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

Haunted By The Past

Ever since I wrote my blog on how I got started, I've been getting bits and pieces of the stories I'd thrown out. Yes I'm being haunted by my past characters. At first I just thought they were new characters wanting to join the mad house that is living in my head these days. Until I got a flash of a young girl so excited about her wedding day, she rushes into her sisters bedroom with a newspaper in hand to show said sister the article about her wedding. What she finds changes her life forever.

In her sisters bed is none other then her expected bridegroom asleep with her sister wrapped in his arms. My thought was, crap had that vision before. Yes this is one of the stories I' tossed out all those years ago. I guess they feel they have a right to have their stories told as well as the rest of my characters. Yep, even the one about the widow and her boss is filtering through. All I can do is jot down the little bits I'm getting here and there and hope for the best.

So now I have no idea what I am going to do for '50ks In 30 Days' other then adding to my already over flowing collection of WIP. I'm not game to think about starting something new. I don't have the space for any more people in my 'Head City'. I'm having a population explosion. Does anyone know how to switch it off? Is there a switch somewhere I need to flick? It's Frantic Friday today, all I know for sure is that it is Friday and I'm frantic. Frantic for some peace.

Our '50ks In 30 Days' challenge is growing so we should have a great month. We have a few more people doing the nightly word sprints with us, although I had to pass on last night as I was just too wiped out from family commitments yesterday. But tonight I will be ready to take the world on, (well I'm telling myself that). By the time tonight comes around I just may have myself believing it as well.

WRW-BIAW is on again next week so that should be a very good fore-runner for June. Hubby is still home next week and he'll be hopping on the young horse he is breaking-in so I'll have to sit outside to keep an eye on him. At least I have my trusty lappy I can write and watch him at the same time.

Okay that is my rant for the moment, I off to do some washing. Catch ya later.

Hugs
Sandie

Sven Starts In Two Days

Sven starts on Saturday. Yes we will be off for the third round of 70 days of writing sweat, and I can’t wait. I’m going to continue on with my erotic romance for this one. If by some chance I get that finished before the 16th May, I‘ll work on one of my other WIP’s.

I haven’t done any writing this week; Monday I have day surgery to see if I have an ulcer. YA, no ulcer. They did have to stretch my esophagus though, seems there was a slight blockage that was causing my problems. Monday night I slept from 5.30pm to 8am, it was the best night’s sleep I’ve had in months. Tuesday and yesterday I was still a bit dizzy, now I’m saying dizzy not ditsy. Today I’m feeling a lot better, although if you were standing here watching me type this you would be questioning that statement.

I’ll be back on Saturday or Sunday to let you know how my first day of Sven went. Oh almost forgot, I start another BIAW next week as well. So much incentive to get lots of writing done. Catch ya later.
Hugs
Sandie

Day 7: WRW-BIAW The Final Day

Today is the final day of WRW-BIAW. I have had such a great week, I'm hoping this means I'm back on track. It had better mean I'm back on track because I now have six WIP and my Historical Romance is making a lot of noise. ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!

So for my last day I achieved 1,978 words. I didn’t make the 25,000, but I’m happy with my week. I’ll keep you posted on my progress with the rest of the story. I start Sven next week, 1st March it all kicks off. I’m going to work on ALL my WPI and work hard at getting at least one of my projects finished.

I have found out that while I love my new laptop, I now have to add my entire favourite website to folders. At least I’ll be able to weed out all the crap I had saved. Trust me I had a lot. So I’m off for day surgery tomorrow, wish me luck.

On another note, I have realised lately that not only do I get a lot of enjoyment out of my writing, but I have gained some really fantastic friendships and people who are so willing give advice to newbies like me.

Will it is getting late here, so I think I might head off to bed. Chat again later in the week.

Hugs
Sandie

Day 6: WRW-BIAW

Day six and I hit a snag for a moment of two, had to do some research. This is the downfall I guess when you don't plan your story. Not to worry the girls on RWAustralia helped me out. So now I'm back writing, well I will be after I have a coffee. At some stage I'm going to have to do my character charts. My heroine still doesn't have a last name and I'm not sure I like her or the hero's first names. Doing character charts normally clinch the name game for me. Maybe I'll do that next week. So my total for yesterday was 1,730, which I know is a good daily total, but I guess Frantic Friday spoiled me a bit.
Anyway I'm going to make my coffee, hubby will up from the hay shed soon wanting his cuppa so I had best go boil the jug at least. Until next time, which will more then likely be tonight (Grey's Anatomy) night YA.

Hugs
Sandie

Day 5 WRW-BIAW Frantic Friday

They call it Frantic Friday, write as much as you can in one day. Break only when needed, what a way to do a day’s writing. Did I achieve much? You bet I did 5,734 words in one day. I have surprised myself and I have found I really enjoy writing erotica. I think because you can let yourself go. There are so very few boundaries, mind you I don’t want to end up on that Bad Sex list. So I will keep going with my erotic story and decide what I’ll do with it later.

Right now I have to work out just how many sex scenes should there be in an erotic novel? If you have any idea let me know. On another note I have decided to write my Historical Romance for this year’s NaNoWriMo. So that gives me nine months to do my research and get my notes organized.

Monday I have to go in for my gastroscopy , so that will more than likely be two days out for me.

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is on telly tonight. She’s on the skies at the moment. What a crack up. I love Colin Firth he is sooooo gorgeous.
Well I think I’ll go and watch my movie. Hope you have a great day or night. Until next time.
Hugs
Sandie

Day 4: WRW-BIAW

Not as productive today. Only 1,193 words. Hubby was home sick today. Not that he was a problem he slept for most of the day. Poor baby. Anyway I've spend a couple of hours this evening working on my story. Plus watching T.V.
On the subject of T.V. have you ever noticed how many adult ads they have on after 10pm. Sexy girls on mobiles. Sexy girls you can ring and listen to they having fake sex. Just about every second ad is like that.
Got my new laptop the other day and I'm all hooked up to wireless broadband. Of course it has Vista, which hasn't been a big problem for me yet. So fingers crossed. I love the fact that I can just pick up the computer and go anywhere with it, out on the back porch. Take it over to the lounge and watch telly while I type away. Wish I'd got one years ago. Anyway I'm having fun. Oh except when I hit the mouse thingy while I'm typing and I end up all over the place with words.
Catch ya again soon.
Hugs
Sandie

Day 3: WRW-BIAW

Day three and I have surprised myself. I have a total of 2,689 words. How good is that? The story is moving along good.

Hero and heroine met, connected, had a misunderstanding and at the moment not happy with each other. She has found someone else and Mr. Hero is even more unhappy. While she spends most of her time thinking about the hero.

So I'll catch up with you later.
Hugs
Sandie

Day 2 WRW-BIAW

Day two and all is going well, 1,650 words. The Word Fairy is sitting on my shoulder being very nice ATM. I'm going to have to go back and do some filling at some stage because I am flying blind. I've done none of the normal character charts or plot layout. Not that I do much planning with my writing anyway, but I do normally do character charts. With this characters are just jumping into my head. It's actually a lot of fun, not knowing who is going to come in next.
Well I had better get to it, it's 11:20am and I haven't started on today's writing. I should have done this last night. Anyway bye for now.

Hugs
Sandie

Day 1 WRW-BIAW

Okay day 1 of WRW-BIAW and I achieved 1,500 words. Not bad hey. My goal is 1,000 words a day so if I can stay a bit in front each day if I have a bad day I’m still on track. I’m trying something different for this one. I’m writing an Erotic Romance. Stepping up the pace a bit to see how I go. Time will tell if it works out for me or not. I also signed in for RWAustralia BIAW for March. You would think with all these BIAW's I'm doing I should get all my WIP finished this year. Well one can only hope. Until next time.

Hugs
Sandie

It's Sunday Afternoon - Day 14

It Sunday afternoon, we've had some rain YEA (not enough) but some is better then none. I've spend the day writing, wandering around thinking about writing, then writing again.

So it is the end of BIAW and did I make my pledged goal? YES and some to spare. YIPPEE. On to the next challenge. I'm putting Tyler and Jackie to bed for awhile (which is were they nearly ended up today except his nosy sister and her pesky friend turned up uninvited. They can stew for a while. Anyway I'm almost half way to my word count for 'We Were In Love', 24,470 looking good for when I come back. (Now this all hinges on Tyler letting me get to work on a new book. I won...der, if I tell him to take a month, think about some nice romantic ways to woo Jackie, take it slow, real slow. Maybe, just maybe he'll listen.) OH and have a look at my pretty word meter thingy, cool hay.

The next three days I'm going to make sure I have all my character profiles in order and re tidy around my desk and just generally make sure my life outside writing is okay. I need to visit with at least two of my mum's (I have three, two mother-in-laws, how lucky can I girl be?) Do the washing, vacuum, cook, all the things I HATE!!!!

Well that's me for this wonderfully Sunday afternoon. I'm getting a headache, bum ache and my hand is hurting, so I will go and do something completely different. I might read, no that's no good with a headache ... I know I'll go and sit outside in the fresh air and watch the horses. That's nice and calming, well so my hubby keeps telling me. Bye.

Hugs
Sandie

Sven Day Thirteen

I have put yesterday firmly behind me.

This morning I woke up with new optimism. No more feeling sorry for myself, there are bigger things in this world to worry about then a bad hair cut.

I had a good day with my writing 1500 words WOO HOO, back on track. I'm back in front with my pledge for BIAW, that's a good thing and I'm working on my project for NaNo 'Baby Can I Hold You.'

Things are not looking good for me to have 'We Were In Love' finished before NaNo still another 27,000+ words to go, but I should make a good dent in it so that is better then nothing.

Tonight I'm going to put some more time in Character Profiles for 'Baby Can I Hold You'. Once I've done that I'll give you a small run down on the characters and story line.

Well that's it for this sunny Saturday.

Hugs
Sandie

Sven Day Twelve

Have you ever had one of those days when you thought you should have just stayed in bed? Well I had one of those today, nothing really bad just miner things. So on a good note hubby is happy he is getting some money back from Tax, YEAH.


Haven't done any writing today, unless you count doing more work to character profile, which I know I can use as work for Sven, but not for BIAW so now I'll have to work really hard tomorrow and Sunday to get my word count back up. So there is number one reason for not getting out of bed. GOT NO REAL WORK DONE, SHAME ON ME.


On another note got my hair cut today, I've had it long (like half way down my back) for soooo long and today I went in and got it cut short. Now there is a story behind why I had to do this, last year just before Christmas I decided to go grey, (my natural colour) so I bleached all the dark brown out of my hair. How was I to know that you can't dye your hair grey, anyway Jim told me to go to the hairdressers, but No I had to do it myself. What I did was just about killed my poor hair. Anyway it had grown out enough that I could get it cut and not look like I'd joined the army and had one of their short back and sides cuts. Jim likes it (which surprised me because he likes my hair long.), my daughter likes it, it's now one colour or at least the colour is natural, but it is still soooo soooo short. I don't know weather to cry or just stay home and hide until it grows again. Sigh!!! I should have just stayed in bed. Sigh!!! If I drank I'd get drunk but I'm not a drinker (will not since my teenage years, drank enough then to last anyone a life time), so I guess I'll go and make a cuppa. And maybe try to do some work on one of my WIP's.


Sorry for the rambling, I seem to be doing that alot lately

Bye Hugs
Sandie

Day Nine of Sven

WOW I did it, I've made 20,000 woo hoo. Now I'm rolling 2,047 words today not bad. Just look at my word meter thingy cool hay. Doing BIAW really helps because I can't have a day off this week, I have to do my word count each day. I don't want to let Pam down after she took on the job at the last minute. So thank you Pam, you are my life line this week.

Tyler and Jackie are working along in harmony still, which is a good thing I think, I'm just waiting for the next bomb to hit. Funny thing about today though I wrote the Epilogue, for some reason Jackie needed to know that things were going to end okay, the poor love needs her happy ever after.

Anyway I need to go and let Pam know my word count for the day. Catch ya later.

Hugs
Sandie

Day Three of Sven

Well to day was not very productive as far as my WIP goes. My hand is giving me a mile of trouble, so thought I'd give it a bit of a rest today. I did get work done on my project for NaNoWriMo though, I've done the character profiles for both the hero and the heroine and an outline of the story. Most of it has been written the good old long hand, that way I didn't have to use my left hand. I'm thinking I'm going to have to go and see the Physio after all, which is a bit of a bummer.

Anyway my kids came to see me today, that's always good. I miss having them here, but kids grow up and need to have their own lives. Having my grandson staying this weekend, daughter and son-in-law off to a four wheel drive comp.

Did some research for the next installment of Clint's Adventure as well today. I also signed up for BIAW with one of my writing groups (gives me someone else to be answerable too.) That's it for tonight, I have to be up early tomorrow err, today so I'm off to bed. Catch up with you all again soon.