writer

Daily Writing Check-in: January 22, 2019

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

Words/Time: 46 minutes minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

I’m still reading through the story, making broad changes. Today I got through about 36 pages out of 433, ending on page 385. Our heroes have now joined the final battle, and there are some changes that I made here before I started reading that I’m really enjoying as additions to the story.

I’m close to the end of this draft, at which point I’ll find out if my friend still wants to read it. I mean, I know he wants to, but the question will be whether he has time to read it soon or not. I am certain he will like it, for various reasons, but I’m also hoping that, as the very first person who will have read this story at all, he will have some valuable feedback.

Daily Writing Check-in: January 21, 2019

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

Words/Time: 1 hour, 12 minutes minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

I continued to read through the story, making broad changes. Today I got through about 54 pages out of 436, ending on page 349. That’s a better pace than yesterday, and I’m approaching the battle that leads to the climax. I’m happier than I thought I’d be with the book as it is. It still needs some overhauls, but I expected to come away from this read-through with a lot of notes of bigger things that need fixed, besides what I already know about.

I realized recently that I haven’t shared my goal tracker yet this month. I don’t want to only share it when I’m doing well, so here it is, showing how far behind I fell from my goal this month. I’m almost caught up, and again, if I don’t make a monthly goal, it’s okay. But it’s still nice to have something to shoot for.

goal tracker 18-1-21

I also realized too late today that another Monday has gone by, without a Monday Moment post. The first few weeks went by mostly because I’ve been sick in various ways, but this one just snuck up on me. I need to get a handle on this.

Daily Writing Check-in: January 20, 2019

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

Words/Time: 1 hour, 55 minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.” Most of that was done early this morning, before I went to bed. The beauty of the challenge I’m doing is that I don’t have to make up for lost days this month, but that doesn’t mean that sometimes I don’t just really want to spend a lot of time on it.

DailyTime-30min-DebbieOhi-200

I continued to read through more of the story, making broad changes. Today I got through about 82 pages of 436, ending on page 295. That’s definitely a lot of pages, but for almost 2 hours work, not quite the pace I would hope for. Still, I’m almost 3/4 of the way through, which is great! After I’m done reading, unless I have any notes to address (and I don’t so far), I’ll be done with this goal.

Daily Writing Check-in: January 19, 2019

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

Words/Time: 36 minutes minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

I continued to read through more of the story, making broad changes. Today I only got through about 24 pages of 436, ending on page 213. A huge piece of the puzzle was revealed in today’s section, but I had to do a little tweaking to make sure that it was revealed correctly. And of course, like any good, long-term mystery, many more new questions came up as well as that piece to the puzzle. I’m really looking forward to when this all finally comes together, way in the future!

Daily Writing Check-in: January 18, 2019

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

Words/Time: 46 minutes minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

I continued to read through more of the story, making broad changes. Today I only got through about 9 pages of 436, ending on page 189. However, approximately 4 pages (about 660 words) of that was writing a new scene that has been needed badly since the first draft.

When I wrote the first draft of this story, the first few lines of my outline basically just had the main character, Alexander, learning about and falling in love with Power while growing up a little. With no real details planned, I ended up spawning a new character, named Garend, almost immediately, someone who could be a childhood friend for Alexander (well, they were 15 when they met, but both in need of a friend).

But then by halfway through the book, when the story turns a lot more dangerous and serious, and Alexander and the secondary main character Leahna are in their twenties, Garend just…disappears.

After the first draft was finished, I realized this huge, gaping hole, and brainstormed some ideas for how to get Garend to exit more gracefully (and realistically), because I knew I couldn’t keep him as a close friend of Alexander’s later in the story, with how complicated things get.

The resulting story arc is one I am very happy with, because it fits very well in the long-term story that this is part of, but I still had to make it work. Today was the pivotal scene for that story arc, which is why it took a while to write. But I’m pretty content with it for now, and will be moving on to swifter revisions now.

Daily Writing Check-in: January 17, 2019

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

Words/Time: 1 hour, 4 minutes minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

After 5 days of absence from working on this, it felt great to be back to it today. Most of my absence was due to being sick (again), but I have to admit that the 1st missed day was due to working late, and the 2nd missed day was…because I forgot. Still, this break isn’t as long as some in the past have been, and I’m confident I’m back to it (even though I’m still sneezing and headachey…back to it!).

I read through more of the story, making broad changes, to get the story ready to be read by a friend, before heavier revision starts. Today I got through about 41 pages of 434, ending on page 189. Today I redid some important parts and thought processes of the MC and am heading into a section that will likely require some new writing.

I’m suddenly very excited to get this done, even though it’s been a while since my friend said he wanted to read anything I was ready for him to read. So he may be unable to get to it for a while when I finally get it done, but I’m still glad to be making progress on revision anyway.

Daily Writing Check-in: January 11, 2019

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

Words/Time: 40 minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

I read through more of the story, making broad changes, to get the story ready to be read by a friend, before heavier revision starts. Today I got through 25 pages of 435, ending on page 148. It was less progress than normal, but I had to type up a new section too.

The story is really starting to pick up now, so I’m looking forward to continuing it tomorrow (or possibly Sunday, since I might not be home from work before midnight tomorrow, so if I don’t have time before work to write, I won’t get any in tomorrow).

Daily Writing Check-in: January 10, 2019

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

Words/Time: 43 minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

I read through more of the story, making broad changes and taking notes for other issues that need addressed (though there have still been no new notes to take yet). Today I got through 38 pages of 435, ending on page 123.

I don’t really know how much better I’m making the story right now, but I still think my friend will enjoy it when I’m ready for him to read it. I can worry about making it great later (not that it’s terrible now).

Daily Writing Check-in: January 9, 2019

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

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

I read through more of the story, making broad changes and taking notes for other issues that need addressed (though so far there have been no notes to take). Today I got through 46 pages of 435, which puts me on pace to have this done in just over a week.

I should say, it’s not that there are no bigger changes to make (I mean, I still have some items on a list that I decided should wait until after I get this “good enough” to be read by a friend who has been itching to read it), but nothing besides some huge questions I have about leaving in entire sections of the story. I’m putting that off for later too. My friend won’t mind reading sections that might get cut later.

I am very glad for a daily challenge that isn’t impossible to reach, and keeps me moving forward, even at a slow pace. I’m just happy to get some work in these days.

DailyTime-30min-DebbieOhi-200

Daily Writing Check-in: January 8, 2019

/ Kristi / Leave a comment

Words/Time: 36 minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

I’m reading through the story now, making broad changes and taking notes for other issues that need addressed. So far it’s been going pretty well. I’m on page 39 of 435, and I’ve done well so far ignoring line edits that I could be making, and instead looking for the broader issues.

I always copy a previous post when making these updates, so I can skip having to adjust some of the settings, tags and the like. But far too often, I forget to change the title of the post to the current day…I always wonder if anyone actually notices that.