I wrote 6,225 words this week, for a June-thus-far tally of 10,225/22,500.
I'm just beginning the mid-point scene, the moment at which the whole game changes for Willa. Politics, betrayal, and loss-- oh my!
Friday, June 15, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
The Swamps of Late Act II
Another long writing day today, thanks to a babysitting exchange with my bud Maura. I did my 750 words in the morning, and then tried to untangle the mess that Part 3 (a.k.a. the second half of Act II) has become. I feel like Part 4/Act III is really solidly outlined, but the loose outline I had for Part 3 is full of scenes that are mostly irrelevant now, so in a lot of ways I'm starting from scratch. I know what the last 5-6,000 words of it should be, but the rest is still hazy. That's a little alarming, since I should be wandering into that haze in a matter of days. I made a bunch of notes, and then plunged into a phase outline and got two scenes sketched out, but there's a long way still to go.
I also bought two more books for my birthday: The Knife of Never Letting Go and Code Name Verity. Very excited about my upcoming reading list now!
I also bought two more books for my birthday: The Knife of Never Letting Go and Code Name Verity. Very excited about my upcoming reading list now!
Monday, June 11, 2012
Monday Quiz
Today's quiz is about influences.
1) Off the top of your head, what are your top 5-10 favorite books or series? Don't agonize-- just list the first ones that pop into your head.
Four Ways to Forgiveness --Ursula K. LeGuin
One Hundred Years of Solitude --Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Eva Luna --Isabel Allende
Kushiel's Legacy series --Jacqueline Carey
Jovah's Angel --Sharon Shinn
The Sharing Knife: Beguilement --Lois McMaster Bujold
Hyperion quartet --Dan Simmons
2) What elements or themes from these books do you see reflected in your own writing?
--young, strong female protagonist
--Fantasy/Science Fiction/Alternative History... other worlds
--love story
--a community isolated from the rest of humanity
--wrestling with the notion of leadership, and whether a few people have the right to make decisions for everyone else
--memory: what cultures remember and forget about their own history over time; how facts becomes myth and myths become fact
1) Off the top of your head, what are your top 5-10 favorite books or series? Don't agonize-- just list the first ones that pop into your head.
Four Ways to Forgiveness --Ursula K. LeGuin
One Hundred Years of Solitude --Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Eva Luna --Isabel Allende
Kushiel's Legacy series --Jacqueline Carey
Jovah's Angel --Sharon Shinn
The Sharing Knife: Beguilement --Lois McMaster Bujold
Hyperion quartet --Dan Simmons
2) What elements or themes from these books do you see reflected in your own writing?
--young, strong female protagonist
--Fantasy/Science Fiction/Alternative History... other worlds
--love story
--a community isolated from the rest of humanity
--wrestling with the notion of leadership, and whether a few people have the right to make decisions for everyone else
--memory: what cultures remember and forget about their own history over time; how facts becomes myth and myths become fact
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Summer Session One
In my mind, my whole summer lays before me in 2- to 4-week sessions: 2 weeks of nursery school camp, followed by 2 weeks on Cape Cod, then 4 weeks of Kindergarten camp, and finishing with 3 weeks of lazing around and getting ready for school.
Session One begins tomorrow: The Son will be in nursery school camp every day from 9:00-12:15. Tomorrow is also my mother-in-law's day with him, so I'm looking at a seven-hour Sonless stretch. I'm going to go for 1,500 words, in order to make up some of the ground I've lost, and if I have time I'll spend a half-hour or so trying to sort out Part III. It's rapidly approaching, and I'll have to do some phase outline work on it before I get there. I also need to finish reading Room for book club, and maybe watch the movie I have out from Netflix (The Spanish Prisoner).
But mostly, I'm going to focus on moving as little as possible. I'm still recovering at a snail's pace, which is frustrating because I've just had a whole week of doing fuck-all, I'm behind on everything, my house is a wreck, etc. This morning I woke up and the hideous rattle in my chest, which has been driving me insane (and is audible from the other end of the couch), was finally gone... but then I totally overdid it today with housework and taking The Son to a playdate and actually cooking a real meal for supper, and now it's back. Dammit.
Session One begins tomorrow: The Son will be in nursery school camp every day from 9:00-12:15. Tomorrow is also my mother-in-law's day with him, so I'm looking at a seven-hour Sonless stretch. I'm going to go for 1,500 words, in order to make up some of the ground I've lost, and if I have time I'll spend a half-hour or so trying to sort out Part III. It's rapidly approaching, and I'll have to do some phase outline work on it before I get there. I also need to finish reading Room for book club, and maybe watch the movie I have out from Netflix (The Spanish Prisoner).
But mostly, I'm going to focus on moving as little as possible. I'm still recovering at a snail's pace, which is frustrating because I've just had a whole week of doing fuck-all, I'm behind on everything, my house is a wreck, etc. This morning I woke up and the hideous rattle in my chest, which has been driving me insane (and is audible from the other end of the couch), was finally gone... but then I totally overdid it today with housework and taking The Son to a playdate and actually cooking a real meal for supper, and now it's back. Dammit.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Friday Goal Check
Sigh. Well, I'm already behind on my June goals.
But I'm still proud of myself.
On Sunday, I went for a hike with The Husband and The Son. It was only our second hike of the season, and pretty tame-- only an hour, and over not-terribly-challenging terrain. But on the way home, I was wrecked. Like, so exhausted I could barely drag myself up to the house. My internal monologue was all: "Damn, I knew I was out of shape, but come on. I should be able to handle a walk in the woods! God, I'm old." I crashed and took a nap.... and woke up shaking, aching, and miserable with a 102 fever.
Yeah. Probably didn't pick the best day for a hike.
Thus followed four more days of fever, muscle aches, sinus headache, wet hacking cough, and difficulty breathing, plus crappy sleep due to all of the above, and the resulting bone-crushing exhaustion.
I went to the Doctor on Wednesday because I thought I must have bronchitis, only to be told it's a virus and I just have to wait it out. He did give me an inhaler, though. I'm slowly getting better, but reeeeaaaalllly slowly. Like, instead of being at 2% capacity I'm at 13%.
However, I wrote 4,000 words this week. That's 1,250 less than I should have, but really I'm so impressed with myself for getting that much done. I tried to work on it every day and just write as many words as I could, even if I couldn't do the full 750. Last night I took a deep breath and calculated how far behind I am-- and was pleasantly surprised. 1,250 words is not that bad. I have a long writing day on Monday-- I should be able to make up at least half of it. The perseverance fairies did not visit me in my cradle and shower me with their blessings when I was a wee one, and yet I muddled through this week and came out not too badly fucked. So I'm going to hold my head high and report:
After one week, 4,000/22.500 for June.
But I'm still proud of myself.
On Sunday, I went for a hike with The Husband and The Son. It was only our second hike of the season, and pretty tame-- only an hour, and over not-terribly-challenging terrain. But on the way home, I was wrecked. Like, so exhausted I could barely drag myself up to the house. My internal monologue was all: "Damn, I knew I was out of shape, but come on. I should be able to handle a walk in the woods! God, I'm old." I crashed and took a nap.... and woke up shaking, aching, and miserable with a 102 fever.
Yeah. Probably didn't pick the best day for a hike.
Thus followed four more days of fever, muscle aches, sinus headache, wet hacking cough, and difficulty breathing, plus crappy sleep due to all of the above, and the resulting bone-crushing exhaustion.
I went to the Doctor on Wednesday because I thought I must have bronchitis, only to be told it's a virus and I just have to wait it out. He did give me an inhaler, though. I'm slowly getting better, but reeeeaaaalllly slowly. Like, instead of being at 2% capacity I'm at 13%.
However, I wrote 4,000 words this week. That's 1,250 less than I should have, but really I'm so impressed with myself for getting that much done. I tried to work on it every day and just write as many words as I could, even if I couldn't do the full 750. Last night I took a deep breath and calculated how far behind I am-- and was pleasantly surprised. 1,250 words is not that bad. I have a long writing day on Monday-- I should be able to make up at least half of it. The perseverance fairies did not visit me in my cradle and shower me with their blessings when I was a wee one, and yet I muddled through this week and came out not too badly fucked. So I'm going to hold my head high and report:
After one week, 4,000/22.500 for June.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Monday Quiz
Today I posted a "getting to know you (and by 'you' I mean 'your work')" quiz for the summer writing challenge I'm hosting. It's been a while since I introduced myself here, so I'll post a tailored version of the questions and my responses for any newish blog readers. Feel free to answer the quiz questions yourself in the comments!
What are you working on this summer? New project on continuing a work-in-progress? Novel, short story, or other? Genre? And what's it about?
I'm working on The Owl Bearer, a novel in progress. It's Science Fiction with a side of Romance. It's a coming-of-age story set on a far-future Earth that has been largely depopulated by a nano-engineered plague. When space-dwelling humans arrive with the intention of resettling the planet, Willa, an ambitious, overconfident young woman from an insular and xenophobic culture, travels to a distant island to serve as her people's envoy at a global summit meeting. There, she uncovers truths about her past and faces threats to her future, while trying her best to not fall in love with the feckless "spacer" assigned to be her aide.
What are you working on this summer? New project on continuing a work-in-progress? Novel, short story, or other? Genre? And what's it about?
I'm working on The Owl Bearer, a novel in progress. It's Science Fiction with a side of Romance. It's a coming-of-age story set on a far-future Earth that has been largely depopulated by a nano-engineered plague. When space-dwelling humans arrive with the intention of resettling the planet, Willa, an ambitious, overconfident young woman from an insular and xenophobic culture, travels to a distant island to serve as her people's envoy at a global summit meeting. There, she uncovers truths about her past and faces threats to her future, while trying her best to not fall in love with the feckless "spacer" assigned to be her aide.
Friday, June 1, 2012
June Goals
New month, new goals.
The 500 words per day has been going swimmingly, and with tutoring on hiatus for a while, I should have even more time to write. I'm sitting at 40,000 words right now. I'd like to have a rough draft of The Owl Bearer completed by the end of July, which is going to mean upping my word count.
Goals for June:
1) 750 words per day, which works out to 22,500 for the month.
2) Post here at least three times a week. Posting every day was good for getting my head back into its writer place, but I'm sure it's tedious to read daily word count updates. I think three times a week is a better goal. I'm hosting a summer writing challenge on a message board I belong to, with a weekly check-in on Fridays and a "writer's quiz" on Mondays, so I'll aim for posting here Monday, Friday, and one other day each week.
3) Continue to work on living more healthfully and making my home cleaner and more organized; in addition to being positive changes in of themselves, I find that the writing benefits from my body and my space being cared for and in order.
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