Daily Writing Check-in: January 1, 2019

Words/Time: 42 minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

I completed 4 items in my list of things to revise again, which made me happy! Though I added yet another item to the bottom of the list. It seems like it’s never going to end, and this is just the early revision.

goal tracker Dec 2018

I am starting a new goal tracker on the NaNoWriMo website for January. December went so well that I have decided to up my daily goal to an average of a half hour a day. I’m not sure this is necessary, because I also know that if I start to fall behind, I won’t push myself to catch back up. That goes against the nature of this daily writing challenge. And during December, I definitely didn’t have to push myself to reach the daily goal more than a very small amount. But I’m doing it anyway, just in case it helps.

DailyTime-30min-DebbieOhi-200

Daily Writing Check-in: December 30, 2018

Words/Time: 1 hour, 2 minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

Most of that time was spent working on an item in my second list of things to revise, the same item as yesterday. While trying to add some glimpses into the personal life of my secondary main character, I had to make a small edit to my timeline. I realized that she thought of the main character as too young for something he wanted to do, but I wasn’t sure he was really young enough. I tried to change his age, but that didn’t really work out.

In dealing with this issue, I realized that the secondary main character is too young, considering that she was younger than some of the side characters in “Pithea” that she’s definitely meant to be older and more experienced than. So I aged her a bit.

Then I added in one of the scenes I wrote as writing practice a few years ago, which I think is great for the story. Tomorrow, I’ll add another scene (and probably play with the timeline a bit more).

goal tracker 12-30

I doubled my goal of time spent working on writing this month!

Daily Writing Check-in: December 29, 2018

Words/Time: 44 minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

Most of that time was spent working on an item in my second list of things to revise. The plan is to add in some glimpses into the secondary main character’s personal life, since she is not shown in that way very much so far. I’ve already written a scene or two that I can include, but for the first one, I have to get the area where it’s going to go ready. This involves once again comparing a scene that is in both “Pursuit of Power” and “Pithea,” and figuring out how much of it belongs in which book. This is where I will continue tomorrow as well.

Daily Writing Check-in: December 28, 2018

Words/Time: 49 minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

Most of that time was spent finishing item 3 in my list of difficult things to revise, finishing revising the scene that I moved over from “Pithea.” That got me through 6 out of 8 items on the list. The other 2 I am saving for later.

Next, I am starting on a new list. While I was working on the items from my list of things to fix during this revision, I came up with some more things that needed to be done, and wrote them down for later. Now I’m starting on that list, which currently has 16 items on it. Today, I fixed the 1st and 4th items on the list.

After I’m done with this list, or perhaps before I’m completely done, I’ll read through the entire draft again to find any other glaring issues that need fixed before I’m willing to let anyone at all read it. There are a few items on this list that might better be fixed while reading through the draft, rather than trying to find all of the places the issue exists by skimming or jumping around.

Daily Writing Check-in: December 27, 2018

Words/Time: 51 minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

That time was spent on item 3 in my list of difficult things to revise. This entailed copying & pasting a scene from “Pithea” into “Pursuit of Power,” because it turns out it really belongs there. However, the scene was written from the perspective of the wrong character now, so I’m making edits to help with that. I got sidetracked by trying to answer a continuity question that maybe isn’t important in this early revision.

Daily Writing Check-in: December 26, 2018

Words/Time: 58 minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

That time was mostly spent fixing items 6, 7, and 8 in my list of difficult things to revise. It was nice to get through a few in a short amount of time, considering how long some of these items are taking.

I have now completed 5 out of 8 difficult revision items.

I also went on to work on item 3 on the list, which required me to take a look at some scenes in “Pithea.” That book runs parallel with “Pursuit of Power” in some places, and originally I had intended to just go ahead and show intersecting scenes in both books, but from different characters’ perspective. However, I’ve recently decided that that would be a bad idea. For one thing, some of these parts just mean a lot more to the plot of one book than the other. So for those, I’ll just delete the scene from the book it’s less important for, either summing up what happened, or hinting at it and leaving it unexplained.

One of these scenes was left fairly unfinished in “Pursuit of Power” when I first wrote it, but it needs to be in that book. Tomorrow I will work on moving the scene from “Pithea” to “Pursuit of Power,” which will take a bit of work, because it’s from the wrong character’s perspective right now.

Daily Writing Check-in: December 25, 2018

Words/Time: 1 hour, 34 minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

That time was spent fixing the fifth item in my list of difficult things to revise. In the book, the 2 main characters get involved in a mini civil war in their country, and the uncle of one of the main characters is also involved in the battle. However, when I wrote the first draft, I completely forgot he was there. So I had to find some spots to add him in, and have it feel natural. I’m really happy with how it came out.

I have now completed 2 out of 8 difficult revision items.

I’m pretty happy to have gotten so much work in on Christmas day. I did some before I went to bed, but then had some free time in the afternoon between my immediate family’s Christmas events and my extended family’s gathering.

 

Daily Writing Check-in: December 24, 2018

Words/Time: 26 minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.” Also 367 words of writing practice.

I spent most of that time brainstorming ideas for the fifth item in my list of difficult things to revise.

I also spent some time looking at my list of potential spoilers to decide if “Pursuit of Power” should still be book #2, or if it should come after 1 or 2 others. I still can’t decide.

Daily Writing Check-in: December 23, 2018

Words/Time: 25 minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

I started on the list of difficult things to revise today, but didn’t get very far (they’re labeled difficult for a reason). There are 8 total. The first two I realized I didn’t know if I needed to change at all, so I put question marks next to them and moved on. The third item I just noticed that I didn’t even see, so I’ll come back to that. The fourth item I completed, and the fifth is what I was working on when I stopped.

While I was trying to figure out what to do for the fifth item, I read something that brought me back to item 1, which is at the center of an uncertainty I’ve had about this story for quite some time. And then I had an “Aha!” moment and realized I knew how to solve this issue. I made a note to come back to it though, because it would take a bit more work, and went back to item 5.

This new idea will require even further examination of “Pithea,” but that’s okay, because my next overall writing goal is to read through that book and look for any changes made necessary by books I wrote later.

Today was definitely a “work 20 minutes just so I can say I did the minimum” kind of day. But it’s 2 days before Christmas, so that’s not a surprise. And even then, after I had reached 20 minutes, I kept going for a few minutes, because I was caught up in it. But now I have to go take care of things for tomorrow and Tuesday.

goal tracker 12-23

I have surpassed my goal of 10 hours of writing work for this month!