Category: works in progress

First Post of Round One: #ROW80

by Linda Nelson, posted in ROW80, works in progress

ROW80 will be starting up again this week. I have yet to post my goals for this round. Kait also asked if we would try to find things were grateful for during this round. So I will start off by stating what I’m grateful for this weekend.

I’m grateful for being able to spend the holidays with my son. This is a tremendous deal. Addiction is a big deal, and the child addict is not always able to spend a peaceful holiday with their parent(s). Peaceful is not a common word amongst addicts and their families. But it was for mine this year. Quiet and Peaceful.

While I feel as though I have cornered the market on the Peaceful Holiday season, I know of the many parents who have lost their child during this season to the illness of addiction. My heart goes out to them, and I hope that they may find the strength to carry on.

 

 

 

 

ROW80 Update:

I’m still working on that same #wip I was working on for NaNo. I was going to put it aside and work on something else, but the story kept calling out to me. With the first 19k words done on it, I couldn’t write anymore on it even though I wanted to. I was stumped.

I kept thinking and thinking about why, then it dawned on me. I needed to change up a couple of chapters. They weren’t working. So this morning, I deleted – that’s right – I deleted 2k words. I would never have considered do this had I not sat a year ago before my RWA group for a critique and they cut over 1k from Along Came Neil, and it did wonders.

So I cut, and I may have to cut more too.

I did manage to replace most of the word count afterwards, and the characters are behaving more realistic. Or as realistic as one can get in a fantasy – lol.

This leads me to another grateful mention – I’m grateful for those gals teaching me it is okay to cut a chapter here and there to make the story structure sounder.

How’s your ROW80 panning out for the week? Are you cutting and adding? Just cutting or only adding?

I’d love to hear from you.

Cyber Shopping Done – #ROW80 Check-in

by Linda Nelson, posted in ROW80, works in progress, writing

Christmas is right around the corner. There are 17 shopping days left. Are you done with your Christmas Shopping?

I think I am. It will be the first time in years that I am done before the last minute shoppers hit the stores. It is a lovely feeling too. I did sacrifice my NaNo Wri for Xmas Shopping.

My plot was hitting a bump. I wasn’t sure it was going to work out right or that there would be enough action or conflict. All the shopping down time helped me work things out with my plot, and it seems the story is back on track. The first draft is 35% complete. That’s almost halfway there. If I have another strong weekend, plus the vacation I will be taking Christmas week maybe I will finish this story by the end of the year.

I do average 90 days when it comes to first drafts on manuscripts. Maybe, if I’m lucky, my ADD will stay at bay, and I will be able to keep working on this story past the 50k minimum mark. It would be neat to have a work that is a bit longer than normal.

It surely will be an adult only read. All I can say is Kings + Pirates + Maidens = Oh la la.

I’ve been listening to Celtic Music while working on this piece. It seems to help me get into the set time. This may not be our world, or it maybe. I’m thinking an Arthurian Period of someplace that is not here. Maybe add some magic, music and dance to the story to spice it up more. In time, we will see.

You’ll just have to stay tuned to learn more.

ROW80 Check-in:

I did not write at all during the week. I was glued to the Walmart site hitting all their Cyber deals.

Today I did 3k words. Yup that equals my average of 400 words a day that NaNo said I averaged. This is still within my target range. Now, if only I did the 400 words every day during the week, I would be done ahead of schedule with the addition of the 3k on the weekend. That is probably asking too much. Who knows what will happen as I get deeper and deeper into the story.