The need for an antagonist

More writing yesterday, and an entirely unplanned finishing total of 1111 words, which kept my short stories total as a nice orderly number, this time 8,765. I do like the story, but now I'm wondering if there's not enough drama in there - I'm already planning to add another couple of characters at the start to give our protagnoist someone to talk to while she's pining over her seemingly unavailable love interest, but now I think I need some sort of antagonist to try and keep them apart after they together. The way the story's structured, there needs to be something coming in to stop them diving into bed together on one day, delaying it till the next, so that could be it. I shall think over this more when starting the second draft.

Though before that I do need to get back to the work-in-progress too, as I'm still leaving it at a tricky place, not quite sure where to take the story next, and how to get our heroines out of their predicament. I'm sure by now my subconscious has worked this out, I just need to let it loose...

Back in the saddle

Phew, I managed to do some writing yesterday, and added 1080 words to the short story. Those few days without writing were weighing quite heavily on me, and I was starting to feel increasing pressure on me to get back to writing, and then of course, the pressure itself started feeling too oppressive that it was easier to ignore it and not write, rather than deal with it by writing.

That makes the total for short stories now 7654, which fits nicely with the 1234 words I wrote the other day. Maybe I should set 123,456 as the target for the challenge?

Still, very good to get writing, even if this story is starting to sprawl and make itself look like it's going to be a lot longer than I expected to be, especially when I have to go back into the rewrite and add in extra characters. Definitely novella-esque length, I think, which is a bit more than I thought it would be when the idea came to me. Good to have characters who want a longer story, and then might even return in something else later on, who knows.

Right, I have to get off to work, but hopefully there'll be time for some more writing this afternoon and evening. As well as finishing this story, I need to get back to the work-in-progress before it starts stagnating too much and I can't pick up the thread of it again.

And there's your badly mixed metaphor of the day!

Falling off the wagon

Life is what gets in the way when you're planning to write. I've now hit three days in a row without doing any, but I'm hoping to turn that around today. This is why having the buffer zone was important, as it means I won't fall behind the target for a day, even if 1200 a day might be a bit beyond me now.

In other news, thanks to everyone who downloaded a copy of Almost Chance during the free promo, and I hope you liked it. If you did then please leave a review on Amazon and let other people know!

Twenty two hours to go

Almost Chance is still free for another day. Thanks to everyone who's picked up a copy so far, and I hope you're enjoying it - and if you are, please leave a review on Amazon and let others know. I've made it into a bestseller list - though 'seller' is likely not the right word when something's being given away, is it? I'm around #700 in the overall list for free books on Kindle at the time of writing, and up to #66 in the erotica section. Probably #1 in the lesbian erotica section, if there was one, as all the ones above me in the list appear to be hetero from their titles and descriptions. And I do feel like rewriting my description to point out that my book doesn't feature a billionaire, unlike so many of the others. I wonder what might have inspired all those writers to make heroes billionaires?

Unfortunately, amidst all the free book excitement, I didn't manage to get any writing done yesterday, so no words to add to the total.

1234

The orderly part of my brain likes that I produced that many words yesterday. All on the same short story that I was working on the day before, but that's now getting close to the end of the first draft, and a good writing session might well take me there. Of course, it's now getting a bit long to be called a short story, but we'll see how long it comes out when it's finished in the next draft!

Anyway, that takes my total words for short stories to 6,574 which on top of thr 56,857 I've got on the work-in-progress (which I will be getting properly back to today or tomorrow) takes me over 63,000 words. Have a busy work week next week, though, so do need to make the most of this weekend, and the universe might be helping me by snowing me in!

And, of course, don't forget that Almost Chance is free this weekend, so make sure you get a copy while you can!

Get it for free this weekend!

Almost Chance, that is. While there may be other things available for free elsewhere, they're not coming from me.

Yes, I've decided to make it available for free on Amazon for forty-eight hours, so now's your chance to save yourself a dollar, a euro or 77p and get it for nothing. All I ask is that if you do read it and like it, then please leave a review and please tell others to get a copy as well.

For those of you who don't know what Almost Chance is, it's a 30,000 word erotic novella that tells the story of Jen. She's on a trip to go and see a friend when she spots an attractive woman on the train. The woman notices Jen's stares and announces herself as 'Mistress', someone who Jen can't help but obey. She then offers Jen the chance to enter a world of sensual pleasures with her, and all Jen needs to do is submit to her. Where will Jen's journey take her?

It's free in all Amazon stores - including the US, Canada and the UK - for this weekend only, so why not take a chance on it?

A diversion, and a sample

Yesterday, I didn't add anything to the work-in-progress. I didn't have loads of time to write because of work commitments and other things, and when I was at the computer, I just couldn't get my head into it, so I did some more on the short story I'm doing at the moment instead. It was only 801 words, so below the daily target, but the story's moved on nicely, and the shape of it's there, I just need to finish this first take on it, then go back and redo it with the additional characters in it that help it make sense.

And as it's a bit from a draft that likely won't see the light of day, here's an unedited sample from it for your enjoyment. Hey, it's Friday, we all need some excitement.

The shower was an old one, the head resolutely fixed to the wall and just about capable of turning a few degrees, but not being detached. I had wistful memories of my shower head at home that had been a good companion on many occasions when I wasn't getting any attention, but this time my fingers would have to suffice. I thought of Becky in the shower just a few metres away from me, imagined how her body would look in the mists of water, beads forming on her skin. As my fingers began working in my folds, easing my clit out to play, I imagined her standing in front of me, that amazing rear of hers rubbing against me while my hands reached round to play with her breasts. As we rubbed closer in the warm water, our bodies slipping and sliding over each other, her hand reached back to stroke between my legs, and it was that I imagined rubbing between mine rather than my own. My eyes closed, my free hand reached out to the wall to balance myself as my/her stroking became insistent, my already aroused body burning for her until I gasped and cried out, my body shuddering and shaking as my climax rocked through me.

There'll be more where that came from when it's finished.

Coming soon

I've decided to try something this weekend and see what happens when I make a book available for free for a limited time. Yes, I'm making Almost Chance available as a free promotion on Amazon this weekend, so if you haven't got a copy already, now's the chance to save yourself the 77p, $1 or whatever it would cost in you your local currency and pick it up for free.

Don't worry, I will post many reminders here and on Twitter over the weekend, but if you do pick up a copy and enjoy it, would you do me the favour of leaving a review behind? A good review is almost as good as royalty payment - though they don't accept it in exchange for goods - and you'll make me smile if you do it.

In other news, yesterday was a 1700 word day on the work-in-progress, taking it to 56,857 words so far and introducing an odd plot complication I wasn't expecting. That keeps it fun, but it's going to make editing a bugger.

Oh well, it's Thursday and it's not raining. That's always a bonus.

Another day, and other words

It's all getting quite routine at the moment, which means everything will no doubt crash and burn around my ears in a little while. 1100 or so words yesterday to take the total for the work-in-progress to 55,097 and my overall total very close to 60,000. In an ideal world, of course, I'd have passed 60,000 yesterday to get back to the 1200 a day pace, but I'm fine with it as I'm still well over 1000 a day still, and I've recently been booking some holidays and time off, I'm going to need to establish a proper buffer zone to stop me falling too far back.

Broke one of my rules yesterday in where I stopped, as it was right at the end of a scene, but I can't decide if that's the end of the chapter or if it needs more before jumping back to the present day. It's the flashback to where one of the heroines meets the antagonist for the first time (the other heroine is about 200 years from being born at this point) but as friends and lovers rather than enemies. The question's a structural one - do I then tell the full story of how their relationship progressed, deepened and soured straight away, or l

And I can't remember how this post finished, but I'm sure it finished and was published, then Blogger decided to revert to an earlier draft for reasons I don't understand. Thanks, Blogger!

Slower starting

Very late in doing this today, and quite late in starting writing too, as I've still not done anything. However, yesterday was a good day, and I did 1700 words on the work-in-progress by the end of it, despite having a rather slow start and feeling very unwriterly. (And I'm really hoping that 'unwriterly' isn't a word) Total on the work-in-progress is now 53,978.

Yesterday's lesson really should be that even though I'm heading for the target of 100,000 words, I shouldn't be afraid to back up and start again on a section when it doesn't work. I'd done the opening sentence of a chapter on Friday, and then when I went to work on it, I found that because of the content and phrasing of that sentence, I had to meander around at the start looking for the best point to properly start telling the story from. That's likely why things were coming slowly at first - all the grasping round in the dark looking for the threads of the story - but then picked up when I finally found the right way to tell the scene. Once I was up and running with it, the rest of it came quite quickly, hence making it to a good total after that start.

Still thinking about the structure of this story after I've finished it. I do like the flashbacks, but I'm not sure how much they work with the present day storyline, though they're now becoming a bit more relevant, and the question has to be how to get the two streams to work together, or if it's best to separate them entirely.

Anyway, that's something to think about in more depth when I've actually finished the writing. Which I'm going to take a few more steps towards doing now...

One of those days

Yesterday was a lazy day, most of which was spent doing not much more than lying around watching TV. In other words, no new words to add to the total.

Today I'm feeling like it's going to be a tough day's writing. Of course, it might not be, but at the moment, the thought of opening OpenOffice or Scrivener is filling me with dread, and the idea that I might actually come up with new words to follow the ones I've already put down for those stories feels somewhat absurd and ridiculous. But then, circumstances seem likely to take me away from home and put me into my alternate writing location for the remainder of the day, so perhaps things will feel better when I get there.

I suppose if all else fails, I could go back and work on one of those other story ideas I listed the other day, see where I get if I start off on one of those, but that would likely be bad in the long run, as I need to crack on and work on the work-in-progress. Just because I've come to a tough bit in the story doesn't mean it has to be abandoned. I've solved every problem I've had with it so far, so this one can be resolved too!

Sunday, Sunday...

As expected, being out all day yesterday for work meant I didn't get any writing done. Not sure whether I will today or not - I've already been up for a while, but in a half-awake, half-asleep zombified state where I can barely write my name, let alone vaguely coherent fiction.

As I didn't do a proper post yesterday, a quick catch up - almost 1200 words on the work-in-progress on Friday has taken me to a total of 52,239 and some real drama and twists - a new antagonist has revealed herself and our two heroines are now her prisoners. Short stories total is still 4,549, which means the overall total is 56,788 at an average that's still over 1200 words a day.

Maybe keeping the average above that will motivate me to write some more later today..

Promotion coming soon

I've decided it's time to make use of some of the features I have with Amazon, so just to let you all know that Almost Chance will soon be available as a free promo. It'll last for two days - but which two days? I'm not telling yet, you'll have to wait and see!

Pushing the story up a hill, and other failed metaphors

A decent enough day of writing yesterday. Did just over 1000 words on the work-in-progress in the morning, and then a few hundred words on the short story in the afternoon while on a break between two work things. For those of you keeping track (which is me and me alone, I believe) the totals are now 51,049 words on the WIP and 4549 words of short stories, which means I'm still over the 1200 words a day average.

Again, might be a poor weekend for writing - definitely looks unlikely tomorrow, as I'm off on a work thing all day, leaving very early and not getting back till late, and then Sunday will likely be a usual Sunday. So, need to get myself into gear and properly write today, so I polish off a good chunk of words and keep that total ticking over. The buffer zone's quite big now - about 10 days worth, but I need to keep the momentum going now. The WIP's got a lot of weight in it now, so once I get rolling downhill to the finish, things should take care of themselves, but for now I'm still shoving it slowly uphill, and this metaphor doesn't really work, does it?

As for the short, it definitely will need a rewrite to liven up the start of it, but now I've got to the meat of it, it should flow quite well. Might be a bit longer than usual short story length as well, even after editing it could well be getting on for 10,000 words. Not sure if that takes it over the boundary into novelette/novella territory, or if it's just a long short story. Though now I write that, I am thinking it might be worth breaking it into sections to encourage me to liven up the earlier parts some more.

It will all make sense when you get to read them, honestly.

Bitter and twisted

It's Valnetine's Day, so I could be cheesy and write about love and romance, but to be honest, I absolutely detest Valentine's Day. I've spent quite a lot of my life being single, and to me it's always felt like a day that's calculated to say 'if you're not in a relationship, you're worthless, and if you are in a relationship and don't spend loads of money on tat, then you're just as worthless'. You can have love and romance and pink teddy bears with cute sayings sewn into their bellies in your life every day if you want, you don't need society's permission to go all out for one day and then forget it the rest of the time.

On more pleasurable thoughts, I churned out about 1500 words of the work-in-progress yesterday, and that took me over the 50,000 total (50,027). If this was NaNoWriMo, I'd be finished, just 14 days late. As it's not, and the target's twice as big, there's still a long way to go. I was a bit unsure about where it was set to go from the point I stopped it at, but then everything came clearer when I was close to sleep last night - and for once, it's still clear when I wake up.

Have to get today's words done this morning, though, as work pressures mean I'll be out for most of the afternoon and evening - yes, while you're all in restaurants that have doubled their prices for the evening, surrounded by other bored couples, I'll be at work. I'm so romantic that way.

Subconscious solutions

I do like days when the words flow out easily. I was writing what I thought was going to be a difficult scene yesterday, where our heroines encounter one of the villain's henchmen in a tricky situation, and I thought it was going to be a difficult one to write. Turns out that my brain is capable of working things out without me knowing it, as it had gone through the situation and revealed the answer to me as I wrote it.

It's an odd sensation, that, when an idea you haven't properly thought of before jumps out at you and you instinctively know that it's the right answer. It's that 'hole in the page' moment I talked about back at the start of this process, where I have the feeling that I'm looking at the actual scene and just describing it rather than creating it. The characters went along with it too, which is good, as sometimes they tend to protest at my plans for them.

You know, if they ever have to section me then some of these blog entries will probably be used against me.

Having done over 1000 words on the work-in-progress and still having time to do more, I decided to go back to the short story I was working on last week. It definitely is going to need a rewrite - the main character needs some friends with her in the first part of the story - but I'm still going to go on and finish this version of it before going to do that. First, it might turn itself around on me again and reveal that she didn't need anyone else with her at the start and second, I don't want to get back into the habit of abandoning things halfway through to go and do a rewrite. As I've said before, if I allow myself to do that, then I end up abandoning the rewrite to do another version and so on and so forth in a writerly version of Zeno's Paradox, getting less and less into the story each time until I'm left just obsessing over the first word and decide to go write something else instead.

And the totals so far? 48,524 on the work in progress and 4,184 on short stories. To work!

Living on a prayer

I think it shows my age when the thought 'I'm halfway there' is followed by another part of my brain going 'woooooahhhh, livin' on a prayer!'

But that is where I am, on the way to the 100,000 word in 100 days target, and about eight days ahead of schedule. Did just under 2000 words yesterday, and that took me to 47,118 on the work in progress, and adding in the 3364 from short stories, that's a total of 50,482. Which leaves me just short of an average of 1200 a day too, and at this point I should be hitting the target before the end of March.

No idea if that will be when I finish on this story, or stories, though. It's become a great big sprawling bunch of tales, and I've no idea how much longer it will take to finish off the main story, let alone all the flashbacks and side stories that it's inspiring. However, the one thought that does inspire in me is that it could easily be broken down into a series of shorter works - probably novella length - that are all linked. The main story I'm writing at the moment would be the central one and the first in the series, then others would spin off from that.

That depends on them being any good and people wanting to read them, though, and before I can see if that's the case, I need to get on and finish the stories I'm telling.

Thought for the day: do stories get longer and start to meander and add in more detail because we dread them finishing and want to put off the task of editing them?

Almost at one nano

Did manage to get back in the saddle and do some writing yesterday. About 1100 words, so not the epic day I was hoping for, but enough to take the work in progress over 45,000 words (45,150) and with the 3500 I've done on short stories so far this year, I'm almost at 50,000 words for the year so far, which is the equivalent of one NaNoWriMo. Sure, it'll have been done in 42 or 43 days rather than 30, but it feels good to have got off to that sort of start to the year.

Now I just need to keep at that pace and see if I can hit the 100,000 word target within 100 days - and then carry on after that too.

Also (re)discovered another couple of story ideas yesterday. Got a new phone and reinstalled Evernote onto it, and found some story ideas I'd jotted down in there a while ago. Both for longer works - probably novella, possible novel-length stories - but when I read the notes I was reminded of the idea and how they'd work, which is a good advert to noting down ideas whenever they come, as otherwise they drift away.

When you're making other plans

Unfortunately, life has got in the way of writing for the last couple of days, but Sunday's now stretching ahead of me, looking mostly empty and ready to be filled with words, so hopefully I can start making up for lost time. Got too busy with other things on Friday and Saturday to get any done, so nothing to report now, but hopefully I'll have a nice juicy entry for you tomorrow.

In other news, I also have a new fancy phone with a nice big screen (a Galaxy Note) so that might make it easier for me to write in other places too. Might be good for producing short stories!

Coming up short

Real life intervened yesterday, which meant I didn't get to write as much as I was constantly being dragged away from the keyboard and into other things. So, I only produced about 700 or so words which takes the work-in-progress to a total of 43,981. Which again proves I shouldn't excitedly post about all the things I'm going to write when other things will eat into the time available for writing! Still, that's the first day in a long time when I've written less than 1000 words, and even though it eats into the 1000-a-day buffer zone a little, it's good that I got something done.

To Friday, anyway, and finishing off the week with a flourish!

The state of play

I need to get myself more motivated so I write in the mornings. Yesterday was a very productive day. In the morning, I finally got to the end of Incredibly Long Talking To Each Other Chapter and started Flashback Chapter That I'm Not Sure Where It's Going on the work in progress, which was about 1200 words in total, leaving me at a grand total of 43,251 words for that. Having done that, I then went back to one of my started-but-not-finished short stories and added 1864 words to that, which meant I'd done over 3000 words in that day. OK, I realised that the short story need a page one rewrite with a couple of extra supporting characters added for it to work properly, but the two main characters are interesting and connecting well with each other.

As well as that, I also looked through my short stories folder and was reminded of several of the ideas that I've begun or done notes for, but not taken any further. There's at least six that I look at (and that's not including the one I worked on yesterday) and think 'hey, that'll be fun to write', so it seems like my enthusiasm is coming back. And because I'm in a sharing mood today, here's a rough sketch of some of them:

Anne: A lecturer is seduced by one of her students, and finds herself being led into a new world
Crossing The Floor: A relationship between two MPs is complicated by them being in different parties
Down The Rabbit Hole: A woman explores her submissive fantasies
Number Seventeen: A pretty dark tale of mind control and experimentation as an innocent student finds herself corrupted
Helen's New Girl: A relationship based on age play
Her Daughter's Friend: Kind of self-explanatory title, but looking at some of the repercussions when a relationship like that begins

There are others too, and a half-finished erotic novel about an English couple discovering a hidden French village devoted to pleasure, which is fun though quite hard to keep track of all the characters. The good thing is that I've got lots of things that are driving my imagination at the moment, so all I need to do is keep writing them down!

And with that thought, to work I go...

Not quite 42

For the first time, had to check back at an old word count total here to see how far I'd got at the start of yesterday, and check I'd made it to 1000 words. I did, and the total's now 41,990 - didn't check the total I'd done yesterday before finishing, as I hadn't noticed the time rushing by and had to switch off quickly when I had to get ready to go out. Wish I'd done just ten words more to get it to a nice Douglas Adams-esque round number, though.

This chapter's taking longer to write than I expected, as a lot of it is the two main characters talking to each other about their pasts. So, it is heavy on exposition, and most of that will likely disappear down the editing chute when it comes to it, but it's still fun to probe into their backgrounds and hear them talking to each other. Also, I had a moment when I realised that I'd created a parallel between them with their stories, and how they both reacted to surprise betrayals, which might come in handy later on - it's certainly helped to build the bond between them.

But now the conversation has been broken by a ringing phone, and the message that comes on that is going to send things off in an interesting direction...

Short story cravings

40,878 is the total on the work-in-progress after yesterday, though now I'm back at the point where I'm itching to have a day where I get a chunk done on that and then work on a short story for a while. I've got another one that I started last year which needs finishing (and the start re-writing) but the immediate feedback they give is good for my ego, and my development as a writer.

Which is a way of saying that if you haven't read and reviewed one of my stories - Screwing The Pitch, When There's An R In The Month or Emma's Favourite Place - on Literotica yet, please give them a look and a vote!

Not much else to report today, though hopefully this afternoon will be a good one for writing. Just about to take the work-in-progress into the next action scene, and then there's a flashback after that which should be fun to write.

Back to the grindstone

As I'm sure any regular readers might have guessed would happen, after two days of producing quite a lot, yesterday was a zero day as real life got in the way of doing any writing. Weekends seem to have a habit of doing that to me, with all their distractions and my natural urge to relax and do nothing on a Sunday.

So I'm still where I was on Saturday, but I can see how the story's moving forward, as well as how to structure it when it comes to rewriting. I'm now thinking it's going to work best as two or more separate novella-length tales, rather than having the jumps between time periods. The modern story works well together, and explains itself without need for the flashbacks, and the flashback scenes likely need more space to work in by themselves, rather than merely being references back from the main text. Inadvertently, I seem to have created a series...

OK, time to face Monday and get to work...

Blogless days

Apologies to those of you hanging on my every word for not writing a post yesterday - I was having to travel for (real life) work and didn't get a chance to be online long enough to write one. However, I was travelling by train - on a company that hasn't yet worked out this whole wi-fi thing - and had my laptop with me, so was able to do some writing. The result? I think I need to travel by train more often. Over 1000 words on each leg of the journey made it a really good day's writing, and on top of a good day on Friday, I'm having a very good start to February.

Totals - at the end of Friday I was at 37,633 and by the time I got home last night, I'd reached 39,782.

Of course, it's all still very much first draft stuff, but it's still fun to write. At the moment, I'm just detailing a conversation between my two main characters, most of which likely won't end up in the final version, but writing it out is invaluable for me in coming to know about their characters. It tells me about their pasts and how they've got to where they are, and also lets me find out and explore their different voices, exploring their ways of saying things.

Generally, there's a lot going into this draft that's background and stuff that I know won't make the cut, but it's important to me in shaping the story and learning about it. This is the time for letting ideas take root and flow to their logical extent, and the editing, rewriting and cutting can take place later, once this draft has shown me what's important. Though when my target's only 1000 words a day (unlike NaNoWriMo's 1667), I don't have to be quite as demented in what I include to hit the daily target - I've managed to resist full-on infodumps so far.

Actually, that makes me think of one advantage of having viewpoint characters who don't know what's going on - you get to explain what they learn as they go along, not infodump everything they already know to catch the reader up. Obvious statement is obvious, of course, but it is Sunday morning.

January in review

Yesterday was another good writing day, with well over 1000 words written, another chpater finished and another one properly started (not just a line or two to avoid blank page syndrome). As it's now February, let's look back at the figures for last month.

Total on the work in progress so far is 36,198 words, with another 1500 words written of Screwing The Pitch to finish it off, making a total of 37,698 for the month, which is a decent average of over 1200 words a day. It's been good to get back to writing and slough off the feeling of a block hanging over me, and as the month's gone on, the writing's definitely become easier. I've got a good story going, with two interesting characters at the heart of it, though it will need substantial rewriting after I've finished this first draft.

It was also good to get another short story up on Literotica which currently has 10 votes and an average of 3.9, just to have something to point at and say 'look, I finished that!'

Need to keep a running total as I go, but I'm also going to reset to zero for February so I keep the average up over 1000 words a day, rather than eating into the buffer I've built up in January on the jutification that I'm above average overall. So the target in four weeks time when I next do a review post will be at least 65,698 words in total.

I think I've written a post like this every day so far as well, and they've been good motivation to keep me going, even if no one is reading them! They're effectively my morning pages, a chance to sort out my head while I wake up and arrange a few thoughts before getting on with the writing. I guess another target is to keep that up, and if I start missing them, try and nag me to get back in the saddle and writing them...