For any posts pertaining to Bone Walker
1,209 words tonight. Chapter 7 of Bone Walker is complete, and tonight without even the benefit of the Word Wars chat room. Apparently, “letting a pissed off nogitsune chomp on Christopher” ranks up there with “participating in the Word Wars” as a means to get me writing! Muahaha.
This means Bone Walker has now passed the 20K mark. And now I need to think about what the hell is going to happen in Chapter 8.
Written tonight: 1,209
Chapter 7 total: 4,309
Bone Walker total (first draft): 21,038
It occurred to me this week that I have six, count ’em, six books in progress in various stages, and as part of the Great Get My Ass Back in Gear Initiative, it might behoove me to do a quick rundown of where all of these books are and what needs to get done with them. Therefore, by way of high-level overview and more or less in order of priority, here we go!
With pretty much all of the first drafts in progress, I need to buckle down and do some heavy duty outline work. I’m really kind of daunted realizing I have finished three whole novels (Faerie Blood, Lament, and Queen of Souls), and have FIVE MORE waiting to get done. The two big things that really need to get done are finishing Bone Walker so that my editor can tell me if she wants it, and getting Queen of Souls ready for its escape into the wide world. Anything above and beyond that is gravy, but if I want to make some serious progress by the end of the year, it’s time to start some serious planning.
Wish me luck, folks.
Pried a couple hundred more words out of my brain tonight, some for Bone Walker and some for Mirror’s Gate, mostly for the sake of advancing the pointers on at least a couple of stories. And being able to say that I actually wrote something tonight. This long dry spell is frustrating in the extreme, folks. Intellectually I know that the solution is simply to buckle down and write, but man, trying to re-establish the habit is hard.
We’ll see, though. These two stories remain the two pulling at my brain the most for new words, although Queen of Souls is sternly reminding me that its second draft edits are long overdue to be resumed. I really need to beat that thing into proper queryable shape so I can get it out there.
Back to Bone Walker exclusively tonight, just because that’s where the words seemed to want to go. Still working on the fight scene between Christopher, Kendis, and the nogitsune, and figuring out how to choreograph the actions so that a) they all move farther along the trail to the north, and b) Melisanda has an opportunity to show up and help them drive off the last of the nogitsune. Not quite there yet but at least there was more than a page’s worth of progress tonight.
I kind of want to push for 500 words tonight, but on the other hand, I need to go to bed. And also, I think it’ll actually encourage me more to write tomorrow if I can maintain this feeling of “more writing needs doing!” It’s all about the pacing myself.
Written tonight: 355
Chapter 7 total: 2,078
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,812
When I find myself staring dully and tiredly at the screen and no words are flowing, that’s the signal that it’s time to go to bed. But I did at least make a few words go tonight! And even if about 100 words into each of these things doesn’t seem like much individually, it will at least add up if I keep at it. That’s good advice to keep telling myself.
Let’s see if I can do this again tomorrow.
Bone Walker:
Written tonight: 110
Chapter 7 total: 1,723
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,457
Mirror’s Gate:
Written tonight: 115
Chapter 1 total: 1,417
Mirror’s Gate total (first draft): 1,417
Untitled short story:
Written tonight: 115
Story total: 615
I’ve been frustrated enough with my months-long block on regular writing that I figured tonight I should try the multi-novelling trick. That’s helped in the past, and I felt it was long past time to try it again, just for the sake of advancing some pointers on various works on progress. I’ve mentioned before how it’s often helpful for me to just try to do little chunks at a time–and tonight, I was pleased to note that it worked again.
So yeah, a small number of words for Bone Walker, Mirror’s Gate, and Shadow of the Rook out of the novels in progress–and a few more for the as of yet untitled story about my Psychic Chick of Size. Whose name is, by the way, Elizabeth Breckenridge. Her male lead is Ross Taggart, and so far what I know about him is that he’s actually too heavy himself (because if there’s anything as rare as a fat heroine in a fantasy story, it’s an overweight hero) by thirty or forty pounds, and that he’s either a private investigator or a reporter or maybe a blogger. I’m not sure which yet. Waiting to see if anything pops out of my head as I throw words at the story.
And we’ll have to see if I finish it in time to submit it to and for their anthology.
Meanwhile, the word stats:
Bone Walker:
Written tonight: 109
Chapter 7 total: 1,613
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,347
Mirror’s Gate:
Written tonight: 104
Chapter 1 total: 1,302
Mirror’s Gate total (first draft): 1,302
Shadow of the Rook:
Written tonight: 112
Chapter 2 total: 3,950
Shadow of the Rook total (first draft): 13,378
Untitled short story:
Written tonight: 266
Untitled short story total: 500
Not as many as last night’s, but hey, there are words and that’s a good thing. And I do hope these are acceptable words. Mostly, they feature heading into the confrontation between Kendis, Christopher, and the nogitsune! It all worked out to about a page added to the Chapter 7 file, and I’m slowly closing in on 20K for the book.
Written tonight: 263
Chapter 7 total: 1,504
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,238