One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

So…I almost finished the edits I’ve been working so diligently on and then I came to the part that prompted me to go back and edit in the first place. And then I dithered for a bit thinking I might have to make a map after all because my group was supposed to meet someone at this shrine, and I had no idea where the shrine was in relation to where my group was.

Then a light bulb went off over my head.

The shrine scene kinda bugged me and it suddenly dawned on me that this book hasn’t been published yet. I can go back and change anything I want. And trust me, I want!

So now I’m backtracking 30 pages or so to get rid of a couple more scenes I didn’t like. One of them I might be able to change enough to save, but I still feel like for every step I’m taking forward I’m taking two back. Am I ever going to get this book finished?

I hope so, because I’ve become so fixated on it that I can’t seem to focus on any other writing. And as I was falling asleep the other night I suddenly had all these ideas invade my brain for this science fiction series I came up with while I was still in high school. I laid all kinds of groundwork for it but eventually abandoned it, mainly because I just wasn’t mature enough as a writer to handle it. Then I wrote the first book for NaNo one year, but there were several sticking points I needed to overcome before I could give the series a go.

The notes I made the other night not only clear up the sticking points of that series, it also connects with my Elemental series (which is set further into the future) and I’ve figured out which of the three possible endings for the Elementals makes the best sense. Woot!

But first…Wandering Wizards must get finished!


Prompts of the Week

Last week’s prompts marked the end of my jar of prompts. It was a good idea, but it lacked proper execution. So until I come with better prompts for the jar (feel free to send me any of your own) I’m going to change things up a bit.

I have a large book I bought through Reader’s Digest called The Family Word Finder. Yeah, it’s pretty much just a big ole hardback dictionary, but it also contains the odd quote and word origin. Anyway, I’m going to pick five words at random, and the challenge is to use all five of them in whatever you write – poem, story, opinion piece, whatever.

For the second prompt…remember last year I talked about how the writing group I was part of used Archetype cards as prompts for some freewriting during our meetings? Well, I bought myself a deck and each week I’m going to pull one at random and share it with you for the second prompt.

And if these don’t work…well, I guess I’ll just have to come up with something else. :-D

Prompt One

Forestall
Review
Applause
Vocalize
Govern

Prompt Two
The Archetype cards are great for creating characters, but you can also create a story (or poem) using the attributes in the abstract. And really, you have three choices here: just the light attributes, just the shadow attributes, or a combination of both.

Child Eternal
Light Attributes: Determination to remain young in body, mind, and spirit. Ability to see things with fresh eyes.
Shadow Attributes: Inability to grow up and be responsible. Extreme dependency on others for physical security.

And remember, you don’t need to spend a lot of time on these, they’re just meant for fun. But if it turns out you like what you’ve written, then by all means keep going and turn your exercise into an actual story or poem or whatever.

Wordage Report

Whose idea was it to make my wordage report on Sunday?? Oh, yeah. That would be me. :-D

The spirit was willing, even eager, this week, but the writing time was a little hard to come by. Part of this was the 3500 word letter I wrote to my sister and a couple of insanely long emails. These words are not included in my report because they’re private words, not public ones. Nor did I include my journal entries for the same reason, and I had a couple of long ones there, too. But I’m not displeased with last week’s word count by any means.

Blog Posts (not counting this one)
2,309 words total
I debated about included blog posts in my word count, but despite the fact they’re non-fiction, they are new words and they’re shared with the public so I think they should count. I think what impressed me most about my blog words this week is that I got them done. Both of my new features were a tad more time-consuming than I’d counted on, so it led to a couple of late nights. But I got the posts up and on time, so that’s the main thing.

New Ideas
I’m including this as a category because if I take the time to write down new ideas so I can get them out of my head, they’re new words. I always have ideas running amok through my brain. Usually I go over and over (and over) them in my mind, refining them before I’m ready to commit them to paper. I did get a rather good idea last week, but I didn’t get it down on paper and now it’s gone. Poof! I don’t really need another idea for my files, so I'm not real worried about it, but I’ll be sure to write it down if it does return.

Editing
27 pages
While editing isn’t always a lot of new words, it is work and thus should be included in my creative endeavours. Currently I’m editing the fourth book in my elemental series, An Elemental Earth. I’ve been hanging onto this book for far too long. It needed to be done like yesterday, so I’m pleased to have found the time to get 20 pages done.

Like it says in my “about me,” I also edit for other authors and I managed 7 pages on a really great adventure/mystery targeted towards a younger audience. It would have been more if it hadn’t been poor planning on my part. Actually, the planning was pretty good, it’s just every time I try to plan for things, life starts tossing monkey wrenches my way. I get a fair amount of editing done after my granddaughter goes down for her nap (I babysit for a few hours every day) so this week should be a good one in that department because I have three days of extended nap time.

New Words
@ 3,000
Okay, here’s the thing. I’ve got two WIPs on the go: Wandering Wizards (book 3 of the Moonstone Chronicles) and An Elemental Spirit (book 5 of the Ardraci Elementals), but unless I’m struck by a sudden inspiration, I’ll be focusing most of my attention on Wandering Wizards.

I have learned the hard way that it’s never a good idea to try writing the next book in a series before the previous one is finished. Book 2 of the Moonstone Chronicles was a NaNo Novel. At least the first 50K words were. Then I kind of set it aside for a while and before I knew it, it was NaNo time again. So I wrote the first 50K words on the next book of the series and now I’m paying the price. Until I reach that 50K mark, what I’m doing isn’t so much writing as re-writing. Things happened in the latter half of Lucky Dog that changes what I had going on in Wandering Wizards drastically. So, while I added 7,284 words, only about 2 or 3,000 were actually new.

Here’s an excerpt from this week's words:

Ellen could feel the sun’s warmth beating down on her, which was very strange because she couldn’t remember going outside. But she must have at some point, she could hear birds chirping and the rustling of leaves somewhere above her. She really needed to open her eyes to check things out, but there was a big part of her that was afraid she knew what had happened and she didn’t want confirmation.

“Please let Howard have blown the roof off of the house,” she prayed. Opening her eyes she sat up. “Holy freaking crap!”

She appeared to be in a small glade surrounded by tall, leafy trees. The scent of flowers wafted up to her and she realized the glade was carpeted in an abundance of wildflowers, none of which were familiar to her. Climbing to her feet she turned in a circle but all there was to see were trees, the flowers, and a few bushes. There was no road, no path, no indication of civilization.

“I don’t freaking believe this!”

Don’t forget to come back Friday for Fun With Quotes!