Okay, I’ve said I’m a character-driven writer, so let me introduce you to one of them: Delphine di Wintersea. She’s the protagonist from Dawn of the Hex and starts out the story in her childhood. As a daughter of the house di Wintersea, she is a majii, gifted with powers from the Maj, Majere’s sentient spirit. (“Majii” means “the favored” in a long dead language of the world.) She is gifted as an auger–someone who dreams of future events–which is…
That’s what I keep asking myself every time I go outside. Yes, the calendar says, “Autumn!” My outdoor thermometer says, “Summer!” One good thing about autumn is National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo). Jo, my co-Municipal Liaison (read regional volunteer), and I will be making plans and setting dates for the various write-ins and parties that go with “30 Days of Literary Abandon!” This year we have four branches of the Greenville County Library System offering our members space to…
But plugging away at it. I didn’t write the first two days. The first day is understandable; I had to put down our elderly black cat, the last of four I wove into one of my Thunderbirds story arcs. It was sad but, to be truthful, it’s also a relief. We’ll miss him. The second day, not so much. So, day three saw me starting to write. Today has been far better in terms of getting words down and so,…
Well, in my last installment, I talked about the book of short stories my mother-in-law had written and how I’d edited and had them printed up in an amazing quality book for her. (It really is amazing! Thanks, Blurb!) She was ever so happy about it and encouraged me to do the same for one of my own stories. So, yesterday I got a letter in the mail from my father-in-law. Inside was a generous check and a cryptic line, “For…
Over the past few weeks, as a gift to my lovely mother-in-law, I’ve been proofreading and gently editing some of her completed short stories. At first, it was supposed to be a surprise for her, but someone in the know inadvertently spilled the beans, so she knows all about it. Last night, I uploaded the seven stories I had to Blurb, where I have a gift certificate for $20. Turns out, I really didn’t need to use it. The softcover…
Well, I’m a hair over 45K in word count now. The story? I have no idea where it’s going. I have another murder, I killed another secondary character (brings the body count to three). Sherlock Holmes is a bad guy, so is Watson (unless he’s totally clueless in the Nigel Bruce fashion), Moriarty is at least Chaotic Neutral, and Henry Jekyll has yet to meet his Mr. Hyde. My main character’s boyfriend is having blood-tinged visions and the Door has…
So far, I’m keeping just above the daily word count goal. The story has developed a romantic turn, to an extent, and when this is through, I’m going to have a helluva lot of research to do! Right now, I’m just pantsing along as usual. We’ll see if it actually turns into something I want to publish, here or elsewhere. I did meet someone at our library write-in who is publishing his story to fictionpress as he writes it. Since…
I’ve been keeping up pretty well with the daily word count and am up to over 12K, which is higher than yesterday’s total. Today’s is 13,334, so I have a bit left to go to reach it. Mostly I’ve been reading and cooking and doing laundry while mulling over where the story is supposed to go next. I’ve already had a character do something unexpected. For those writers who are planners, this doesn’t happen. Even those who aren’t necessarily planners…
I’m ahead of the curve on word count and the story is beginning to shape up a bit, though a character did something inexplicable and sudden that I don’t understand yet. (Yes, characters can and have taken stories in different directions than originally thought–it’s the beauty of being a “pantser” during NaNo.) The chat room is hopping late at night and in less than two hours I got over 1700 words written. Not bad considering I spent the day either…
Here I am, sitting at my desk, waiting for the trick or treat crowds to arrive. We’re giving out glow-in-the-dark bracelets this year in hopes of keeping the kids out there visible to traffic. The day’s been cool and it’s finally getting dark outside. Two cats are pestering me simply by curling up on my desk: one under my halogen lamp and the other on my steno shelf. They want to be fed, but that doesn’t happen until the dog…