Holly Lisle's Blog, page 40

Just finished Book 2 (in first draft, but STILL…) 1455 words today, 93,419 total

Today’s words went well. I love the ending I got.

I already know the revision on this one is going to be big — but everything in it now can wait until all five books are done in first draft.

Starting tomorrow, I’m going to begin outlining the third book, using the process I’ve used for the first two — something that, once I’ve done five books with it, I’ll be adding in as an advanced level for How to Write a Novel. (Gotta figure out what the bugs are before I suggest anyone else try this…)

Today, though?

Today I got the right ending.

I saved the cat.

I made myself laugh.

And my little Ohio town just got a bit weirder.

THAT? That is an awesome writing day.

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Net gain of 438 words today. Could actually finish the book tomorrow, though.

I ended up pulling out a lot of words today, but still came up with a net gain of 438.

And tomorrow’s chapter, the last one in the book (I think) is already written. It was, in fact, the first chapter that I wrote. And then I realized that the whole point of this second book was in that one chapter. And that while those events at the beginning of the novel was fun, it dropped a huge part of my little weasel character’s poignant past — which I didn’t even suspect until I wrote that first chapter, and the asked myself, who would go to all that trouble to get HIM? 

Asking that question made me love him, and broke my heart a little, and the deeper I followed where that question led, the better I understood my MC, her past, her family’s past… and her very messy near future.

I would have lost a whole LOT of wonderful stuff by leaving that chapter at the beginning.

So I bumped the first-chapter event back about two weeks, and made it the last chapter.

I guess the finally book will be around 93,000 words, and could very well be finished in first draft tomorrow.

But for today, I’m done.

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Ohio Novel Merchandise… To be? Or not to be?

Over on my Ko-Fi page, I’ve opened up the idea of early-access Ohio Novel merchandise (link opens in new tab) — stuff like T-shirts or coffee cups or other things that would help fund my weekly fiction writing hours, while at the same time giving potential urban fantasy readers some tiny peeks into the world I’m writing.

The merch will be sold exclusively through my Ko-Fi page, and will help with the funding of my fiction-writing time. So if you came here first, head over to my Ko-Fi page to get the details. 

But THIS is the place to ask questions, brainstorm ideas, and let me know what you’d love to see (or wear, or drink out of) in the replies below.

I think this could be fun. Weird. But fun.

So here are the two questions I’m asking:

What do you think of the merch idea?What would make cool merch?

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Well, it’s Monday, after all… 888 words, and… damn Monday

I bumped up my projected word-count to 95,000 words so that I could still have the progress bar show what I’ve done. I got 888 words in spite of deleting a bunch. While writing today was liking rollerskating uphill against a headwind, but I still got words.

Here’s hoping tomorrow will be less of a pain.

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My characters keep surprising me — and with 1436 words, I don’t think they’re done yet

As always, I started by cleaning up the last stuff I wrote yesterday, just to get back into the flow, and realized that what I was writing happened during the Great Flood of 1913 — and got a fair few extra words building the relevance from that bit of backstory. 

AND made myself cry while I was writing, which is pretty annoying. It’s hard to type when your eyes are drippy and your throat is tight.

And then I landed back in my main character’s present, tangled in with the hell of a mess she’s just discovered in her past that’s in the process of colliding with the hell of a mess in her present.

And which is all tangled up with her lawyer, who she’s discovered has been lying to her in a big way.

Good words, good writing day, and I’m now over 90,000, and still have a ways to go.

I’ve given myself all five days next week to finish this, and I really want to hit that deadline. 

If I have to, I can go maybe another five after that, but in the back of my mind, I’m already pulling out events from this book and the first one that are going to have to start dripping their fallout into Book 3.

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Nearing the end — 1521 words, a spiffy twist, and the REALLY fun stuff tomorrow

I ran over my planned words today (1250) because I got hooked by the scene and couldn’t make myself stop.

My MC got to spend some time with someone she’d thought was a hallucination, found out a bit more about how she’s surviving in a town where things keep trying to kill her…

And the best stuff is still to come.

I have, I think, about four more scenes to write to get this book done, which will but it at, best guess, about 95,000 – 97,000 words.

That’s a nice, meaty novel length.

And once that’s done, I’ll build the line-for-scene outline for Book Three.

I figure I should be working on that by next Friday (the 25th of February).

I love so much the way this is coming together. I wish I could be more specific. Wish I could give some snippets, maybe an early first-draft chapter or two like I used to.

But I can’t screw up my pseudonym by attaching myself to it. I have to give this series a legitimate chance of starting out fresh, with a brand new author name and no publishing history at all.

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A bright and glorious day: 1264 twisty, tight words, and racing now to the conclusion…

Some days you launch out of the gate (or the bed) with wings.

Today was that day. I shot out of the shower, downed my coffee, and hit the desk with the document already open and at the right spot from yesterday — and the words flew.

Better yet, while writing exactly what I knew I needed to write today, I also managed to surprise myself, bring in a second encounter with a character introduced in this book who just today told me who and what she is, and does… 

And my characters broke my heart and made me proud of them at the same time. 

Tomorrow will be tying in what I’ve discovered over the past few days with what I planned.

And pushing hard for the conclusion, where I know a lot of the specifics, but am still missing the big one.

But I know what this second novel has to accomplish when it hits the end, and just as my Muse (right brain) tossed me the pieces I needed today, I’m trusting it to do the same during the last few days I put into this first draft.

I also moved my deadline back by five days.

I’m going to run over 90,000 words. I want some elbow room on the timer while I do that.

ONWARD!

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Got 1909 words, one GREAT “grandma revelation”… and moved several plot lines forward.

I made my word count and more. Better, though, I discovered what the Second Room wanted to show my main character, and I left myself with a couple dilemmas she gets to deal with tomorrow. 

I found out about my town’s past and a few of its important past inhabitants — and the effects they’re still having in the present.

And I set myself up for that “barbecuing Grandpa” last line in the chapter that’s going to come back again in a couple of future books.

This was a GOOD Tuesday.

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Mondays are Rough — 1159 words (about a hundred words short), and I like my progress…

Today was tough. Just was. 

I had a lot of things I had to do first (15ths of the month or their equivalents fall into every life, and the actual 15th of each month is mine.)

I love a lot of what I got.

Met my MC’s great-grandfather.

I did some very good worldbuilding that is going to help me out in the rest of the series…

And I got a net gain in words.

Just not the 1250 I’m shooting for every day.

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Barbecuing Grandpa, a trip to ancient Scotland… and 2022 words

It starts here. First thing this morning, I deleted 3267 words.

I said ouch.

Because the screenshot of what I was left with looks like this, with those 63 words I decided to save yesterday out of sight at the bottom of the chapter.

Those words were twice as many as I thought I could save — so I’m not complaining.

That ain’t a lot, but I knew coming in to work this morning what today was going to look like. 

However, from the moment my MC stepped through what I’m enigmatically going to call ‘the second mystery door’, everything clicked.

And my progress today was 2022 words. The negative number on the screenshot is because I’m still pretty deep in the hole (compared to the original length of the chapter), and Scrivener keeps track of the size of the hole (at least if you tell it to).

But I left myself at a wonderful spot, and I know exactly where I’m starting when I come back on Monday. 

I had a happy writing day and a lot of fun meeting a new character in an old, old place… and what my MC is learning about her past has been a joy to write — as has been writing the terrible things I’m putting her through while she learns it.

I’m so glad I decided to face the beast yesterday, kill it, and come in to challenge the blank page this morning. Because now I have the first half of the RIGHT chapter… and I’m already looking forward to Monday.

 

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