1,000 Words a Day

For the past six days, I have challenged myself to write 1,000 words a day on my W.I.P WALLS, including writing 3,000 words in one day because I wasn't going to have computer access for two days after that and didn't want to fall behind. I feel really good about this challenge and so far I've been successful. I want to keep it up at least until I start classes again in eleven days.

As well as writing 6,000 words on my W.I.P, my creative juices have gotten very active and the plot-bunnies are started breeding like, well, plot-bunnies. After the 3,000 word streak, I went to bed early and then lay there for four hours making the plot better and I FINALLY HAVE AN ENDING! I mentioned in a post back in January that I'd started writing the manuscript because I'd planned every chapter I could and was spending too long trying to think of an ending that just wasn't coming to me and decided that starting to write might help me decide how to wrap things up. I am very pleased to say that it has.

So I'm very excited to keep writing WALLS and hope to have it finished by the end of my next semester of university in early October. Most of all, I want to have it finished in time to plan another story so that I can finally participate in NaNoWriMo this year.

How is everybody else going on their W.I.P, manuscript, revisions, etc? 

- Bonnee.

Writer's Update: WALLS

(Not the original by Pink Floyd, but a cover which I prefer by Korn.)

My Writing Craft lecturer was sick this week so I don't have any notes to share with you at the moment. I'm eagerly awaiting the lecture slides to be available online, or for the recording of the lecture from another campus to be put up. I was very sad not to have that lecture.

After I got back to my room from the tutorial and watched an episode of Game of Thrones (oh my goodness, this is seriously the most amazing T.V show ever!) I was overcome by the urge to write. I'd tried writing during the cancelled lecture while I was hanging around campus with some of my Writing Craft friends who hadn't gotten the memo before we'd arrived, but it didn't come out the way I wanted it to.

So I sat down when I got back into my room, turned on my laptop, thought for a moment and opened up the file containing the first three chapters of WALLS, which I started planning and writing months ago. I haven't added to WALLS since around January/February if I remember rightly. So I read over the first three chapters, opened up the planning document and cranked out the fourth chapter.

It felt so good to be writing again! Like, for my own purpose instead of for an assessment. It felt good to be working on my W.I.P again. What made it even better was that I noticed myself applying (or at least trying to apply) what I've learned in my Writing Craft classes... and I think my philosophy brain must have found its way in there too because I found myself thinking, writing and talking deeper than I usually do, without sounding melodramatic and cheesy. I hope it wasn't melodramatic and cheesy anyway.

2,499 words up! I'm pleased with this progress and hoping to get more done soon.

What are you in the blogosphere doing? How is your writing? 

- Bonnee.

Writer's Update and Mockingjay - Review

Admittedly, I've been a lazy little author recently. While my plan for my new W.I.P WALLS is sitting just over 10,000 words, it's still incomplete and I have a feeling I'll have to backtrack and change some things, because I have no idea how to end it at this point. All part of the writing process I guess. 

Meanwhile, I wrote a short story that is loosely based on a situation I've found myself in. Last time I did this, it got published in the SpineOut Online Magazine. I think this might be one of my strong-points, so it's something I'm going to endeavour to do more often. Fingers crossed that this and all future attempts will be as successful as the first. 

WIP: Walls

Some of you might remember me talking about a fanfiction I was writing in the later half of last year, the general plot of which I wanted to turn into my own original story. Now, I don't want to compare my book to 50 Shades of Grey, but I'm just going to say, I know of at least three author's who started off writing fanfictions, and I intend to become one of them. Fear not! My new work in progress is NOT going to fall under the category of erotica... or literary pornography, depending how you want to look at it.

As we have entered 2013, I thought I'd look back and see what work I've already done on the new WIP. Along with it's working title, WALLS, I have written out sixteen character profiles (it's okay, most of them are minor characters and some might not even make an appearance), and I've done some world building, though I really need to find a name for the city where the story takes place. Aside from this, I have planned out four chapters (and the prologue which I will most likely cut, as the information it contains will be repeated elsewhere in the manuscript anyway, and I hear that agents, editors and publishers generally discourage prologues anyway). In other words, I'm putting a lot more detail into the planning than what I'll put into the story, for the simple fact that I feel I need to know my characters and the plot better than the book will when it's finished.

Just for fun, I've started some writing. Namely the prologue, which you all read an excerpt of some weeks ago, and a short story based on the prologue which I still haven't decided whether or not I like. But as I said, the prologue will become non-existent by the time the rest of the manuscript is complete. Writing those things was purely for the sake of getting a feel of the world and the characters... and for fun.

So, I'm going to continue my planning - my goal is to plan the whole thing before I start writing the actual story - and I'm going to read The Hunger Games when I'm not otherwise occupied, because I've got the trilogy sitting next to me as I type.

What is everybody out there up to with their planning, writing, editing, querying, etc? 

- Bonnee.