Meilo Zaborowski: Author

SOFW Progress – Week 12

Late update is late. I had my sinus surgery on Friday and everything went well. But my writing may suffer this week; I’m having a hard time seeing anything with my eyes watering all the time! Not to mention the painkillers they give me never work, so I’m surviving on alternating rounds of ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Which at least helps somewhat, but weirdly enough all my upper teeth hurt constantly.

1) Write 19,695 words of my HTWAN project.

My Goal: 505 WPD, 1515 WPW
Where I planned to be on Day 84: 18180 new words
Where I am on Day 84: 18226 new words
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
AMAZING. Idk what happened this week, but the ideas are coming super easy, the words are flowing, and I am on the ball. Everything is rosy right now and I’m going to enjoy it while I can.

2) Finish Lesson 17 of HTRYN on Some Kind of Savior.

My Goal: 1 scene PD, 2 scenes PW
Where I planned to be on Day 84: 23 scenes finished
Where I am on Day 84: 23 scenes finished
On Target or Behind: Finished!

How’s It Going:
I touched on this when I completed this goal, but this is still going to need a lot of work. But now I can move on.

Achievement Get!

I’m officially over a week early in reaching my SOFW goal of completing Lesson 17 of HTRYN for Some Kind of Savior.

Which is a big accomplishment for me! I started working on this revision in 2014, and this lesson in particular… I don’t remember exactly, but it was definitely a few years ago. So this has been a long time coming.

What did I learn? This thing is very, very broken. And it is still broken, even after this cut. I am aware of this. But I think I know what I need to do to fix it now. And, I’m one step closer to finally finishing this thing. On to Lesson 18!

New Goal

My clear target is: Finish revision on Some Kind of Savior
My reachable deadline is: Dec 31, 2019 *STARTING SEPT 1, 2019*
My working days are: Tues, Thurs, Sat, Sun
My method of measuring progress: Lessons completed
My end goal: 4 lessons completed (18-21)
My daily goal, and number of available days: One lesson per month
My leverage — WHY I need to do this: I want to finally see this book through to completion, and finally have it pay me, however little it may be.

The first objective, however, is to go through and really consider my scenes. I need to make sure they’re on target and concise. Cause right now they’re… ?????

SOFW Progress – Week 11

Goal 1) Write 19,695 words of my HTWAN project.

My Goal: 505 words per day, 1515 words per week
Where I planned to be on Day 77: 16665 new words
Where I am on Day 77: 16666 new words
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Okay, I guess. The midpoint lesson had me kinda questioning myself, and not in a good way. But while taking a shower last night, the idea hit me like a brick. Hopefully it’s a good one!

Goal 2) Finish Lesson 17 of HTRYN on Some Kind of Savior.

My Goal: 1 scene per day, 2 scenes per week
Where I planned to be on Day 77: 22 scenes finished
Where I am on Day 77: 20 scenes finished
On Target or Behind: On Target (based on the Aug 31 due date, I still have plenty of time to finish the last 3 scenes)

How’s It Going:
Good, I just have been focusing on the writing, so I didn’t get a lot done here.

Snippet, did someone say snippet?

Okay, okay. Here’s something from this last week.

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.

Magdalene entered John’s cramped office once more, sitting in the shair in front of his desk. “You wanted to see me? I do hope it’s work related.”

“It is, unfortunately for me,” John said, leering at her. “I tthink we’ve come up with an idea for your little project.”

Magdalene made a quiet noise of surprise, crossing her legs. She knew from his angle, he could see quite a ways up her short skirt that way, but not enough to satisfy him. “That was quick. Not usually your style.”

John actually blushed at that, his back straightening a little. “I do my best. Would you like to hear about it?”

“You know I’m not technical at all, John. Explaining it to me would be a waste of both of our time. Does it do what I asked?”

John cleared his throat softly. “That and more. It will work much like the Controdes, only on a much bigger scale.”

“And I’m sure this is where you ask me for the money you’ll be needing to build it?”

John swallowed, looking down at the notes on his desk. “I’ve worked it all out, trying to be as conservative as possible, but it’s a massive undertaking that will take quite a lot of man hours-“

“How much, John?”

Summer of Fiction Writing Goals

Now that everyone knows about my Holly Lisle ~~addiction~~ loyalty… I’m currently participating in her Summer of Fiction Writing event. Which is almost over. My timing is bad.

HOWEVER. I’d like to fill everyone in on what I’m doing for the event. So.

GOAL ONE

My clear target is: Write 19,695 words of my HTWAN project.
My reachable deadline is: August 31, 2019
My working days are: Tuesday, Thursday, and at least Saturday or Sunday (if not both)
My method of measuring progress: Word count
My end goal: 19,695 words (plus what I already have written, should total 25,755)
My daily goal, and number of available days: 505 words, 3 days minimum/week
My leverage — WHY I need to do this: I want to prove to myself that this is something I can do more than once, something that I don’t have to agonize over for years because I “don’t have a good idea”, and something I can do in a relatively timely manner, without burning out.

GOAL TWO

My clear target is: Finish Lesson 17 of HTRYN on Some Kind of Savior.
My reachable deadline is: August 31, 2019
My working days are: Tuesday, Thursday (possibly Saturday or Sunday, but not required)
My method of measuring progress: Scenes rewritten
My end goal: 23 scenes rewritten
My daily goal, and number of available days: 1 scene, 2 days minimum/week
My leverage — WHY I need to do this: I want to make this story the best it can be, and to do that, I need to finish this lesson. This thing is so broken, but I know it can be great if I try.

Adventures in Book Writing (and what I learned along the way)

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So. I have a confession to make.

I am a dedicated student of Holly Lisle, and have been since 2013.

Does this mean my novels will be just like hers?

No. We are different people, with different interests, different experiences, and different takes on life. Even if we happened to take the same idea and write it, the two stories would be wildly different.

Does this mean my novels will all be -insert genre here-?

I reserve the right to write in whichever genre I please. (Although… I do tend toward similar genres as Holly.)

Does this mean my novels will appeal to those who like Holly’s work?

Not necessarily. Everyone’s tastes are different. I think our ideal readers are possibly similar, but not exactly the same.

Does this mean my novels will be good?

By damn, I sure hope so.

See, by student, what I mean is I’ve taken Holly’s writing courses, in an attempt to better my writing and get myself to at least a semi-professional status as an author.

Most of my first novel and all of my second were written with How To Think Sideways. My third is currently being written with How to Write a Novel, which has been an enormous help in not only crafting an idea to write, but seeing it through. And my first is currently being revised with How To Revise Your Novel, which I’ll go on to use on my other novels, because this is more than just copy-editing, this is true fixing that steaming pile of crap that is a first draft.

And those are just the big, months-long classes. She also has plenty of shorter workshops (like Write Page-Turning Scenes and How To Motivate Yourself, to name a couple) that are just as helpful, which I’ve also used on occasion for various things.

These are not easy, get-rich-quick schemes to writing. This is serious, hard work that requires you to really think, sometimes in ways your brain really doesn’t want to. More than once I’ve thought myself into a headache.

This is the kind of stuff they don’t teach you in college writing courses. Don’t ask me how I know.

-side-eyes B.A. in English, Creative Writing-

Being a writer isn’t easy. Being a good writer is even harder. But with Holly’s help, anyone can get there. Maybe even me.