Progress Report... The writerly side of things

[paragraphs]

I want to start keeping tabs on myself regarding progress on my story (ok stories) I am working on, so figure the only way to do that, is to actually do that. LOL.

1. Altered Fates - part one of my epic fantasy - current word count is just over 100k. The outline is about 15k, and at this rate this first book is going to be 400k... a wee bit long, yes? LOL. I don't care - this is my 'for me' book that I really am enjoying sinking back into, the one I've had around in different forms for around 15 years. Who knows what I will do with it in the end but it makes me very happy to think about these characters again. :) The outline is just in Word right now which is difficult to work with so I'm going to start plugging it into Scrivener tomorrow. I realized though as I read through the outline again that my other story (2. below) weaves into it in several important ways, and now I am wondering if I shouldn't weave the two together, removing some of the silly stuff that one writes out of this... Going to consider that, and ponder that further.

2. Song of the Siren - the one that dovetails into the above. Hmmm. The more I think about this, the more I like the idea... Hmmmm... Ponder. Only 6,173 words written so far in this one. Hmmmm....

3. Wayward, my poor dear science fiction story. At 41,292 and complete for now, it is a wretched wordcount, but I do have it figured out how to get the story bumped up into a better wordcount. Science fiction aka the science fiction world continues to freak me out but is freaking me out less with all the good that is coming out of the bad. There are some great people out there determined to make changes, and that is a good thing. I love this genre, have been an avid fan since I was a kid (thanks Dad) but the genre itself has always been such a turnoff because of well, many things. Lots of things. Things I never experienced in the mystery genre, but my heart just isn't in writing mystery. But this story... I love it so much and it WILL get out there eventually.

4. Stage - my first person story I refuse to talk about anywhere because I am guarding it so fiercely - currently going back through my massive dissertation I bought on the particular subject at the root of this story. I finally realized what was wrong with my plot - things happened TO my character. That was it. He did nothing, was just along for the ride! No wonder I just went meh. This one is heavily influenced by my love for Jacqueline Carey's work, will be in first person, and wicked, and has been in my head not as long as 1. above, but about 6 years or so. It needs to live.


Tomorrow the plan is to watch a movie with Nick and Klaudia (we are making our way through all the Oscar nominations and tomorrow is my turn to choose so I am choosing Captain Phillips) then I will walk Maddox for a good hour, then dash to the store and then go hide out in Starbucks, maybe, or somewhere. I need a table to spread out on, and a comfortable chair. Starbucks has new chairs and I question whether they will be comfy - am disappointed they redid the store and took out my favorite bench seating. Will be seeing the son later on...just spent 926 bucks to get his car fixed. SIGH. Not exactly the birthday present he envisioned (and the one he envisioned would've been much cheaper for me! LOL).

Otherwise, that's it - was sick last weekend and Monday and it is gorgeous this weekend, so very much looking forward to the next two days.

Current read: finishing up (I read so slowly) a trilogy written by Stephanie Dray about Cleopatra's daughter, Selene, pretty much set in Rome. I love it. It is supposedly historical fiction but to me it reads historical fantasy because hello, magic, and lots of it. But I love the author's voice (first person) and love stories set in this time period, and am impressed with many things about the storyline and characters... so much so may have to tap thoughts down later. Then I have a friend's book to read next, also about Rome, I am looking very much forward to. :)

Also, I keep thinking of things - will start another Whole 30 next Saturday - my sister and her daughter are coming for a brief visit and well, you know, gotta look good! Plus I just loved doing it before and I have found myself slipping into laziness and eating processed foods again and way too much bread bread beautiful bread how I love you bread... which always makes me feel like crap. LOL. So yeah, a week from tomorrow, whee! Can't wait!

And that is all from me.

Comments

[jealousofstars.livejournal.com]

Yay! I am excited about all of these projects and I REEEAAAALLLYYY want to read more of your stuff!

Another thing I have to look forward to when I go back to the states -- more choices in my foods.

I want to do more fresh fruits and veggies, but it's so hard out here. If I buy any of it at the commissary it goes bad in a day. That leaves the Japanese farmer's market but a) they don't have all the stuff I want and b) it's a bit of a drive to get to the good ones.

So tired of only being able to use what the commissary offers, which is a bunch of processed big brands. Le sigh.

SIX MORE MONTHS.

Oh! And speaking of road trips..did you hear about the Amtrak experiment thing? I'll have to find the article (it was on FB), but they are starting or thinking of starting a writer's residency thing on Amtrak. Like free/cheaper tickets for long trips or something.

I'm sure there's a train from TX to VA...VISITATION TIMES!

[jealousofstars.livejournal.com]

Here it is! http://www.thewire.com/culture/2014/02/inside-amtraks-absolutely-awesome-plan-give-free-rides-writers/358332/

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

Would that not just be so much fun? That is one of those things it would be fun to do with a good writer friend but you would have to be Super Disciplined - make the most of it of course.

Still - as long as I didn't have to sit backwards (can't stand that on trains) I would love it. Always enjoy trains when I go to the UK and am all jealous of Nick. LOL.

[jealousofstars.livejournal.com]

Like I said...trains from Virginia to Texas (or vice versa). I'm sure I can do a lot of writing and knitting on a long trip!

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

LOL!!! You would have to bring Cupcake though - your mom would never forgive you coming without her. Unless you didn't tell her... LOLOL.

[jealousofstars.livejournal.com]

Of course I would bring her. She does very well traveling, so I am not worried. With the magic of portable DVD players and Elmo apps on the iPad...we're golden in that department!

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

Sigh, parents have it so much easier these days... LOL.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Good luck with all!

Oh, I so love bread, too, especially fresh . . .

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

It is my downfall. If I go to Central Market on Fridays (which I often do) I can never resist going past all the freshly-baked breads and I swear a loaf of the breakfast bread (apricot and golden raisins and a couple other things) just jumps into my hands on its own. Then I will eat it. All.

ALL. BY MYSELF.

And once started, i have no self control! I can give up everything else, easy, but not beautiful bread! But I can do it for thirty days. So will.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Since I started putting my crochet projects up on Ravelry, I've had much better success in actually finishing stuff. I wish there were something similar for writing that would be similarly motivating, but I haven't found anything. I suppose I'm going to have to make my own project tracking thing, though I haven't quite worked out how to do it yet.

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

There is Wattpad that is proving pretty popular and also actually being used by peoples to spring their stories either into selfpublishing, or a few have been picked up by publishers. Writers like Brandon Sanderson also post there, stories for the fun of it. I've thought about it for one piece just to see what it is like - honestly? That was the biggest attraction to me for writing fanfic, the insta-love. LOL. I've never been completely into fanfic myself though as I didn't understand why people would want to write other people's characters. I got it after awhile and did a few pieces and they were a lot of fun... oh and my very first book I published with Loose-Id, I actually wrote and posted here on LJ to a bunch of friends,a chapter a week - that was before I had any intention of publishing it though. That was before epub really took off. PUblishing that was kind of a fluke after winning 2nd place in a contest at a writing conference that I'd entered a bit of it on a whim :) That was SO LONG AGO... oh my, almost 9 years ago. Publishing has changed sooo much!

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I'll bear Wattpad in mind as a possible way of sharing my stories eventually, but that isn't really what I want right now. I suppose I want something like the old SF writers Usenet group I was a member of, a place where we talked about writing and shared our progress, and had a moan if we were stuck but didn't actually post any of the stories for critique or to be read. Of course that was back in the days when epublishing = vanity publishing = totally to be avoided! As you say, so much has changed in just a few short years. :)

I think -- if I ever get any of my stories in progress again -- I'll just stick with talking about writing on LJ and start a new database to track progress with individual stories.

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

Yeah I get that - the thought of putting My Babies out there still doesn't ENTIRELY sit well... But I am watching a couple of friends try it out and have talked with a guy who got his story into the #1 slot and got some publication offers (should email him again and see what direction he went). He thought it well worth it, but that is just one direction to go... Right now I just need to concentrate on having fun and oh you know, finishing all these. LOL! I would love to have readers at some point though, but people are busy and understandably don't have time, which I get, as I barely have time either!

Oh and I do know of a few who just made a website for their stories and post there, and invite people to take peeks. I was following a couple of those then, um, got busy... And lost track.

[jealousofstars.livejournal.com]

A Ravelry for writers would be awesome...

I miss my goals group. The twice-a-month check ins helped keep me accountable.

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I miss those too... with you there.

[jealousofstars.livejournal.com]

Me and my friend Libby have started our own mini goal group. Email one another about it every two weeks and set new goals. So if you want in, I'll happily add you!

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's it. Somewhere to post brief details about the WIP and make your goals public so that you feel accountable and thus motivated. The web has now grown so huge and the old forums dwindled away because new people weren't finding them and instead were scattered between LJ and Facebook and Wordpress and Blogger and Twitter and Tumblr and online writers' workshops and fiction sharing sites.

There were a lot of problems with Usenet, but in the years since I abandoned it, I haven't found anywhere that will provide the right balance of writerly conversation plus motivation.

I suppose NaNoWriMo is sort of what I'm talking about, but instead of the goal being externally imposed and only lasting for one month, I'd want a place where you can set your own goals and it runs continuously.

Another thing that might have potential is Give it 100 (https://giveit100.com/projects). It's a new motivational site where you commit to doing something for 100 days (or 365 if you want) and post a 10 second video each day. Quite a few people on there are writing fiction. I still haven't quite decided yet whether the effort of taking, editing and posting a video is worth it in terms of motivations received.

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

All this, yeah. There are places like Absolute Write, which I check out now and then but never have sunk into. Lj was awesome for awhile there - thankfully I have my friend on here Alice, (jealousofstars) who is a huge fantasy fan and writer too and that helps. I like the idea of Wattpad but a friend pointed out if I do that, might want to have the book finished first and copyrighted... AHHH! LOL.

Encouragement helps so much - but finding the right place and people to get it regularly is hard. :)

[jealousofstars.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty cool site, but I don't think I could commit to posting a video daily, even if it was only 10 seconds long.

Sometimes I participate in ROW80 (http://aroundofwordsin80days.wordpress.com), which is an 80 day challenge that happens four times a year. You set your own goals and post updates on your blog every Wed and Sun, and you can post a link to your blog on the ROW80 site so others can comment and encourage you.

...I should really jump back on the bandwagon, now that I think about it. But I also like the idea of sharing a snippet of what I'm working on to help keep me focused on getting NEW words and not just fiddling with the opening chapter like I have been doing on this current WIP.

[disco-mouse.livejournal.com]

they all sound awesome!

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I've envisioned how you would paint my characters... No lie. I love your watercolor peoples.