Goal Update 6/20

GOAL 1) PUBLISH SKOS

  • My Goal: Spend at least 10 mins, 3 days/week minimum
  • Where I planned to be: About halfway through marking up the MS from Matt’s notes
  • Where I am: In over my head
  • On Target or Behind: Uhhhh?

How’s It Going:

GOAL 2) REVISE SYCU

  • My Goal: 2 Lessons per month/ 1 Lesson every 2 weeks; 3 chapters/13 scenes per day
  • Where I planned to be: Lesson 14, finished
  • Where I am: Lesson 14 finished
  • On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
This is such a pain in the ass.

On top of that, after finishing Lesson 14, I read through 15 and realized it doesn’t cover what I thought it did. (Come on, the last time I looked at it was… years ago?) Which suddenly made my time issues with SKoS make so much more sense:

There’s nothing to guide me through working out plot arc time or overall time.

How much time is between this scene and the next? How far should this plot arc spread? A week, or two? A month? And how long does the overall story take? A year? Ten? I’ve done some preliminary thinking on this already, but I think I really need to take stock of what’s happening and when if I want this to work. And then nail it down.

As for what Lesson 15 is actually about… it’s really more about structure, playing with time, and finding the best beginning for the story. The techniques to test this won’t take long, thankfully. (And now that I’ve read it again, I remember how it gave me the amazing beginning for SKoS, so I definitely want to at least try some of these.)

GOAL 3) SURVIVAL

  • My Goal: 500 WPD, 1500 WPW
  • Where I planned to be: 18000 words
  • Where I am: 18301 words
  • On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
This week went well. Got some neat stuff, I think. I’ve always found it hard to torture my characters, but I think I’m getting better at it. Which means better writing!

So… here’s a snippet.

NOTE: The following material is a copyrighted excerpt from raw, unedited first draft, which may contain typos and spelling or grammar errors. Please do not point out corrections or make suggestions as I will not see them during revision. Please do not quote this material, as it may not survive to final draft.

Brandon looked around the room pointedly. “Does it look like they’re here?”

“Smartass,” Aaren muttered as he hauled himself back to his feet and went over to the sink. It was no shower, but it would at least be cold. He lifted the handle of the tap, but nothing came out.

“Runs off a water pump down to a well; won’t work until I turn on the generator,” Brandon said, unpacking their supplies.

Aaren was ready to pop off a snarky, “Go turn it on then,” but a piece of paper on the table beside the sink caught his eye. He picked it up, trying to decipher the elegant but hard to read script.

“What’s that?”