Tag: novels

…But why is this song stuck in my head?

Goal 1) Revise TAP 2

• My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
• Where I planned to be: Lesson 1, 28 scenes in
• Where I am: Lesson 1, 30 scenes in
• On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:

I am so happy to be working on this again. DGMW, the sci-fi is fun too, but… Madison is my baby. Even if that one scene about his dad makes me cry every damn time I read it.

I was smart this time; I counted my scenes and figured out the math before I jumped in and just picked a random number of scenes to do per day and ran with it. Go me. So far I’m really happy with how it’s turned out. There’s definitely some kinks to work out, but I think revising this is gonna be cake compared to the last two. Hell, with just what I already think I’ll need to add, I might end up with a 50k book after all. /wishful thinking

That being said, Lesson 1 doesn’t always reveal every problem right away, as I discovered with SYCU. But that’s what the rest of the course is for. 😆

Goal 1) TAP 2

• My Goal: 500 WPD, 1500 WPW
• Where I planned to be: 43,500 words
• Where I am: 44,928 words
• On Target or Behind: Finished!

How’s It Going:
The end is near, he says, then literally writes the ending the next day. *shrugs*

Just a smidge over 5k short of 50k, but that’s nothing new for me, apparently. The good news is, I can let this sit for almost two months before I dig in with the revision on Jan 1st.

What do I do with myself for almost two months while I wait? Obviously, I’ll need to print this sucker out, get all my ducks in a row, and be ready to revise. Except, I’m an idiot and it turned out like half the stuff I needed was still at my dad’s (i.e. binders, hole punch, file folders, you know, the basics), so I had to go out there earlier to grab it. Luckily I looked before printing the MS out yesterday because I do not currently have a safe place to put a stack of 290 loose pieces of paper. Such is the life of having a destructive puppy, a moody cat, and a partner that hates clutter in a one-bedroom apartment. So I just finished printing it out, and I’ll start hole punching here in a bit. Which takes forever because I have one of those cheap plastic things that only goes through like 3 sheets at a time. *headdesk*

But besides that, I’m gonna do some kind of writing as well. Holly Lisle (stop giggling) has a free class on flash fiction that I poked through once before but never completed anything, so I’ve been dabbling with that yesterday and today. No goals (except to write at least something on my usual writing days), this is just for funsies. Maybe something cool will come out of it, but I just need some space and time to play outside of the TAP world with characters I’m not intimately familiar with yet. Cause I know I’ll be back to it in no time.

Goal 1) TAP 2

• My Goal: 500 WPD, 1500 WPW
• Where I planned to be: 42,000 words
• Where I am: 44,543 words
• On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Getting down to the nitty-gritty of the finale here. Sunday, I had to go to my handy-dandy reference books (namely Save the Cat! Strikes Back! by Blake Snyder and Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody… this is where the story beats come from) and read over the description of the “mini-beat” that was coming up next, “Dig Deep Down”. Which, uh, is really fitting that I had to go read up on it because… well, yeah. (Your answer isn’t gonna just fall out of a book and into your lap, Meilo!) Either way, I came up with an idea that’s just crazy enough to work. How they’re going to execute this new plan and how it’s gonna pan out is still up in the air, but I think it’ll come to me as I go.

I also took some time Sunday to modify my spreadsheet a little so it would give me a more accurate ETA and minimum WPD to goal because I’m anal like that. I’m down to a minimum of 552 WPD to finish before December. Woo! Only I’m getting the distinct feeling that I won’t hit 50k before the end. Again.

Yesterday went great. I was right, it did come to me as I went, and I finally got everyone in the same room together. Not actually super important, but I wanted Madison’s past and present to come together to help him form his future (god, that’s so corny, sorry not sorry). It’s incredible how the first random character I wrote in this story has become such an important asset to him. Almost like I planned it that way. (Spoiler alert: I did not.) I just hope I didn’t screw her up like I did Keziah in the first book. Seriously, that was a painful fix.

Today (technically yesterday now but shh) was pretty busy and I wasn’t able to get to my writing until very late. I almost gave up for the night at just under 400 words, mostly because I’m literally flying by the seat of my pants at the moment and I’m having trouble coming up with how they’re supposed to be handling the situation, but I really want to finish this early (nevermind if I actually hit 50k), so I pushed to 587. The end is very near!

Goal 1) TAP 2

• My Goal: 500 WPD, 1500 WPW
• Where I planned to be: 40,500 words
• Where I am: 42,807 words
• On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Sunday I was still running off the momentum from last Friday. Easy words. Although when I was entering my word count for the day, I realized a small shortcoming of my spreadsheet. Turns out the WPD I need to finish by December 1st is closer to 600 words. But that’s okay, still doable. All I had to do was plunk down a couple more sentences.

Yesterday went really well, despite having to start 4 hours later than usual because I had to have my tires rotated (and 2 of them replaced *facepalm*) and the tire place was packed. Good thing there’s a Barnes and Noble right across the street. One of my favorite places to waste time (but thankfully not money this time). I actually would have sat down and done some writing on my phone, but I’m a dumbass and my phone was dying. Like, when I finally got back in my car I immediately plugged it in because it was on 2%, dying. Regardless, pretty easy words.

Today I was getting close to where my ideas have petered out, but the words still came pretty easily. Definitely need to do some thinking about how to get to my planned ending. It’s stupid close! But I don’t wanna do the thing where I rush everything to where I need it to be because I’m ready for the thing to be done and then end up completely rewriting the end. I mean, if I have to rewrite the end, so be it, but I want to at least have something… idk, cool. Fitting. Surprising. Something I can maybe keep most of. High hopes, yanno.