September 2020 Challenge - Write Every Day!

Morgan, w00t on the 30 mins!
ice, nice work!
Moon, fwiw, I had a time when it was hard to write. I ended up surrendering to it. It went on for a while, but my habit came back more relaxed and steadier. If there was one lesson I wish I had been able to learn when I was younger it would be - to stop fighting myself... and congrats on that 234
April - hope you enjoyed the involuntary skip day
Hello Kerry!
Carrie, Congrats on a 600 word day off! (I'm still a baby. July is my month because I can stay in for HOURS I was once in the water non stop for two hours a few years ago. The water was really warm, nearing that 'bathwater' feel. I did my circuit of the pond which took about 1 hr 20 mins, and then I spent the rest of the time bouncing and floating... But I love swimming so much, I usually go till mid-October. Though by then it's a very quick dip - I bring a second bathing suit so I can warm up faster and go for a second swim. On the fine days there's nothing like it.)
Chase - wwwoooowwwwzzzaaa! 5K in one day. You won the 1K club - go directly to the Penthouse Club
Cindy, congrats on the 133, the research and the editing
Keithy, nice work




Day 20


WIP - added words
R/SC - chores
BP/$$ - more tidying up; job 6.5 hours

Day 20
30 minutes on the WIP -- and yes, version 2!

And driving by because I wrote responses to everyone and my browser ate my post. Sorry, nice job folks, and thanks for the encouragement!

Cindy: Can't wait to see how Billy gets himself out of this one
Keithy: I sympathize with how you feel; I would be stressed to no end if my grandmother was alive during covid. I hope you're doing okay
Layla:Congrats on the tasks
Morgan: Don't you love it when that happens? I'll just imagine something really nice instead

20th (and on time, too!): 2,352

Wrote that scene and the rest of that chapter, which was mostly "oops I guess we're in a relationship now." I wasn't planning on this to happen, just for it to happen farther down the line between books, but in the grand scheme of things this makes a lot more sense and fits in better with the characters. But it also totally torpedoes one side of the love triangle and creates other issues, like when are other people going to figure out they're a thing? How can you progress a relationship when you're busy doing Main Character stuff. Got some more stuff to think about.

Day 20 - 753 words. That's much better than yesterday. I left off with a Sphinx agreeing to give Wattson her mysterious egg that could be part-sphinx / part-dragon egg.

BTW, should I capitalize Sphinx if it is a species? (think of a tamed house cat with a sandstone person's face and eagle wings)

Chase - Sounds like it's time for a brainstorming session for you. Good luck!

Morgan - Is version 2 like a second draft? Sorry for all the questions. Just trying to strike a conversation.

Layla - I hope my habit comes back. Writing is like my only skill.

Day 20

Another good day yesterday, 1.2k to finish a scene which was plot-relevant but I thought I pretty much knew what happened before and after, and there were some fidgety bits, so I'd been skipping it. And this is why the missing scenes are first on my revision list, because writing it I got a brainstorm that massively rearranged my finale and added some new scenes... today I'll be going over my outline and fixing that in, as well as hopefully getting a leg up on the next missing scene. Why are novels so dang BIG.

--
Patty: Ugh on the migraine and the rest of it. I hope you feel better and are able to keep working through it.

Layla: Butterfly was my bane when I did competition swimming -- I never did have the shoulder strength -- so serious congrats on getting it! I wish I lived somewhere regular swimming was an option; I miss it.

ice: 2k! Very nice!

Moon: Ugh, yeah. I went through a nasty burnout period last year and it was just the worst. Sometimes I can write through it; sometimes I need to switch up gears, try something like writing by hand to make it seem less "serious" and more like play for a bit; and sometimes I just have to walk away.Glad today went better for you!

April: Yipe, explosions are no fun. Hope it was just your charger and the laptop itself came out ok.

Kerry: Oooh, your new project sounds good -- it's such a great feeling to get back to drafting after a long time fiddling with revisions. *eyes revision in progress* *sighs*

Carrie: I love working with different perspectives but ugh, yeah, soooo much work especially when they're in the same place. Sounds like one of those hard-but-fun chapters. Hope you enjoyed your well-earned rest day!

Cindy: I don't drink much either, just something about the idea of nailing down the *specific* nastiness that smelled like rubbing alcohol tickled me and sounded like such a fun rabbit hole. But all your research sounds like so much fun.

Keithy: Ugh, yeah. My grandfather is 96 and he is a constant worry -- we've been able to keep him at home, luckily, and mostly isolated except from my mom and me, but it's a constant worry. And he has dementia and no idea what this pandemic thing we're fussing about is....

Chase: Hah -- yeah, isn't it a pain when your characters helpfully rearrange your whole dang timeline for you?

And good job, keep going to anyone I missed!

Day 20

Word Count - Added words

Dress Her in Chameleon - Went back and italicized epigrams on 4 previously spot-edited chapters Newly spot edited Chapters 28 and the second interlude,

Keithy - After a critical illness in 2017, I had to enter a PT program located in a nursing home. Thank God that was three years before Covid 19, and I pray every day for those poor folks who are in those human warehouses during this pandemic. Your mother was truly blessed to not have endured these times.

Chase - Congrats for the new turn in the romance and it’s added conflict--you can’t go wrong there. It’s funny, Billy and Carolina have an unconsummated thing that no one knows about. Little do they know. Everybody on the island, including the serial killer, think active lust is afoot, so to speak, between them.

Kat - 1.2k Wowser! Billy does drink a lot so it’s natural to compare the rubbing alcohol stink he smells in his half-wake to cheap booze.

Morgan - Yeah to the version 2!

Layla - More added words!

Moon - Nice word count. Love the egg mystery!

DAY 20- 843 words.

Second Moon- I don't think you should capitalize it in the way you don't capitalize mermaid or fairy or a baker.

Kat-I'm glad you learned how to skip those scenes and come back to it. I don't think I could ever train my brain to think that way.

Kerry: Happy hammering!

Carrie: Sounds like a productive day all round

Chase: Okay so I may have been a little dramatic … it did blow the fuse in our flat though! Also—5772?! Holy moly! (UPDATE: And another 2352! You’re on fire!)

Cindyt: I’ve seen royal albatross and am tellin ye, those things could definitely carry someone off! Excellent wordage and research and editing

Keithy: Glad the stairs are sorted. It’s awful what’s been going on in care homes. I encountered some people today who believe Covid is a big conspiracy. Didn’t know whether to be angry or frightened or just a bit sad.

Layla: Yay for the words

Morgan: Excellent work! Aw, I hate it when that happens!

Second: I’d say no to capitalisation. Tremendous word count. Glad you had a better day

katfeete: My laptop survived, thankfully! Excellent 1.2k for you. I always go with missing scenes first too. Sorry to hear about your grandfather. It is such a worry when you have more vulnerable family members.

Nice work, starry!

My brain broke today. I have NO idea what comes next in my book and after a day trying to think/type through it I still have nothing. I’ve really been out the groove this last week, so hoping the juices flow again soon.

Morgan WTG 30!
Chase, nice 2352!
Moon, congrats on the 753
kat, nice work on the 1.2K
Cindy, wtg on those words!
Moon congrats on the 843
April, here's to that well filling back up




Day 21 - keeps getting colder... it even smelled cold this morning. And the heat was on before I woke up


WIP - added words
R/SC - groceries, cooking & chores; swimming (not quite take your breath away cold but definitely skin-tingling cold.) Got some wool gloves and socks
BP/$$ - more tidying & sorting - Oh - tried to take fabric scraps to recycler only to find out you have to donate now in a different town, then my flip flop broke so I was walking along a city street carrying two bags of trash and wearing only one flip flop...

Morgan – hopefully version two is better. Demon hunter is on its fourth version.
Chase – ooh that’s a lot of words – well done.
Second moon – egging you on here.
Katfeete – in the 1K club, always a sign of serious work done.
Cindy – yeah, I’m doing that sort of thing with capitalization.
Starrystorm – I want to capitalize mermaids!

My progress today

Went through three more chapters of Demon Hunter, fiddling around with word choices and rephrasing things. Tightened up a few action scenes.

775 words written on Dustworld. It’s all about to start.

Sent the wife shopping on her own today for the first time in ages. Gave me time to do stuff, which I promptly wasted

Greetings!

Chase—Oooh! A sex scene! I don’t envy you. Generally, I have folks just wake up and have pancakes but, you know, that’s me.

Cindy—The NaNoWriMo goal is just 50k in the month of November. Most folks write the first 50k, but some start in the middle. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s 50k. Smiling about Starsky and Hutch…

Keithy—Hugs to you on this anniversary.

Today I did no new writing whatsoever. On my walk yesterday I had a vision of how I could improve that crucial opening chapter of the first book. And I did. I called it “crisping up the edges of the scenes” because I altered very little in the middle of the scenes but gave the opening sentence and closing paragraph more tension and, hopefully, more reason for readers to want to continue reading. It's the sort of thing that would get tiresome if I did it at the end of every scene in every chapter, but I think it was needed—and was missing—from the latest draft. I am pleased with the new punched-up version.

Now it will be interesting to see what I do next. I am eager to finish book three, but if I continue to feel I can make headway in revision, I will do it. It is usually hard for me to see areas that need revision and today it felt clear and necessary. I realized I was letting characters off much too easy early in the book.

I’ll just have to see if I end up finishing in time to start a new book on November 1st. Right now, I’m pleased with the revision.

I hope you are all having fun!

Day 21

1 HOUR ON THE WIP! The baby napped a lot, that got me to 45 minutes. Then I was at home and I thought, if I just do another 15 minutes... so I did. Partly so I could brag about it here, so I'm bragging. Because I know people will be nice and not point out that an hour is actually not very much. It is for me, right now.

Chase: I believe what I said was "DAMN, nice wordcount!" And for today I'll say it again, minus the swearing: Nice wordcount!

The Second Moon: Don't be sorry! I like conversation! And if I ever drop the ball because I do a driveby, feel free to poke me again. I don't bite!

And I guess it's like a second draft? Is a second draft like a new (and hopefully improved) version of a story, in a new file? Because that's what my v. 2 is.

Also, I vote for non-capitalized sphinxes. Which sound awesome, please do write about them. And speaking of writing, nice wordcount!

katfeete: Busy busy! Nice wordcount, too.

Cindy: Yay words!

starrystorm: Nice!

April: Damn, sorry you're stuck. Hopefully the next scene will become apparent soon...

Layla: Yay words! Not-so-yay broken flip-flops... hope you made it home without too many blisters.

Keithy: I'm hoping it'll be good enough to workshop... version 1 was bad enough that I didn't need the help figuring out what to fix. We'll see!

And nice work!

Carrie: Sounds like you did some important thinking, as well as revising. And thanks for the reminder that NaNo is coming up!

Day 20
1,089

Day 21
66 words

Working long hours this week and next. My brain is already mush. Is it 2021 yet?

ice: Excellent words. Sadly, 2020 is still with us. I'm relying on American voters turning this ship around in November. (So, no pressure )

Morgan: Hurrah for 1 hour! And an hour is loads of time. From my endless stalking I've found that a lot of professional authors only write 3-4 hours a day.

Carrie: Love it when a solution comes to you. And it's amazing how reframing the start of a scene can make such a difference.

Keithy: Excellent words and editing.

Layla: Doh! Still, you were doing an awesome thing by recycling fabrics. I think a cookie is in order.

I'm bowing out for the rest of the month. Need a break. Brain mush. See ye in October--and may the words be with you.

Day 22

Nothing yesterday but a bit of brainstorming on the next scene, because Monday was a Monday, and also because this is one of those "crap, this really ought to happen, shouldn't it," scenes. If you throw in red herring suspects to a murder (because mystery) the person investigating the murder really ought to interview them. But I find it difficult to write a scene I know is a dead end. However, got a lead on it, and managed to grind out 300 words on it this morning, which was enough that I figured out some actual useful information I could slip in there, so hopefully the rest of the scene will go easier.

--
And I just realized it's 8 am, which means this'll have to be a drive-by if I want to get the kid started on school and get to work on time, bah, this new schedule is a bear. Good writing, everyone!

Day 21 - 25 words. I did some plotting though.

I've got a online class approaching soon so I'll just say "good job everybody".

Day 21

Word Count - 595

Research

• 18th Century kitchen utensil. I chose sugar nipper. Refined sugar was packaged in wax-covered cones. Nippers were used to pinch sugar from the cone. There were different sizes. I chose the smallest one, which Tilder uses to fill her sugar bowl. It’s important in Part Four: Strangers Within the Gates because it, along with several other item, mysteriously vanish from their places.
• Frog calls. Ribbit, croak, peep, cluck, bark, chirp.
• Tried to find a summer hardy night bird in Miami. No luck. Yet. I should ask on the bird watcher thread, but the last time I went in there, they were not pleased with me say saying “I’m scared to death of birds.” (Inspired by the Barred Owl‘s “who-cooks-for-you“), I made one up, as in: A strange raptor called “who’s-that-behind-you.“
• Propofol for inducing Billy into coma. No go. It wasn’t used in the US until 1989. Boo.

Dress Her in Chameleon - Spot edited Chapters 29 & 30.

A Deadly Spill of Scarlet - I edited the scene with the shadow figure. Billy is having a bad reaction to Pentobarbital, which they used to induce him into a coma. He’s a bit confused and having nightmares--a side effect of the drug. (I was induced with propofol--Michael Jackson’s “milk.” I woke up confused and had all kinds of hallucinations.) But had to resort to Billy having nightmares instead. But, hey, it worked. Hint: The killer really in his hospital room, but he isn’t sure of that.

April - Been there. The juice will flow again. I swiped the albatross from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Different use, of course. In mine, the bird is an omen. Billy and Carolina are anchored off a cay in the Florida Keys, having a bit of fun on the beach, when the sight of an albatross disquiets her. And sure enough, all hell breaks out soon after.

Carrie - Don’t you have to write those 50k words within November?

Keithy - Way to go the chapters and great word count.

Kat - Brainstorming is a must.

Morgan - Yay to the hour!

Layla - Yay to the added words!

ice - 1155 words in two days is excellent.

Secondmoon: Ooo a sphinx. Is she going to tell any good riddles?
Kat: Sounds like a lot of good progress!
Cindy: Congrats on the words
Starry: Good job on the 843 words
April: That's really rough Take care of yourself!
Layla: Oh no! And I hope that you're keeping warm
Keithy: Nice progress
Carrie: I have days sometimes when there isn't anything NEW, just going over old stuff; I don't think of it as a waste or anything since it's still improving the story. And it's stuff I probably have to do later, anyways, nothing worng with starting on it now
Morgan: Whatever motivates you to work is valid! Glad you were able to find the time
Ice: Isn't that the mood of the year?

21st: 401 words

Nothing too crazy. Was kinda headache-y. Looking at the calendar I don't think I'll be able to finish it by the end of the month? But that's fine if that happens. Whatever, we'll see

Keithy, nice work on the review and the 775
Carrie, let that well fill back up!
Morgan, I usually do about 15 minutes, so -- congratulations on that hour!
ice, congrats on the 1k+ day - and on the 66 day. Those low-count days are the gold. They are the days when the blank page could have so easily been the victor
April, take it easy, enjoy the time off, let that well fill up!
kat, congrats on those 300 words
Moon, great 25!
Cindy, nice 595 & research
Chase, congrats on the 401




Day 22


WIP - I think I'm going to make it a skip day today.
R/SC - did my dishes when I got home rather than leaving them for when I get up; a very wee bit of ballet practice
BP/$$ - job 12 hours

Day 22
It's still Tueday somewhere, right? 15 minutes on the WIP.

Aaand driving by because I really need to be asleep. Nice work, folks! Or if not, there's always tomorrow!

Just poking my head in. I’m adding to the outline and writing down the snippets of scenes that I wake up with in the morning. Still finding the shape of this new book.

Day 22

Word Count - 320

Research

• Drug in place of propofol. Pentobarbital
• Do you name or title a painting? Title

Dress Her in Chameleon - Spot edited Epilogue

A Deadly Spill of Scarlet - Billy’s wife, DEADco SAC Aphrodite Miller, code name Wolverine, visits him in the hospital. He popped the man who shot him between the eyes. They don’t know who he was or who, if anyone, sent him. So she has stationed a couple of agents outside his door. Little do they know that the shooter has connections, shall we say, to the serial killer who abducted Lolita Jordan.

Chase - Nice word count.

Morgan - Congrats on 15 minutes.

Layla - Hope you have fun

Driveby!

Cindy--Yes, the goal is 50k in the 30 days of Novemember.

I was up late last night sending out letters to prospective beta readers. I decided I needed to keep the marketing ball rolling just a bit if I am going to attend some workshops in the fall or winter and I need a little feedback in advance. I'm trying to get a diverse group, a mix of experts in various fields and writers in something approximating my genre (whatever that is!)

Congrats on all the good writing going on. I am unsure right now if I am going to do a little more revision or dive into chapter 13. It's a lovely dilemma!

Day 22 - 257 words. I left off with Sly going to pick his girlfriend up from the homeless shelter because she was accidently was put in there.

Carrie - I need to get on top of things and send my WIP to a beta reader.

Cindy - That's interesting about paintings.

Morgan - Sleep is very important.

Layla - I've been doing too many skip days.

Chase - Yes, The sphinx tells them a riddle.

Layla: I hope you had a nice skip day
Morgan: Glad you were able to find 15 minutes, have a nice sleep!
Sandree: It all sounds exciting!
Cindy: Oooo, the intrigue...
Carrie: What kind of experts are you looking for?

22nd: 2,867 words

Been a lot of "*George Lucas voice* It's like poetry, it rhymes"-ing going on. The new queen is aware of the old king's mistakes and how it got them into the situation they're all in; she's vowing to her advisors that things will be better this time around. But there's unknown unknowns and she's creating false narratives about The Baddies so, iunno, maybe she's focusing on the wrong mistakes to fix this time around. Also started looking into the material properties of swords before making myself stop, because I sure don't know what all those numbers mean and I was staying up late enough already. Sure am tired today.