The Weekend Progress Report

last night

Last night I cranked out a couple chapters of a fiction novel PLUS
I wrote 1200 words of my "Based on a true story"
PLUS
I knocked out 2700 words on a collaboration novel.

That was my best night in 2 years.

Sounding Off: One!

I wrote 5,160 words in a short story set in the same universe as TBWN and, uh, about 3 words in TBWN itself. Yes, I will be conducting a writing marathon myself this weekend.

I'll be back Sunday to tell you how well I recovered.

Re: Weekend update

Lori wrote: "I'll be back Sunday to tell you how well I recovered."

Lori, if that's not possible, please have your next of kin tell us instead.

SOUNDING OFF

Okay, Troopers, how's it going?

:teeth monster:teeth novel is now officially 25,594 words long up from 18,792 words last weekend. Would be longer, but pesky character had a seizure yesterday and I'm still researching whether or not she's allowed to do that (it's complicated). ICK.:\

Last week I also wrote a killer essay which will become my next FC sub. This is a good thing because my editor sent me a "boo-hoo" email on Friday telling my the Ed-in-chief rejected my last one.

I've got a column due this week, plus am travelling with daughter Thursday and Friday with schedule unknown. So, I may be pecking away in the wee hours of the morning trying to keep the :teeth monster:teeth moving.

WHERE IS EVERYBODY?!!


Reph: re: Humor writing -- Go for it. If it's what you really enjoy, dig in and do more of it. The market is huge and the pay is good.

Mike: WOW! Excellent progress. Can I borrow your muse? Sounds like you got the workaholic one. I got Slacker-in-a-Box. [Bud smacks Barb with picket sign and mutters darkly] Okay, okay! I stand corrected. I got Slacker-in-a-Recliner.

Lori: Well? How did it all turn out? Did you move TBWN forward? Three words is three words. Just ask Bud. That's about all he contributed this week. I believe the words were: "had a seizure". AARRGH!
And you wrote a new story? :star Excellent!:star

MIA
Annie, Lisa, Jen, Liam, Cary: O where, o where has my writing group gone? O where, o where can they be? [Please don't make me sing. It's bad. I never remember the words and then I have to make them up as I go along.]

Everybody fess up. What's doin'?

Barb:ack

BOATS

My "Based On A True Story" now takes a back seat to my Daughter's Social Studies fair. She has to do George Washington Crossing the Delaware. Of course this means I have to point out all of the errors of legend and tell her about the real story.

We are going to compromise and I told her I will write a couple of pages of my Ancestor writing a diary in the days prior to the second crossing. It should be good. Maybe 200 words a night.

Mike (dad)

Checking In

My major goal for this month was to have TBWN hit the 20,000 word mark by the end of the month. I'm relieved to report that goal has been achieved. TBWN is currently at 20,982 words. This is an increase from 15,185 words at the beginning of the week.

My counts are made using Word's count feature, BTW - I've recently realized how many more words TBWN contains if I use other methods. I'm not too worried about those details at this point, though, since I'm just using the Word count right now to track progress.

The next major goal is to have TBWN hit 40,000 words by the end of March -- and to continue to resist the urge to begin rewriting it before I hit THE END for the first time.

Keep the whip cracking, Barb. Do you need me to send Bud some beer to keep him from interfering with :teeth The Monster :teeth ?


Edited to increase the goal for March.

Re: Checking In

63,000 words into the new (old) project, Dominion.

I started this piece a couple of years ago, but shelved it in favor of Offspring. With Offspring out of the way, I dragged "Dominion" out from under the bed last week and re-read it. I started on some minor revisions and finished those tonight. Tomorrow, I'll "storyboard" out the second half of the novel and begin writing new material.

Also in the works is a novella entitled "The House on Barnett Hill", based on my short story, The Boy in the Barnett House and The Watchers, a techno thriller involving domestic terrorism and easily produced bio-toxins.

In my spare time, I'm overseeing two new projects for the people that sign my monthly paychecks. Damn that day job!

Re: Checking In

okay, if you're sure i won't be trouble. a few notes on current topics . . .

Hey Bud, are you real like me?

Monsterama Dude, Yah!!! Naked women and beer!!! Okay!!

now, where was i? benign respectable? or wasthat being respecnatable? yah! whatever the @#%$ it was!

ah like you attistudes, duedeness! ka=wank

ahem. I Cannot Tell You What I've Been Working On, As Yet.
normally, that mean's i've been goofing off. not this time! what does it mean, then? i have no idea! i just pose the questions, i don't answer them.

Liam Does Not look like that cool undead guy from Buffy! I know from Buffy and Liam aint Spike! Liam is, however, Pretty Cool, I'll give him that. Wow! i expanded his picture and Liam is Pretty Scary! he looks like a harley davidson! strange! and who is that bleached blonde guy in the leather jacket standing next to him? woosh! talk about Under Cover!

Wordster, I have a message for you. no one else need Apply.

Rtly, you are, as usual, an incredible Hoot. or is that the Increddible Hunk? or was it just an improbable hulk? BTW Cary, rtly is not a beast, except in the loosest sense of the word. signed, The Tiger

okay, it was "just a joke." i would tell you the truth, but then i'd have to send liam after you!

this is of course Good News, because it means i will be Acting Respectable from here on, and not

ever seen a sentence logically end with no period?

speaking of the last time i felt True Love, check out the Official Fan Club for a certain person under the Announcements board! really! do it now! it's a joint project, of dawnie and me. want another joint, dawnie? we are having a contest . . . the one who lavishes most praise upon out Guest of Honor over there gets, umm, something.

or, then again, maybe not. heheheheh

There. Was that Funny? I sincerely tried to make it be, at least from my dog's point of view. He looked at me and said, "make it so," and the Mission Impossible theme played in the background. The tiger, meanwhile, is waking up. He has taken an interest in certain hindi snakes in the southern subcontinent, and may be coming active again. not being a Morning Person, it may take him long to quit stretching.

Of course, i was limited by my usual rule of not writing what I am talking about, or even keeping capitalization constant. it distracts the Weirdos. i sincerely hope that people do not continue to consider me a Troll Hiding under the Bridge, as I am clearly less strange than before, and even capitalize the personal pronoun at times! sigh.

well, at least it's progress.

well, it's been fun. sorry i couldn't say anything coherent! must be the Irish! maybe next times, i'll be better.

p.s. I don't know who wrote this, but it Wasn't Me. Q

q

You guys sure crack out the whiskey early in the mid west!!!!!

Re: q

hit her on the nail again, rts!

Re: Checking In

Qatz: So Liam doesn't look like Spike? I'll take your word for it :teeth BTW Nice to finally be razzed by you I've seen your other posts ---you scare me :lol


OH MY GOSH!!! Some of you have gotten so much accomplished in the past week!!!! I am ashamed to slink in here and hold up page one of chapter 4: 396 words....I have excuses, wanna hear 'em???? they are good ..... no really....

impromtu "How -To" book titles:
"How To Move your Mother-In-Law Cross-Country" :ack
(or: Lessons In Tongue-Biting) with an afterward from my shrink.

"How To Refinance Your Mobile Home" by Cannit B. Dunn
Edited by I. Rate

"How To Take Bad News" (or: You Didn't Get The Library Job)
by U. R. Polite Edited by Tru A. Tantrum

"How To Juggle Everything" (or: Toss Me That Chain Saw-I've Mastered the Bowling Pins) by Stub E. Fingers Edited by Mun E. Stight

Oh Geez - I'd better just stop now...

Jen - promising to write more soon..."Lord willin' & the creek don't rise"

Re: BOATS

Mike,
well, I can understand that pesky parenting thing. I'm caught in the throes of my son's Science Fair. And this year, dammit, I refuse to be the experiment!

But still, writing is writing. So keep at it. Besides, I think you probably have a whole humor essay brewing in the Social Studies Fair experience. Take notes (not necessarily even funny ones). When it's all over, you might want to go back and revisit it.

Keep the faith,
Barb:ack

LORI

[Barb tosses confetti and blows a horn]
Go, Lori! Go, Lori!

Great progress!

I can relate to your editing urges. I'm also struggling with that need to go back and fix things. Or should I say losing the battle? Although, I don't rewrite entire chapters. I'm more into the "Oops, I need to go back and fix that for consistency before I forget."

RE: Bud and beer.
Got any tranquilizer darts?

My character is still in limbo while I try to research myself out of a corner. Hate that. Loved where the story was headed, now I've got to play with the technical details. Whee!

The good news is, I got my next sub off to Family Circle and finished my column (also safely on its way via e-mail to my editor). So, the rest of this week will be devoted to getting the :teeth monster:teeth moving again. Cross your fingers for me, the siren call of online mahjong is strong...

Until the weekend,
Barb:ack

LIAM

Boy, you've got a lot of projects up in the air. Are you a juggler, too?

Okay, I'm assuming that at least part of that 63,000 words was written before last week. Otherwise, I'm gonna get a complex. I might even develop manuscript envy.

Good luck with your storyboarding. Do you plot scenes on index cards or what?

Good luck this week.

Barb:ack

P.S. Just who do those people who sign the checks think they are? They are interfering with your art! :lol

Re: Qatz

Eric,
Okay, so you can't tell us what you're working on. I'll assume it's a writing project instead of some psychotic plan to take over the world and remove capitalization from writing as we know it. :lol

And who said you were a troll under a bridge? [Bud elbows his way to the keyboard: Troll? I could do that. What's it pay? Can ya get me an interview? Anything but working with this chick, man. Anything!]

Ahem. Anyway, we will be watching you for signs of respectable behavior. What should we do if they show up?

Barb:ack

WordSoup

LOL WordSoup

JEN

There, there. It'll get better.

We won't beat you up too much. After all, you did write 396 words -- and some mighty funny self help book titles. So all is forgiven.

If you think it'll help, Bud can come stay with you for a week. Beware though, he might dump a seizure or some other medical ailment on one of your characters. Right now, I'm trying to track down a neurologist willing to listen to me babble about a fictional character so I can find out if what I'm doing is even in the realm of possibilities. Sheesh.

Glad you're still with us.

Barb:ack

[Edited by Bud: Did you bring donuts? I'm not forgivin' nuttin' if there aren't donuts involved. hmmph!]

Barb/Bud

Dear Bud: I have an iron skillet with your name on it. (and the PMS to put some muscle behind it)
Don't you dare come within 20 yards of my sweet lil "Laura Ingalls meets John-Boy/Grizzly Adams" muse. (Yeah, I hear ya makin' fun of me out there)

And besides, I just got my character out of the hospital with broken ribs and singed eye brows from trying to rescue her parents from a house fire.

No, they didn't make it.

Enter Maniacal Small Town Pastor.....

8o Jen aka WordSoup - Pickin' up where I left off

P.S. Thanks for the "There, There" Barb. I could almost feel you patting me on the back Good Luck tracking down your neurological answers :nerd

Re: Barb/Bud

doan worry bud, yer always welcome here. i'll get the doughnuts, you bring the whiskey, and we'll go trollin' for babes. heheheh. ones widdout frying pans handy.

ps. ooo wordy, sounds like your character's been through a few. we're with you! of course, not within 20 yards.

Re: Barb/Bud

My apologies

That last post was a TAD harsh. :\

I'm ALL better now *curtsey* :grin Tame again, even!

- Jen

TAME JEN

Oh, now, don't you worry none about hurtin' Bud's feelings. He don't got none above the waist. :eek

As for your post being harsh, didn't read that way at all to me. So, nothing to forgive. Now stop fretting and get back to work!

eace

Re: TAME JEN

...No feelings above the waist...now I'm thinkin'...... oops

SMACK MY PATTIES

- Jen - Back to writin', not thinkin'

Re: TAME JEN

Bud n me come to smack your patties. will you open that door and let us in?

Re: TAME JEN

*shaking finger in Bud & Q's direction* My Laura Ingalls muse is scolding you

- Jen

Re: TAME JEN

Wow, stopped in to see what all the fuss was about. You people need some serious therapy! (I like that in a person...)

Jen, keep that frying pan handy, I have a feeling you may want to drag it back out again in the not too distant future, with this crew in here!

Betty
NSL Board Diva