Going swimming!!!!!

Goal today- 515 words.

Got to keep thinking, "I will feel better once I write. I will have accomplished something that is really important to me."
It's worth the effort and worth the time away from easy things.

I need to get into the scene and get those words out of my head.  So I can move that little bit forward in story time. It's worth the effort.

Time to put everything else aside. What is this one little scene about? How does it start? What interesting/fun thing is happening right now?

*** Update 5:12:
Just about 10 terrible, no good, very bad words.
I took a brief field trip to the coffee house to see if that might spark something but the music was too loud and too poppy and they were out of everything. So I am back. And I am determined.
I am going to work on story until 6pm.  It can be the most craptastic thing - I give myself permission to suck all over the page. Just so long as it's the scene work. Lemme see what I can come up with tonight.
Again, crap is welcome.

Stumbling along

Wrote the first half of the next scene during my lunch break.  Did not go the way I expected.

From experience, 9 times out of 10, that means I'll be rewriting that within 2-3 scenes from now. But it's forward, so I think I'll keep going for a bit and see if it's keepable.

And if not, maybe the version currently hiding in my head somewhere will show up.

Goal for today: 530.
413 words during lunch. Leaves me with 117 words to go today.

*** UPDATE 5:51pm:
I did end up redoing it. It was too distracting.
I now have 1030 words for the day/not bad at all. Still not sure whether I can keep the scene or if it gives too much away. But for now, it just feels right.

I'm going to take a break now.  For tomorrow, I may need a transition scene although I think I can skip it and head straight for the next planned scene.  Hooray.  Tempted to start that now. :)
[Goal for tomorrow is 515 words. Not bad at all]

Which which is which?

Thanksgiving break ate both my diet and my writing time, but I've gotten some words in (around 2231 so far!!). Good words too. The scene is not perfect/it's rough but the through-line is pretty solid. I might need to change it - depends on what First Reader says later.

Finally finished the blasted scene (there was a bit to it).  I completed another shorter transitional scene.
Now I am in the next planned scene.  Woot   ...You read that right: I am in the NEXT planned scene. I'm actually moving forward in story time.

So why am I here?  Because I'm not sure how to tackle the current scene and I have a lot to accomplish.

• She needs to meet with the mentor and get instructions and provide observations. [To Do]
• She needs to find out about the pool. [Done]
• She needs to sneak back inside by way of the birds. [To Do]
• And I need to figure out whether she is successful (which is simpler than the alternative/which of course might not be believable- which is unfortunately more important). [Done]
• And I need to find out why I'm making this so difficult.  Just write it already! [Done]

Current total (new part): 11367
Goal words for tonight: 550 ...maybe I can write fast?

*** Update 8:11: 11989 ... 622 words.  And that's a wrap :)
[updated writing goal for tomorrow is 530 words]

A productive lunch

Quick update - 745 new words.  I started on the next scene.  It's the last one needing a rewrite.
My first version was much more of a summary- this time I'm going in for first-person detail and emotion. And several things went "duh, I really, really need to change that, don't I?"

So much better now.

It was a good day, especially considering that amazing word count happened during my lunch break.

Doodading around

All right- so I'm stuck. Just putting it out there and calling into the abyss for some help.

So my doodad is designed and done! [Check]
The scene with the villain is done [Check]
MC's had her scene using the doodad [Check]

This is all good stuff that wasn't done before.

Now- what happens next? How much boring can I skip and still be able to follow the story?

Day 3 Interrupted

Today was supposed to be day 3 at the coffee shop but I couldn't settle. I gave up way too quickly though.

Still it would be much cheaper to be an author at home- I cave way too easily to the seriously overpriced drinks and food while I'm there.

I wrote 471 words during my lunch break today.  If I could write another 500 that would make a good day.

Day Two at the coffee shop

There is something comfortable about working at the coffee shop. It's noisy but not too noisy.
I don't feel so cut off from the world while I work- not thinking about all the things I'd rather be doing instead.

If I could just get over that feeling like someone might be reading over my shoulder--like anyone cares about it but still, wish they had seats where you just had the wall behind you.  Private and a little noise... that would be perfect.

Anyway, today I need to finish the science for my doodad/make it good enough that I can move on with a clear conscience, because otherwise it will nag at me nonstop til I fix it.

Ok, I'll be back to update soon...

*** UPDATE 1:27pm ***
Updated count 9434, another 10 words lost. But now I have my doodad figured out and a high level explanation of how it works.  The thought of spending 3 pages writing the details made me shudder. I'll wait and see if a 1st reader complains before I go to the trouble.

Trying out the coffee shop scene...

Bright and early at the local coffee shop- ready to write. But I'm stuck!

In the rewrite, my villain said something really cool as a last line.  But I have NO idea what she meant and it kind of requires a response. LOL. I'm going to ignore it for now- maybe the muse will come up with something cool by the end of the scene.

Goal: 500 words

Update 8:34AM:
Nothing much yet.  

So the coffee shop plays music and the speakers are right over my head. Going to need a new seat.

Update 9:10am:
I did find a better seat. Obviously things aren't going great since I here again.
But I did make some headway at least. Little minor chips at the black wall in front of me. :D
Oh, and I figured out what the villain meant, which is kind of important.

Update 9:51am:
Still working my way back from the cuts.  Current total on the new section is 8588 so far.
My goal is to get back to previous total of 10,139 words. 

Update 10:45am:
Now at 9268 and I've made my way out of that scene.

Update ~11:30am
Kind of got distracted with other things but I made some great discoveries and have some cool stuff to design tomorrow.
Current total: 9454  (Old count was 10139 = 685 words to go)
And can't wait to work more on my cool new doo-dad (can't believe I considered revising it out of the story). Now it's like the coolest, awesomest thing. 

Goal for tonight

Actually my goal is to get some sleep!  Night

Update Novel Stats

Original part- 85,888 words
New part- 9,936 words (mostly revised to rough draft level the past couple of days).  So far, I lost 1446 words. More to go...
Current novel total: 95,824

To Do:
About 2 scenes left to bring to rough draft level so that the story will be back on track.
I have about 15 planned scenes to write at 1,500 words/scene = 22500 words
Current estimated total = 118324

For Write Track, I currently have a goal of 464 words. (II'll change my deadline if needed).

*** UPDATE ***
The remaining crap is such crap that I'm going to redo rather than revise.
New Part:  7621 (-2518 words)
Updated Write Track Goal: 487

Current Novel Total: 93,509

Getting a fresh start on the end

Hello, hello- what a long time since I've shown up here.

I couldn't face the story- it had gone so far off course.  Jumped the shark, they say.
I hear over and over again- just finish it and revise later but I didn't enjoy it anymore. It was too terrible; it was a chore to sit down.

I sent it to my sister and I reread it myself. My sister loves it! Loves it.
She hasn't made it to the last 10,000 words yet (the jump the shark part, I mean)- but all that beginning stuff that I love too- she's enjoying it.

And I loved it too. And then I got to this newest 10,000 words- yuck. So bad. So horrible.
But now I have distance.

I went through almost all of it and revised it. The scene now ghosts/mirrors what I see in my head.

I'm so happy and energized.  My sister keeps saying, "I can't believe you're going to be a published author."  :D  I'm so glad I had her read it. And I'm so glad I jettisoned the true crap and revised the mini-crap.