Writing – Page 45 – Meilo Zaborowski: Author

Goal Update 11/9

Goal 1) HTWAN story

My Goal: 505 wpd, 1515 wpw
Where I planned to be: 41410 total words
Where I am: 41019 total words
On Target or Behind: Behind

How’s It Going:
Didn’t get a lot done this week. But you know what? That’s okay. I don’t think this thing is gonna hit 50K. Maybe 45K tops, if I really get going. But it’s very close to the end. I’m just gonna keep doing my lessons, and I’ll get there when I get there, but I’m not gonna stress about word count. ~~Not today, Satan.~~ My real goal here is to finish the damn thing by the end of the year, regardless of word count.

Goal 2) Some Kind of Savior

My Goal: 1 Lesson per month, 3 scenes per day for Lesson 20
Where I planned to be: 9 scenes in
Where I am: 11 scenes in
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
As predicted, this lesson is gonna be pretty fast. This is the last one before type in, so it’s all about making sure what I’ve got on paper is solid. And, the faster I can finish this up, the faster I get to type in.

I’m ready. This has been way, way, way too long in the making.

Goal Update 11/2

Goal 1) HTWAN story

My Goal: 505 wpd, 1515 wpw
Where I planned to be: 39895 total words
Where I am: 39903 total words
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
My impression of this week’s lesson (Lesson 31): Why couldn’t I have gotten this lesson TWO WEEKS AGO???

Seriously, because of when I bought the course and doing monthly payments, I don’t get my lessons until Wednesday each week. So my words for Sunday were a pitiful 109, and Tuesday came out to a not-much-better 195. I’ve been struggling to come up with SOMETHING to get me going.

My words after working through the lesson and FINALLY having everything click on Thursday were only 353, but at least that only left me with 483 to go today to hit my total goal for the week. (I had… quite a bit of buffer there, thankfully.) So I just barely squeaked in. I’m both relieved and a little exhausted.

Goal 2) Some Kind of Savior

My Goal: 1 lesson per month; Lesson 19 by 11/2, 5 scenes per day
Where I planned to be: Finished with Lesson 19
Where I am: Finished with Lesson 19 (barely)
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
It feels like it’s been a crazy week, with us moving locations at work, but I think the main downer has just been scrambling for words. Which put me behind on my homework, which put me at crunch time for this. But I only left five scenes to go on Thursday, all of which are short due to being at the end, so I was able to fly through them today.

I really like what I got today, so here’s a short 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.

The rest of the group was watching the three of them expectantly, none of them fluent enough in Krasnian to understand.

Finally, Mischa asked Judith, “How many of them?”

“At least five. Why?”

“That’s way too many,” Rebel said in Krasnian. “Three, and you me and Jordan could probably manage. But five…”

“I may not be as young as I used to be, but I can still fight,” Dmitri said, catching on. “Just don’t ask me to run,” he added with a laugh.

Rebel shook her head. “That still leaves us one short.”

“You guys are killing me,” Jordan said. “Are you chatting or are you planning?”

Why I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year (or any year in the forseeable future)

NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. That’s National Novel Writing Month, for the ~~uncultured swine~~ uninitiated. For most of my writerly friends, today is a time of fierce planning and preparation (because procrastination is an almost universal writer trait), excitement, and a little bit of fear.

For me, though, today is just another Thursday. Yes, it also happens to be Halloween, but I’ve got homework to do, and work in the morning. I need sleep.

I’ll be honest– my experience with NaNo has never been pretty. Even the one year I won… Holly Lisle has a nice succinct phrase for what it’s like for me trying to do NaNo, and that is “writing to failure”. That’s essentially writing so much to the point it isn’t fun anymore, it’s just work; grueling, awful, headache-inducing work. I’m not comfortable writing upwards of 1500 words a day, every day, for a freaking month. And that goes doubly for trying to do 2500 words a day just to get weekends off.

This is why I was having long periods of “nope, fuck that” whenever I thought about writing.

But I know there are a lot of people who write more/faster than me, who enjoy the rush, who actually get something possibly useable out of it. People who actually have fun with it. To those people, I say good luck. If you’re thinking about participating, do it. I’m not the kind of guy to shit on someone else’s parade just because I don’t like it.

But NaNo is just not for me. I have accepted this, and I will move on.

Goal Update 10/26

Goal 1) HTWAN story

My Goal: 505 wpd, 1515 wpw
Where I planned to be: 38380 total words
Where I am: 38755 total words
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Sunday was bad. Not the worst writing day ever, but not great either. Tuesday I got a great scene, with a neat little twist, that gets my MC out of a really tight corner. Or, it will, later. And Thursday I also got a great scene, and while I thought my original twist was great, I got a nice surprise twist out of it too. My villain is… really fucking awesome. I love her. But that bitch is scary. I would not want to get on her bad side.

Goal 2) Some Kind of Savior

My Goal: 1 lesson per month; Lesson 19 by 11/2, 5 scenes per day
Where I planned to be: ~20 scenes in
Where I am: 19 scenes in
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
You know you’re getting somewhere when you have to keep stopping to remind yourself that you’re trying to fix the story because you’re getting sucked into the story. Otherwise, so far so good.

Goal Update 10/19

Well. Happy late birthday to me. I’m 28 as of yesterday, and I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this here yet, but my ultimate goal is to have SKoS published before I turn 30.

That’s only 2 years from now. And based on my history so far, it’s also not a lot of time.

I’m really hoping I can stick to my goals and have the revision done by the end of the year, so I can do… all the other stuff I need to do with it before publishing, hopefully sometime next year, if I can swing it. Picking a title, making the cover, writing copy, getting the manuscript edited, formatting, figuring out where and how to sell it, and what is marketing? we just don’t know…

My biggest problem will be the money, though. I need to get this blog a real domain name, and hosting. Even if I went through WordPress itself, I’d have to pay a year at a time. Not cheap. I’d also really like to send SKoS off to a professional editor, but that is… really expensive. So, if anyone reading my blog would like to help out, Support Me on Ko-fi, if you can (please don’t put yourself out if you can’t afford it… trust me, I know what it’s like.) I would really appreciate it and be forever grateful, even if it’s only the minimum donation.

Goal 1) HTWAN story

My Goal: 505 wpd, 1515 wpw
Where I planned to be: 36865 total words
Where I am: 37306 total words
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I feel like I’m dragging. Thursday went a little better than the beginning of the week, but I’m not really digging what I’m getting here. It seems clunky and awkward. Might have something to do with still not knowing how to end this thing. I feel like I’m standing on the edge of a ravine, and I can see the other side, but there is a daunting, yawning chasm between here and there, and the only way across is a tightrope.

And for anyone who doesn’t know me, my balance is shit.

Goal 2) Some Kind of Savior

My Goal: 1 lesson per month; 5 scenes per day for Lesson 18; Lesson 19 by 11/2, 5 scenes per day
Where I planned to be: Finished with Lesson 18
Where I am: Finished with Lesson 18; 5 scenes into Lesson 19
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I’m slowly getting there. We’re in the home stretch. 3 more lessons.

Lesson 19 is gonna be brutal. Not nearly as bad as 17 (do not get me started about Lesson 17…), but not the relative cakewalk of 18. I may have to work extra days if I wanna get this one done by Nov 2. Worst case, if I only do 3 scenes per day, I’ll have to work 5 days a week. If I can swing it, I’ll try for 5 in a day to keep my working days down. I still have school and the day job to contend with, after all.

But I am so, so, so tired of looking through all these freaking papers. But I know I’m close. That’s what keeps me going.