Snippet from WIP

Little snippet from the current WIP.

“Glad you’re having so much fun. Next time you can be the one who crawls through two miles of sewer pipe.”

“Surely two miles is an exaggeration?”

“Would you like to die where you stand?”

WIP Update

So getting back into the swing of things. Rather than updating weekly I’m going to change to monthly, hopefully will see more progress that way. Currently working on a short story, then onto my latest revision of Raven, Bargain is on one side at the moment it needs quite a lot of revision.

Words written so far in 2010 – 1607.

I Haven't Disappeared...:)

I’ve just spent two days with the killer migraine from hell. Feeling much better now.

Just time today for a quick WIP update as I gear up for August madness.

Demon’s Touch – First Draft – 1489 words

Raven – Rewriting – 8417 words

The Bargain – Rewriting – 3852 words

In Which Real Life Hits With a Bump

Apologies for my absence. We went from having loads of time to get the house ready, to the house being on the market and still being decorated. So things have been more than a little bit mad here. I’m currently in a bit of a lull – thank goodness.

Currently reworking The Baragain, and the first draft of the Raven. Sqeezing my writing in at the moment around my job, family committments and (hopefully) selling the house, so things are progressing slowly.

Online fiction – it’s going to be difficult for me to devote the time needed to do a complete story. SO…. Taking a leaf out of Maura Anderson’s book I have decided to post snippets along the lines of her Friday Flash fiction. Where these relate to specific settings – e.g. Land of the Fey – I’ll make a note. And hopefully it will give you something to read whilst I get my head down and concentrate on the main stories

WIP Update

On the writing front not much has happened over the past week or so.

Raven - up to Chapter 4 of the first draft, very pleased with the new outline.

Online Fiction - First part completed, going to get this out to my crit partners and see what they have to say. Will be posting more details next week.

On the decorating front - the kitchen is done and we're halfway through painting the hall. Hence the lack of writing.

WIP Update

Currently writing the first draft of Raven - 8291 words

And at the moment it’s looking like it will end up a minimum of eighteen chapters.

Also writing an outline for the sequel to The Bargain, which will be something of a challenge as it’s multi-plot.

WIP Update

Currently rewriting the first draft of Raven - 5964 words

Why am I rewriting? Because I didn’t want to let go of Alaric and Valerian. And although I have more I want to write about them, they shouldn’t take over Lily and Darvan’s story. So currently I’m going through and rewriting the chapters where Valerian in particular, came in and took over. That doesn’t mean they won’t appear. But their story for the moment is concluded.

WIP Update

Third draft of The Bargain is finished, and I’ve just put it on one side for a few days before I have one last look over it. Currently writing the synopsis of The Bargain and reworking the first draft of The Raven.

WIP Update

Comments are back from the beta reader. Yay!

Some ???, some lol’s and some clarification needed. But I’m very pleased. Currently working through on a hard copy (up to Chapter 14) making notes based on their comments and adding some of my own. Hopefully will have the third draft completed very soon.

Thoughts

Not really a WIP update as such because that’s a little in limbo at the moment.

But I’ve had a serious think about my plans. I have got so many stories I want to write that I need to gain a little focus - lol.

Therefore the plan (currently) is as follows:-

The Land of the Fey was originally conceived as a Trilogy so I’m going to stick to that. Book 2 - Lily and Darvan and Book 3 to lead off Book 2. There are potentially lots of other interesting , side stories to follow (Genys and Reynard especially) but I’m going to try and stay strong and hopefully there will be time to squeeze those stories in, in the future. Lily and Darvan’s story will be up next, I have an outline though it needs some reworking following feedback from my crit partners. However, the main plot is down, it’s just a little of the nitty gritty that needs sorting.

The Bargain (working title). I am so looking forward to working on this story and getting it as good as it can possibly be. There are definitelyother stories in this Universe that I’m just dying to tell. So after I have a working version of Raven, I’ll be looking to write another story leading out of this one.

WIP Update

Second draft completed.

And it’s come in at 32,615 words and is currently 23 chapters. Now it’s off to the beta reader and waiting to hear back from them.

So still a way off from 50,000 words, and whilst I think it might not quite make the 50,000 mark, I think the finished version will come in at a lot closer to 40,000.

Where it stands at the moment. If the first draft was the skeleton, the second draft is the skeleton plus the muscles. The plot niggles from the first draft have been sorted out and basically what’s left is fleshing out, making sure everything makes sense and perfecting the love scenes.

In the mean time I’m going to start the first draft / outline of The Fox Prince (Land of the Fey).

WIP Update

Currently working on The Bargain (second draft), Chapter 17, word count 25,002

Have merged four chapters down to two. Things are proceeding smoothly at the moment.

Sex/love scenes - I’ve just completed one - are something of a stumbling block. Mainly because I think these scenes perhaps more than any other you are conscious of having to get right. Nothing knocks a reader out of a moment quicker than a badly written love scene. So it’s almost sweating blood to get them so what you have in your head matches what’s on paper. I’m still not happy with what I’ve got as it stands in the second draft but I know there’s going to be much more refining to come before I even think of submitting.

WIP Update

Sorry this is a day late.

Currently working on The Bargain, Chapter 15, word count - 21,574

Things are going well. I have a few days off work next week so fingers crossed that I can blast through this to the end and get it off to my beta reader. Usually my number of squee moments (when I hug myself and go “This is soooooo good”) compared to my dark moments (when I go “This is crap and no one will ever read it!”) is low. But I’m used to that. So it was great this week to have two squee moments, which makes it worthwhile.

So after the second draft is complete - what then? Some authors write a lot and then cut down. I’m the opposite. I write a very spare first draft. The second draft I flesh out and correct character motivations, change things that aren’t working, cut unnecessary scenes, add more scenes sometimes chapters, to clarify things that don’t make sense. That draft goes out to be looked at by someone who doesn’t have my author bias. lol

Then the third draft will be taking into account what the beta reader has said, adding more description, intensifying emotional scenes. I’ll put it on one side for a couple of days and maybe draft again. Then I’ll hopefully be ready to submit.

WIP Update

Currently working on The Bargain - 2nd Draft - Chapter 13

word count - 18,925

This week combined chapter 9 and chapter 10 from the first draft into one chapter in the second. Extra scene to be added to chapter 13 to provide some plot clarification.

WIP Update

The Bargain - Second Draft - currently working on Chapter 9

Word Count - 14,051

Chapter eight took quite a bit of work, added roughly 1000 words but deleted around 2000 words, added, deleted, added, deleted. Lol most of this trying to decide who should be in the shower.

WIP Update

The Bargain - Second Draft currently up to Chapter 8.

Word count - 10,170 - actually a little higher than this at the moment, but I’m updating the count every 5000 words

Got the first love scene out of the way. I like the revamped version much better, still not completely happy with it, but I’m going to leave it as it is for the moment. I also have a feeling the second draft is going to go over the 50,000 word limit.

WIP Update

The Bargain - Second Draft currently up to Chapter 4.

Word count - 5034

Have written a short extra Chapter to add a little bit of a back story. It's possible this won't make it into the final draft and is more for me to use as an aid in getting the characters and their motivations fixed in my head. I expect to hear from the beta readers that I should probably delete it. :)

For my major characters especially, I always want to know exactly why they behave the way they do and I'll know far more about them than I'll probably ever use.

WIP Update

The first rough draft of The Bargain is completed. Due to circumstances I've had very little online time, so a lot of it is written out longhand at the moment.

I'm now working on the second draft. You'll notice that the progress meter in the sidebar has changed. LOL - not sure if other writers go through such a long winded process as this, but so far this is the way that works for me. Some of the character motivations in the first part of the first draft need tweaking as they don't quite marry up with what happens in the second half of the book. I'm very pleased with the beginning and the end, but the middle needs quite a lot of work.

The Bargain - Second Draft - Up To Chapter 1

When I have a completed second draft I'll submit that to my crit group and if I'm very happy with it, possibly a beta reader and see what they have to say. At that time I'll start working on redrafting Raven.

More updates next week.

Review

There's a review up for If Wishes Were Horses at Literary Nymphs

As everyone knows my current WIP is The Bargain, I feel that I should add I haven't forgotten Lily and Darvan, I just needed to take a little break before getting back to them.

For 2009 and a Little Update

So I know I mentioned this briefly before, but this is the plan for 2009.

Monday - What I’m Reading - thanks to Nicole’s suggestion
Tuesday - WIP progress report
Thursday - Thursday 13
Friday - Fiction or Writing Stuff
Sunday - Poem, for as long as I’ve got poems to share

I’m going to post more about my reading choices and my reasons for picking them on the first Monday post of 2009 but the first book is going to be Pride and Prejudice.

The WIP progress is very slow at the moment, but over the past few days I’ve blasted through the first draft of The Bargain and am very pleased with the progress I’ve made. Sadly, the reason for my lack of progress is because my dad passed away just before Christmas. However, he would be the first person to tell me to get on with it, so that’s what I’m doing.

See you in the New Year.