500 Words Challenge

Daily Writing Check-in: December 20, 2015

/ Kristi / 3 Comments

Words/Time: 24 minutes working on the next (and hopefully last) draft of “Pithea.” Mostly just reading, making sure everything flows, and making a few small edits along the way. I’ve just finished chapter 13 (out of 29).

Almost 10 pm, and I’m past ready for bed. That’s very unusual for me. This cold has me in a lot of joint pain, and I took some NyQuil to help me sleep better tonight. Fortunately, I got a chapter read before it kicked in. Hopefully I’ll sleep a lot tonight and will already be feeling better tomorrow. Or at least no worse.

Daily Writing Check-in: December 19, 2015

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Words/Time: 26 minutes working on the next (and hopefully last) draft of “Pithea.” Mostly just reading, making sure everything flows, and making a few small edits along the way. I’ve just finished chapter 12 (out of 29).

I seem to be coming down with a cold, similar to one my husband’s been trying to get over for the past 5-6 days. Sore throat and just tired so far. I’m not happy about this, given the upcoming holiday. I don’t get sick often, and when I do, it’s often pretty mild; I’m hoping I can rest a lot in the next few days anyway, to try to be back to normal by the 24th. I still plan to do some work on this story every day, even if I’m sick, but how long I can work may dwindle. We’ll see.

Daily Writing Check-in: December 18, 2015

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Words/Time: 1.25 hours working on the next (and hopefully last) draft of “Pithea.” Mostly just reading, making sure everything flows, and making a few small edits along the way. I’ve just finished chapter 11 (out of 29).

My dad, who’s been listening to a converted audio format of the book, finished it yesterday. He sent me an email last night with the following subject header:  “WHAT!!!” The body was one line, referring to an event near the end of the book that had surprised him. I can’t help but be pleased with the reaction, because it means he was caught up in the story enough to react strongly to the end. That’s good!

Daily Writing Check-in: December 16, 2015

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Words/Time: 53 minutes working on the next (and hopefully last) draft of “Pithea.” Mostly just reading, making sure everything flows, and making a few small edits along the way. I’ve just finished chapter 6 (out of 29), so I’m making pretty swift progress.

My dad has converted the whole story into an audio file with some program he uses to do the same to other books he downloads, so he can listen to them while he’s working all day. He just started listening to it yesterday, and is already about halfway through. He’s brought it up several times, talking about what he likes about it. He’s been a huge fan of my writing since before he even know if I could write very well (in other words, he’s very supportive). But he’s converted two previous stories of mine (“Outcast” and “The Triangle”) the same way and has listened to them in the past. I suspect more than once each, because it’s been  a while since he first did it, and he seems to remember the stories pretty well.

Yesterday, he asked me if he’d need to watch my kids when I went on a book-signing tour after my book was published. My mom told me today that he’s waiting for me to get rich.

The really helpful part of all of this is that if he can follow what’s going on in the story while listening to it being told by a computer voice, then it must not be as complicated and confusing as I’d feared. So that’s really good to know!

Daily Writing Check-in: December 15, 2015

/ Kristi / 3 Comments

Words/Time: 2.25 hours working on the next (and hopefully last) draft of “Pithea.” Mostly just reading, making sure everything flows, and making a few small edits along the way.

A few of the people who attended the NaNoWriMo write-ins at my local library decided that they’d like to continue to meet weekly. We enjoyed the camaraderie and just being able to get away from home to work on whatever we wanted to, even after NaNo. I missed the first two, but went tonight, and it was a lot of fun. In the 2 hours we were there, I only actually worked for 30 minutes, we talked about writing and other things (there were only 3 of us there; it’s always been a small group). I won’t be able to go every Tuesday, but I plan to make it as often as I can.

Daily Writing Check-in: December 14, 2015

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Words/Time: 30 minutes working on the next (and hopefully last) draft of “Pithea.” Mostly just reading, making sure everything flows, and making a few small edits so far. I’ve sent the story off to a few people to read and give me their thoughts, which makes me nervous, but also anxious to hear what they think. I’m hoping to find someone who knows nothing about the background to my story world, because the people who are reading it so far have all been part of the sounding board of this world at the beginning, and know one key element that a normal reader wouldn’t know. I’ve sent feelers out to some friends, so we’ll see what happens there. If no one is interested, I’ll accept that. It’s been so long since this concept was conceived that perhaps some of those who are reading it now don’t remember the important details anyway.

Daily Writing Check-in: December 12, 2015

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Words/Time: 1.5 hours breaking “Pithea,” into chapters in Scrivener, then compiling the finished draft, and formatting the manuscript so that it’s more readable by everyday people (since Scrivener formats it for publishing companies, at least so they say).

Then while we were at a Christmas get-together today, during some downtime, I started reading through “The Triangle,” looking for any small edits I want to make before I try to self-publish it. It’s been years since I wrote it, and at least a year since I last read over it. I’ve grown as a writer even in that time, plus I’ll have very fresh eyes, so hopefully I’ll get it into a decent shape.

But I think “Pithea” is still going to be coming first, so “The Triangle” will be left to work on only when I’m not in the best position to work on “Pithea,” or when I need a short break from “Pithea.”

Daily Writing Check-in: December 11, 2015

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Words/Time: Almost 2 hours inserting chapters into “Pithea,” in Scrivener, after finishing breaking it into scenes. I’m 3/4 of the way through the story, so I’ll be done soon, and then I can finally proceed with reading through it again. This weekend, my family has enough Christmas-related plans that I may not get much done. And I won’t stress over making sure to do some work every day, if I’m tired in the evening or something. Though I’ll probably finish this chapter thing before I go to bed tonight.

Daily Writing Check-in: December 10, 2015

/ Kristi / 5 Comments

Words/Time: 1 hour transferring “Pithea,” one scene at a time, into Scrivener. I’m not sure why it took me an hour to only get 2/3 of it done, but it did. I guess there’s more to it than that, as I did a few other things at the same time, like figure out how many words part 1 is, and how many chapters it would be if I averaged 5000 words per chapter.

Either later tonight or tomorrow night, I will finish this and divide the chapters. Then I’ll bug a few people to read it while I also start into reading it again.

Or maybe I’ll go give “The Triangle” another read-through. That’s one I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned on this blog. It’s a novelette-length story, which I hope to self-publish soon. More on that later, maybe.