35,000 Words, MarchisBIC, Goodbye Captcha

Yesterday I hit the 35,000 words mark on White Echoes. Whoop! Progress.

What's that you're saying? I was supposed to finish the month at 50,000 words? Nonsense! 

 The truth is that yes, indeed, I will fail at my March is Butt-in-Chair Month Challenge. That's okay. I will still have made more progress than I would otherwise have, and that's the whole point. I still write every day. I work on this story. I plan for April's challenge. I study (exams. Those things I wish I didn't have).

I've realised that White Echoes first draft will end shorter than expected. 50,000 words was a goal that'd bring me to the midway point. When I look at my outline, however... I've already crossed it. There are a few parts (*cough* the whole first 10k *cough*) that need to be revised and lengthened, but I now doubt the novel will go over 80,000 words.

So the new, realistic goal? Make 40,000 words before Thursday, midnight.

One last thing! I've heard it said that Blogger's new spam filter is efficient and makes the word verification unnecessary. As I've always found the thing mildly annoying, I'm giving a try to removing it. We'll see if the filter is as good as they say.

Discipline and Me are the Best Friends (Or Not)

Replace "drawing dinosaurs" with "play SimCity 4" and you have me, this week. In fact, I am at the "Don't do any of the stuff" stage.

This image, by the way, is taken from this post of Hyperbole and a Half, one of the most hilarious blogs out there. If you haven't read it already (I see it linked often), you should check the post on grammar mistakes on the internet. It usually makes me laugh so much my belly hurts.

I'm impressed by how little I've accomplished this week, despite feeling overwhelmed by all I have to do. I haven't written a single word since I returned from my weekend's trip.

Does this mean I've given up? Of course not. Over the weekend I should go through the "Become overwhelmed by guilt for my total lack of responsability" and start the machine.

Twelve days left. This is far from over!

Some Things Never Change

I did it again.

The oldest reader might remember when, way back in October, I explained how hard it was for me to work consistently on a single project. I'm not loyal is how I put it. I don't know why. Perhaps my brain isn't wired to spend too much time on one thing. The plan at the moment was to work alternatively on Edingher and White Echoes.

Surely, I could stick with two ideas, right?

Good one, that. This week I was reminded of how I loved Edingher's setting. Then, one night I woke from a dream with a brand new take on City of Spires, the only draft I ever edited. Not to mention February's new idea, with Fezim, which is the subject of my Script Frenzy and keeps haunting me. Four ideas. And I'm not even halfway through White Echoes' first draft.

I'm thrilled I have so many characters and plots dancing in my head. I am. But one has to wonder how I'll ever finish anything if I hope between four projects. I can't spend my life writing first drafts. It's not exactly the best way to learn to tighten my prose.

So here it is. Between the four projects, my writing energy went down. I managed to maintain the pace and even get ahead... until yesterday. I'll have to fight hard starting next Tuesday (no way I'll get a lot down until then) to catch up with the lateness.

March is fighting back hard, throwing back my old enemies at me, but I haven't lost the fight yet.

Oh, and tune in next week for the two last MICE story structure, Character and Event!

20,000 Words and a Good (but difficult) Start

Monday I declared I would make of March my Butt-in-Chair month. I wanted to get to 50,000 words by the end of the month, which involved a thousand a day.

So far, so good.

The first days it was horribly hard to get through my scenes. Not only had I lost the rhythm of my novel, but I was entering a series of high-tension scenes. The kind that are easier to write when your so full of your novel you can hardly think of anything else. I love when that happens. I wish it had earlier this week, too!

What do I do when I have to fight for every word? When I'm uncertain about what my characters should say and do? I power through. Write something. Move on. Most of the time I have an idea but I'm uncertain how to phrase it. This week was different. I realised my idea was wrong and did not know how to replace it.


What then? I put music that inspires me. I grabbed a piece of paper. On each side of it I put the two characters in the scene. I scribbled what each of them felt. I wrote dialogue they'd think but never say. I poured out a few hundred words in first person for each of them. I played around with this scene and their head. 

Half a hour later, with the same track still playing in the background, I knew where to go. The words didn't come out easily, but they were the right words. They said what had to be said, not what I thought to say at first. I expect the first edit will take them away, but the idea will remain.

I now stand at 20,000 words. I'm further along the story than expected at this point, but as I find my beat again, my scenes get longer. The pacing gets better. Starting again was hard, but I have my cruising speed. And everything is about to go BOOM! Fun times ahead!

(For the record, I realised I needed more than one thousand a day. I can't write on most Saturdays, and only a bit on Sundays. I'm not nervous about it. I expect my daily number to increase as I really get into the story.)

March is Butt in Chair Month

I haven't touched my five days. I've barely thought about it, and when I did, it was to reflect on how much I missed the writing. I had no time. Study. Work. Study and Work. The boyfriend. Work again (seriously, I think half my workplace was ill at once).

Life getting in the way, in short.

I realised something during those five days, however. I never miss writing as much as when I can't do it. This is good, in a way. What is less good is that when I have plenty of time to sit down and work on the novel, I do something else. I procrastinate.

March rolls around tomorrow and I'll have 15,000 words on White Echoes. I wish I had triple that amount. Especially since Script Frenzy will keep me from doing much in April (except the script, of course, which is for the Shiny New Idea I had at the start of the month)

What does this mean? March is Butt-in-Chair month. By the end of the month, I want to be at 50,000 words. This means a little over 1000 words every day. I can do this. There may not be November's frenzy, but I have my writerly friends around, and they know how to kick my ass into gears.

Discipline is essential for a writer. There will always be tons of things happening in my life to keep me away from my WIP. I might as well learn to deal with them right away.

So bring it on, March! I'm ready for you.

Edit: After receiving some feedback from friends, we decided to make this an 'official' event. If you want to join, pick a goal (it can be any side project) and jump in! We'll be tweeting with the #MarchisBIC hashtag. 

The Epiphany

I know I had a more serious post planned for today. Something about the nuts and bolts of writing. For the life of me, though, I can't remember what the topic was. It'll come back when my brain settles.

But what puts you in such a state, you ask?  (well, maybe not, and besides it's in the title, but I'll act as though I hadn't noticed).


Yesterday as I walked to class, I had a writing epiphany.

Not on WHITE ECHOES. It's another story, one I have carried with me for longer than I even write novels. All I had was a character, born from a short-lived game of roleplaying. I created tons of RP characters in my years, and they all tend to vanish.

Not this one.

For six years he waited in my head. Once, I tried writing his story. I blocked after 4000 words. I had no idea where this was going. I did not like what he was becoming. Every few hundred words, he also said or thought something horrible. Fezim is as twisted, disgusting and complex a character as I've ever done, but he happens to be charming and funny. It is so hard to balance the two. Especially when you have no idea where this is all going. In a way, I didn't feel safe with him 'in control' of the storyline.

But it's over now! With a 30-minute walk under big snowflakes, chatting up with friends, I somehow saw the ending. Within two hours I had drafted three scenes, including the last one and now my mind is bubbling with subplots and main characters.

This is going to be fun.

I do need to remember, however, to finish WHITE ECHOES' draft before I give in entirely to the Shiny New (well, somewhat new) Idea.

Isn't it fun when this happens? How do you guys deal with the new ideas? I normally just jot them down and move on. Any other tricks?