36 Cards

Talk about sweating. I think I have my characters, research and plot ready for action in two days. These characters have been driving me crazy. I want to write them down. I know there's no prewriting allowed for NaNo, but when I plot I hear dialogue. So there's a bit of dialogue on my cards. I'd like to plot at least 10 more scenes, but have to think about what I can add. I'm thinking about going back and figuring out what I need each character to do to achieve their change. This is all a little hard with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse going on in the background along with two kids yelling at the screen or their toys. But I'll see what I can get accomplished.

Who Were You?

My new heroine began life very different from what she's become at the beginning of Fallen. So, I was working up her character history and when asked what her previous job was I had to stop and think. Then I thought heck with this and found a career quiz. The nice thing about this on-line quiz was that I had to work through her personality before the downfall. It made me really think about who she was and gave me a nice analysis of who she was. Of course, at the beginning of Fallen she's let most of these personality traits go. But some have remained. Now I have a list of careers she might have chosen given her personality. I just have to figure which one she would have chosen. It might help me rebuild her after the next change too.

Just goes to show thinking is highly overrated, computers rule. :)

Plodding Along

Research isn't the most glamorous part of the writing process, but sometimes it can be downright entertaining and aggravating. Especially when you are researching something as wide spread as angels or even vampires. Different accounts claim different things. So you have to apply your own theory and try not to tick anyone off. From what I understand that's what world building is all about. Creating your own mythology based on the available facts. If something doesn't fit, throw it out and make something else up. I'm trying to do my world building for Fallen. Of course, I'm trying to see what's out there before I make up the world on how my Angels interact with each other and how they interact with humans. I like the concept in Wings of Desire and City of Angels, how angels wander through the world but cannot feel the world around them or taste. But I don't know how much of that I will incorporate in my world. I'm thinking of disregarding it since none of my research has brought that up. Just another author's imagination?

One more day of research and then I'll move on to building my world. The backstory and plotting. I've slowly been character building as they whisper to me while I research. What was your favorite subject to research?

First Draft Finished

I hope to increase the word count with revisions but as it stands Dragon's Heart is 73,273 words. Standard single title length is at least 90,000, but Silhouette Nocturne's guidelines are 70,000-75,000. So even if I don't length it, it falls in Silhouette's guidelines. Yeah.

For the next week, I'll be plotting and researching for Fallen, so I'll be ready Nov 1st for NaNo.

Then I'll go back to Dragon's Heart for revisions. I do need to make a plan of attack on revisions. I've read quite a few things on it and need to figure out which will work best for me.

Thanks to all the Sven supporters out there. I appreciate all comments.

70 Days of Sweat

Oh, yeah, Sven's back with a vengence. This time if he's not kicking my butt, NaNo will be. So goals for the next 70 - 93 days.

2000 words a day (no promises on weekends)
Or 2 hours of revision
And 2 hours of plotting

What I'll be working on:

Dragon's Heart - finish & revisions (note: may be 70-75K finished)

72,012 / 90,000 (80.0%)

Fallen - Plot and write during NaNo

0 / 75,000 (0.0%)

What Would ***** Do? - Plot and if time allows start writing (Note: stars aren't in the real title I'm just being mysterious)

0 / 90,000 (0.0%)

Milestone 70,000

71,608 / 90,000 (79.6%)

Woot!

Depending on revisions it may be more like this. Which would be perfect size for Silhouette Nocturne. It also means I'd be done with the first draft in two more days. Yeah!

71,608 / 75,000 (95.5%)

Ticker variation

Craziness

I've signed up for the 70 days of sweat challenge which starts October 15th and goes longer than the 70 days for holidays. My goal is to finish and edit my WIP (damn character had to sit in the chair) and start my next novel which is what NaNoWriMo is for. Yup, write a novel in the month of November. 50,000 words. So I'm working on plotting for the next novel while trying to finish up my WIP.

67,495 / 90,000 (75.0%)

Characters

You tell them don't sit in the chair and what do they do? They sit in the chair. Now what am I suppose to do. Cheeky monkeys. Never do what they're told. Who knows what sort of ancient evil is lurking in that chair? Oh, wait....I'm supposed to know. Crap. Anyone have any ideas what the hell is going to happen now that she's sitting in that damned chair? Umm...guess that's supposed to be me too. Double crap. My story is going out of control and I don't know how to rein it in. I guess that's what editing is for. At least my heroine is keeping her head on her shoulders even though everyone around her is going nuts. Small favors.

65,719 / 90,000 (73.0%)