books – Page 46 – Meilo Zaborowski: Author

Goal Update 9/28

Goal 1) HTWAN story

My Goal: 505 wpd, 1515 wpw
Where I planned to be: 32320 total words
Where I am: 32566 total words
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I’m getting my words, but they’re not coming easy. May have something to do with… literally everything else I have going on. Plus the daily work I’ve been doing on SKoS. Ugh.

Goal 2) Some Kind of Savior

My Goal: Step 3: Cut scenes as needed; Rework story limitations by 10/5; 1 lesson per month
Where I planned to be: Finished with Step 3
Where I am: Finished with Step 3 AND reworking limitations (9/25); starting Lesson 18 (1 of 4)
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Scenes are still a bit of a trainwreck, a couple of them so bad that, short of actually cutting the paper, can’t be easily fixed on paper and I’ll have to work them out on screen. All I can do is leave myself a lot of notes, but I think I at least have a plan for them now. (I will never print double-sided ever again, I will never print double-sided ever again, I will never print double-sided ever again…)

Turns out I didn’t have to do as much reworking on my limitations as I thought; I had an old file on my computer (from November of 2013! Yes, I’ve been working on this for a long time. Man, time flies…) that had some rules I’d made already, I just had to fix the one I broke. Then quickly run through my story to make sure I followed them all.

The lesson looks easy, but it will definitely take at least a few days. Now that I’m well ahead of my plan, I’ll be taking it easier on this. No more working every day. I need some time to breathe after all this homework I’m doing for class.

Now, a reward for getting through that wall of text.

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 Please do not quote this material, as it may not survive to final draft.

“What in the hell?” The driver turned on the glowlight from his commlink, which provided just enough ambient light to see about a meter away. The driver saw Jordan before he could do anything and started toward him. “What have y’all done with my truck?”

“Listen, man, we’re not gonna do anything with your truck. We’re just… borrowing it for a little bit.”

The truck went over another bump, and the driver looked around him. “Y’all never unloaded.”

“Yeah, about that.”

The driver pulled something from his back pocket, something that glinted briefly in the low light. “You better start explaining real quick, buddy, or we’re gonna have problems. This truck was supposed to be unloaded completely before leaving. If anything comes up missing, I’ll be in some deep shit. You don’t wanna know what kind of trouble you’d be in.”

Goal Update 9/21

Man, classes are kicking my ass right now. Why is there so much reading?? Give me videos (that I can speed up XD) and practical labs any day. Getting it done tho, and still working on my books.

Goal 1) HTWAN story

My Goal: 505 wpd, 1515 wpw
Where I planned to be: 30805 total words
Where I am: 30980 total words
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Finally got my MC out of trouble. \o/ Over the last couple weeks I’ve been working on these scenes, I realized I needed a couple in-between scenes, so I’ve started on those. It doesn’t seem like it, but I’m nearing the end here, and fast. It’s weird to think about, especially since I have… no idea how this ends yet.

Goal 2) Some Kind of Savior

My Goal: Step 2: Rewrite scene sentences; Step 3: Cut scenes as needed
Where I planned to be: Done with Step 2
Where I am: Finished Step 2 (9/18); starting Step 3
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Definitely glad I gave myself more time to work on my sentences. I was really able to think through them, and I think I was able to really tighten them up, moving a few things around where they work a little better. I now have 35 distinct scene concepts that should make cutting my manuscript properly a little easier. (I just wish I had the knowledge and skill to do this the first time!)

…And after looking through a few scenes in my manuscript, yeah, this whole detour was worth it.

Goal Update 9/14

Goal 1) HTWAN story

My Goal: 505 wpd, 1515 wpw
Where I planned to be: 29290 total words
Where I am: 29367 total words
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
AMAZING. I had a long discussion over the weekend with a good friend of mine who works for our county sheriff’s department, which gave me some great ideas for this scene (that I discovered was more than one scene) I’ve been working on. Still not quite done with this section, but I know the direction I’m going, and it’s gonna be fun getting my MC out of trouble. Finally.

Goal 2) Some Kind of Savior

My Goal: Step 2: Rewrite scene sentences; Step 3: Cut scenes as needed
Where I planned to be: Finished with Step 2 and Step 3
Where I am: Still working on Step 2
On Target or Behind: Behind

How’s It Going:
So-so. With the pile of homework I’ve been doing, rewriting my sentences is taking me a lot longer than I anticipated (don’t judge; this is actually the hard part). So long, in fact, that I’m actually going to wiggle my goal around here.

Step 2: Rewrite scene sentences by 9/21.
Step 3: Cut scenes as needed by 9/28.
Rework story limitations by 10/5.

Where does this leave me with my lessons? The first two I need to do are quick and easy. I’m hoping by giving myself until 10/19 to do the first and 11/2 to do the second, I can get them done and still be on target to finish the last two on time. (In fact, I’m hoping I can get the first three done as quickly as possible, which will give me more time to do the last lesson, which is the final type-in.)

So, because I absolutely love these last couple of scenes, 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.

Jordan started walking, Lyudomila at his side. He desperately wished there was a way he could discuss plans with her without Vince catching on. “How have you been?” he asked instead.

“Getting on. My blood pressure has been up since they cancelled our exercise time. I glad to get it back.”

Jordan nodded. He wondered if it was purely the lack of exercise or if she had been cheeking more pills, to prepare for another attempt. “Me too. Hopefully it’ll go back to normal now.”

Lyudomila grinned over at him, winking where Vince couldn’t see her. “Oh, I sure it will.”

Jordan had to temper his own grin, since Vince could see his face as they turned a corner on their lap.

“What about you?” Lyudomila asked then.

“My stomach’s been a little messed up, so I hope I’m not getting sick.” Jordan’s stomach gurgled right on cue. “I’m hoping I’ll feel better tomorrow.”

There was a certain shine in Lyudomila’s eyes when she glanced up at Jordan. “Better enough to go for a run?”

“No running,” Vince announced flatly.

“It joke,” she answered with a little laugh, but Jordan had caught on.

“Probably, if I could. But Vince here is gonna be a spoilsport about it.” Jordan grinned at Vince as they passed him.

Goal Update 9/7

So, this week was kinda nuts. People may like their long Labor Day weekend, but I only work Monday/Wednesday/Friday, and I don’t get paid for holidays. Meaning I had to make up those hours if I want my regular paycheck, and my only available time now to do that is on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, after my morning class. I did manage to get a lot of homework done for one online class on Monday, but the instructor for my other online class didn’t open up the assignments for this week until Tuesday night.

Cue the Benny Hill theme song as I run around trying to juggle college, work, medical stuff, car stuff, and on top of that, writing. Oh, and eating, showering, and sleeping.

Goal 1) HTWAN story

My Goal: 505 wpd, 1515 wpw
Where I planned to be: 27775 total words
Where I am: 27805 total words
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I feel like I’ve been working on the same scene for weeks now. Oh wait.

It’s good though. Lots of tension. Even I keep asking myself how Jordan’s gonna get himself out of his predicament. And I just keep surprising myself.

Goal 2) Some Kind of Savior

My Goal: Step 1: Find the changes – 20pgs per day; Step 2: Rewrite scene sentences when I’m done with that
Where I planned to be: Done with Step 1
Where I am: Done with Step 1 (finished 9/4), working on Step 2
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Despite this week’s craziness, I really powered through finding all my changes. Now that the manuscript is all chopped up, finding my way through the pages was a little dicey at times (“…87, 88… where the hell is page 89? Oh, here it is on the back of page 80.” -facepalm- This is what I get for printing double sided…), but I managed fairly well. Actually reading through it after my initial cut, I can see a few spots where I know I’ll need to fix things, but it otherwise isn’t quite as bad as I was thinking.

I haven’t had a lot of time to work on rewriting the sentences, but it’s going well, and I can hopefully get it done tomorrow or Monday so I can start looking through the scenes to make sure those are solid.

Guess What Day It Is!

No, it’s not Hump Day… yet. ;D

No, today is September 1st, which means ~~pumpkin spice~~ ~~is it fall yet?~~ ~~please someone turn down the heat outside~~ my new writing goals start today! So I’d like to post them here together so they’re all in one place.

Goal 1) HTWAN story

My clear target is: Finish first draft of HTWAN story
My reachable deadline is: Dec 31, 2019
My working days are: Tues, Thurs, Sat, Sun
My method of measuring progress: Word count
My end goal: 50,000 words total (unless the book ends before I get there)
My daily goal, and number of available days: 505 wpd, 3 days/week minimum
My leverage — WHY I need to do this: I want to write more books, I want to become at least a semi-professional author, and this is the next step.

Goal 2) Some Kind of Savior

My clear target is: Finish revision on Some Kind of Savior
My reachable deadline is: Dec 31, 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, 3 days/week minimum
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.

This goal is gonna start off a little differently, though. The first thing I need to do is go through my scenes and really tighten them up. Refocus them, if you will.

Step 1: Find all the changes. Rough daily goal is going through 20 pages (every day this week), so hopefully I can be done with this step by the end of the week.

Step 2: Rewrite scene sentences. I don’t know how to set a goal for this yet because I haven’t done step 1. Hopefully this can be done in a day or two.

Step 3: Cut scenes as needed. Also unsure of this one, but depending on what needs to be done here, I’m hoping this can be done by Sept 14.

The second thing I need to do is go through and really think about my story’s limitations. These need to be set in stone for everything to work. I’m hoping this won’t take more than a week, and I can be done by Sept 21.

Yes, I realize this leaves me with a little over a week to actually do the lesson planned for this month. It’s a pretty easy lesson. I’m not worried. And even if I go over a little, this other stuff is more important.

I’d like to continue with weekly updates on this, probably on Saturdays or Sundays. Keeps me honest. If I think of anything else to add during the week, I’ll do that too.