1,688 words.
She's out of the villain's clutches, but she's not out of the woods yet. This little robot has become a real girl, and it remains to be seen how the people who have been caring for her will react when they find out what they thought was their daughter... isn't. At the beginning of the book that was all she wanted. Now, though...
Friday, March 29, 2019
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Day 46
1,086 words.
I decided to ditch the whole wasting food/ruining toilet paper thing. I couldn't make the food thing work, and the entire escape plan revolving around tipping over toilet paper into dirty toilet water was just too gross to be fun for me. Plus, I decided the villain is fond enough of our heroine, and has enough hubris, that he would probably be willing to take her outside if she just asked him enough. He will be taking precautions, of course, and they will make things more difficult for our heroine. But if her life was easy she wouldn't be the heroine.
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Day 45
1,289 words.
How do you waste food without making it look like you're wasting food? Especially when all of it is canned soup and ramen? Maybe I will have to go with the toilet paper route after all... I discarded it because I couldn't see why he wouldn't have apocalypse levels of it stored in his bunker, but I guess it doesn't matter how much of it you have if it gets soaked. Paper-wrapped tp falling off a rickety shelf into the puddle caused by an overflowing toilet couldn't possibly be our heroine's fault, now could it?
How do you waste food without making it look like you're wasting food? Especially when all of it is canned soup and ramen? Maybe I will have to go with the toilet paper route after all... I discarded it because I couldn't see why he wouldn't have apocalypse levels of it stored in his bunker, but I guess it doesn't matter how much of it you have if it gets soaked. Paper-wrapped tp falling off a rickety shelf into the puddle caused by an overflowing toilet couldn't possibly be our heroine's fault, now could it?
Monday, March 25, 2019
Day 44
2,396 words.
I don't think I'm going to be able to finish this by the end of this week. But I know that because I have the ending pretty much mapped out. Should be done by mid April, though. I am so excited. Time for things to get serious!
I don't think I'm going to be able to finish this by the end of this week. But I know that because I have the ending pretty much mapped out. Should be done by mid April, though. I am so excited. Time for things to get serious!
Friday, March 22, 2019
Day 43
1,154 words.
Sigh. I need figure out how to make worldbuilding not a chore. It's supposed to be the fun part, right? I guess doing it on the fly, while I'm trying to get word count, is partly why it feels so onerous. I don't mind it so much when I'm chilling out and ideas come to me. But sitting down to do it on purpose feels like homework. For me, the story comes first, and the world will shape itself to serve the story. Building a world and then thinking up a story to fill it feels backwards.
Sigh. I need figure out how to make worldbuilding not a chore. It's supposed to be the fun part, right? I guess doing it on the fly, while I'm trying to get word count, is partly why it feels so onerous. I don't mind it so much when I'm chilling out and ideas come to me. But sitting down to do it on purpose feels like homework. For me, the story comes first, and the world will shape itself to serve the story. Building a world and then thinking up a story to fill it feels backwards.
Thursday, March 21, 2019
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Day 41
1,829 words.
She's in the villain's lair now. My sweet girl is going to have to be resourceful and clever. But I know she can be.
My villain is turning out to be fun to write. He's coherent, and you can even kind of see his point. But he's also bat guano bonkers.
She's in the villain's lair now. My sweet girl is going to have to be resourceful and clever. But I know she can be.
My villain is turning out to be fun to write. He's coherent, and you can even kind of see his point. But he's also bat guano bonkers.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Day 40
1,308 words.
I was hoping to be done with this draft by the end of March, and I think I will make that deadline. If I keep up the pace I'll have almost 50,000 words by then.
I was hoping to be done with this draft by the end of March, and I think I will make that deadline. If I keep up the pace I'll have almost 50,000 words by then.
Monday, March 18, 2019
Friday, March 15, 2019
Day 38
1,170 words.
I'm getting so excited! The final battle is almost here. The showdown between my main character and the villain is about to begin. They just met face to face for the first time, though the main character doesn't know it yet. Stuff's getting real!
I'm getting so excited! The final battle is almost here. The showdown between my main character and the villain is about to begin. They just met face to face for the first time, though the main character doesn't know it yet. Stuff's getting real!
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Day 37
1,625 words and 2 notebook pages.
Made a few tweaks to the ending climax. Will probably continue doing that until I type 'the end.'
I feel like I'm finally getting a handle on my main character. 35,000 words in. Better late than never, I guess. Character creation is definitely one of my weaknesses, but I knew that going in. It's one of the drawbacks of focusing on fanfiction for so long.
Made a few tweaks to the ending climax. Will probably continue doing that until I type 'the end.'
I feel like I'm finally getting a handle on my main character. 35,000 words in. Better late than never, I guess. Character creation is definitely one of my weaknesses, but I knew that going in. It's one of the drawbacks of focusing on fanfiction for so long.
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Day 36
1,039 words.
My computer is sooooo slooooooow. I use Dragon Naturally Speaking because my wrists are weak and I'm prone to carpal tunnel. But that program eats memory like candy and my poor laptop is five years old. It doesn't help that I'm using an outdated version because it was discounted. But we can't afford to buy me a new rig, so I have to make it work somehow. I defrag when I can. Today I deleted a bunch of old programs I no longer use. Some days this process of babying my old compy is more frustrating than others. Today it was frustrating.
If only Google typing let you dictate quotation marks.
My computer is sooooo slooooooow. I use Dragon Naturally Speaking because my wrists are weak and I'm prone to carpal tunnel. But that program eats memory like candy and my poor laptop is five years old. It doesn't help that I'm using an outdated version because it was discounted. But we can't afford to buy me a new rig, so I have to make it work somehow. I defrag when I can. Today I deleted a bunch of old programs I no longer use. Some days this process of babying my old compy is more frustrating than others. Today it was frustrating.
If only Google typing let you dictate quotation marks.
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Day 35
1,817 words.
Ooh, yeah, baby, lookit that! I finally finally got to the photo album scene, which is where the whole third act kicks off, and I. Am. Stoked!
Don't assume it will be smooth sailing from here, her anti-hubris protection chimes in.
Right, yes. I still don't exactly quite for sure know what the actual 'final battle' scene is going to, you know, be. So that's a problem. But! I have a few ideas, and I think I have the final scene of my book already in mind, so I have a destination I'm going for. I've rounded the bend and the finish line is in sight. I still have some valleys and hills to climb before I reach it, and the distance from here to there feels, in some ways, longer than the entire race course so far. But I can see it! And that makes a huge difference.
Ooh, yeah, baby, lookit that! I finally finally got to the photo album scene, which is where the whole third act kicks off, and I. Am. Stoked!
Don't assume it will be smooth sailing from here, her anti-hubris protection chimes in.
Right, yes. I still don't exactly quite for sure know what the actual 'final battle' scene is going to, you know, be. So that's a problem. But! I have a few ideas, and I think I have the final scene of my book already in mind, so I have a destination I'm going for. I've rounded the bend and the finish line is in sight. I still have some valleys and hills to climb before I reach it, and the distance from here to there feels, in some ways, longer than the entire race course so far. But I can see it! And that makes a huge difference.
Monday, March 11, 2019
Day 34
1,012 words.
Writing therapy scenes is taxing and I'm never sure I'm doing it right. I've been through therapy myself, but I don't remember it all that well (depression fog, man), and therapy is such an individual thing that my experiences may not be more than superficially helpful in getting that verisimilitude anyway. I really want to get it right, though. Mental health is already such a misunderstood and under-discussed topic, I don't want to add to the misinformation.
Writing therapy scenes is taxing and I'm never sure I'm doing it right. I've been through therapy myself, but I don't remember it all that well (depression fog, man), and therapy is such an individual thing that my experiences may not be more than superficially helpful in getting that verisimilitude anyway. I really want to get it right, though. Mental health is already such a misunderstood and under-discussed topic, I don't want to add to the misinformation.
Friday, March 8, 2019
Thursday, March 7, 2019
Day 32
1,192 words.
Just a few more scenes and I can get to the third act, which I've got pretty well mapped out. Well, except for the personality of the antagonist. He's a senile old man who was never very sane to begin with, but is he cranky? Good-natured? Both? Things to ponder.
Just a few more scenes and I can get to the third act, which I've got pretty well mapped out. Well, except for the personality of the antagonist. He's a senile old man who was never very sane to begin with, but is he cranky? Good-natured? Both? Things to ponder.
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Day 31
1,075 words and 2 notebook pages.
Okay, getting settled into the school setting. FMC now has a friend, and she's set to make more. I've also firmly decided the exact purpose of the school scenes in the larger context of the story, and that makes it a lot less intimidating to tackle. It helps that she's not actually going to spend that much on-screen time there.
I feel a bit silly for how much I freaked out about it yesterday and the day before, but I feel it's important, for my own records at least, to be honest with myself about roadblocks I have. Especially because, like the last roadblock, it really doesn't take me that long to get over it and move past it, and knowing that makes it easier to get unstuck the next time something like this happens.
Okay, getting settled into the school setting. FMC now has a friend, and she's set to make more. I've also firmly decided the exact purpose of the school scenes in the larger context of the story, and that makes it a lot less intimidating to tackle. It helps that she's not actually going to spend that much on-screen time there.
I feel a bit silly for how much I freaked out about it yesterday and the day before, but I feel it's important, for my own records at least, to be honest with myself about roadblocks I have. Especially because, like the last roadblock, it really doesn't take me that long to get over it and move past it, and knowing that makes it easier to get unstuck the next time something like this happens.
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Day 30
1,096 words.
Yesterday it finally hit me that writing middle grade means, at least sometimes, writing about middle school. I hated middle school. I'm not going to say it was traumatic, but it was not fun in a major way. I also work with youth that age in my church, and furthermore the library I work at is right across the street from a wrong-side-of-the-tracks-type middle school.
Every day at 3:30 we are inundated with some of the worst 11-14 year olds this world has to offer, and we have to spend the next few hours, sometimes all the way until we close, trying to keep them from fighting, yelling, bumping uglies, playing tag, leaving food everywhere, you get the picture. They are as immature as small children but old enough to start getting into some really awful mischief. There are probably worse (I know for a fact there are worse) groups of young people out there in this world, but they aren't who I have to deal with every day at 3:30.
The kids at my church are, in general, much better behaved, but the stories they tell me about what they have to go through at school are a bit hair curling — and my hair's pretty curly already. My own middle school experience was unpleasant, but it was nothing compared to what kids these days have to go through. I was pretty sheltered, and I think a lot of people my age were, at least relatively. Nobody shelters these kids. They can't. Ubiquitous internet kind of makes that impossible.
So when I realized yesterday I was going to be sending my 11 or 12 year old FMC to school, my first reaction was one of horror, terror, and desperation. I've calmed down a bit since then, especially when I realized that not only can I send her to a pleasant magnet school, but this is fiction! It only has to feel real. It doesn't have to actually be realistic. There is certainly a place for the kind of fiction that explores the almost war-zone-like school experience of the modern tweenager, but my fiction is not going to be that place. You can get away with a level of optimism in middle grade fiction that you really can't in most other categories. That's the reason I want to write in this age range. The kids I'm writing for are old enough to understand that the world is complex and not always pleasant, but life hasn't had time to make them jaded or cynical.
It also means I don't have to write about romance. Thank goodness.
Yesterday it finally hit me that writing middle grade means, at least sometimes, writing about middle school. I hated middle school. I'm not going to say it was traumatic, but it was not fun in a major way. I also work with youth that age in my church, and furthermore the library I work at is right across the street from a wrong-side-of-the-tracks-type middle school.
Every day at 3:30 we are inundated with some of the worst 11-14 year olds this world has to offer, and we have to spend the next few hours, sometimes all the way until we close, trying to keep them from fighting, yelling, bumping uglies, playing tag, leaving food everywhere, you get the picture. They are as immature as small children but old enough to start getting into some really awful mischief. There are probably worse (I know for a fact there are worse) groups of young people out there in this world, but they aren't who I have to deal with every day at 3:30.
The kids at my church are, in general, much better behaved, but the stories they tell me about what they have to go through at school are a bit hair curling — and my hair's pretty curly already. My own middle school experience was unpleasant, but it was nothing compared to what kids these days have to go through. I was pretty sheltered, and I think a lot of people my age were, at least relatively. Nobody shelters these kids. They can't. Ubiquitous internet kind of makes that impossible.
So when I realized yesterday I was going to be sending my 11 or 12 year old FMC to school, my first reaction was one of horror, terror, and desperation. I've calmed down a bit since then, especially when I realized that not only can I send her to a pleasant magnet school, but this is fiction! It only has to feel real. It doesn't have to actually be realistic. There is certainly a place for the kind of fiction that explores the almost war-zone-like school experience of the modern tweenager, but my fiction is not going to be that place. You can get away with a level of optimism in middle grade fiction that you really can't in most other categories. That's the reason I want to write in this age range. The kids I'm writing for are old enough to understand that the world is complex and not always pleasant, but life hasn't had time to make them jaded or cynical.
It also means I don't have to write about romance. Thank goodness.
Monday, March 4, 2019
Friday, March 1, 2019
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