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Daily Writing Check-in: December 26, 2018

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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

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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

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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.

A Monday Moment: Christmas Eve

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Today’s writing was mostly inspired by it simply being Christmas Eve today, and by my own involvement in my church’s Christmas Eve service tonight, which I’m participating in.

The couple in the writing are two people whose relationship develops in the down time between stories (so far), so anytime I write about them as a couple, before they’re married, it’s new and interesting insight into their relationship.

To all who read this today or soon after it’s posted, I hope your Christmas is wonderful!

“Is the church having a service on Christmas Eve again this year?” Penny asked.

Nathan nodded. “But I already told the pastor that I wouldn’t be able to be involved this year. I’ll help him plan it, but won’t be part of it.”

“Why not?”

Nathan held back a chuckle to avoid giving her the wrong impression. “Because our wedding is only a few weeks after Christmas. I figured we’d be too busy to attend this year.”

“You want to skip the service?” Penny asked with surprise.

“I…I guess I thought we’d need to. Or at least that I wouldn’t be able to be part of it, considering the extra time that I would have to take to prepare.” He looked at his fiancée and noticed the disappointed look on her face. He wasn’t expecting this reaction at all. “Did you want to go to the service?”

She nodded.

“We certainly can. I only wanted to avoid any unnecessary stress.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but took another moment to consider what she wanted to say. She stared past him when she said, “The service last year was one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced. I never knew that side of Christmas, and, as you know, it was a huge part of me learning about your God.”

Nathan smiled. He remembered.

“But not just that—the music, the lights…the compassion.”

He noticed tears in her eyes and felt a tug on his heart.

“It’s hard to explain,” she said, meeting his eyes again. “But I have been looking forward to it this year. I would really like to go.”

“Of course we can.” He took her nearest hand in his. “I should have talked to you about it sooner; I do remember how much you enjoyed it last year.”

Penny squeezed his hand. “And, hey, if you want to be a part of the service, you should. I think we’re going to have plenty of time to get ready for the wedding without you needing to sacrifice a tradition.”

Nathan chuckled. “It’s not exactly a tradition; I’ve only been part of it for a couple of years.”

“All traditions have to start somewhere.”

Daily Writing Check-in: December 23, 2018

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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!

Daily Writing Check-in: December 22, 2018

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Words/Time: 1 hour, 14 minutes doing some early revision of “Pursuit of Power.”

I have a list of 24 items that need changed in the story. These are just the issues I knew about and wrote down either right after I wrote it (during NaNoWriMo in 2014) or when I first tried to revise it in February of 2016.

A few months ago, I went through the list and marked each item as either simple to fix, difficult to fix, or to be left for later. During today’s work, I revised all of the simple items (there were 10). Next, I’ll go through the difficult ones (8). Then I’ll read through the whole thing to find what else needs revised to make it a decent read before moving on from this story for now.

Daily Writing Check-in: December 21, 2018

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Words/Time: 1 hour, 51 minutes, finishing item #2 in my list of short-term writing goals, and starting on #3:

1. Remove NaNo fodder from 2018 NaNoNovel, put scenes into Scrivener while I still remember my ideas

2. Make Aeldrim not be dead in “Pithea“

3. Revise “Pursuit of Power” just enough to be readable by a friend who is interested. I have hefty revisions planned for the structure of that book, but it will take a long time, and they won’t affect the overall story of this world, just what goes into that book. So before I dig into the major work that was part of my recent absence from writing, I want to just make it readable.

4. Read through “Pithea” for further necessary changes

Finishing #2 took me over an hour, but I think I have removed all references to the aftermath of Aeldrim’s death. Now he gets to live and drive everyone crazy in future stories (which will mean I have to write him in to some drafts, but that’s okay. Writing him is a challenge and requires me to step out of my comfort zone, which is a good thing).

As for #3, I have to be careful here. The revision of this book contributed to my almost-3-year hiatus from writing. I am not looking forward to figuring out what I have to do to make this book work. But even just making this post, and re-reading my plan for goal #3 led me to realize that I’m doing too much right now. The plan is just to fix it up the way it is, make it readable, not make it “work.” I will keep the small amount of changes I made on the way to figuring out a better plot line, but instead of continuing down that path (for now), I am going to dig out my list of bigger changes that need made before I am comfortable letting anyone read it.

This friend who is going to read it was instrumental in getting me to where I am in writing these stories, and I know he will enjoy the story for what it is, even with the scenes that I will eventually deem unnecessary to the story (or just having the wrong focus). I look forward to hearing his thoughts on this draft.

Daily Writing Check-in: December 20, 2018

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Words/Time: 397 words and 1 hour of work, starting on item #2 in my list of short-term writing goals:

1. Remove NaNo fodder from 2018 NaNoNovel, put scenes into Scrivener while I still remember my ideas

2. Make one obvious change to “Pithea” that is not actually a huge change for that book, but will affect future books a lot. Basically, a side character dies for no real reason, and I’ve realized that future books would be much better if he lived. So he’s going to not die, but because his death did allow a minor plot point to happen that still has to happen, I have to first brainstorm how to make that plot point happen anyway.

3. Revise “Pursuit of Power” partially

4. Read through “Pithea” for further necessary changes

I have the most difficult parts of the change made, but now I’m following rabbit trails while trying to make sure I catch and change any details that are different with the un-death of this character. I tend to get caught up when I go back and re-read my stories that I haven’t read in a while. I’ll try to pull myself away and get through this item quickly.

Daily Writing Check-in: December 19, 2018

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Words/Time: 21 minutes putting my 2018 NaNoNovel into Scrivener by the scene, which I finished. Then I spent countless hours doing research for world-building for the same story.

So quick background–my NaNoNovel, “Protector” is the 2nd book in a trilogy, which in turn is part of a larger book series that takes place about 2000 years in the future. It is post-apocalyptic, but not dystopian. A world-wide technology ban has put the world in a medieval mindset in some ways, but also in some ways, the people are somewhat modern.

The majority of the books I’ve written for this world take place on a fictional island off the coast of what is currently Alaska. But “Protector” takes place on the continent of North America.

When I wrote this draft, and really up until this morning, I had planned for it to take place mostly in the New England area of the US. But I had a major realization today that threw off everything I had planned.

I was thinking of the continent as far too small of a place. Far too small. Distances between key locations were too far for what was going to happen, and it put the rest of the stories way too far away for what I had planned. A common enemy draws 2 characters from the main series of books into “Protector,” but they are way over near Alaska and British Columbia. Even with some non-traditional means of travel (for their level of technology), it was just too far.

So I moved the main country in “Protector” (currently called Altmoor) to the west coast of the United States. It took a lot of time to pin down a location where the story would work, given factions and events. But I think I have it pretty close. Details may change later, especially since I’ve never been great at understanding geology and topography when it comes to world-building. But for now, I think I’m settled. And I’m really glad I tackled this now.

Now I’m ready to start on goal #2!

Daily Writing Check-in: December 18, 2018

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Words/Time: 1 hour, 12 minutes putting my 2018 NaNoNovel into Scrivener by the scene.

I ran into a huge issue today, in the scene organization I did yesterday. While I am willing to put scenes out of order if I feel the story can be told more interestingly that way, this was just sloppy. However, the way the scenes involved are written, it doesn’t flow the way it needs to go. But I’ve got some ideas on how to make it work, and I made notes about those ideas so I don’t forget some day.

I am actually really wishing I could just start the revision on this story now. I know I can, because it’s not like it’s not up to me. But I know that if I do that, I will be further delaying even the chance for these books to be readable by anyone else in the order they need to be in. So I need to finish this task and move back to the revision of the first books. But man, do I love this book…