Backed up

EDIT: Another post that should have come up ages ago, but Blogger has turned it into a draft...

After a decent surge to start off the new story, I've dried up for the last couple of days, but it's nothing to do with the story itself. No, instead it's because I've picked up a minor back injury that makes sitting at the keyboard for any length of time a bit painful, and as my writing method involves lots of sitting down, staring into space, aimlessley looking round the web, reading over what I've written before and then finally getting down to writing in a huge torrent of words, it means I've not produced anything for the last couple of days.

Normally, I'd fix this sort of problem by going for a decent walk or two, but have you seen the weather here recently? It might just fix my back, just as it would fix my 'not having hypothermia' problem.

But, things are feeling better now, so the likelihood is that I'll be back to writing today, and hopefully making some good progress towards the final target, as the 100 days is getting closer and closer to running out...

Starting again

After thinking it over, I started a new story yesterday. There are various ideas for ones floating round my head - see some of my earlier post for details - but the one that finally pushed itself to the fore is a story called Crossing the Floor, which is a lesbian romance story between two MPs (that's Members of Parliament, if you're not British). As ever with the start of a story, things are going well, with over 2000 words done yesterday as I get things moving and introduce the two main characters to the audience and each other.

The story's going to mix romance and political intrigue (at least, that's the plan). Amy's a newly elected MP, after a shock by-election win as an independent candidate. Concerned that she has no party to support her in the Commons, the Speaker asks Sara, a maverick MP from the ruling party, to give Amy some advice on how the House of Commons works. The two quickly become good friends, and there's a clear attraction between them, but will the closeted Sara be willing to act on it, and what happens when their relationship becomes public knowledge?

I'm hoping it will be fun to write, as the two main characters are interesting, and there's an interesting assortment of supporting characters to either cheer their relationship on or act as a roadblock to what's developing between them. Stay tuned for more on it as I write it!

Finished

Yes, yesterday afternoon I finally finished the first draft of Bite (formerly known under the working title of Lesbian Vampire Highlander, hence the LVH label for it). In the end, the first draft was 62,736 words long, the last of which was 'alive'.

I would offer to share it, but it really needs a second draft, as the story needs a complete page one rewrite. The characters are good, but the plot I originally envisioned isn't the one the story ended up wanting, so it meanders and jumps a lot before getting into the real groove. I've got a definite vision for the second draft and how it will go, but I need to take some time to plan and outline that properly, to get it right. There's also the germ of several other stories in there, either in the form of flashbacks or as sequels, and I do feel like I've created an interesting universe that's a somewhat different take on the vampire tales.  More will be explained later, no doubt.

The only issue I have now is what to write to get me to the 100,000 word total for the challenge? Guess it's back to my big list of short story ideas to see what catches my interest...

Twenty days and counting

There's 20 days left until the end of the 100,000 words in 100 days challenge, and my current total is 79,420. That means I need to do another 20, 580 words in those 20 days , at an average of 1029 a day. Can I do that? I think so, it's well below what I was managing to do at the start of the challenge, and I seem to have regained my writing mojo after the pause of the last couple of weeks.

I'm working through the climax to Bite at the moment, and haveing taken the decision to jump possibilities into that, I'm now getting a much better vision of how the rest of the story can work to lead up to it. Maybe I should just try writing entire stories backwards in the future?

Not much more I can think of to write about at the moment, probably because I didn't sleep too well so I'm still feeling a little tired and dozy this morning, but having to think of words for this is kicking my brain into something like gear. Now I just need to make sure that when I do start writing today, it's not single word grunts and groans, but proper sentences.

Cheating to the finish

Wrote 1442 word of Bite yesterday, and made a decision that the way to get out of the story cul-de-sac I'd found myself in was to cheat a little. As I've mentioned for a while, writing this first draft has given me lots of ideas of how to rewrite it in the second draft, and that includes changing a lot of the details of the plot (though the characters remain the same). So, what I've chosen to do is effectively bring over the conclusion I was planning in my head for the second draft and use it in this one, as a trial.

I'll be honest and admit that it doesn't quite gel with what has gone before, and so comes out of left field a bit. Not quite a complete deus ex machina, but perhaps a demigod from the machine, saving the day, but setting up the same climax I'd always planned. It changes the world I'm writing in a bit, too, introducing global networks, plans and conspiracies that threaten to spin off and create their own stories, but that's a good thing, right?

So, not quite at the end yet, but getting there, and now I know where I'm going, it's just a question of keeping on in that direction till I reach it. I suspect it won't take 20,000 words to get there from here, though, so now the question is what do I write to get myself up to the 100,000 target? I'm thinking that it's time for a couple of fresh and quick short stories, something I can put on Literotica for a bit of instant feedback. Suggestions and requests are welcome...

One down

Finally, I have finished something. OK, I did finish Screwing The Pitch earlier in the year, but that wasn't anywhere near as epic as the things I've been working on. I didn't expect this story to turn out so huge at the beginning either, but in the end it bloated to a monster 17,000 words, and I finally put the capstone on it yesterday afternoon. Now all I need to do is go back and rewrite it all, because there are lots of changes I've seen it needs, and no doubt more will come to light when I start going through it again.

The story is currently going under the title The Way To Her Heart, and at its heart, it's a romance between two women who are both walking the West Highland Way. Jess is getting back into her old pastime of walking after ending a relationship (in the first draft she was doing it alone, in the second, she'll have two friends with her) while Becky's doing it with her boyfriend, though their relationship is severaly fraying. Sparks begin to fly when the two of them meet, but will they act on them?

It's been enjoyable to write, and I like the two women at the heart of it. The one problem I've identified in the first draft is that there's not enough drama in it, and not many obstacles for the two of them to get over, but those things can be easily added in to the next draft, which I'm going to leave to simmer in my mind for a bit while I finish the first draft of Bite, and then get back to it. Or possibly rattle off the first draft of something else to get me to the 100,000 word target.

The good news is that in getting to the finish yesterday, I did over 2500 words, which has knocked a big chunk off the target as I head towards the end. That's now 17,719 words in total for short stories, which makes for a grand total of 76,735 words, and 23,265 to go till I reach the target. Another day like that, and I'll be back in 1000 words a day land!

25860

That's my number - that is, the number of words I need to write by April 10th to meet my 100,000 words in 100 days challenge. The total as of this morning is 74,140, made up of 59,016 words on the work in progress (I'm getting drawn towards Bite as a title, but can't explain why) and 15,124 of short stories. To anyone who's been keeping track, you'll notice there's been a very big drop off in the writing rate in the last couple of weeks, but with 23 days to go to the finishing line, I'm feeling confident that I might just squeak over it. I need to average 1100 words a day, and as I was doing 1200 before my speed bump slowed me right down, that should be possible.

As it is, the short story is almost at the end (though I've been saying that for a while, haven't I?), and indeed might well be long past the point when it will end in the rewrite, but I'm using this opportunity to tell their full story, and then the most important bits will get into the second draft.

The work-in-progress is still around the point it was last time. I'm kind of stuck in a position with our heroines in peril and being threatened by the villain, but can't quite work out how to get them out of it. Again, I suspect that by the time I come to do the next version of it, these scenes won't be in it in quite the same way, to try and avoid that problem. Of course, the only way to solve it is to keep writing and see what comes up, so that's what I'm going to have to do!

The seventy percent solution

It occurred to me today that it's day 70 of the 100,000 words in 100 days challenge, so it might be worth taking stock of how far I've come and how far I have to go. As I've a had a very slow writing rate for the last week or so, I felt it might be useful to see just how far I have to go in the remaining 30 days, so I know what target I need to be setting myself as I pick up the reins and get writing again.

The situation's better than I thought it would be. 56,857 words so far on the work-in-progress and 14,091 on short stories, coming together for a total of 70,948 words. That means I'm still above the target (for one more day, anyway) and need to be doing around 969 words a day for the next 30 days, if I want to limp over the target on April 10th. That seems and feels doable to me, and not too daunting after the break, so hopefully either tonght or tomorrow, I'll be back on it and heading towards 100,000.

Wish me luck!

Derailed

Life has happened. A combination of work and other factors - including a car dying - meant I didn't get any writing done yesterday, and not sure I'll get any done tomorrow. Off travelling for work and family stuff for a few days after that, so writing outlook is patchy (may depend on space and power sockets on trains), but I'm not giving up, and I've still got that 100,000 word target in my sights, even if it will require an epic writing session on April 10 to achieve it!

Plod, plod, plod

Only managed 300 words of writing yesterday, but did have a decent long walk in the morning, which always helps me to get my brain thinking about plots and stories. Think I can see a way out of the cul-de-sac I've ended in with the work-in-progress, but we'll only see that when I actually try writing my way out of it.

Still getting towards the end of the short story in progress, though haven't actually got the bit about the Quarter Mile High Club that I mentioned yesterday. Maybe I would if I'd got to 1000+ words for the day, but no matter, we shall press on and all things shall reveal themselves in time.

Aside from that, I can't think of too much to write. Things may be a bit patchy here for the next week or so, as I'm travelling all over the place for work and family things, so writing time might be limited. So, I might end up starting my days by writing stories instead of blog posts, but we shall see...

The Quarter Mile High Club, and other mad ideas

My brain's always a bit slow starting at weekends, so this will likely be a short entry. However, I did manage to write just over 1000 words yesterday, which was the first time I've managed that on a Saturday in a while. The problem with this story is that it doesn't really want to finish, even though the main couple have now got together. I'm pretty much writing a long, but sexy, epilogue - though perhaps that's what a lot of erotica might be. When other stories would have left the scene, here there's a lot more to write about and present to the audience.

In other words, I thought of the concept of the Quarter-Mile-High-Club, and damned if I'm not going to use it.

What is it? I'll explain later, but it's something from a scene I'm coming up to in this story, and the concept seems to good to forget about. Maybe I should just get on and try writing it?

Decision time

Getting near the end of this short story now - which is getting too long to be a short story, really - so it's getting close to the point where I'll need to make a decision about what to do next. Do I dive straight back into it and write the second draft, or do I let that stew in my brain for a while (the new characters I need to make it work don't feel fully formed yet) and go back to the work-in-progress?

I'm tending towards the second, just because it's been over a week since I've done anything on that, and I really need to pick it up again before it slips too close to my brain deciding it's been abandoned, so I can forget about it and/or start on a rewrite. I need to finish this first version, otherwise I know I'll never finish the future ones.

Yes, that probably makes no sense to any of you, but it's how my writing brain works, so it does to me. Lots of work and life stuff coming up in the next week too, so that might affect how much I get done too.

Anyway, I did get 1300 words done yesterday, so that's March off to a decent start. If I can keep that as a daily rate, then I'll hit the 100k target well before the end of the month.

Writus interruptus

OK, I'm not going to talk specifically about my work, but if you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed that I don't work consistent hours, so my writing periods tend to come at different points in the day, depending on when I can fit them in.

Yesterday, I was on a late shift, so was writing in the afternoon before I had to head out for work, and was going really well. I had finally got to the scene in my current short story where the protagonist and her love interest make it into the bedroom and are having a very good time together, the words were flowing, I could imagine just what it was like for them and how they'd be feeling together...and then I looked at the clock and realised it was time to get moving if I wanted to be there on time. Damn.

But still, having got them to that point means I know I'm now on the run to the end of the story, as they're together and making each other happy. It's just the last few bumps on the road to navigate, and then they're home and dry and happy ever after.

I did manage over 1200 words yesterday which took my short story total over up to 10,057 in total, and coupled with the 56,857 words I've done on the work-in-progress means a total of 66,914 for the year so far. A quick bit of maths and a look at an old post tells me that's 29,216 for February in total, so I've just about managed to keep over the 1000 a day average.