Month: June 2019

Writing Wednesday: Prompt

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WW Prompt

Here’s today’s Writing Wednesday Prompt:

people-1.jpg

Introduce these people as a cast of characters in a story. What are their names? Why are they here together? What are their relationships to each other? Which one is the clown? Which one is the serious one? Who would be the main character (if any)? Who would be the one that can’t seem to catch a break? Give them real personalities and lives.

If you write something from this prompt, by all means let me know! Feel free to share what you wrote, if you want!

**If you’re looking for more like this, you might want to check out the story seeds posts I wrote for NaNoPrep a few years ago. They are not specific to NaNoWriMo, and each contains a list of several different types of prompts or ways to generate story ideas. You can find them here: Story Seeds 1, Story Seeds 2, Story Seeds 3, Story Seeds 4**

Daily Writing Check-in: June 21, 2019

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Words/Time: 2 hours doing research into what I need to prepare for book submissions, in the publishing process.

I’ll be honest–this was a rough day. I worked on a cover letter for one literary agency, only to realize that I am going to have to spend a lot more time on a particular section for the proposal than I can do right now (competitive titles).

I don’t know how many of you out there have gone through any of this, but it’s overwhelming! I will probably not post every day, so long as my only real “writing work” involves working on book submissions. I will check in now and then, and continue to post Writing Wednesday posts. I also want to do some freewriting now and then, so I don’t get too bogged down in this area, and miss out on the fun of actual writing for a long time. With any luck, I may even be able to post some Monday Moments along the way.

But for now, this is my focus, in the time that I have to devote to writing work (which is a small part of my day).

For those of you out there who have submitted your book to publishers or agents before, or who are working on it now, or even considering it soon, please feel free to share your thoughts, tips, concerns, even just reciprocation.

Daily Writing Check-in: June 18, 2019

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Words/Time:  1 hours, 45 minutes reading through “Pithea.” for any further changes to be made to the final draft.

I finished reading through the book, making changes that make the story even stronger. I spent the last 15 minutes copying scenes into Scrivener so that it would be up-to-date there. This completes goal #2 in my current list of writing goals. My new list contains only one thing: Submit “Pithea” for publishing.

Then I spent hours reading through blog posts about submitting a proposal to a publisher or an agent. Though I have done this before (a tiny bit), it’s been a few years, and I want to try to understand it better. It all gave me a bit of a headache though, and I’m not sure how I will ultimately proceed.

Daily Writing Check-in: June 17, 2019

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Words/Time:  2 hours, 20 minutes reading through “Pithea.” for any further changes to be made to the final draft.

I am through page 379 of 467. I have actually found a few smallish, but glaring, plot holes that were missed during previous revisions, including a hefty, year-long revision by 2 of my sisters and myself. It doesn’t surprise me that we missed them, because of how long it took us to get through the book. Details were forgotten. But I am surprised I missed them in the 2-3 times I’ve read through it since then. I’m just glad I caught them now.

I’m into part 4 (the final part) of the book, and based on the average pace I’ve read this time through, I should be able to finish it in about an hour and a half. I expect to be done tomorrow.

Daily Writing Check-in: June 16, 2019

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Words/Time:  2 hours, 16 minutes reading through “Pithea.” for any further changes to be made to the final draft.

I am through page 244 of 467. I made a few small changes, including changing the timeline just a smidge. I’m a bit more than halfway through the book now, and estimate another 3.75 hours to finish it. I’m going to push myself the next few days to try to get it done in 2-3 days, but real life may flood in and slow me down.

Daily Writing Check-in: June 15, 2019

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Words/Time:  1 hour, 24 minutes reading through “Pithea.” for any further changes to be made to the final draft.

I am through page 101 of 468. I did make a few small changes, and changed the name of a character ever so slightly.

My pace today was a page a minute, so at that pace, it will take me approximately 6 hours to finish the book. That will most likely take anywhere from 3-7 days. After that…it’s time to delve back into the scary world of publishing.

Daily Writing Check-in: June 14, 2019

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Words/Time:  1 hour working on the “final” revision of “Pithea.”

I worked on the one larger change, which was also basically the last one on the list. That took up most of the time, and now I am giving the story one more read-through to make sure I didn’t miss anything related to the things I changed. I am on page 16 of 468. I’m guessing this will take several days, unless I find a lot of time to spend on it in the next few days.

After this, I will begin to look into publishing options. I have a starting point in mind already.

Daily Writing Check-in: June 13, 2019

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Words/Time:  1 hour, 30 minutes working on pre-writing for Book 3 of “Pursuit of Power” trilogy, as well as beginning the “final” revision of “Pithea.”

I finished the character interview that helped me basically hash out more than half of the main plot of this book. And I can’t believe it, but I think I do have enough further ideas for this storyline for a 4th book in this arc.

This has led me to think that I don’t necessarily want to think of this arc as a trilogy (or tetralogy, as the case may be) within the greater series. Instead, maybe they should just be part of the series that happen to coincide more directly with each other than some of the other books.

I then went on to finish the early outline for this book (which still has no name, but I haven’t really put much thought into it yet either), and wrote down the ideas I have for the follow-up book so I don’t forget later. That ended goal #1 in my current list (which only contains 2 goals).

1. Plan Book 3 of “Pursuit of Power” trilogy

2. Final revision of “Pithea” – All of my writing goals this year have been for one final goal: to know what, if any changes, future book drafts may force in “Pithea,” so I can get those things changed now, before attempting to publish this book again. I want to make sure it’s exactly what it needs to be, as book 1 in this series of books. I do have a list of things that I want to change, and one of them will possibly change the structure in such a way to make it more marketable.

Though I now have ideas for another book at the end of the current list of Pithea books (+1, because the book I just finished outlining isn’t even on that list yet), it’s just going to have to fit into what already exists in “Pithea,” because I can’t put off revising and going forward with trying to publish it. Any longer, and it’ll just feel like stalling. So today I started on what will hopefully be a final revision to “Pithea”, at least regarding changes prompted by me, rather than by someone else like an editor, and look into publishing options.

Writing Wednesday: Prompt

/ Kristi / 2 Comments

WW Prompt

Here’s today’s Writing Wednesday Prompt:

event (5)

Write a scene from this image. What’s going on in this picture? Describe how the people watching are feeling at this moment. What is the atmosphere like? How does it feel to be at this event? What will happen next?

If you write something from this prompt, by all means let me know! Feel free to share what you wrote, if you want!