Holly Lisle's Blog, page 3

The Secret Big Course For Writers and DAY ONE: 4769 words

Yeah, I went big today.

BIG IN A LOT OF WAYS.

Have spent the last few weeks after getting my fiction words secretly outlining this Fiction-Writing Big Course, and building out my lesson blanks for the class.

Today I wrote Secret Writing Class Lesson One, and got all the words for it (at least in raw first draft). 4769 of them. Tomorrow, after I get my FICTION words, I’ll build the first set of Secret Writing Class worksheets.

To do this, I’m getting up way early, and alternating days between a day of writing fiction, a day of writing nonfiction, three times each week, working a six-day week.

And I’d kind of like to start publishing the first book or two of the Ohio Novel series at about the same time as I have this class ready to take live.

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Tueday: 1080, and a nice bit of twisting things

I’m pleased with today’s words. I got to go deeper on one important series character, and I managed to frustrate my MC with this guy at the same time that I got to know him better.

Always fun.

Going to work for a while now on the OTHER PROJECT, which is nonfiction, and which shall not be named.

But I’m getting close to the halfway point on OHIO 4… and still getting good things about the creepy goings on in my little town, and the fact that so many people are so happily and obliviously embracing all the creepy as a “gee, isn’t this wonderful, and how do we get more of it?”

Left myself at a fun point for diving back in tomorrow, too.

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To quote Meatloaf, “Some days it don’t come easy…”

It is a Monday.

I’m trying to be objective by keeping that in mind.

Mondays can be a bit tricky sometimes, and this was one of those.

So… I got words…

They fit, they moved the story forward, they let me build out the obstacle my characters are facing, and I genuinely like what I got.

I just didn’t get as MUCH of it as I wanted…

Turns out, this simply was not one of those “Red Bull Gives You Wings” flying-fingers, galloping plot kinds of days. I’m wrapping up, and hoping that tomorrow, the story will take off for me a bit more smoothly.

Because frankly, the “wings” days are a whole lot more fun.

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A truly solid writing day today…

I am grateful for days like this one, when there’s a cool breeze blowing in the back window while I write, where I can heard birds singing and the leaves of maples and oaks rustling.

Days like this feed the fiction, because the fictionalized town is a magical version of this town, and the sounds and smells and bits of things going on around me get worked into the story.

Just in tiny pieces. But I think those pieces matter.

I love this place where I live, and I’m so happy to be able to use it as a backdrop for the magic and the danger and the mystery of the stories I’m writing.

I won’t be using it by NAME, because the name of my town is WAY long to type ten thousand times.

But I’ll make sure to give credit in the novels to the real town that made me love it back when I was nine, and made me love it again when I returned here fifty years later.

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Today’s words, and the theme song for this section of the novel…

Dark bit of writing today. Evil is stalking my MC, help has stepped in but is unnerving and feels dangerous, and the world she has come to love has been gripped by something terrible that lies behind a lovely face…

And this encapsulates the dilemma in which she finds herself helped by someone who is provably on her side, but who feels dangerous.

She needs to figure out the truth, and how this presence in her life is going to affect her in the future. She’s afraid.

She has the right to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_hjvps0FQ4

Bumpy start to the week — 17,012 total words on Ohio 4

Managed to get 488 words today, which isn’t the 1200 I was shooting for.

However, I have a howling migraine, and while I like what I got, I can’t say that it went smoothly, or came easily.

So now, having been at this for about three hours with small progress to show for it, I think I’ve passed the point of value for time.

I’m going to go sit on the couch and close my eyes and will the damned headache to vanish into the ether… and if I’m really lucky, maybe it will listen.

So…

Tomorrow is another day.

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And more “Joy of Words” — 1387 for the day, and a meet-up

Being cruel to main characters is usually good for the story, and today two main characters figuratively stepped into the middle of the road at the same time… and got run over.

I’ve been waiting a long time to write this set of scenes.

I like the first part of it.

I’m looking forward to writing the second part of it tomorrow.

But now, on to the Other Work… stuff my folks and I are building over at HollysWritingClasses.com.

So… onward.

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Today it was the Joy of Words

I love writing in my fantasy small-town Ohio world.

Because while part of it is absolutely deep fantasy with really good magic, part of it is my house, and my street, and my little town right here…

And I love my house, and my street, and my little town, and the folks who live here.

I love the sounds of the place, and the smells. I love the wildflowers (AKA weeds to those in town who are — unlike me — obsessed with Utterly Perfect Lawns).

I came to loathe Utterly Perfect Lawns in South Florida.

I reserve the right to love my wild violets and my dandelions and all the other weedy little flowers in my soft green grass that give the bees something to make honey with.

And I love being — at long last — home, where it isn’t ninety degrees with ninety percent humidity, but a cool and breezy fifty-eight. In June.

And I love writing my crazy magical version of my little town in Ohio, with its hills, and its river, and its wonderful four seasons.

I got the words.

I’m happy.

And now I’m going off to do the other work of the day.

Another slow, struggle-y day today working through Chapter 6

The story has taken a (planned) dark turn. MEANWHILE… I’m struggling a bit to show the conflict without going darker than I want.

And I have to be very, very careful right now NOT to let the magic run amok.

It’ll do that, you know — magic will. Run AMOK… AMOK… all over the damn place.

It will start turning pumpkins into carriages and rabbits into Deadly Vorpal Bunnies, and I don’t want to have anything to do with nightmares like that.

So… when I come in tomorrow, I’m going to spend my first writing hour just building out a dialogue for myself on what I want the rest of this book to do.

I have the outline already. I’m following it.

But my tone feels like it’s shifted, and I’m not sure I like the direction in which it’s slipped. So tomorrow might be another ‘small wordcount’ day, but if I can guarantee myself that I’m writing in the right direction, I’ll be just fine with that.

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Ohio 4: Not the best word-count… 268, and 13,224 total on the first draft

Not every writing day is great.

Some days, you find places in your read-through (the thing before the new words) that won’t stand as is… and you pull out the bits that went in a direction you’ve discovered you do not wish to pursue, and you put in new words.

And you get a NET gain…

But it’s not the same kind of triumph as racing through the field yelling “WHEEEEEE!!!” and galloping straight ahead, and getting your full count objective one more time.

So.

The book moved forward today, but not as much as we had hoped.