BellaOnline Forums Career Fiction Writing What Did You Write Today?

That is so cool that your space story is complete! What do you plan to do with it from here?

Val -

August is dedicated to writing my murder mystery in a chapter-a-day format.

Once August is done, I have a medieval novel which has gone through all its polishing rounds and in the hands of a final editor. So I expect her to be done with the novel by September 1st and I'll spend September implementing her changes and putting that novel live.

Once that is done, maybe mid-September to October, I can start polishing runs on the space story and the murder mystery. It can easily take me many months to polish a story, as I read and re-read and re-read them. So time will tell when they're ready to then hand over to my review team.

OK, August Project, Day 1.

I had mapped out my plan for the book ahead of time, since I need to be in certain places on certain days for this. I want to actually go where I write about on a given day. I realized in my mapping out process that certain places were only open on certain days, so that impacted my storyline.

Today I had to go to an abandoned drive-in, and also watch Gentleman's Agreement. Then I wrote up the first day.

The book is currently 25 pages and 4,000 words. Some of those pages are of course the title page and dedication page and so on. So in terms of Chapter 1 there are six full pages of content for that.

Tomorrow will be day 2!

Day 2 of Birch Blackguards is now complete. I'm at 31 pages / 6k words. I got to kayak today and work it into the story, always a bonus.

I'm pleased, so far, with how the story is unfolding. I went back and worked through Chapter 1 some as well, polishing it up.

Good for you, Lisa, doing your projects in linear sequence. I have tried writing simultaneous projects, but I have found that the best use of my time is to do as you are doing.

Val -

To be fair, I normally have multiple projects going at once. I love having that flexibility, because it means if I'm in a down mood, or upbeat mood, or so on, that there's a story being worked on that I can write. I like having those options.

This is a special case because I need to finish it within the one month. So I want to remove distractions from getting that done.

On page 55 / 13k words of Birch Blackguards in my August nanowrimo project. So far staying on schedule, one chapter a day. It is definitely helping to have my "locations" mapped out, so I can plan when I will be where, and watch the weather, since many involve kayaking. So far the weather has cooperated.

I had to slide a few things around based on when restaurants are open and closed, so it was good that I could prepare for that.

There's also some interesting news-worthy things going on in town that I am incorporating into the storyline, so that's fun as well.

Finished Chapter 6, my August nanowrimo project is now up to 61 pages / 15k words. The story is chugging along well .

I'm also learning all sorts of bizarre things about my town as I do this research. The seedy underbelly, as it were. So I'm deciding what to include and not include. Apparently some people are extremely litigious. So I want to avoid that.

Just finished up Chapter 9 in my August nanowrimo project, currently at 77 pages, 19,000 words. The murder mystery is heating up!

So I'm nearly a third done.

How are you guys doing with your projects?

That's so cool!

Mysteries I listen to often, starting way back when like under the sheets with a short-wave (?) radio? I don't think that's the right word, but anyway, w/the kindle,same thing.

Writing? Today I finished an article I've actually been finding myself afraid of writing. Not in content, but just harder to write.

So I'm happy this morning I actually did it a day earlier than I programmed it to post.

Tomorrow, I work on the newsletter