Writing by Mini Plotting

As you know I’m following Paula Roe’s, ‘A Novel in 3 Months’, you may also know that I’m a pantser, not a plotter. I may however have come across a way to be both. Twice a week Paula posts the steps she takes in getting her novel plotted and ready for writing. I’m taking those steps as well, it’s just that I’m writing as I’m plotting. Yes, so as not to upset my temperamental characters, each morning I plot (or draft) what I want to happen that day in the scenes I’m writing. So far, it’s working, I’ve had no hissy fits where my characters stop talking or just go off on a tangent of their own desire. I’m a happy girl.

I’m also a girl who is working on two novels, a contemporary and an historical, as well as editing for CC. I’ve split my days into three parts. In the morning I’m working on the historical, the aim is to complete one scene a day. The lengths vary so this is affecting my word count each day.

Did I mention I’m doing BIAW with the RWAus Historical loop? Well I am, you know what I’m like with challenges. Okay back to my daily routine.

After spending a couple of hours on my historical, I then move onto editing. I’m aiming for five pages a day. Seeing, as it is a novella of around 13,000 words, I’m hoping to have this finished by the end of the challenge. I’m also hoping to increase the word count to about 15k.

After lunch and as long as I’ve reached my five pages of editing, I move on to my contemporary ‘Having Her Best Friend’s Baby’. This is working out well, and I’m happy with where I’m going with the story line. If you would like to find out more about ‘Having Her Best Friend’s Baby’ have a look at my Novel’s Blog.

All of this has been running very smoothly, until today! Today I’ve done nothing on any of my projects. Today, I’ve worked on blogs. This blog, my Historical Blog, the RWAus Blog for ‘Cruisin’ the Blog’ and this week’s ‘Bookshelf Saturday’. Tonight, I need to sort out my office so I have somewhere for a friend who is coming to stay for a night or two. So no writing for me today.

Tomorrow is another day, and with any luck, I’ll be able to make up for my slackness today.

Sandie

A Few of My Favourite Things

Do you find that Valentine’s Day does silly things to you? Like thinking about your favourite novels or movies? So, I started to think about my all time favourite novels, and was surprised to find that I’m A Jane Austen nutter. Okay, I already knew that.

My Favourite Top Romance Novels

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
3. Emma by Jane Austen
4. Gone with the Wind by Margret Mitchell
5. Emma by Jane Austen
6. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
7. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
8. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
9. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
10. The Devil’s Bride by Stephanie Laurens

My Top Ten Romantic Movies

1. Gone With The Wind
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. The Notebook
4. PS. I Love You
5. The English Patient
6. City of Angels
7. You’ve Got Mail
8. While You Were Sleeping
9. Notting Hill
10. It Happened One Night

My Top Ten Heroes from novels, film & TV

1. Rhett Butler ~ Gone with the Wind
2. Mr. Darcy ~ Pride and Prejudice
3. Heathcliff ~ Wuthering Heights
4. Sir Gideon Trevithick ~ Captive of Sin
5. Christian ~ Night’s Cold Kiss
6. Mr. Knightly ~ Emma
7. Mr. Rochester ~ Jane Eyre
8. Gerry Kennedy ~ PS I Love You
9. Derek Shepherd ~ Grey’s Anatomy
10. Johnny Castle ~ Dirty Dancing

My Top Ten Heroines from, novels, films & TV

1. Scarlett O’Hara ~ Gone with the Wind
2. Elizabeth Bennett ~ Pride and Prejudice
3. Catherine Earnshaw ~ Wuthering Heights
4. Beth Marsh ~ Little Women
5. Lady Charis Weston ~ Captive of Sin
6. Jane Eyre ~ Jane Eyre
7. Emma Woodhouse ~ Emma
8. Antoinette Petrescu ~ Night’s Cold Kiss
9. Emma Hart ~ A Woman of Substance
10. Elinor Dashwood ~ Sense and Sensibility

Did you notice anything unusual? Yes, I have favourite Heroes and Heroines whose stories are not on my top ten list, but they are not far behind. I should really do a list of my favourite recent releases, I might save that for another day.

Honestly, did you really think I wouldn't put a photo of Mr. Darcy up? LOL.

Hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day with your special someone.

Sandie

January in a Nutshell

Hi I'm back - I haven't really been slacking off, except for posting a blog here. School has gone back and I'm back in writer's mode. So here is what I got up to during January as far as my writing goes:

Edited and submitted SMU for CC

Editing IT for CC and The Billionaire’s Lie (was If I Were A Rich Man)

Worked on and continue to work on My Website – It is coming along, I’m happy with it anyway.

I’ve joined up to do three reading challenges for the year –
eHarlequin 2010 Book Challenge: Not sure how many novels I’m suppose to read. Anyway at least I may get a few of my HM&B novels read.

100+ Reading Challenge: Read 100+ novels during 2010. I can do that, although I’m not off to a good start. I’m blogging about this on my Review Blog.

2010 Support Your Local Library: I’m doing the Mini Challenge with this one, I have to check out and read 25 novels/books from my local library. I’m also blogging about this on my Review Site.
Both of these are run on J. Kaye’s Blog.

RWAus

I’m working my way through the alphabet to update the RWAus Goodreads, Shelfari and Library Thing shelves with our members novels. I think I need to spend about an hour a day on these sites, doing it on weekends is just not working.

You can also find the RWAus at these places:
RWAus Blog
Twitter
Facebook
Myspace
Bebo

The lovely Paula Roe, is blogging once a week ‘A Novel in 3 Months’. This is really cool, I’m working on ‘Having Her Best Friend’s Baby’ for this exercise, if you haven’t dropped by Paula’s blog, do it is well worth reading and following.

Okay, I know I said I wasn’t going to start or work on any novels until I get all my editing done, BUT I’m not getting any sleep because my characters are driving me nuts chatting all night. So I’m doing 500 words a day Max, and that may shut them up.

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately.
See ya.

Sandie