Words: 1155 revising “Adventures in Pithea” with two of my sisters over Skype. Also known as the twenty-fifth meeting of the Tri-County Sisterhood of the Traveling Book. We got through almost 4 full pages of double-spaced text, which was amazing. We were actually able to leave whole paragraphs of text alone without arguing over every sentence.
TCSTB
Daily Challenge Check-in: January 20, 2015
Words: 872 revising “Adventures in Pithea” with two of my sisters over Skype. Also known as the twenty-fourth meeting of the Tri-County Sisterhood of the Traveling Book. We got through 2 1/3 pages of double-spaced text, which made us feel like we’re picking up steam again. We’d lost some over the holidays.
Daily Challenge Check-in: January 13, 2015
Words: 536 revising “Adventures in Pithea” with two of my sisters over Skype. Also known as the twenty-third meeting of the Tri-County Sisterhood of the Traveling Book. We got through 1 2/3 pages of double-spaced text and had some vocabulary lessons.
Daily Challenge Check-in: January 6, 2015
Words: 481 revising “Adventures in Pithea” with two of my sisters over Skype. Also known as the twenty-second meeting of the Tri-County Sisterhood of the Traveling Book. We got through 1 1/3 pages of double-spaced text, argued over whether to use “to” or “for,” and learned something new about systems in place in the story world. Not bad for our first time back after 2 weeks off, and everyone being sick, or getting over being sick.
A Look Back at 2014
This year has been a very productive one for me, fictionally speaking. I’ll recap some of the highlights.
I started this blog at the end of April in an attempt to keep myself from slacking off in my editing work. I’ve had some success with it, while at the same time let it slide now and then.
I finished two novels in 2014. The first one, temporarily titled “Adventures in Pithea”, was started in November 2013, and finished in February 2014 at 105,000 words. The second one, titled “Pursuit of Power”, was started and finished in November 2014, the first draft landing at 101,000 words.
I participated in my 5th year of NaNoWriMo, and won with 107,234 words, passing the 50k word mark on the 12th. I was also more socially active than past NaNo years, even if most of that was online, and set a huge daily word count record for myself with 10,516 words on the 15th. It was a good year.
And here at the end of the year, I even had a very writerly Christmas. Here are the writing-related gifts I received this year:
From my in-laws, a set of small notebooks, Doctor Who themed.
I have a larger version of the notebook on the right, but the one in the middle takes my focus. River Song’s spoiler-filled notebook is a great addition to my notebook collection.
From my younger sister, a t-shirt with a reminder to never stop writing in some form or other.
I created this motto and image to go with it earlier this year, for use as a banner in some places. Then I went to Zazzle and slapped it all over several items and set them for sale. I hadn’t bought any yet myself, but hoped to one day. This is the t-shirt, which I did want more than the other items.
From my mom, a medium-sized, lined notebook with the NaNoWriMo logo on the front.
This blank notebook was a new product in their store recently, and I’ve wanted a blank notebook from them for years! I was one (among many, I’m sure) who suggested they create a blank notebook instead of the confusing (to me, at least) notebooks they already had that seemed to have filled pages and maybe blank ones, but who knows without buying them. I love the look with the shield in gold against the black. I have grand plans for this new addition to my notebook collection.
From my older sister, a mug she made herself.
The mug was brilliant. On the front is the motto I made up earlier this year to remind myself that every day should include some time for my creative pursuits, whether it be dreaming up new ideas, planning a story, or writing a story. The sister who made this is one of two who make up the Tri-County Sisterhood of the Traveling Book with me. That is what I call our little group that meets on Skype weekly to work on the editing of “Adventures in Pithea.” When I turned the mug to see the side and back, I laughed so hard.
Now this month, I have taken an initially unintentional break from my writing projects, which turned into a necessity as Christmas grew closer. Near the beginning of the month, my husband and I went out of town for 5 days, and the days before and after that were busy with preparation and recovery. Then wrapping, shopping, and other Christmas-related activities took up my evening time. Now as the season draws to a close and the new year is set to begin, I plan to delve back in with a fervor. I’ve done heavy revision on 1/4 of my first novel, so there is still a lot to go. Considering that that 1/4 took most of this year, it’s difficult not to get discouraged about how long it will be before it’s ready to attempt publishing. But I’ve not given up yet.
Just before this break started, I had begun a challenge to write/edit 500 words every day, and I am eager to get back to that. I’ve also dropped off on a plan to do one writing exercise from my Now Write! book per week, so I hope to have time for that again too. Those are my plans for this year. That and have as many mega meetings of the TCSTB as the others will allow.
To all of my fellow writers out there–whatever, whenever, and however often you write–what were your highlights for this year? What are your proud or disappointed moments from this year? And what are your plans for the coming year?
December 2
Words: 1936 deleted from NaNo ’14 manuscript (“Pursuit of Power”). Also, nineteenth meeting of the Tri-County Sisterhood of the Traveling Book (revising last year’s novel, “Adventures in Pithea”).
NaNoWriMo Day 25
The Words: 2045 written today. I had to squeeze some in during the afternoon and then a bit more before we had another Skype meeting of the TCSTB (revising a novel I finished earlier this year). And I wanted to share this picture from the marathon meeting we had at the house of one of the TCSTB members on Saturday.
We acted out some fighting scenes to make sure they made sense in the text. The bear represents a large reptilian creature. The blanket on the floor is its victim, and the red is a sweatshirt that has been laid across the body to symbolize blood. This is before we rushed in to attack the reptile.
The Story: Lex and Leahna are continuing to help with the battle in the desert, and so much is happening, but I can’t really go into detail.
Total word count: 93,806
NaNoWriMo Day 22
The Words: 1919 written today, in the wee hours of the morning before I went to bed. I spent the rest of the day at my sister’s house, having a marathon meeting of the TCSTB (revising last year’s novel). Memorable quote from tonight’s meeting: “How are we supposed to help you stab a bear if we don’t know how power works?”
The Story: Lex and Leahna are traveling back to the desert to help the militias who have already been there for months, fighting what has turned out to be a large force of mercenaries. Rusalki, the leader, is not above using very unethical, illegal, and unnatural means to win the battle. Thus Lex and Leahna felt that their advanced abilities would be very helpful and even necessary, despite both being sought after by the authorities.
Total word count: 87,741
NaNoWriMo Day 18
The Words: 1792 written today. Today was my lowest day for this month, but I expected it to be. I didn’t write any until evening, and I only had about an hour total to write. I was glad to at least make par (though, yes, yesterday, I wrote 3700 words in 1 hour, and today I did half that; however, it takes a special focus to write that much, and I did not have it today). I had a Skype meeting with my sisters (sixteenth meeting of the Tri-County Sisterhood of the Traveling Book), who are working with me to revise the novel I wrote last year.
The Story: Lex, Leahna, and Glyn continued on with their plan to infiltrate the hideout of a band of mercenaries. Their mission was a success, but they don’t know yet that it was also somewhat unsuccessful.
Total word count: 77,714
NaNoWriMo Day 13
The Words: 2718 written today. It’s the first day after I reached 50k, and it’s not a good sign of things to come. However, I pulled double writing duty today. On top of the writing I did for NaNoWriMo, I had a Skype meeting with my sisters (fifteenth meeting of the Tri-County Sisterhood of the Traveling Book), who are working with me to revise the novel I wrote last year. That was during my evening writing time, so I knew I wouldn’t get writing done during that time. So the rest of the writing happened in the afternoon, which I think was actually a pretty good amount.
The Story: The plot is flowing so fast now, I can’t get very far without having to check my outline. In fact, I tried talking out the story into Audacity while doing dishes again, but I kept having to run over to the computer to look at what was next, so I finally had to give up. Lex and Leahna encountered Rusalki, a dangerous woman who will actually become sort of the big bad of this story. There are no indications that she has anything to do with Lex’s dad’s death, or the dangerous steps Lex is taking to answer the questions surrounding his dad’s death. However, she definitely has a malicious intent, not just toward Lex and Leahna, but toward…everyone.
Total word count: 54,470
A Journey of Words 