THE WEEKEND PROGRESS REPORT 2008

Appalachian Writer said:

Okay, better late than never:
Updated both blogs...
Wrote 3 poems
"How Small" appeared in Raphael's Village on Christmas Eve
My humor piece goes up on RV next week
Added 609 words to work in progress.

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Good work, Appie! Nice word count on the WIP, nice to see more poems coming from you, congrats on the poem up at RV and the humor piece coming -- well done all the way around!



And...due to you coming in *gasp* AFTER Haggis...looks like you're our paper bag winner of the week.



Wear it with pride!

And it's that time again...time to hand out this week's word count winner.

Sean D. Schaffer said:

7,000 words is nothing to sneeze at.

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Very true, Sean! It's something to jump up and down about! Well done!



Who will win next week's challenge? Will...YOU?

JeanneTGC said:

As Tri said, you're right on time. Love that title, btw! Nice word count, good to see your characters expanding and progressing. Well done!

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You hated Wildlands but you love Wastelands? *Scratches head*

BTW, the working title for Wildlands became Turning Back Evil. I was really surprised at how it ended too. The hero pushed the plot, but the coupe de gras was played out by an unexpected character. I'm not sure if that's how it works. Anyway, it did leave the storyline open for second novel in the series.

It seems that I'm only just getting to know the characters and they have so much left to tell. Does that mean that the first novel is incomplete or is that the way things go sometimes?

Quinn said:

You hated Wildlands but you love Wastelands? *Scratches head*

BTW, the working title for Wildlands became Turning Back Evil. I was really surprised at how it ended too. The hero pushed the plot, but the coupe de gras was played out by an unexpected character. I'm not sure if that's how it works. Anyway, it did leave the storyline open for second novel in the series.

It seems that I'm only just getting to know the characters and they have so much left to tell. Does that mean that the first novel is incomplete or is that the way things go sometimes?

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I don't remember hating Wildlands. But I like Wastelands better -- probably because it sounds (whether it is or not) more post-apocalyptic.

And, it depends on the novel. If it's a series, there should indeed be more to tell. If it's supposed to be a stand-alone, well, if the story is complete, but the readers would want to know more about the characters, then that works, too. If the novel doesn't "end", even if the end clearly says "to be continued", then that's an issue. But leaving readers wanting to know more about your characters and to spend more time with them is never a bad thing.

(The first Harry Potter book, as an example, stood alone but was clearly the opener for a series.)

Early report for the week. Does that get me any brownie points? Geesh, there's no getting away from food references...

• Completed final draft of 600 wc article. My usual wc specs are 1200-1800, so 600 is a how-tight-can-you-write challenge!
• Working on the quiz to go with - FUN!
• Mulling over book proposal, but it has been suggested by wiser minds than mine that I do some article pitches on the topic first to "build a platform" before thinking book. Anyone else want to weigh in on that one? I could PM you more details if you like - I'm not ready to discuss topic publicly here yet.

Here's to 09 being much better than 08! Wishing you all the best, my pals.

Nancy said:

Early report for the week. Does that get me any brownie points? Geesh, there's no getting away from food references...

• Completed final draft of 600 wc article. My usual wc specs are 1200-1800, so 600 is a how-tight-can-you-write challenge!
• Working on the quiz to go with - FUN!
• Mulling over book proposal, but it has been suggested by wiser minds than mine that I do some article pitches on the topic first to "build a platform" before thinking book. Anyone else want to weigh in on that one? I could PM you more details if you like - I'm not ready to discuss topic publicly here yet.

Here's to 09 being much better than 08! Wishing you all the best, my pals.

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Nice work, Nancy! I'm impressed with the 600 worder -- short is HARD. Quiz sounds cool, I suggest you spend some time in the nonfiction forum and pick those brains on the book proposal. (I do know that you're in best shape if you can be considered an expert in some way, but that doesn't mean you have to have sold/placed articles on the topic in order to be considered an expert.) Well done, you get an early bird award!

Good idea re: the nonfiction forum, J. I'll check it out.

And, yes, I would be considered an expert on the topic, so I thought that might give me more juice to jump ahead to bookdom. Scares the cr-- out of me, though. Yeah, yeah, I know, that's good for me.

Humor piece goes up on RV this week. (Take a peek. I think it's really funny. Would like to hear what you all think.)
Revising second novel for POV issues.
1 very short poem

Welcome to 2009, all! If you haven't seen it already, there's a brand new thread for us to play in. (Sherry gets the dancing banana this week.)

Hope 2009 is even better than 2008 for everyone!