I can haz plot!

This week's big moment was figuring out my plot. It means there will be a lot of editing to do, but frankly, I knew that anyway. The important thing is that I actually know what needs to happen. I haven't done a full line - I can't work like that - but the key points, including all the details of the face-to-face confrontation, are there. Which means I have things to work towards. And knowing that has left me free to consider other things I could put in, and allowed me to figure out how to deal with other, smaller problems without having to worry about the really major issues.

It's been an okay week words wise too, although not as good as I'd like. Tomorrow is the end of WinoWriMo, during which I've written around 20K. It's not quite up to NaNo standards, but it's pretty good considering there were about ten days in total where I didn't write a word. Some of those days, I plotted - not all of them, but since I actually started on the 5th I have managed to do something every day. That was my goal, so I guess I've done okay.

For February, my goal is to finish this. I don't know how many words that's going to take, but I know that it's approximately 15 days in my characters' timeline, most of which don't need to actually be shown. I feel like I'm about three quarters of the way there, maybe slightly more, which works quite nicely at 72K.

Current Status
Current Word Count: 72189
Sentence of the Week: As always, I disguised myself carefully, making the most of a spell I could actually use to my advantage. A lightening of the hair, lengthening of the eyelashes, and slight reductions around the waist always made me feel rather more self-confident as I walked through the city, and the addition of my pretty blue cloak completed the look to my satisfaction.
Best Moment of the Week: My plotting breakthrough. Utterly exhilirating.
Worst Moment of the Week: Last night when I realised that despite my plotting, I couldn't write properly when I was completely caught up in someone else's story.

For the last couple of days I've stuck with the getting-up-earlier plan, and it seems to be working. My daily average has gone up from 700 to 1100, and although that still doesn't quite feel like enough it seems to be working with the rather 'bitty' way this is progressing. I know there's a lot left to do, but I'm struggling a bit with seeing far enough ahead to just write for more than a few minutes without pausing to collect my thoughts. And it's really frustrating. I've made notes all over the place about things I'll need to go back and change later though, and every time I've done that it's helped clarify where I am, which is good.

My aim's to reach the end of this story before the end of February, so that I can have a couple of days off before jumping in to NaNoEdMo. After that... well, I'm not sure. I think I might let it sit for a while and work on one of the other ideas swirling around, but I'll see how I feel when I get to that point.

Current Status
Current word count: 66537
Sentence of the week: I couldn't see anything in the dark misty world of our minds, but I could almost feel the world we were passing over below us as we headed west. I could sense when we were above a large town, and when we passed a pack of wolves hiding sleepily in their den. Most vividly though, I sensed when we began to approach the Elves. - It's not that it's particularly well written - it's just that it really feels like fantasy, and I think that's something I've been struggling with a bit.

Plodding along

This week has been a bit slow really - I've had lots of work to do, although I have been extremely bad about putting most of it off (don't mention tax to me right now). But just knowing it's there makes me put other stuff off too, which means that I end up not getting round to writing until 10 or 1030 at night. Today I made a point of getting up earlier than normal, and got about 400 words written before I started work. In total, I've only managed about 3K since my last post.

More positively, though, I've also done scene summaries for everything so far, and gone through everything to make sure that I know what I need to tie up with the rest of the story. That does mean that I've also spotted a few fairly big problems with the story so far, but so far I'm resisting the urge to edit. I really want to get to the end of this one. (Partly because I haven't managed that yet, but also because I then really want to write the backstory for one of the other characters - her history is fascinating me and I am desperate to find out more about it, but at the moment it's not fitting in to the current story.)

So far today, it's a total of 765, which is about what I've managed the last couple of days. But since it's only 10, I have a bit longer to stretch out my writing time, and I think I'd better go make the most of that!

Current Status:
Current word count: 63980 (with a few more later tonight hopefully)
Favourite sentence this week: Finally her eyes wandered down to settle on the quivering ball of fur I was holding, and a soft smile crept over her face. Because in context, it says so much more than the words.
Best moment of the week: Realising that despite the feeling I've been having of not knowing where to go, I do actually have a lot of places left to visit in this story.
Worst moment of the week: Realising that the villain's destructive plan needs a LOT of work.

A year on...

A year on, and I'm almost exactly where I was this time last year. Except this time last year was about when I ground to a halt. And this time my word count, only about 1K off what I was on when I just about gave up last year, is for a different story entirely. Thank goodness for NaNoWriMo kickstarting me again.

So I've been writing again since November, despite a lull in December due to crazy work hours, but I didn't want to start posting here again too soon for fear that the same thing would happen all over again. I made a total of ten posts before abandoning this place altogether. Fortunately the wonderful girls over at Will Write For Wine are keeping me honest now, so I am hopeful that maybe this year, I'll keep at it. By 'it' I mean the writing - but as long as I keep writing, maybe I'll manage to keep this updated too. I've also subscribed to a writing magazine at last, so at least once a month I'm getting a timely prod and reminder. I do now have a nifty new iPod, which means I can listen to relevant podcasts when actual writing isn't an option.

So, I'm wishing myself luck for the new year. Maybe I'll even call it a resolution.