Accountability, author's timecard, word count written, feeling lonely out there?

[meg_evonne]

Amazing, isn't it, Neurovore?

Lifting a beer in honor of long series authors! You are amazing!

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

4000 words today and yesterday; total through pass done, current length 35,000 words/10 chapters, we may be about to get forward momentum again at last.

[meg_evonne]

Holy crimminie! 4000? way to go! I'm delving into the new story line with a great deal of satisfaction. It's falling into place with amazing speed although the strands of subplots are quickly becoming quite complex.  So much better to have too many, than not enough however.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I'm at the halfway point chapters-wise, and only a couple of hundred short of 45,000 words which makes me more relaxed than I have been for some time about getting the whole thing to come out at a reasonable 90kwordsish length.  Last night was another 4000-word night.  (I had Friday off as my workplace was closed for unique-to-that-workplace reasons, so wrote Thu and Sat rather than my habitual Fri.)  I am feeling really energised about this, not least because the next couple of chapters lead to meeting some cool new people including one who is going to be very important in the larger story arc.

Of course, I would have to get this kind of energised when I am about to go away for a work conference/workshop thing which means being away from Saturday to Sunday of the week following, so i will have minimal writing time between now and then, but still, it's progress.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

1700 words tonight, which makes me feel a bit better about aforementioned travel.  Not least because I have now got to the start of the bit I have been really really wanting to write, which will make jumping back on in a fortnight easier.

Halfway through book 2 is less good a time to suddenly figure out some stuff about book 4 in work than my subconscious seems to realise. (if I move one specific thing from book 4 to book 7 all of book 4 comes together better, and book 7 gets a bit larger.)

[KevinEvans]

We found that we had nine concurrent projects under weigh. Seven of them on short turnaround time tables. In the last two weeks we have reduced the total to six on the list, but we may end up with two more added if our proposals are accepted... Sigh some times it seems like shoveling sand out of a hole.

Regards,
Kevin

[meg_evonne]

Kevin, I love your 'under weigh' rather than 'under way'  So much more appropriate image in my head of the weight of pressing projects. Best wishes on them.

Way to go neurovore!

I'm like the muse butterfly at the moment, unable to settle and commit. Part of it is letting my last big project go. When something comes up to market it, I lose my concentration on the new work. I've three started projects--my first picture book, a middle grade book, and a dark apocalyptic YA.  Still the old work calls me, distracts me, and generally is like a toddler that won't go play with the other kids. Keeping that business side of my mind and that work AWAY from my creative writing side is turning out to be a huge struggle that I never saw coming.

I admire you and your wife Kevin for being able to keep so many things in the fire at once.

[LizW65]

Let's see...the big mystery novel comes in at 119,000 words, give or take a few, and I'm ready to start querying agents--quite a bit more research still to do in that department.  Meanwhile, the sequel to same is struggling along at the 77,000 word mark, about 1/2 written and needing major revision.  Oh, yeah, and real life keeps intruding, so I've done very little writing lately, except for the nineteenth century diary of a distant ancestress I've been transcribing for eventual (self) publication.  Her prose style is...dry, to say the least.

[RodimusGT]

I don't even know how many words I'm typing out a day. I'm not even typing every day. I know a lot of people say when you have problems consistantly writing your story then maybe it's not the best you can come up with. For me this isn't true. I actually just find it hard to sit down and write. Ideas and my imagination aren't a problem I have pretty much 6 different genre's of novels lined up to work on. It's just doing the actual work. Being a guy who grew up watching tv and playing video games it gets tough sitting in front of a blank screen and trying to type out a literary story. So far I think I'm doing pretty well though. I've chosen the story to focus on and I've written five chapters so far! Gotta keep chugging!

[meg_evonne]

Oh man. I can't believe the amount of head time this new work is taking. I haven't touched the actual key board except for scene descriptions, sound bites, character ideas, etc. It hasn't helped that my laptop was taken over by a two year old so she could watch something called "Super Why".   Nah, I'm not complaining, but my hand is cramping up as a result.  They left today. Tomorrow, I actually stack more words on page. I've stored up close to a third of the book. Now it's  race to get it down before it slips out of my blasted mind. 

Wish me well.  AND best wishes to all of you on your writing!

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Back from trip and recovered (mostly) from illness acquired on trip.  4000 words last night. We have broken 50k.  About this, we are cheering.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

3,000 more words last night, counting some I had cut earlier that now came back into play.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Another chapter done, 56 kwords and counting.

[Enjorous]

Reworked two short stories after having them beta'd not productive as far as my novel goes but infinitely useful in correcting a few mistakes that I seem to constantly make.

[meg_evonne]

Let's see, recapping:

• New YA chosen - check
• General Plot Line set up - check
• Main Characters roughly defined
• Sub Characters roughly defined
• Location - set
• Over 20 hours of hard research (for starters) - check
• Sub plots tentatively set up, not yet correlated into the storyline
• Main conflict points scenes defined at Intro & 1/4 & 1/2 & 3/4s & 9/10ths  for main plot only
• 8 hours of research finding 3/4s of the character names
• at least 20 hours on world building and establishing the rules and pressure points apply to main characters
• main character excel sheets on their development and conflicts, where they are at the key points, how they grow (generally)
• 5000 words written during the above time to make sure I like the characters and that I'm willing to begin a relationship
• another three scenes written in my head, awaiting for me to intertwine the subplots into them before I write them.
• yet more research hours & videos of locations, costume research, science background research... (still tons to do)

And I'm 99% committed to my story, the characters, and we have lift off.  I'm moving on to the big board with colored post it notes with that giant plot arc...

Then it is time to start writing pages with a drive to complete the first draft.  All that pre-work is exhausting, but I definitely know that I have something not only that I'll love, but that might be marketable (maybe) and worthy of my time--and worthy of a reader's time. I think I discarded about 20 plus story ideas to settle on this, but that doesn't count those in the hopper that I culled through...

As my craft skills grow, my tolerance for side paths that lead in circles or in wrong directions shrinks to miniscule limits. 

Not that, that is necessarily good.  But for now, this is working for me...