History Hunters Weekend Reports

san_remo_ave

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Here it is --a thread for our weekly writing goals and accomplishments, as suggested by our very own c.e.lawson and shamelessly spun off of a similar thread in the Horror Forum.

The purpose of the thread is to:
  • Set weekly goals to keep your writing on track
  • Encourage each other to avoid procrastination
  • Celebrate successes and overcome failures

So far we have the following participants:
c.e.lawson
Doogs
Puma
san_remo_ave
JenNipps
PastMidnight
juliethorpe
and anyone else who'd like to join in!

Let's get writing!
 

donroc

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My goal this weekend is to continue writing my first draft -- about 75,000 words into it-- of the sequel to Rocamora with a goal of completion by the end of the month, as well as polishing my WWII fighter ace novel -- while trying to avoid the temptation of posting and counter posting and arguing with futility in the PC&E threads.

I shall never give up the limericks.
 

Puma

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My goal this week is the rewrite of the short (?) story I'm working on for the Big Muddy contest (version before rewrite is in the western forum titled Untimely Passage). The Indians are going, more action on moving the ship across land. Puma
 

Doogs

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This weekend's a wash for me. Have an old friend in town to meet our little Nolan for the first time.

For the coming week, I'm hoping to finish identifying the various character conflicts for WIP #2 and, if I'm lucky, lay them into the skeleton outline I have going.
 

c.e.lawson

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I'll go first!

My goal for this weekend is to edit --ok, ok rewrite --the first two chapters in NOM.

Wish me luck!

Great goal, Melissa! And thanks for starting this thread. I'm excited to hear about everyone's projects. Would you mind telling us a little of what NOM is?

Now get to work! We expect to hear that your first two chapters are nice and shiny post haste.

c.e.
 

c.e.lawson

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My goal this weekend is to continue writing my first draft -- about 75,000 words into it-- of the sequel to Rocamora with a goal of completion by the end of the month, as well as polishing my WWII fighter ace novel -- while trying to avoid the temptation of posting and counter posting and arguing with futility in the PC&E threads.

I shall never give up the limericks.

See, now - I had no idea you were polishing up a WWII fighter ace novel. Excellent! You're very versatile, aren't you? Or that you're that far into your sequel. I guess arguing in the PC&E threads hasn't hurt your productivity too much, donroc. (Plus, your posts consistently have me laughing out loud.)

I'd love to hear your word count progress as you go. Helps keep you honest, right? Now get cracking or we'll send a P-47 after you!
 

c.e.lawson

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My goal this week is the rewrite of the short (?) story I'm working on for the Big Muddy contest (version before rewrite is in the western forum titled Untimely Passage). The Indians are going, more action on moving the ship across land. Puma

I'm SO glad you're working on Untimely Passage. I really enjoyed that piece and it sounds like your revision is going to make it shine. Let us know when you submit it and when you'll find out the results.

And don't be shy about letting us know how things are going on your other novels, even though they aren't all historical. We're still interested, and you've earned yourself a permanent spot over here!
 

c.e.lawson

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This weekend's a wash for me. Have an old friend in town to meet our little Nolan for the first time.

For the coming week, I'm hoping to finish identifying the various character conflicts for WIP #2 and, if I'm lucky, lay them into the skeleton outline I have going.

We allow an occasional "wash" weekend, but if you get into the habit of it, we'll have to toss you into the forum with a wild beast of Melissa's choosing.

Sounds like you're in a fun place of planning right now. Good luck.
 

c.e.lawson

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OK, I'll join in the fun too!

This week I'm going to put a final polish on my Gettysburg story and send it into the HNS/Fish short story comp. I'm very grateful to Puma and pdr for helping me with earlier drafts, and it's just about ready to go.

Unfortunately, my Sparta story is going slowly. I've had very little kid-free time to write over the last three weeks, and I don't expect much until the girls are back in school Aug 25. I'm going to hit it hard then, but for the next few weeks I'm going to try my best at getting one page a day written. We'll see how that goes. I'm only at 30K out of a projected 85K, so I've got a LONG way to go and it's been slow going over the past several months. I really need to push harder and stop getting side-tracked by shorts. (I love shorts.)

c.e.
 

donroc

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See, now - I had no idea you were polishing up a WWII fighter ace novel. Excellent! You're very versatile, aren't you? Or that you're that far into your sequel. I guess arguing in the PC&E threads hasn't hurt your productivity too much, donroc. (Plus, your posts consistently have me laughing out loud.)

I'd love to hear your word count progress as you go. Helps keep you honest, right? Now get cracking or we'll send a P-47 after you!

WIP sequel is a few words short of 75,000. I figure it to be around 125,000 by the time of the 3rd draft. Rocamora is a little over 150,000, 11pt. type and no page breaks for chapters comes to 440 pages in the ARC.

Thanks for catching my humor; if only you colud hear my tone of voice too.
 

san_remo_ave

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Great goal, Melissa! And thanks for starting this thread. I'm excited to hear about everyone's projects. Would you mind telling us a little of what NOM is?

Now get to work! We expect to hear that your first two chapters are nice and shiny post haste.

c.e.

Actually, NOM is an awful working title that I'm going to change. It's a Regency romance that's proving to be a great 'practice' ms as I develop my voice and storytelling skills. The hero's a bareknuckle prize fighter which has been a ton of fun researching. I love the differences in boxing then vs now (grappling, for example, was expected) and the cant. This was a hugely popular sport at the time.

What do you think about 'Bruiser' for a new title?

PS - Yes, I have to get crackin' --I goofed off yesterday watching episodes of Deadwood with the hubby. That show was awesome --it's a shame they cancelled it.
 

san_remo_ave

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This week I'm going to put a final polish on my Gettysburg story and send it into the HNS/Fish short story comp. I'm very grateful to Puma and pdr for helping me with earlier drafts, and it's just about ready to go.

That's awesome, c.e. --I loved that story when you posted it. I'm really glad to hear you're submitting!
 

san_remo_ave

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Weekend Report for 8/3/08

This weekend we had two participants with weekend goals.

My goal for this weekend is to edit --ok, ok rewrite --the first two chapters in NOM.

My goal this weekend is to continue writing my first draft -- about 75,000 words into it-- of the sequel to Rocamora with a goal of completion by the end of the month, as well as polishing my WWII fighter ace novel -- while trying to avoid the temptation of posting and counter posting and arguing with futility in the PC&E threads.

Here's the award if you achieved your goals!
weekend-report-8-3-08.GIF


Every Sunday there will be an award if you achieve your goal for the week. Be sure to stop by, report your results and collect your award.

And, of course, feel free to collect them and wear them proudly in your signature line.
 

lkp

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A prizefighter Regency hero? How creative! I'd read that.

Can we put non-fiction yet still historical goals here? (My agent has my first seven chapters of fiction WIP, and I don't want to work on it until I get feedback from her) I need to start writing an article this week. Not researching. Writing. I'll let you know how I do.
 

c.e.lawson

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Actually, NOM is an awful working title that I'm going to change. It's a Regency romance that's proving to be a great 'practice' ms as I develop my voice and storytelling skills. The hero's a bareknuckle prize fighter which has been a ton of fun researching. I love the differences in boxing then vs now (grappling, for example, was expected) and the cant. This was a hugely popular sport at the time.

What do you think about 'Bruiser' for a new title?

PS - Yes, I have to get crackin' --I goofed off yesterday watching episodes of Deadwood with the hubby. That show was awesome --it's a shame they cancelled it.

Ooh, your story sounds so intriguing. I have a weakness for battle-scarred warriors, and your bareknuckle prize fighter sounds like one! I love the title 'Bruiser'!

Now no more goofing off! :D
 

san_remo_ave

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Ooh, your story sounds so intriguing. I have a weakness for battle-scarred warriors, and your bareknuckle prize fighter sounds like one! I love the title 'Bruiser'!

:D Me, too --I like 'em rough around the edges.

Matthew's set up a pugilism studio with his prize moneys, a la Gentleman Jackson but without the gentlemanly polish.

My first lines:

The thud of fist colliding with flesh echoed in the large room and Matthew Pembroke smiled, inordinately pleased. God, he loved the sound of a solid, well placed throw.

:D

I like 'Bruiser' a lot too, but thought of another today at lunch as I was cleaning up the final chapter --'Bet On Me'. It's a theme through the story because Matthew won't bet on his fighters and uncovers a couple of schemes to throw matches. It's a romance, too, so I'm thinking BOM is going to stick.
 

san_remo_ave

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A prizefighter Regency hero? How creative! I'd read that.

Oh, good! Thanks! :D

Can we put non-fiction yet still historical goals here? (My agent has my first seven chapters of fiction WIP, and I don't want to work on it until I get feedback from her) I need to start writing an article this week. Not researching. Writing. I'll let you know how I do.

Anything historical counts --please join in!
 

JenNipps

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My ultimate goal for the month is to do a second round of edits on my second historical. (Specifically, historical romance, really.)

I have 21 chapters, so given that there are 4 weeks in the month (thinking out loud here), I'd like to go over 3-5 chapters this week.
 

Doogs

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Wow! Oodles of progress today!

On the TSOR front, I fired off another query tonight. Sort of my way of screaming into the silent void while waiting to hear back on three outstanding queries and a partial.

And...I got my Legions of Cannae outline to a happy place, mostly. I still have a few elements to work out in one of the middle chapters, but I think I'd rather see how things unfold up to that point before I lay them in. More importantly, the overall structure and direction of the story are now worked out, and I'm just about ready to start writing!
 

BardSkye

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Can I join in even though I'm on the other end of the pen these days?

Last weekend's goals: finish a beta-read of a Canadian history book - accomplished.
2) get edits done for an adventure's first chapter - accomplished.

Midweek goals: Get amazon.com's initial order for three titles filled - accomplished
2) get copyrights for both US and Canada done for Puma's book - accomplished

This weekend's goal is to get the legal deposit copies of Puma's book off to both US and Canadian national libraries.

Haven't been doing much writing lately.
 

c.e.lawson

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My ultimate goal for the month is to do a second round of edits on my second historical. (Specifically, historical romance, really.)

I have 21 chapters, so given that there are 4 weeks in the month (thinking out loud here), I'd like to go over 3-5 chapters this week.

Mmmm, historical romance. Second round of edits? Great! That means you're almost done! Let's see - it's been 2 days, so you should be on your second chapter by now, right? :) Keep at it!
 

c.e.lawson

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Wow! Oodles of progress today!

On the TSOR front, I fired off another query tonight. Sort of my way of screaming into the silent void while waiting to hear back on three outstanding queries and a partial.

And...I got my Legions of Cannae outline to a happy place, mostly. I still have a few elements to work out in one of the middle chapters, but I think I'd rather see how things unfold up to that point before I lay them in. More importantly, the overall structure and direction of the story are now worked out, and I'm just about ready to start writing!

Great job, Doogs. We're pulling for you. And it sounds like LoC planning is just sailing along. Excellent! I'm with you - sometimes I have to see how things go in the build up before I can plan a chapter/scene, even though I need an overall structure. Keep going!
 

c.e.lawson

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Can I join in even though I'm on the other end of the pen these days?

Last weekend's goals: finish a beta-read of a Canadian history book - accomplished.
2) get edits done for an adventure's first chapter - accomplished.

Midweek goals: Get amazon.com's initial order for three titles filled - accomplished
2) get copyrights for both US and Canada done for Puma's book - accomplished

This weekend's goal is to get the legal deposit copies of Puma's book off to both US and Canadian national libraries.

Haven't been doing much writing lately.

Of COURSE you can join in! We've missed you! And the stuff on the other side of the pen is highly important, is it not? :) (I'm sure Puma thinks so right now.) Keep up the good work! Hope you can have some writing time soon. Let us know when you dig back into ink and paper.