Up and down

I missed posting last week, since I spent the whole of Friday curled up on the sofa with the worst headache I've had in ages. I can't remember why I missed the week before, but you have my apologies!

It's been an odd week - I've only managed to write on three days, but my overall word count for the week is higher than last week. I'm experimenting a little with the best methods to encourage myself to write more, and it turns out that aiming to write for a particular amount of time, rather than aiming for a particular word count, seems to work far better for me. There's something far less pressured about it, but somehow I end up producing more that way.

I'm still fairly pleased with the plot points I've planned out, but I'm happy to report that I've also managed to go 'off piste' a little and have found myself wandering through detours I didn't expect - namely a rather spooky forest. I love the excitement of that - while it's great knowing where I'm going, finding those secret passages is a thrill unlike anything else.

I'm not sure I'm on track to hit my goal at the moment - I have nine days to finish this first draft. I really hope I manage it, if only for the thrill of meeting a deadline. I suppose it wouldn't be the end of the world if I didn't, but that will mean that my next goal - to complete NaNoEdMo - will be made all the more difficult.

Current Status
Current Word Count: 83902
Sentence of the Week: There was no echo, the words falling dead in the air, and not even a murmur came back to me. I looked around carefully, through the trees that were no longer quite so close together but which seemed to go on forever, but he was nowhere in sight. Seconds before our hands had been clasped tightly together, but now he had disappeared and I was completely alone.
Best Moment of the Week: Writing 2K in one sitting. Delicious.
Worst Moment of the Week: Realising that I hadn't written for three days straight. Yuck.

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.

I wrote words!

Today was a good day. I finished up the latest chapter, bringing today's count up to 1052 words and making the week's total nearly 5K, fairly evenly split between my WIP and various fanfic projects. Not brilliant, maybe, but better than I've been doing. And better than I'll do this week, since we're going away again.

I declare it a good week's work.

First Friday Snippet

This is a brief excerpt from somewhere near the beginning of my current WIP. I've only looked back over it once to check for grammar and spelling, so it will no doubt go through various forms before I'm happy with it. I don't think it really needs much introduction, so I'll just plunge in.

~~~

Liulfra threw the carcass aside and trotted further on through the woods, ears alert and nostrils flared. Her hunger and bloodlust were sated for now; it was time to seek out a new companion. She paused and sat back on her haunches, wondering what direction would be best.

She had very little knowledge of this area; until now, she had never travelled more than a day's travel away from the camp. She had been moving in this direction for three nights, sleeping during the day, relishing the opportunity to indulge her wolfish side. She still felt it strange that in a place where shapeshifters were the only inhabitants it was considered rude to wear a non-human shape in public, and she loved the feeling of release from such constraints.

It was so strange to be free of them. She had known nothing else all her life, and she found it difficult not to keep referring back to the camp in her mind; her journey had taken her only through forest so far, and she had not yet met a single human. She had, however, come across a pack of wolves, who had viewed her suspiciously at first but nonetheless welcomed her fairly swiftly into their midst. They had allowed her to spend the previous day in their den with them, although she was asked to stay in the main cavern rather than enter their own sleeping quarters. Wolves, as she had discovered before, were rather keen on their customs and stood firmly on tradition; only family members were permitted to pass the main halls of their homes. There had been a younger wolf, just ready to find a mate, who had viewed her with interest. It had been rather difficult not to respond, but she knew that if she did they would expect her to stay, and if she then proceeded on she would find other packs less welcoming in future. So she had rebuffed his cautious advances; but ultimately it only served to heighten her need for another companion.

It was now late the next evening, and Liulfra was beginning to feel a need for her human form. Although she was capable of remaining a wolf for much longer - indefinitely really - she preferred not to; too long and she began to wish to stay that way, almost forgetting that it was not her true shape. She glanced up at the night sky. The moon was high above the trees - a slim silver crescent. It would be new moon in just a couple of days, and she hoped she would be able to make the change sooner rather than later; although she was capable of doing so at any time, it would drain her strength more to do so at new moon that at any other time. During the week of the full moon she would be at her strongest, but she did not want to wait that long.

Shaking her fur, she stood again and continued along the slightly worn route she had chosen to follow, assuming that the chances of coming across human habitation would be higher on a route that seemed not exclusively for the use of animals. She moved quickly and quietly, relying mainly on her senses of smell and hearing. She stopped suddenly, raised her head and listened intently.

Voices. Human voices.

She had to stop herself from giving a yelp of excitement; instead, she moved quickly but cautiously in the direction of the noise, her paws treading softly on the worn ground, barely making a sound. As she spotted the group ahead, she moved off the path and dropped to her belly, moving soundlessly behind the cover of the shrubs that shrouded it.

Liulfra was very much aware that she had never actually seen a group of normal humans, but even so she was fairly certain that this particular selection was far from ordinary. In fact, they weren't even all human; the group seemed to include a surprisingly small lilac-coloured dragon, only a little taller than she was herself in wolf form, and perhaps twice as long. It would still be a challenge to fight - she licked her lips at the thought - but nothing like she had imagined a dragon to be. And she'd read enough books to know that they were supposed to be a bit more formidable than this one was, purple or not.

There were two women with the dragon - one probably a little bit younger than Liulfra, one rather older, perhaps around thirty-five - who she dismissed immediately, although she was interested to note that one of them seemed to be riding a flying horse; but there was also a young man. Probably about thirty. Rather pretty; not usually to her taste at all, but perhaps he'd be worth it. There were small lanterns on the backs of the horses - she wasn't sure how they worked, but they certainly didn't look like flame. She shrugged off her curiosity, and began to focus her mind to begin the change, but instead found herself listening to the group's discussion.

~~~