What's Up Wednesday? #7

I wrote this on Wednesday, so it still counts. ;P

Hey, I'm back on track! Let's all give a cheer!

So I totally blanked on updating last week because not much writing got done at all in that time. Had family in town and I was busy most of the time.

Yesterday, I passed the 60,000 word mark. I'm pretty sure this story will end somewhere around 80-90K. The next draft will probably be longer because my first round of edits is more about adding to instead of taking from the original draft. I'm just really amazed that I haven't grown tired of the story yet. The Editor Within is getting anxious though. I have so many notes about things I need to go back and fix, my fingers are just itching to do it. But I will finish the story first!

Then, this morning I made a decision to write a few scenes/chapters in another character's point of view. Not much is really happening with my main character at the moment so I thought I'd switch gears. I have no clue if what I'm about to write will stay on into the final drafts, but it will be a good writing exercise nonetheless. It's good to play with the other characters to get a different feel for the over all story.

Question Time: Do you edit as you write the first draft or do you wait until you have the whole thing on paper?

Waz Up Thursday?! (WUW #6)

So last week I didn't update until Friday, now I waited until Thursday. So in theory, I should be back on track next week. You know, pending life and stuff.

This week got me a grand total of 9472 words! It was a very productive week. I passed the 50,000 mark for over all word count, which makes this the longest thing I've ever written and it's still going strong.

Yesterday I wrote the first battle scene. It was short but intense, I made a lot happen in 2200 words. And then last night, my muse, a.k.a. my Husband, gave me a great idea that solves a couple plot problems for me. I figured out how I'm going to move forward in the story as well as an easy fix for my really weak opening scenes.

How's your week been with writing or editing or life? Share with me!

Thanks for reading and have a good Thursday!

What's Up Friday? (WUW #5)

Yeah, it's been a busy week. And all of it has been non-writing life busy. So my total word count since my last update is... 4532. That looks good, but after a week and a half I should have more. :(

I'm hoping to get some words in tonight. I've been dying to write because I'm ramping up for the first big battle scene in which epic things will happen and it will be sad and EPIC. I'm a little scared to write such a big scene. And this will be my first time writing a space battle, but it will be fun.

Also, I believe I've reached the point in this current WIP where I gave up on my last one. That first draft of the first manuscript was about 42K words long and I've passed that mark already in Moon Dragons. And I still have a long way to go. I'm wondering if this is going to end up being a series or something. Well just have to wait and see.

Thank you for reading and have a great weekend!

What's Up Wednesday #4

Wow, I've updated this blog every week for a month. That's a serious record for me. :D

I love these pictures. :)

Anyway, I'm getting better and better at writing everyday. I like getting up early in the morning. My mind is fresh and the house is nice and quiet. This week I wrote a total of 4436 words. I'm almost at 40K total for this first draft. I've kind of set a goal of 70K, but I may go past that. I'm not really sure. Either way, I'm somewhere around the half way point of my story.

I'm getting into a good place with all this writing. At first it seemed like a chore. All I thought about was getting that minimum of 350 words so I could move on, but now I'm writing more everyday and I just don't want to stop. If I had my way I'd write all day long. Unfortunately, kids and chores and stuff get in the way of that.

I wrote a funny little piece of dialogue the other day that I thought I'd share. In this scene, my main character, Sonya, is talking to a scientist about how the general population would react to the knowledge of the existence of aliens.

Carter [says]..."Half think it would be beneficial to make friends with aliens, the other half think that all aliens would want with us is to harvest our brains, or other such nonsense.”

“Those people read too much science fiction,” Sonya laughed. 

 “My thoughts exactly.”

A little breaking of the fourth wall never hurt anyone. ;)

So how is your writing going? Is it flowing or are you hung up on stuff? Tell me in the comments or on Facebook or Twitter.

Happy Wednesday!

What's Up Wednesday #3

This has been a much better writing week than last week. I've started getting up at 5 AM to write. The kids don't normally get up until sometime between 6 and 7 so I, generally, get a solid hour to write. That didn't happen today. William got up at 5:30 and has been watching Sesame Street. Elmo is not conducive to Moon Dragons. So I've been writing blog post instead.

So my total word count this week is 3313. I did a little over 1700 words yesterday alone. And I've noticed I don't write much, if at all, on the weekends. Part of it is because of that Chuck Wendig blog I mentioned. His plan has you taking the weekends off, only writing 5 days a week. But that will change this weekend. I'm going to start going to the library again on Saturday mornings. Two hours of childless writing sounds like Heaven.

Anyway, I'm half way through the first meeting between the Humans and the Aliens. I'm really playing this scene by ear. I've already covered some of the major points and now I'm just playing with the characters. I'm sure a lot of it will be cut later, but it's a good way to get to know my Alien MCs.

I forgot to do this last week, but here's some lines I've written recently.

“I make you nervous, don’t I?”

[Sonya] blushed. “I’m sure you have that effect on most people, sir.”

            

Commander Turner grimaced. “True. But I don’t want you to be afraid of me. I have a feeling we’ll be working together a lot in the near future. Plus, you’re my daughter’s best friend, I want you to be comfortable around me.”

            

“I’ll try sir,” she said with a smile.

And that's all folks! Have a Happy Wednesday and go write something!

What's Up Wednesday #2

As an interesting side note: This is my 50th post on this blog. So that's kind of cool. My first post was back in June 2010. Two and a half years and the most I've done is finish the first draft of one manuscript. Didn't even finish editing it because the whole thing was just wrong.

BUT, on to happy writing stuff!

So this last week was a little slow with the writing. In total I only added about 1000 words. But I'm on the edge of a very important and, possibly, hard part. The MC is about to meet her first alien in person. I'm pretty sure these aliens are going to come off flat and cardboard at first and I'll have to work hard to make them real, but at this point, I just want to get the scene down on paper. That's what the first draft is all about.

Anyway, I plan on writing a lot this week and hope to have lots of time this weekend, but we'll see. Life has a bad habit of getting in the way of all the fun stuff I want to do.

So, how's your writing going? Starting any new projects now that's it's spring? Share with me!

Have a Happy Wednesday!

What's Up Wednesday #1

So I've seen a few other writing blogs that do a Writing Wednesday or a WIP Wednesday and I wanted to do something similar but different. So here you have the first What's Up Wednesday!

And what will I talk about in What's Up Wednesday. What's up with my writing of course. This is a writing blog after all. ;)

Well, I've given my current WIP a new working title of Moon Dragons. Sounds a lot better than Dragons in Space space space space! And I'm currently up to over 30,000 words out of about 70,000. I really have no clue how long this is going to be but I'm pretty sure I'm not quiet half way through the story yet.

I was hoping to get a lot more words on the page the last few days but I got caught up in the beginning stages of developing two of my main alien characters. At first I wanted to make them "simply evil" but after reading that character book I reviewed last post I realized that would not be a good idea. So I had to come up with some basic motivations and reasons for why they do what they will eventually do, which I'm not 100% sure of yet. :D

And now for a few lines from Moon Dragons:

Sonya looked over her shoulder at her teacher Master Abdul... “I don’t think I can do it, sir.”

“And why not?”

She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I’m afraid of heights, sir,” she whispered.

Master Abdul let out a belly laugh. “You want to fly in space but you’re afraid of heights?”

Sonya shrugged. “There’s no gravity in space, sir. No falling down.”

Also, some links about writing awesomeness I'd like to share.

First, Chuck Wendig dispenses awesome writing advice. The first I'd like to share is this: 

HOW TO PUSH PAST THE BULLSHIT AND WRITE THAT GODDAMN NOVEL: A VERY SIMPLE NO-FUCKERY WRITING PLAN TO GET SHIT DONE (his title, not mine)

And this: 

25 WAYS TO BE A HAPPY WRITER (OR, AT LEAST, HAPPIER)

He's a smart man and he writes good books. I just reviewed one this week in fact. :)

And that is all for now friends! Have a Happy Writer's Wednesday!