Where are you? (in your novel)

Just finished my first draft. Going to take a break for a couple of days before I start editing.

On Draft #3. Questions need answers, areas need to be filled in, some material needs to go...Slowly but surely my thriller is getting there.

Villain is teaching the main character to use her powers.

Edit round has officially reached the polishing stage, replacing a few words and cutting sentences here and there. Might be nearing submission stage, but horrified to send ms out when it's not ready--gut instinct says it's ready.

Finishing second draft of novel #2- already know it needs something, but making myself wait for the next go round. (After friends and family beta reads)
Tweaking novel and query for novel #1- boy is QLH humbling. And the rejections...but once I finish the second one, I'll go back and work on that.
Of course #3 is pounding at the door.
Now, if only my 4 dogs, husband, work, horses, etc., would cut me some slack...

I managed to write about a thousand words yesterday but now I'm stuck again and none of the words I wrote are "right".

I know where I want to be (wizard's apprentice from secondary world goes through portal to "our" world and can't easily get back), but the circumstances around how the portal comes to be keep changing when I try writing. Right now I think I want to have Juniper test the spell that makes the portal and then the portal collapses behind her when she goes through, leaving all her notes on the other side. What I don't know is what comes before that, and that's giving me problems. Sigh.

Just finished the 4th draft. Looking good and I'm feeling confident.

This was the first time I've used the 'speech' feature in MS Word, and I love it!! My internal auto-correct makes some errors difficult to detect, spelling errors such as using though when I meant to write through.. etc. I also tend to mentally fill in missing words, or re-position them when they're out of order. All this stuff really shows up when I listen to the speech feature. Great stuff, if you've not tried it, I suggest you do.

Going to take a day or so off to plan a motorcycle trip out to the east coast in June.

Wrote 1.5k in main WIP today and 3k for a short story.

See if I can bump up the WIP to 2k and then call it a night.

Edit: not a normal night by any means! I have no idea why today was so productive and the rest of the week, not.

I'm finally getting back into the swing of writing after a long hiatus! Ambassador Seji has stayed behind to talk to and share a letter with Bastian about the Farsan girl he's beginning to fall for.

I just finished the third draft of my first novel about ten minutes ago. I think I have all the major events in place, and the story is coherent. It's not perfect (far from it), but I'm about to send it out to friends for beta reads and it'll be the first time that I've exposed my work to anyone! I'm not sure what kind of reception it'll get, but regardless, I've put a lot of effort into it and I'm proud of myself.

Also, first post! Hello AW community

I just had an entire chapter (more of an intermission, really) come to me in the shower.

Current bad guy's about to be killed off, so I decided to introduce the new bad guy having a meeting with their boss (the Elf Queen). He's actually not that bad, and kind of relatable- he's an elf, 4,000 years old and riddled with cancer and advanced dementia. But because elves use magic to extend their lives (they aren't naturally immortal in my setting), he's basically carrying on like nothing's wrong. But all it takes is for him to step on a rusty nail (what with iron dispelling magic) and all his enchantments will come undone, and he'll die on the spot.

What was even more fun was that I finally got to introduce the Elf Queen's elite guard, the Changelings. They're humans, brainwashed and raised from infancy to be loyal to the Elvish cause, and even trained in the ways of magic. And their names are John, George, Paul and Richard.

Beardon said:

I just finished the third draft of my first novel about ten minutes ago. I think I have all the major events in place, and the story is coherent. It's not perfect (far from it), but I'm about to send it out to friends for beta reads and it'll be the first time that I've exposed my work to anyone! I'm not sure what kind of reception it'll get, but regardless, I've put a lot of effort into it and I'm proud of myself.

Also, first post! Hello AW community

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Congrats and hello.

I'm right at the beginning of an idea that thinks it's a novel. I've given in and started the outlining/research process. I suspect this is a magnificent ploy to avoid editing my current WIPs (all short stories) but I'm running with it.

Just starting on my second novel in my series (while still editing the first).

Currently, Anna and her best friend Laney are dealing with the horrors and embarrassment of a seventh grade gym locker room.

I'm 42,000 words in and Wilfrid has just left a wiccan to head north. He has another clue as to where the object he needs may be located, but his thegn is searching for him and the forests in Anglo Saxon, England have plenty of other dangers that could thwart his quest. Not only that, but now his beliefs are on shaky ground after his conversation with the wiccan about the new religion sweeping across the land. Are his gods real, or is it this new one God? If so then his quest could be doomed to fail and the lives already lost are wasted.

S feels caught in the middle between Mr. Sort-Of Boyfriend and Miss New Best Friend's drama. Who does she trust? Meanwhile, other supporting cast members discuss the upcoming high school dance and the fact that the police just found another body in the woods. Oh, and then there's Mr. Mysterious (the houseguest) who was out the night before and may be up to something suspicious... or was he just wanting to keep his private business strictly that? What was he up to?

WriteMinded said:

I'm creeping - and I do mean creeping - up on The End. I've been crawling toward it for months, through illness, sleeplessness, and stress. I have maybe three chapters to write and two incidences to add. Then I'm going to have a party or something. OK, Maybe just a new pair of shoes.

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Lakey said:

Astonishingly, I'm 80,000 words in.

And I'm just reaching the climax. In the next several chapters, one main character's love affair will implode, possibly taking her marriage with it. Another main character finds all the threads in her life unraveling at the same time, tries to forget her troubles for an evening, and winds up in jail.

After that, it's all denouement, I suppose. I'll just have to figure out how much.

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Way to go!

The Council is meeting at Dan’s Cafe and having an ecstatic experience with the first fresh brewed coffee they have had since landing on the planet. Rob shares an interesting communication he has received and Jey and Celie realize it has to be the father of the boy from the hostile Z Corp colony that Talleh has connected with intuitively. What to do? What to do?

S and Miss New Best Friend begin work on a class project. Auntie and S discuss safety options, after the news of the latest murder. S goes on another date with Mr. Sort-Of BF and begins to see more of his dark side; maybe Miss New was right. Mr. Mysterious shows up and takes her home.

Just sent my list of corrections / alterations to my cover artist. About half way through editing pass #5.

2/3 through draft one. Evidently, the husband decided to leave earlier than I had planned. Also, the new love interest showed up already, but he can't be known yet, so he's just another person... for now...

It's 1938. The owner of the private duty nursing agency Lily works for has been "punishing" her by sending her out to nurse hypochondriacs (which Lily doesn't mind in the least) and then to increasingly disturbing quasi-medical cases. I need to think up one more quasi-medical case, something so utterly challenging to Lily's personal ethics that she'll decide to quit even though times are still hard.

I have finished the ms, busy editing. I'm adding in a new character, which is fun. Not sure if it's working, hence I'm goofing about on AW today...

Congrats on finishing, Qwest!

Something strange is happening and the MC is freaked out.

I am butchering three chapters I love. Killing your darlings is painful. I am very sad.

Spent a cheery morning writing about a child's funeral. Still not finished with it.