The SFF Writing Check-in Corner

There's also the point that different books need different voices.
A trilogy fantasy needs a different voice to a 60k literary work.

Glad to find some activity here again. Always surprised to see so many people having trouble getting word counts up. Me, I have trouble getting them down.

Latest book is nearing the end of the first draft. It has been a difficult journey and will require a lot of changes. This is my first attempt to use a woman's POV, and I've had troubles pinning her down.

Oh hey, somehow I missed this thread in my travels! Nice to be here hanging out with you all.

Hoping to knuckle-down on my urban fantasy project before the end of the month. All, er, three days of it... not much time to hit my wordcount goals (from the JuneNoWriMo thread, which I really recommend for motivation), but all I can do is try.

BryanT said:

Just checking in, and being a bit frustrated. First the good. Well, my numbers weren't so good this week. Only 3,998 words. For a total of 38,345 words.

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I'm now at 43,500. For a grand total of 5,155 words this week. WOO HOO.

Though my critique partner has pointed out some really bad areas in my story. I think I am going to have to go back and add some additional story, as one of the 2 MCs has no investment at all (in all fairness, I wasn't expecting her to be a MC, It just kind of happened.

I've been working on the same black-hole life-sucking story since 2002. Currently up to 25K, but that was after I did a complete rewrite of what I had about 8 years ago. I don't feel particularly frustrated by this; I read some great advice recently that said every trashed draft is progress toward a polished product. I really appreciated that.

Mine used to be an epic fantasy, but now it's moving in a much more literary direction, so it's becoming an interesting amalgam. I've been derailed from working on it for close to a year now because of other writing related projects, but with any luck I'll be moving in that direction again shortly.

I really just want to finish it before I die; polished or no.

I need to really finish my book. I keep telling myself, "I'll finish it this month," but I've been saying that since April and three or four rewrites of the opening have left me with about 6,000 words. And I'm not even to Chapter 4. *sigh* It's all technically still 'first draft' so I'm not too upset about the word count yet, but I have no idea how I'll be ready to submit in January with this lack of progression.

So, I just rewrote the intro to an idea of mine, and I only came up to ~700 words. Any advice on how to get word counts up?

Canislupus54 said:

So, I just rewrote the intro to an idea of mine, and I only came up to ~700 words. Any advice on how to get word counts up?

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Leave it alone. Adding padding just for the sake of word count will make it a pain when you have to go back to edit it.

Arjani said:

Leave it alone. Adding padding just for the sake of word count will make it a pain when you have to go back to edit it.

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Thanks for your input. I've gotten some feedback elsewhere that I think will help expand it without padding, but I'll keep this in mind.

I'm still plotting my trilogy. Though this trilogy is just for training.

Short story that I've been working on (well more off than on if I'm honest) for 7 years complete at ~5k and sent to betas!

I keep saying I'm nearing the end of the first draft of Aberrations. I seem to still be nearing the end. While I've been adding words, I've deleted well over 5k. Word Count is over 116k, but the finish line is in sight. All I need is a little writing time.

yumpty-tum said:

Short story that I've been working on (well more off than on if I'm honest) for 7 years complete at ~5k and sent to betas!

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Congratulations. Completions are something to celebrate!

So this is my first time posting here, XD. I more or less starting taking writing seriously about a year ago.
My first completed project, which I can't even think of the name of off the top of my head, was for NaNoWriMo and I've basically kept that pace up. That project was, naturally, right at 50k words. Between February and March I finished another project, something of a Fantasy Heist called Seven Foxes that was around 95k. Mostly in May, with a little spillover into June I wrote the a novel called Duelists about sport gladiatorial rapier and dagger fencing, that manged to only reach 75k before I was sick of it. My current WIP is about 25k in, a quarter, and unlike my other projects I'm doing a first pass revision immediately rather than along the way, and the revision for the first block is more than half done already. Though it may not seem like it, I'm a chronic underwriter, so I think this revision pass will actually up the word count, hopefully to a nice round number like 30k. I also have an Urban Fantasy side project that's stolen a couple thousand words, and a dream project that I'll start one day which is still in the brainstorming stages.

So I guess you could say I've been busy.

The end of Aberrations is farther away than the last time I posted. I wrote a couple of great chapters, but the next day realized they didn't work. Sigh. I have to somehow get the MC well into her role as advisor to the lords of the province, in as few words as possible, before her brother comes back and stirs the pot until it boils over.

While I am working things out, the book I deserted to write this one, jabs at my mind. It had gone off track somehow, and I didn't know how to fix it. I thought by the time I could get back to it, I'd have it all figured out, but I don't.

I have started combining my various tidbits of creative fodder into one cohesive world. It's comical how all of the ideas I've had fit into a singular world.

I have a finished draft (well, minus the denouement and a couple placeholder scenes), in various states of revision throughout. Every time I go to revise, I find it easiest to start from the beginning -- and the beginning is pretty well polished by now! But I tend to lose steam partway through... partly because I have trouble keeping track of how I'm weaving together various subplots. I need to figure out a better method to revise the middle portion, or at least dredge up the motivation to revise the middle properly.

EDIT: Congratulations to everyone above me who has finished their project or even made the slightest progress.

I have, at long last, gotten a novel to a satisfactory state and can finally start the heavy editing and polish. It's 117,376 words.

I was looking for help for queries and synopses a few years ago for it here, but came to realize it still had some problems. So I kept the shell, reworked it, and here we are.

Congrats!! Do you have any wise words from the experience for the rest of us working on novels?

I'm ~20k into my first novel, most of which came from Camp NaNo in August and have petered out since then, stuck on some plot/world issues (that are totally solvable, I am totally just using them as an excuse)

Best advice?

Just finish it. It's a skill in itself. Doesn't matter how good or bad it is. All that matters is reaching the end.

joeyc said:

All that matters is reaching the end.

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And then doing that again, 7X over, in rewrites. That's the stage I always lose steam. Not revising enough. It require the same discipline already mustered to reach the finish, it's just not as exciting and more difficult (in my mind--and only in my mind!).

Mary Love said:

And then doing that again, 7X over, in rewrites. That's the stage I always lose steam. Not revising enough. It require the same discipline already mustered to reach the finish, it's just not as exciting and more difficult (in my mind--and only in my mind!).

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Eventually you get the point you don't feel like you need to rewrite it over again, but then you have to edit it.

I'm not meaning to discourage the guy (or gal), because it's hard. But finishing is the first step.

Mary Love said:

And then doing that again, 7X over, in rewrites. That's the stage I always lose steam. Not revising enough. It require the same discipline already mustered to reach the finish, it's just not as exciting and more difficult (in my mind--and only in my mind!).

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I adore your stamina. Truly, I don't think I would ever be able to do that. Luckily, my process focuses more on writing a relatively polished and well-planned first draft, so that the next will include only minor revisions and rearrangements. Phew.

relletyrots said:

I adore your stamina. Truly, I don't think I would ever be able to do that. Luckily, my process focuses more on writing a relatively polished and well-planned first draft, so that the next will include only minor revisions and rearrangements. Phew.

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Maybe someday I'll achieve this golden level. For now, seems like all I can do is knead my crap over and over hoping it will stick together.

Mary Love said:

Maybe someday I'll achieve this golden level. For now, seems like all I can do is knead my crap over and over hoping it will stick together.

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Everyone's process is different I hope you find one which is the most enjoyable and productive for you

Got the latest light fantasy novel 'in the can' and ready to to be released into the wild early next year. The start of yet another series—now I need to look at all the outlines and plot fragments for one of the other seven series on which I am working and develop one of them...