Work In Progress
Posts about my current work in progress. I’m aiming for spoiler-free information to let you know about my progress.
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I did a bad, bad thing. Also, Thai spam this time.
I’ve been a bad, bad, boy. No, I wasn’t careless with a delicate girl. (IYKYK) I committed a writing sin. Instead of writing on my draft (currently at 83,448 words), I wrote a scene sketch from a future book in the series. I know, I’m sorry. But the scene came to me and if I
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What’s it like to be a werewolf? They’re people, too, right?
I wrote a couple of short scenes today, including one where the werewolves shift. Get furry? Mmmm, no. This isn’t a monster movie where the cursed protagonist endures pain as their body reshapes itself into a mindless beast, doomed to hunt and kill. This is a community where everyone happens to share a specific trait.
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The prep really worked – flew through a scene today.
I’ve been posting about how I had to stop and do some prep work – get the timeline straight, create minor characters and backstories, etc. Today that prep time paid off. I knocked out a full scene in about an hour. 1663 words. I knew where it came from and I knew where it was
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I found a timeline tool that’s really helped me. It’s free.
Free is best. And it’s actually really nice to actually lay out the timeline. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts (She’s being rude, but why is she being rude? Tension.) I paused forward motion for a little while to do housekeeping and worldbuilding I didn’t do enough of before starting. (See my last post about
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Confession time. Pantsing is letting me down.
I discover the story through the writing. Or so I thought. I knew that wasn’t 100% accurate. I imagined pieces of the story – key plot points, big emotional moments, action – before I wrote it. Those are like anchors. But generally I planned to let the characters tell me what they wanted to do.
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She’s being rude, but why is she being rude? Tension.
A minor character is unexpectedly rude to the main character. I had to figure out why, and doing that let me tie it to the overarching narrative tension.
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Big Writing Day. Huge! Also made notes for future revisions.
Big writing day today after no progress yesterday. I really got into the flow and blew past my targets. It is a great feeling!
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I Hit a Fiction Writing Podcast Today and It Spun Me in Some New Directions
I have not been a podcast listener, but since we’ve hit spring and I need to do yardwork, I’ve supplemented by usual playlist with some fiction writing podcasts. Today I listened to Savannah Gilbo‘s Fiction Writing Made Easy, Episode #240, “10 Writing Mistakes That Make Readers Put Down Your Novel.” I have to say, this
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First you must build the world. Except I didn’t and now I need to.
Not a lot of forward progress on the draft today, but there was a lot work on the supporting infrastructure. The title isn’t strictly accurate. I have done a lot of world-building with rules and how certain things work. But I needed more. I drew a map of the local community. That’s going to help