Nano day 22

As per is me, I haven't updated in a while. So far the novel is coming along good. I'm really enjoying writing it. Quite the thrill.

Just passed 41k now.

Snippet::

“Go with them. Find Hayley. Then follow your heart.” Hartley pressed the necklace that Jason wore, the same one Anthea had given him. It glowed warm for a minute before going cold again. “Do not go looking for your destiny. Let it find you.” Hartley bowed to him, and within the blink of the eye was gone.

Secunda grabbed his wrist. “Do not worry about him. He is an old soul. He will be fine.”

NaNo day 8

Got rather lax in posting over the last few days. Writing is going good. Novel is taking on a life of its own. :)

Total = 20k

Snippet:

“Be prepared to spill your blood. A dragon comands courage, but also sacrafice.” Beynon’s voice was barely a whisper. “Understand what you are getting yourself into. It is not something that can be pushed aside after the war.”

“I understand that.”

NaNo Day four and five

Okay, so Day four was a dud. I didn't do any writing. But I'm still not real far behind my goal, so I'm not worried. I plan on reaching 30k by Sunday.

As for today, day five, I wrote 3418 words.

Total words reached = 11,044 of 100,000 words
Percentage complete = 11%

Snippet =

“Even when you do rule, age will overtake you.”

He cackled. “My dear, I have already conquored age. I have effectively beaten death.”

NaNo day three

And so day three rolls around. Progress isn't as good today as last two days. But I will have caught up by Sunday and be well ahead by at least 5k. Or at least that is the plan.

Total words so far: 7626

Snippet 3:

“No!” Bonny shot to her feet. “Locke is not to get invovled in this. He hasn’t regained his memory since his accident. He is safe now.”

“We both know he isn’t safe. Not after everything he has done.”

“Drop it Jason.”

NaNo day two

total word count so far: 6,782.

I was aiming for 7k tonite, but i'm not too far behind. The novel seems to be taking on a life of its own. Nothing like I thought it would be. Seems the characters have their own ideas on the situation.

Snippet:

“You say it as though its impossible to resist her.”

Hayley and Mikal shared a look. Mikal leaned towards him. “Just get her out of the garden. That’s all you have to do.”

Jason rolled his eyes. Like that was even a task. Getting Anthea-Rose out of her garden would prove to be a piece of cake. “I expect the pay purse to be fat with gold.”

NaNo day one

And so it begins. Writing so far has gone well. Things are really falling into place and the characters are really shaping up. :)

Snippet One:

“You think you are so different. But you are not.”
Jason shrugged. “We’ll see.”
Anthea laughed, a broken cackle that cut through the still night air. “You have no idea what goes on here. I warn you, stay away.”
He grinned. “I plan on getting to the bottom of this. You’re taking business from us. I shall need to get it back.”
“You think I enjoy killing?”
“You don’t have to enjoy it to do it.” He turned on his heal, holding up a hand. “Until we next meet Anthea-rose. Keep well.”

Not long now

NaNoWriMo is coming quickly round the corner once again. Time to lose myself in literary abandon once again ^^

This year I am aiming for a 100,000 word completed stand alone romance. Something that is very different from anything Ive done before. So it should be exciting. Will keep updates daily. :)

Back

Its been a rough couple of months, but I've finally got back into the swing of things. With Nano on the way its just as well too ^_^

Pirates is looking good, coming along slowly, but finally beginning to shape up and take direction. It is definitely not what I ever envisioned. But that's what second draft is for. ^_^

Long time no post.

Writing was basically at a stand still... Now I have come back full force. Been working on Pirates over the last few days, and been making nice progress. There are a whole lot of changes, but I have found bits of dialogue and paragraphs that I just cannot part with.

The book is completely different to what I first expected, but I can see where a lot of the changes will go, and I think that the story will be stronger over all. :)

So far I've done first read through edits to about 300 pages of 490. Not far to go, then I can start on second draft. Then I can finally finish Blood Donor. Which is probably one of my most promising pieces of work so far.

Finally back.

Okay, so it's been quite some time since I have posted. But my internet is finally fixed and in full force! Now I really have to get back to my courses, but first thing is first. Blood Donor is going on hold until Pirates is edited.

My goal this year is to send pirates off to a publisher. That means I have to hurry up and finish it. And seeing as there are really BIG changes being made to the novel, then I really have to put alot of my time into it. Then I can focus on Blood Donor.

So far I have 7000 words edited. The first two chapters were completely cut (Which was about 10k) and two more chapters have been added in between. A lot of the story will connect up, but there were a lot of things that just needed to be cut.

Update

It's been a while. My internet is stuffing up all the time and so it is very rare that it ever works, just on the off chance.

Blood Donor has pretty much been put on hold whilst I do edits for pirates. I never actually realised how big a job it was going to be to edit Pirates, my writing style has changed a whole lot since last September when I began writing the book. I have a different vision for the entire story and there is a lot of tightening to be done to the sentences. Right now I am working through chapter by chapter, just trying to get it all done it's slow progress, but it's coming together.

Pirates of Hcallaec

It has been a while since I looked at the finished manuscript of pirates. I had planned to already be in the editing stages of that book, but it has taken me a while to get some ideas flowing for it. But now all the ideas are hitting me straight on and I can think again. I just needed a little time.

Hopefully this week I will be able to finish the first read of the entire manuscript. Then I can hop to the changes. It should be fun, and definitely a learning curve in my writing. But I still have a lot of hope for this book. I still think it is the best story I've come up with so far.

I just have to re-meet the characters. Learn who they are again. It'll be a challenge, but it will also be a lot of fun.

Still here

I'm still here. Haven't posted for ages. I'm heaps behind in all my assigments and I really haven't done much writing. But I sat down and wrote another scene for Blood Donor tonight and I'm pleased with the progress. Almost at 10,000 words now, so it's getting there.

9336 / 200000

BD 4

Well this is the 4th day of writing (I had Saturday and Sunday off *.*) and things are going pretty well with Blood Donor. I have to admit that I am enjoying it, and there is a lot more drama to it, way more conflict. I've really been able to be flexible with my outline on this novel and I'm absolutely loving it.

The progress of this one is now 5,760 words and 6 scenes long. I'm really loving writing it. ^^

5760 / 200000

BD 3

Bit late on this post ^^ Anyways, I now have 5 scenes, two of which are completely new scenes that I decided to just add in on the spur of the moment. I'm now glad my outline wasn't completely finished, because it has given me so much freedom and flexibility when I am writing.

I've decided to do the two month challenge at 2Yn over April and May. I've chosen the options for writing 122,000 a month for Blood Donor, and for a rewrite of 30,000 words for Poison (though I know this will probably surpass 30,000 words that I have to rewrite.) I was hoping the challenge would give me the competitive edge that I need. I have all day off tomorrow from work, so I am hoping to get a lot of writing done, and then I can focus more on my editing. ^^

I've made it to 4,416 words now, so it's slowly climbing. And I don't hate it, so that is always a plus ^^ now, only 195,000 to go, lol.

BD Day 2

Things are going pretty well for this story so far. I'm enjoying writing it, and I'm only three scenes into the entire novel. Though my scenes are far longer than what I planned them to be, so it looks as though I won't need as many.

I never realised how much I really love the flexibility of a bare bones outline. For some reason that always scared me before, but now I can really see how great it is. After writing the first scene in my outline, I was able to see that the second scene really didn't fit just there. So I added in another scene and brought in one of the other main characters, which will bring in some connections. It excites me that I have so much freedom to work with for this novel.

Anyways, the word count so far is 2,880. Pretty good start. Well at least I think so, lol. ^^

Blood Donor

I have officially begun writing Blood Donor. My outline is no where near finished, but I am going to write the first 5 or 6 scenes and then I will figure out how many more scenes I have to add in. Besides that I will be in the flow of writing and so I will know a whole lot more about my story.

Anyways so far I have 1,700 words for this, and I'm enjoying writing it. Let's just hope it continues getting more exciting. Especially since I have tried some new things to make it a bit more interesting.

Poison First Edit Phase

I finally finished the first Phase of editing for Poison. Now I have to redo an outline and then begin on the second draft. I think I'm up to the fun part now ^_^.

Again I have found out more about my own personal ways of doing things through editing Poison. When I'm writing first draft, I have to finish a whole scene, rather than trying to get a certain word count. When I'm editing I have to give myself a certain amount of time to do so. Like an hour. I get more done that way.

Anyways, tomorrow is a new day, and I can begin on the Edit outline. And then on April 1st I begin on the first Draft of Blood Donor, which has me really excited. Though I haven't done much with the outline. Which reminds me, I really should catch up on both my HTTS Assignments and my 2Yn Assignments. I'm really getting behind.

Progress Update

First on the agenda is Blood Donor. So far this story is continuing to surprise me, and I am having a lot of fun. So far I have 40 scenes of the 250 that I need. They are all very specific, and the story is simply filled with twists and turns that keep me surprised even as I write the outline. It is going to be very difficult for me to get bored with this novel. It just doesn't stop.

Haven't really been doing much on Pirates, but I have all of April, May and June to worry about that outline. Then I can start on Runaway Thief.

Yes, I have the story Idea for my `09 NaNo project. It's going to be rather smaller than my two current projects, half the size in fact. As it will only come out at 100,000 words. And it is going to focus more on romance than anything.

Last but not least, Poison. I've only editing one more Chapter, but I am continually more and more optimistic about this story. The editing process is just going so well. I can see places where I need to change things, and I can see scenes that just have to go. But I can also see scenes that need to stay. As I'm getting closer to the end of the book, there are more scenes that need to be kept. They get more specific. I'm enjoying this process a whole lot. ^^

Poison progress update

Well today has been the most productive day on Poison edits I have had since I began. I have now completely dissected the first 5 chapters. Which means I only have 7 chapters left. Then I can get into the nitty gritty of line edits -- which I'm really excited for, because that way I will be working scene by scene and making this novel sing.

Now I'm going to bed, so in the morning when I wake up, I can do a few edits!

I'm actually getting somewhere...

So edits on Poison haven't been going as well as I hoped. Well until, in a last ditch effort I cracked open, Holly Lisle's Plot clinic, and decided to give her note cards revision a go. I did the first chapter last night with this method, and Hello, something happened! I got somewhere. I was able to figure out which scenes need the most help, and which ones can just plain go.

It no longer seems like such a large task. If I can just do this for every scene in every chapter. I'll be all good. Which also means that I'll have an outline to work from when I eventually do begin plotting. Which is always good. ^^

On to editing. No more procrastination.

Poison Edits

So I really haven't edited much of this novel. But I want to have it finished by the end of next month, that is my goal. So Tomorrow I will slog it out and get the first reading under way. I only have 8 more chapters, and if I read one tonight that only leaves 7 left tomorrow. That's easy enough. Then I can get down to the nitty gritty, and figure out which scenes need to go, and which ones are to be added, and which ones just need to change.

So much to do!

On a lighter note though, Blood Donor planning has been going good. I am really enjoying it so far, and I can see the story beginning to pan out a bit. Though there are a few twists there that I never would have guessed at. It's a whole lot of fun.

The Editing so far...

I've got to Chapter 4 in Poison. I love the story line, but I hate the way that I've written it. I can see so many ways to better the sentences, and even expand on the scenes. A lot of it is just useless drabble, and I have told not shown a lot of the time. It's more like an extremely comprehensive outline of each scene, showing every move. But that is easily fixed. I can also see places where I have dropped subplots, and where I can change things to make the beginning of the story more exciting. For some reason I always have boring beginnings in first draft. Oh well, that's what second draft is for ^^

Right now I'm loving the editing process. Poison is so much easier to edit than Beneath Ice, probably because it is actually coherent, and Beneath Ice will pretty much have to be re-written from scratch. That is going to be a big job.

Anyways, 4 chapters down -- 8 to go. Well at least in the first pass of editing.

And so, the editing begins.

Tomorrow is the 1st of March, which means that it is the first day that I will be editing Poison. I am both nervous and excited for this, it means that I will be learning quite a bit from it, and also that I will have a novel that I actually want to sell in the editing stage. Hopefully it will all go smoothly, my deadline for this is April 30th.

I've begun plotting The Dead Isles as well. The first scene is down. Okay, so there are a lot of scenes in this one, but I will plod along, one by one until I come to an end. I hope to begin plotting Blood Donor pretty soon as well.

Guardian of the Lake

So I finally finished Guardian of the lake. I planned for it to be about 5,000 words but it didn't end up even reaching 4,000. Not that it really matters. I have learnt through writing Poison and Pirates that I like to write very short to the point scenes. Besides, they will probably get bigger when I eventually get around to making it my WIR.

I'm just pleased that I finished it. I like it when I finish works, both when they are novels and short stories. Makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

Blood Donor

My Muse came a knocking today. This particular story was spurred on by a bit of material that I found the other week. Now I just have to write the story. I cannot help it, I need to write it. Gosh it's been a while since I felt like that (Since I first started planning for Pirates). The story is coming together nicely.

All I have to do is a little bit of Worldbuilding, though it will be set in Australia, either Melbourne or Sydney. Then I have to flesh out a few of my characters, and plot the novel. Then I can begin. I don't think it is going to take me all that long, considering that things are jumping into my head so fast at the moment.

Here's the snippet that inspired me on this novel. I wrote it at the start of last year, so I hadn't seen it for a while;

In my life, genes are what differentiate between the needed and the wanted. I fall under the needed category.

I was genetically modified with the consent of my parents, who resorted to IVF when they were unable to conceive. Of course they don't know their daughter is a genetically modified human, or GMH as I call it.

I know, makes me sound like a food. In some ways that is exactly what I am, but in others I am so much more.

You see I'm an invisible hero. One of those people who never get credit for what they do. You know, like the people who donate thousands of dollars under an anonymous same, to charity. Only I didn't get a choice.

I'm the Savior of two races. Because without me, and the various other GMH's out there, both races would soon become extinct. The weaker of the two being eaten off, and the stronger, well they'd eventually starve to death.

That was why GMH's were created. So that we can keep the world from falling apart. Sometimes that's harder then anyone can know, well at least that's what I think.

But how can I say no? I don't have a choice, lest I want to be the downfall of two entire races.

Soon, once I have perfected it, I will post The Sentence for this story, and also a little blurb. (I find that writing a blurb helps me to focus with the story.)

EDIT -- Finially came up with the Senetence for this story. The blurb will come next ^^

A Blood donor sets out to find the hunters and end an age-long war before they completely destroy the Vampires, who are the key to the change of seasons.

EDIT 2 -- Didn't really take me as long as I thought it would to write the blurb. Here is is now;

Found by vampires and told of her true nature, Keavy Palomo, sets out to create an alliance between hunter and vampire when the age-long war between them threatens to destroy the world.

She soon finds herself lost in a world of politics, consumed by rebellious thoughts against the Vampires, and the lover of Mirze Rios - Nemesis and tracker of the man she is donor to. Keavy finds that this new world is far too big for her, with rules that are very different from the one she was born into.

But the world is depending on her, because without the vampires, there is no change in seasons, and without the hunters there is no passion. Both races must survive if the world is to stay alive.

The Dead Isles...

Book two of the War of Meadeit Trilogy has begun. I have finished laying all the ground work I will need, and now it is only a matter of an outline that is needed. I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to write the second book somehow, but things are all falling into place, and I can see what should be happening in the next book, how to connect them to the first, and how to create openings for the third book. I'm pretty excited.

Other than that, there hasn't been much work on Irvine's story. I really do have to get back to that. Tonight I will try and get, The sentence done for it, and then do a little bit of worldbuilding. I think I pretty much have everything in order, but I would like to create a map for D'nalisvereh.

The short story Guardian of the Lake is going well. I'm really enjoying the writing process, it amazes me how much I really did miss it.

Editing for Beneath Ice is still labourous, though most of it is getting cut. I think I have about 10,000 words kept at the moment. Though most of those are going to be cut and re-written. I still remain optimistic about the whole process. I have learnt heaps about both the writing and editing process just by doing so. Editing no longer seems like such a scary thing. I've also found I am better able to see how I might change some of my other books when I begin on them.

Since I am cutting most of Beneath Ice, I am going to treat it like a whole new book. Of course it will be second draft, but I will treat it as though it is first draft. I don't see myself ever wanting to sell this novel, it has simply been a practice novel. So it will never go out on shelves. But I do want to make it a good, strong story. Just so I can show myself that I can turn a pile of crud, into something shiny and fun. ^^

Update

So I've gone through 22 chapters of Beneath Ice so far, and I felt my concentrations beginning to deteriorate, so I wrote myself up a schedule, which is what I do when I begin to get lazy on things. That means by this Sunday I will have it all done, and it will be ready to go through and create an outline so that I can begin writing it. I am just going to treat it like a new book. The title will probably change as well, seeing as the main character is now Lakin rather than Krindel.

I began the writing progress again. I started on my little, 5000 word short story. So far the first scene has been written, so it will begin to come together now as well. I'm going to try and get this one finished by the end of this month. After all, it is only very small. I should be able to get it done in a matter of a few days, but it won't hurt to pace myself.

As for reading, I think that I am going to have to go back through Techniques of the selling Writer, By Dwight Swain. I started reading it again the other night, and it really amazes me how many things I missed, or forgot about. This would be about the fourth time I've read it aswell. It's just such a good book. I love it so much, and I find that every time I read it, my writing improves a little as well. I guess my writing style is fairly close to what he describes.

Editing Progress

So far the editing has been going good. Only problem is, most of the story has actually been cut. Out of 41 scenes so far, I have kept 7. I've gone through 18 chapters so far, which means that I only have 16 chapters left to do. I think I will have cut so much by the time I'm finished this stage of editing that it will simply be like writing the first draft of a new story, just with a few scenes already fleshed out. That's how I'm going to treat it anyway. This story is in need of a big change. But I am enjoying doing it.

I used Holly's The Sentence for the story before I began editing, just so that I could understand where I was going with it. It changed the story a lot and now it gives me tingles and makes me excited.

The old sentence was -- Sorcerer versus time in a bid to restore memory and stop the world from dying.

But the new sentence is -- A rogue magician destroys all magic to shake an usurper Queen from her stolen throne.

I like the second sentence so much more I can see so many ways that I can be going with this. Anyways, back to the editing process!

The Dreaded Edits...

I haven't done much editing, but now that I have finished two novels that I love, I had decided I better get a wriggle on and get some practice. That, after all, is the only way for me to get better at it, just like with my writing.

So I am planning on going through my some of my Shorter works, I've already gone through one, and then step up to my larger works.

I'm thinking that I will do Beneath Ice fairly soon as well. I say this because that story is going to have a lot of cutting involved. It will be a lot of work, and I still don't believe it will ever be salable, but it will help me take that next step. I have been putting it off and putting it off, and I can see now that it was because 1) I was scared, and 2) I'm quite lazy, once the first draft was done I was quite happy to leave it. But this time I am going to push myself and really get into the editing. It is the only way that I will learn, and I want to have the editing process at least a little bit clearer in my head when I go to work on Poison.

So, on to the edits. This time I will persist, no matter how many scenes I have to cut out!

Edit ::
Got through the first 8 Chapters of Beneath Ice tonight. The writing of it is absolutely dreadful, though I'm ignoring that at the moment, and focusing rather on the content of each of the scenes. So far I have kept 5 of the 18 scenes that I have gone through. This novel is going to take a lot of work, but despite the fact that I have cut so much, I still feel fairly optimistic about it all. ^^

The Sentence for Dead Isles

I just finished doing one of the lessons for Holly's Think Sideways Course, seriously it just keeps getting better and better with each week! Anyway I wanted to try it with 'The Dead Isles' to see if it makes my idea stronger.

The original sentence was;

Jarlath's daughter, Anabel, becomes sick with a life threatening illness. The Blackwhite Esor must find the cure, delving into the dead Isles, whilst small Sen'am groups, led by Tine Rhyner, plot the downfall of Lydie and Jarlath to take back power.

I then changed the sentence to;

Elicia Foister battles her way through the dead Isles to find the Esor Rose, trapped there until the next Tsirc and unable to provide aid against the uprising Sen'am.

I personally think the second sentence is far better. It shows far more of what is going to happen, gives it a twist and makes me far more excited for the next book than the first sentence. Even though it is more brief, I still love it a lot more.

On another note, I also finished My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, and it was brilliant. She is such a wonderful author and had me in tears at the end. The book is just so full of wild emotion. I just really loved it. That means on to Harshini by Jennifer Fallon for me!

Online Story

At the moment I'm in the middle of planning two stories, doing HTTS, and getting ready to edit Poison, and Pirates of Hcallaec. But that leaves me with nothing to write... So I was thinking of writing a very short novel, about 50,000 words, and posting it on FictionPress.com.

Once I get things started I will post chapters on a weekly basis, they will probably only be small. I will also post on this blog when new chapters come out and other bits and pieces about the story and where it is headed. When the story actually gets up, I will put a link to it on this blog.

I just have to figure out something to write. I think I have a story idea set up already, though, so it should be fine. ^^ I'm thinking something along the lines of Shapeshifters. So anyone interested in this? ^.^

The Dead Isles

My muse has been bugging me to begin planning the second book in the War of Meadeit Trilogy. So today marks the day that I begin sorting out everything and coming up with a plot so that I can write. Most of the worldbuilding is done. I did that with the first book, also most of the characters are done, so there isn't really all that much left for me to do. Only figure out what I'm meant to be writing about. :D

This is the idea I have so far for the story.

Jarlath's daughter, Anabel, becomes sick with a life threatening illness. The Blackwhite Esor must find the cure, delving into the dead Isles, whilst small Sen'am groups, led by Tine Rhyner, plot the downfall of Lydie and Jarlath to take back power.

Poison finished...!

I stuck to my schedule, and today I finished Poison. It makes me really happy to know that it's all finished. Now I have a little time to breath and work on Irvine's story, and the two courses I am doing. I'm beginning to brush up on editing this month because I want to be ready next month when I take on Poison for NaNoEdMo.

It's a great relief to have finally finished my Novels. Now that I have them done, I can focus on editing, and getting other stories ready for the First draft stage. ^.^ The process begins again.

1 Chapter left

Slogged out another whole chapter for Poison again today, which means that I only have one more Chapter to go. Tomorrow will be a good day for getting everything underway and writing the last of it. Then I will have completed two novels and Poison will be ready for NaNoEdMo this year. ^.^

On another note, I finished Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer today; finally. That means 2 down and 9 to go for my TBR list. I will finish it this year! Besides I have so many books I am just itching to read!

Poison

I thought this novel would be hard to get back into since I have been working so hard on Pirates of Hcallaec. Turns out my fears were for no reason. Today I whipped through 3 scenes, and completed Chapter 10, and I really had a lot of fun writing this story. It wasn't hard to get back into at all, and I really think that when Editing comes around in March, I will have a lot of fun editing this novel.

I've never really edited a novel before. I've started, many times, but I just never knew where to go. March is definitely going to be an experience for me, with NaNoEdMo, and it couldn't have come at a better time either. It will set me up and get me ready for when I have to edit my 2yn, which I was a bit worried about ^.^

Only two more Chapters to go on Poison! So it should be finished by Wednesday. Here's to hoping. ^^

Pen Name?

When I began writing Pirates of Hcallaec and started getting serious about being published I decided that I would use a pseudonym instead of my real name. I decided I would use Lyra Callaghan, rather than Michelle Roger.

Since finishing my book, and spreading the good cheer, the one question friends and family have been asking is; Are you going to write using your name?

To tell the truth I have no idea. I really wanted to use Lyra as my writing name, but now I'm just not sure. Seeing Michelle Roger on the cover of Pirates of Hcallaec (I'm determined to get it published no matter how long it takes or how many times I have to rewrite it) I think will be a real satisfaction.

I'm so stuck? Anyone got an opinion on the idea?

FINISHED!

I can't believe it, I'm actually finished the first draft. It felt so good to write the last word, and I think it's probably the best ending that I've written!

I'm going to miss writing the first draft, but it is just so good to have finished such a large project. Pirates of Hcallaec came in at 193,936 words which is almost two times bigger than anything I have ever written!

I'm just so happy. It's finished!

Coming to a close...

I'm almost there. Tomorrow I will be starting on the last four scenes of the book. I am so excited. Although I can see so many places for this story to be improved, and I can there is going to be a lot of work done in the second draft, I really love this story. I don't think with any of the other novels I have written I have ever had this satisfaction when I came close to finishing. With all the rest I was relieved to have it finished, just because I hated it so much (But I am too stubborn not to finish :P) but this novel is so different. I love it, well not all of it, but there are a lot of aspects that I am very happy with!

The same goes with Poison, though I'm not yet close enough to the end to see if it is as fulfilling. That can wait until next week ^.^

So close!

1.5 Chapters left

I wrote another 7,000 words today, which was pretty cool. I got Chapter 35 complete and part of Chapter 36. That just leaves me to finish chapter 36 tomorrow and Chapter 37 Sunday and I will be finished!

Gosh it's been a long time in the coming but it is so close. My word count is way larger than I thought it would be. Though I'm sure it won't reach 200,000 words. Maybe 190,000 there isn't all that much left to write.

Then I can do some short stories and take a breather until I begin doing another novel. ^^ Hopefully by then I will have another job as well.

Three Chapters to go!

I finished Chapter 33 and Chapter 34 today. Wrote 8,154 words, which was again another big day. Tomorrow is going to be a big day as well. So far I have 180,000 words and so I'm guessing, judging by how many Chapters I have left, I'm going to have about 195,000 words of story when I finally finish. Which is quite a bit more than I planned for.

The finish however is looming near, which makes me more hopeful. I applied for three jobs today, and resubmitted my profile in the businesses here in little port. It amazed me that there were actually vacancies. Hopefully I will be able to get a new job then. My current one isn't giving me enough work, but if I can balance two, then I will be able to save some for Uni ^^So that will be good.

I'm just so excited! Soon (Next Thursday) I will have a clean plate so I can begin on some new works and a couple of short stories. I like writing short stories here and there. ^^ It'll also give me some time to concentrate on How to think Sideways and begin coming up with some ideas for that I've already got a few in mind. They're still fantasy, but a little different from my usual style. Though I also want to try for an entirely different genre during this course. Maybe a full on romance? That could be fun, I can already feel the possibilities.

Getting so close!

Wrote another 2,232 words today on Pirates of Hcallaec. That brought me to the end of Chapter 32, which means only five more left to go. Which works out to be roughly 25,000 more words, give or take. I'm pleased to say that I have stuck to my schedule perfectly so far, and so I'm confident that I will have this done by Sunday, February 1st.

That means I can go onto Poison, and I'm sure that I can get that done by next Thursday, February 5th. That will give me the rest of the time to get some more done with Irvine's story, which is really starting to make my fingers itch. It will also give me plenty of time to let Poison sit before NaNoEdMo starts in March.

Another good day of Progress

I wrote 4,156 words today and was able to finish Chapter 31 and get halfway through Chapter 32. Which means only 5 and a half chapters left until I'm finished. So excited.

So far I have stuck pretty well to my schedule. I've hit my goal everyday. Let's just hope it stays that way, especially since Thursday and Sunday are going to be big days. Tomorrow's not too bad. I have only planned to do 2 scenes, so that's pretty easy. One in the morning, one in the afternoon.

7 Chapters to go...

The countdown is on now. I spent most of today writing, and I have to say it was a pretty productive day. I wrote 11,500 words and got two whole chapters finished. Now I only have seven more to go. The end is getting ever closer, which is making me really excited ^^

The Middle comes to an End

Finally I have finished the middle of Pirates of Hcallaec, and am on to the End. Now I just have to let things escalate in the final battle, resolve everything, and tie up all the lose ends. This is the fun bit, where all the tension is coming in!

Once this novel is complete, I can finish my NaNo novel, which will hopefully by finished in time for NaNoEdMo. Though it's no big deal if it isn't, I've still got Beneath Ice that I could work on if I have nothing else this march. (Shudders at the thought of going through the pile of slush that is Beneath Ice)

Tomorrow I plan on getting hooked into the next two chapters, Chapter 29 and 30. I will leave Thursday and Sunday open to do more than just a few scenes, and that means that hopefully, if every thing goes according to plan, I will be finished this novel by the end of next week. Which will be good because that gives me time for everything else! ^^

The Middle is almost finished!

Today was a good day for writing. I got everything I needed to get done around the house, plus I still had time to get down a few scenes. I ended up getting 8,945 words which got me to the end of Chapter 27 in the book. Which means that I have one more chapter before the middle is completely finished and I can move onto the end of the book. Which will be good.

I only have ten more chapters left, and over the next few weeks I plan on really beginning to pump out the words. Tomorrow I want to get Chapter 28 finished. And on Sunday I plan on getting 29 and 30 finished. So it shouldn't be much longer before I finish the first draft of Pirates of Hcallaec. I'm aiming for the end of February, which means I'll be a whole month in front of the original deadline I gave myself, and then I can finish NaNo before I begin to write the novel I'm planning to write during Holly Lisle's How to think Sideways course. ^^

So far so good...

So I had a bit of a block. I thought I got rid of it before, but the writing progress has only just come back to me. I adjusted my goals so that I now aim for 2 scenes a day instead of 5000 words, which even I can see was a little steep.

I'm not even going to bother about focusing on Poison until I have finished writing Pirates of Hcallaec, it drains my mind jumping from one to the other, but I am determined to finish it as soon as I have written the last word for Pirates.

I've also done a bit more on the planning of Irvine's story. Since I finally bought Holly Lisle's How to think Sideways course, which may I say is awesome, I have been working on that story. It will give me something to write whilst editing Poison and Pirates.

Anyways, for today I aim to get to 135,000 words on Pirates of Hcallaec. Which means I have to write 2,550. So... off to write, and then to read, and then to bed. ^^

Edit
Reached my goal, ended up writing 2663 words tonight, which also means that Chapter 25 is now complete. Now tomorrow I get to write in Elicia's POV again. ^^

A Darkness Forged in Fire - Chris Evans

I just finished the first book on my TBR list this morning, and I have to say it was absolutely awesome. I really recommend this book. The characters are charming and witty, making me laugh on many an occasion. I fell in love with the story line, and in the more intense moments of the book found myself holding my breath in anticipation. I also had many sleepless nights in a row. Not so good for my beauty sleep. ^.^

Now that I've finished the first book on my TBR list, it's time to move onto the next one. Hopefully there will be another small review up within the next few weeks. On to My Sisters Keeper ~ Jodi Picoult!

My New Years Resolution

I know it's late, but I thought I would post it anyway. I hope to achieve everything on my list this year. ^_^

1. Finish the 2Yn course and find an agent for Pirates of Hcallaec.
   
   
2. Finish First Draft, second draft, and final edits for Poison
   
   
3. Plan out Irvine's story.
   
   
4. Plan and write novel for NaNo `09
   
   
5. Get 500,000 words for WriYe `09
   
   
6. Complete TBR List
   
   • A Darkness Forged in Fire ~ Chris Evans
   • My Sister's Keeper ~ Jodi Picoult
   • Harshini ~ Jennifer Fallon
   • Curse of the Mistwraithe ~ Janny Wurts
   • First King of Shannara ~ Terry Brooks
   • Tower of Ravens ~ Kate Forsythe
   • Odalisque ~ Fiona McIntosh
   • Fool's Errand ~ Robin Hobb
   • Shapeshifter's Song ~ Jennifer Roberson
   • Ring of the Slave Prince ~ Bjarne Reuter
   • Eclipse ~ Stephanie Meyer
     
     
7. Lose 5Kg throughout the year.
   
   
8. Sell at least one piece of writing; either short story or novel.
   
   
9. Change to more healthy eating patterns
   
   
10. Exercise at least 4 times a week (Preferably horse riding in order to both improve myself and the performance of my horse Ozzie.)
    
    
11. Begin Planning Book Two (The Dead Isles) of the War of Meadeit Trilogy.
    
    
12. Get ready and be prepared for Uni in 2010.