Success

Just after 6pm yesterday, I crawled over the finishing line and with a grand total of 100,076 words, I completed the 100,000 words in 100 days challenge. I also completed Part 4 of Becoming Anne in the process, which should be appearing on a website near you very soon.

It's been fun doing the challenge, though it's also been tough at times, and I was definitely flagging towards the end of it. I had a lot of momentum going when I was working on Bite - and had The Way To Her Heart to also add to - but once those two were finished, I wasn't really sure where to go next. As I found when I did NaNoWriMo with short stories, the trouble with doing multiple stories is that each one can take time to build up its own momentum, whcih means you don't get the benefit of those sections where you're able to cruise through the story and fill in background if you can't think of anything else to write.

But I did do it, and I've got some useful drafts of stories out of it - Bite, I think, will work really well with the ideas I've got for the rewrite, and the characters in The Way To Her Heart are great, I just need to add some others in there to give them more people to interact with, and some jeopardy and threat to provide a bit more drama.

The main point is that I've finished it, and am still feeling motivated to write more - and I have to, as I've been serialising Becoming Anne, so can't abandon that partway through! - and want to get on with these stories and another one that's been rattling around my head for ages, which I think I can now see a way to make work. Whether I'll average 1000 words a day for the next 100 days too, I don't know, but now I know I can keep writing at that length over a long period, it's good motivation to keep me going.

Today, though, will be a day off from writing - not because I need the rest, but because I've got too much on at work to have any time to do it. Hopefully, though, this weekend will have lots of opportunities for writing - though I do say that about every weekend, don't I, and then spend Monday morning's post explaining why it didn't happen.

Can I do it?

So, there are three days left in the 100,000 words in 100 days challenge, and I'm currently at 92,479 words, which means another 7,521 are needed to drag me over the finish line, or about 2500 a day. Didn't get any done over the weekend because of other commitments, but luckily work commitments for the next couple of days are quite light, so it's time to get my head down and do it.

Part 1 of Becoming Anne is now up at Literotica, so please take a look, rate it and comment on it, and other parts should be following in the next couple of days, assuming I manage to get my head into gear and write it.

Wish me luck, and hopefully I'll be at the target soon!

Closing on the target

I know that in some of my early projections I expected to have finish the 100,000 words in 100 days challenge by now, but as you'll know if you've been reading along, I've been faltering a little as I get to the end. Various others life issues have cropped up in the last few weeks to take away the time and motivation I've had for writing, which means that the last week of the challenge might be a bit of a white-knuckle ride to get to the end.

What I do know is that as of this morning, I've done 90,871 words, which means I need to do 9,229 over the next seven days to hit the target. By my reckoning, that's just over 1300 words a day, and as I managed 1972 yesterday, it has to be doable, right? I've done over 8000 words of Crossing The Floor since I last posted here, but it's getting a bit bogged down, as I'm kind of splashing about waiting for a plot to happen - I need some sort of threat to the main characters that hasn't quite emerged as yet, but that's what first drafts are about for me.

So, I've broken one of my rules and started another story while that one's still unfinished. This is a lot simpler, and a lot more erotic, as after an initial setup it's pretty much going to be just sex all the way through. It's called Becoming Anne, and I've already submitted the first part of it to a couple of sites, so I will share links with you when it becomes available to read. Hopefully, some of you will find it enjoyable, and it'll drag me over the finishing line before next Wednesday comes to a close...

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!

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.

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!

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!

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...

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..

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!