim decided to convince Bashak by telling him to keep Mareet in the infirmary, which she overheard. And then took offense to two guys manipulating her future plans.

The argument devolved from there, and I must say I love Mareet’s spunkiness. She’s the me I would have been–had I been able to think on my feet and tell people exactly what I thought and felt.

Too bad she needs to learn circumspection. It’s all a matter of balance in life.

So that scene isn’t quite right yet, and needs tweaking. The convincing is off-stage, which is fine with me, because why rehash on the page all the arguments in a character’s head?

There’s more writing time today, which I will most likely need, especially once I get past these first fifty.

Yesterday was school, and I’m going to back tomorrow. I’m cleaning drawers and file cabinets I haven’t cleaned in some time, so the mess is horrific as I sort and dump. Not to mention time-consuming. The file boxes I brought home are getting cleaned out here today, so they can return tomorrow, and I’ll be done with those.

Asthma is still kicking my butt, although the inhaler has helped. Wish I knew what set it off, and I’m hoping it’s not paint fumes. I have that bedroom to paint upstairs next month. (I need a nice, long break after that bathroom, let me tell you.)

And now, back to the writing. The dog’s asleep at my feet and all is calm and quiet. It’s overcast today, so I can wait another hour to walk.

Go me! Progress!

Comments Off | Clarion West write-a-thon, writing

8
March

Report cards have reared their heads and I’m in the middle of testing, testing, testing. It’ll be all over by Friday, but right now? Ick.

It certainly didn’t help that I wasn’t at school last week–it’s compressed everything down into a small amount of time. I’m extraordinarily lucky that no one was out today.

I really, really hope it continues.

I opened the rewrite files and read the last six scenes I’d written back in October or so. I read them.

I mean I read them as if I were reading a book and not my prose, and then I realized that if it were a book, I’d keep reading.

Of course, that would mean I’d have to finish this rewrite, wouldn’t I? But the idea of having this turn into a book that would draw you in and make you keep reading? Wow.
And weird.

It almost makes me want to write until the very end. (Yeah, that’s only another 250 pages or so. :P)

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A little progress.

10
February

Sort of. If you count the minutes I spent dividing up the troublesome scene and counting how many pages I spent on each segment.

I figured out where I need to cut, though. And I figured out I need to tighten everywhere else. So that’s something.

But that something took me twenty-five minutes, and then I didn’t have enough time to actually write. And besides, cutting what I need to cut seems overwhelming at the moment. Not that it will be any better tomorrow–it’ll just be tomorrow.

In other news, I am very very cold tonight, which is ridiculous because hello? SoCal temps?

And in other, other news, I am behind two crits. One’s not due until the Freeway Dragons show up on my doorstep Saturday morning, but the second one is overdue as far as I’m concerned, and I’m only a quarter of the way through it. I’m going to get up early in the morning and work on one of them.

The only thing better about doing it in the morning is that I might actually be awake.

Well, I might.

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One step forward, half step back

3
February

Survived Chinese New Year. And it was a pretty good day overall–no wind to rile the kids up. Such a difference from the day before.

The fact that it’s early dismissal had nothing to do with.

Much. :P

Put my butt in the chair for thirty minutes or so and managed to rewrite the three sentences that had been bugging me. I’m still not certain if I’ll keep this section–it introduces Bashak’s POV, his annoying soul, and his relationship with Kalim. But does anything happen?

That would be a bit not so much. Which means I have to make something happen if I want this scene to earn its place. If not….

Well. There’s always the axe. It worked so well for me in the opening scene, too.

I’ll make that decision this weekend. And then it’ll be a jump forward to where I left off. I’m sliding lesser characters around or combining them, which is something I never thought I’d be able to do. But look, here I am. Silas was originally the bad guy, but Bashak needs to report to someone–and there’s nothing better than reporting to a guy who isn’t actually a healer and doesn’t get what your job entails, and if he’s the bad guy on the side who’s making your life miserable in other ways?

Well, then. Noooooooooo problem.

I have yet to warm up. It’s 68 in the house, we’re in freaking SoCal, and I’m wearing my coat with the hood up. I’d probably be in my snowsuit if I lived some place with a real winter and not here in SoCal, although the temps will be in the high 30′s tonight. So I’m calling it a night and crawling into bed.

School hits early tomorrow, and as I recall, all my prep is not finished. There was this little issue of not having card stock for the 100 hats, but a quick stop solved that. Except for the part where I do the actual photocopying. Like tomorrow morning. And I have a few needles left to thread….

Man, I really hope my brain shuts off when I hit my pillow.

Comments Off | this and that, writing

29
January

Writing tonight was hard. I need to tighten this section–a lot–and I haven’t been able to spot the places to do it. I stopped when I was counting pages for each bit of the scene and even knowing each segment’s length didn’t help. So I’ll sleep on it.

Kind of what I did yesterday, but not so much on the sleep tonight. I don’t know how it got to 11P already, though I’m sure watching the ice skating nationals had something to do with it.

It was a lazy day today, so tomorrow won’t be. I have to make up for all that time I slept.

Wish I could say I was completely well, but I’m settling for being able to sing. I can’t even consider myself a bass any longer. High was okay, low was fine, and the middle–especially around my register shift–was iffy.

But tomorrow had better be better is all I’m saying.

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In my head,

30
December

I was never writing a YA novel. But here I am, and here it is, and I’ve got to make it work.

Which means I have to work in more action right off the top, because merely watching isn’t going to do the trick. Luckily, I’ve thought of a way to drag Kalim into the panoply and get him started. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out a way to bring in Mareet and Lisen that’s quite as easy, but hey, rewriting’s what it’s all about.

And Bashak isn’t reading young enough. I’m going to have to make him more insecure, more anxious to meet whatever expectations there are, and there’s going to have to be another character–his boss or overseer–to make that work. The easiest thing would be to have Siras move from camel keeper to temporary boss who knows nothing about healing per se, but is a make-do administrator who can interfere with their work by his misconceptions of what should be done.

He could very easily turn out to be an idiot, which is hard to align with his desert smarts with an eye out for the main goal: himself.

Still thinking.

Re: Zoey: Damn, I wish the calcium would wear on faster. Supposedly the extra calcium’s only for a week, and then her other glands should start producing enough. But she doesn’t last long on her feet before she starts quivering and has to lie down. At least there’s less pain–based on how much she’s howl-whining. And once the prenisone kicks in, she’ll be eating more. Which is good, because while she’s supposed to be eating normally, she turns up her nose at dog anything and is only eating rice at the moment.

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Hi ho, hi ho

2
August

It’s back to school I go…

Yeah. Bulletin boards, today. And rehanging everything I took down so that walls could be washed. (Not too sure that actually happened, you know? Never has before in 24+ years.) Maybe some cabinet organizing, too. I never seem to have enough time for that.

And I’m putting away everything I bought in the past couple of weeks. There’s been no money for toys in forever (back years ago, I had $250 a year, but that’s a nice memory) and the building things–Legos, beads, other stuff needed some augmenting.

(*woosh* That’s the sound of money whizzing right past you.)

Actually my favorite purchase were paint brushes. Haven’t had those in forever either, but I found them online in a Canadian office supply place. Thirty-six flat, size 20 brushes for $25, including shipping. I ordered them last Wednesday; they were on my doorstep Friday. And the shipping was only $7.50 or so for that delivery.

I’m only there five hours today. Yeah, it’s early, but I’m breaking myself in slowly. Frex, I didn’t drag myself out of bed until 7:40A. That’s not going to fly in a couple of weeks. I’m going to have to shift my day around, and I’m sure that not being able to sleep on unfamiliar beds (ah, the joys of travel) had something to do with it. (Well, that and accidental caffeinated coffee consumption at 4 in the afternoon.)

And we return to the novel tonight. As KellyM mentioned yesterday, we only have 88 87 days left before WFC.

I should be able to rewrite the other 2/3 of the novel in that time.

Huh. Maybe I should do the math before I make that claim.

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