2012 Fiction Word Count Week 17

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Stellar Gift of Death Post 184

Stellar Gift of Death 2011 Revision

Progress Bar from Writertopia

METRICS
New Words: 141
Chapter Nineteen total words: 2464
Total words for the new draft: 88,230
What I hate: Completely forgetting to do this for days!
The Good: I got words done on a Saturday.
The Bad: Chapter Nineteen is still being a butt.
Fave line: Very astute guess or does your empathy give you a special insight?"
What I'm looking forward to: Finishing Chapter Nineteen.
What I'm not looking forward to: The words are still sticking and not coming out.

Stellar Gift of Death Post 183

Stellar Gift of Death 2011 Revision

Progress Bar from Writertopia

METRICS
New Words: 163
Chapter Nineteen total words: 2323
Total words for the new draft: 88089
What I hate: Forgetting to do the metrics on the day I did the work. :p
The Good: I got words today.
The Bad: Gah, chapter nineteen is pulling my teeth out one-by-one.
Fave line: Don't have one for this post.
What I'm looking forward to: The end of chapter nineteen and words getting unstuck again.
What I'm not looking forward to: The words staying stuck.

2012 Project Post 06

Back on Monday, I managed to finish my writing time and still have time left over to do something. It probably won't happen again for the next six months. So I started working on Forget the Sun's characters and the muse grabbed hold of that and wouldn't let go. Now that I'm finished with the major chunk of it, I hope I can go back to Stellar.

Even though I filled out the character section of the extremely through read-through beat sheet, I decided to use the character matrix from Todd A. Stone's Novelist's Boot Camp when creating the list for the new first draft. The matrix keeps six items straight: 1. name and role, 2. objectives (story and personal), 3. major personality points, 4. window character, 5. opposition, and 6. other opponents. I added a seventh category: the actor I cast as their visual representative. It's a technique I learned from fanfiction writing and helps with my descriptions.

Character arcs: Between the matrix and the beat sheet, all the characters I have listed have a journey mapped out for them. It may change once I start on the narrative, but right now it is in place.

Next step is to work on the setting, mapping out the city of Haganville and the major locations.

Also this turned up in my Google Reader: Pub Rants: Creating An Editorial Road Map, the very thing we're doing in the project. I thought it was funny.

Stellar Gift of Death Post 182

Stellar Gift of Death 2011 Revision

Progress Bar from Writertopia

METRICS
New Words: 893
Chapter Nineteen total words: 2160
Total words for the new draft: 87,926
What I hate: Get distracted when I should be writing.
The Good: Wow I finished the last scene in the story!
The Bad: Tomorrow I must go back to Chapter Nineteen and start weaving these ahead scenes to the rest of the story.
Fave line: "I'm not angry. I just wish you'd stop playing word games. You think I had extra incentive to rescue you as opposed to anyone else, and I am ready to deny that to any court. Now what you should be asking me is if there is a list of restaurants that I'm not welcome to go in on Ail 12, so you can reward me properly for saving your life."
What I'm looking forward to: Tomorrow is Friday!
What I'm not looking forward to: Going back to where I left off and putting all the pieces together.

2012 Fiction Word Count Week 16

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Stellar Gift of Death Post 181

Stellar Gift of Death 2011 Revision

Progress Bar from Writertopia

METRICS
New Words: 388
Chapter Nineteen total words: 2160
Total words for the new draft: 87,033
What I hate: Taking off more time than I intended.
The Good: I hit the ground running today.
The Bad: I formalized a rewards system for everything on my To Do List. I have no idea if that will help or hurt my progress on the original fiction.
Fave line: I worked on a couple of cases here at this hotel, one when I was only here on vacation. So he's convinced I'm inviting crime with me and ruining his hotel's reputation.
What I'm looking forward to:I have jumped ahead to the ending scene, a scene that hasn't essentially changed in my head since I first came up with is in 1998.
What I'm not looking forward to: Going back to where I left off and putting all the pieces together.

Stellar Gift of Death Post 180

Stellar Gift of Death 2011 Revision

Progress Bar from Writertopia

METRICS
New Words: 606
Chapter Nineteen total words: 2160
Total words for the new draft: 86,645
What I hate: Getting caught up in a good idea and forgetting to do my metrics. *headdesk*
The Good: I wrote for an hour and finished the climatic scene!
The Bad: It's a good thing too, because after the load of mail that came in at 2:30pm, I won't get to write tomorrow.
Fave line: A firefighter loomed over her. “It’s a miracle she’s alive.”
What I'm looking forward to:Ohh, finished fight scenes!
What I'm not looking forward to: I still can’t cook kibbeah because I’m missing an essential ingredient that I thought I bought.

Stellar Gift of Death Post 179

Stellar Gift of Death 2011 Revision

Progress Bar from Writertopia

METRICS
New Words: 395
Chapter Nineteen total words: 2160
Total words for the new draft: 86,039
What I hate: Running out of day when I’m on a roll.
The Good: I’m in the middle of the climax scene.
The Bad: I have to go home before I can finish, even though I want to go home.
Fave line: “Stop interrupting my work, Agent!”
What I'm looking forward to:Ohh, fight scenes!
What I'm not looking forward to: I still can’t cook kibbeah because I’m missing an essential ingredient that I thought I bought.

Stellar Gift of Death Post 178

Stellar Gift of Death 2011 Revision

Progress Bar from Writertopia

METRICS
New Words: 469
Chapter Nineteen total words: 2160
Total words for the new draft: 85,644
What I hate: The evil light shining in my bedroom windows. And why the hell is ABC dragging out Castle’s last episodes? They should’ve ordered more if they wanted to end the season on May 7th.
The Good: I eked 30 minutes out in commercial breaks, but I didn’t get anything else done.
The Bad: Sunday was a wash, and I’m really not sure why. Monday was a wash and I know why, pesky tax deadline at the paying job and I answered emails during lunch. And then I had to work until 5pm. Why do I even think I can get anything done on Mondays?
Fave line: “It’s Ish’k Rainbow lady!”
What I'm looking forward to:Ohh, fight scenes!
What I'm not looking forward to: I still can’t cook kibbeah because I’m missing an essential ingredient that I thought I bought.

2012 Fiction Word Count Week 15

Week 15

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Stellar Gift of Death Post 177

Stellar Gift of Death 2011 Revision

Progress Bar from Writertopia

METRICS
New Words: 478
Chapter Nineteen total words: 2160
Total words for the new draft: 85,175
What I hate: My neighbors have put up a streetlight that shines right into my bedroom. And by shines I mean I can put my glasses into my nightstand drawer without using the lamp. I do not sleep well with light, to the point where I will never have a TV in my bedroom and have put colored tape on the lights on my AC unit in an attempt to change its color. I am not happy about this development.
The Good: Most of my chores are caught up, so I spent the day bouncing between Stellar and fanfic reward that I have stockpiled after finishing chores for the last couple of weeks.
The Bad: I threw in too many computer game sessions, but damnit, it’s my weekend!
Fave line: “I am a life guard and a jartbetahraas. You must stop the tkultaraas and tell my citkemraas that I served you well.”
What I'm looking forward to:Ohh, fight scenes!
What I'm not looking forward to: I still can’t cook kibbeah because I’m missing an essential ingredient that I thought I bought.

Stellar Gift of Death Post 176

Stellar Gift of Death 2011 Revision

Progress Bar from Writertopia

METRICS
New Words: 288
Chapter Nineteen total words: 2160
Total words for the new draft: 84,697
What I hate:Cleaning out the files and boxing up what we have to keep for one more year takes away from my writing time.
The Good: I worked when I got home. Go me!
The Bad: The word count wasn’t great because I realized after I had four or five paragraphs written, I needed to restage the scene.
Fave line: “Now’s not the time to admire tentacle face.”
What I'm looking forward to:Ohh, fight scenes!
What I'm not looking forward to: The errands I didn’t do yesterday.

Stellar Gift of Death Post 175

Stellar Gift of Death 2011 Revision

Progress Bar from Writertopia

METRICS
New Words: 305
Chapter Nineteen total words: 2160
Total words for the new draft: 84,409
What I hate: Rain when I plan on going on errands.
The Good: Day two of working on the text. I think I must have hit a boredom patch earlier, which resulted in my jumping ahead in scene writing.
The Bad: I haven’t found a good time to work on Forget the Sun this week.
Fave line: Not that any of Xeryl’s crew accused her of wearing a hole in her expensive carpet, but who would when Mealte sat near the door sharpening his black bladed knife?
What I'm looking forward to:Ohh, fight scenes!
What I'm not looking forward to: The errands I didn’t do yesterday.

Stellar Gift of Death Post 174

Stellar Gift of Death 2011 Revision

Progress Bar from Writertopia

METRICS
New Words: 614
Chapter Nineteen total words: 2160
Total words for the new draft: 84,104
What I hate: I keep getting thwarted in my goal of getting my hair cut.
The Good: A day free of most distractions since I had to take my uncle to his doctor’s appointment. I jumped into the Second Plot Point scene and have nearly finished it.
The Bad: I’m trying to figure out how to balance writing projects. Because alternating weeks isn’t working.
Fave line: “Back up verbally. The only thing that can kill a Shifter is listed in your IGA file?”
What I'm looking forward to: Justified season finale so I can sleep at an early bedtime on Tuesdays again.
What I'm not looking forward to: The next time I avoid this story for a few weeks.

2012 Fiction Word Counts Week 7 - 14

Week 7

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Week 8 - 9

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Week 10

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Week 11 - 13

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Week 14

Progress Bar from Writertopia

2012 Project Post 05

Since my last post, I have put Stellar Gift of Death aside to concentrate on Forget the Sun’s beat sheet. I finally finished it today and have a few observations.

1. The stopwatch is essential to my writing at the paying job. For years, I have beat myself up for not getting enough writing done, no matter how I decided to track it. This year I decided to use time and not worry about my word count. Well then, it became beat myself up for not putting in the time with the timer when I got home for a lousy excuse. Yes, there is a part of my brain that thinks exhaustion is an excuse I’m using to procrastinate. But I have finally found the stopwatch method shuts that damn part up. It’s so simple, click on the stopwatch while writing story and stop the stopwatch if you have to switch tasks. Before I go home, I see what I have done in bursts throughout the day and mark it off of my daily to do list. I even found an online stopwatch so now I don’t have to remember to always pack the only working one I have now. Consistently, I get an least an hour done every day unless I don’t open up the files at all, and this was undoubtedly the case when I would berate myself for not being able to continue once I got home. I don’t mind working over if I have the energy, but now I can tell that part “today is done, let’s go to bed.”
2. I keep mistaking what events are the plot points on my beat sheets. This one throws me for a loop, because I can get it right in fanfiction (Tin Man: Prince of the Outer Zone snapped together so quick) but have made the same mistake twice in original stories. Stellar Gift of Death before the rewrite had the first plot point pushed back to the midpoint and my first take on Forget the Sun had the midpoint hiding as the lull before the second plot point. I stopped on the beat sheet when I realized that I was in part four but had too much ground to cover before getting that close to the climax of the story. I had to point out to myself that I had more scenes than what the blank form has marked off. Shoving scenes into the appropriate parts was easier to do and bam, I’m finished.
3. A map of the setting makes all the difference. The City has a name and an amorphous history and I still need to layout the streets, but I was inspired to use Stan Hywet Hall as the model for Peg’s ancestral home. I basically did it because I suck at designing mansions, but it turns out that a big piece of the climax was decided by an architectural feature of the house. The other locations will probably do the same thing, once I figure them out.

91 beats from 144 scenes; I’m envisioning the beats as scenes right now, but when I actually write them they might condense more. The cast of characters shifted around a lot too. When I finished the read-through, I thought Peg’s maternal grandparents would have a bigger role along with David’s police officer coworkers. Instead, they vanished to the background like extras and new secondary characters surged in their place. The romance triangle has similarly disappeared, but it may turn up again as the characters fully engage with each other.

That’s all for today. Tomorrow I need to check back in with Stellar and see if anything has jarred loose. And if it hasn’t, I can finalize the cast list for Forget the Sun and make it pretty.