Stephanie Gunn

Project: White Raven draft two

New words: 2,436

Total words: 95,846

Goal: 100k

Writing:

Not a lot of actual forward motion in terms of total word count today.  I spent some time fixing up some issues I’d been having with scenes that I worked on yesterday, and moved on a little in the plot.  Now I just have to deal with the climax.  The men in the basement need to do a little work on this, so hopefully they’ll be kicking in and earning their keep.

Weirdly, even though I’m dying to get to the end of this draft, I’m also dying now to begin the next round of edits.  At the moment, I anticipate another full draft and then a round of line edits before I’m going to even think of sending this one out into the world.  Not sure as to whether I’ll get to work on this straight away when I return to work in the new year, or if I’ll work on producing a first draft of Never first.  I wish I was the kind of person who could work on multiple projects, but that’s not going to happen, especially with a new baby in the house.  I guess it’ll depend on what my brain is up to then

Real life:

Ran a few errands, including picking up some groceries and filling a prescription at the chemist.  Spoke to yet more people about house stuff.  So far, over the next few weeks we’ll have some fairly major work done on the ceilings (which should prove interesting for my schedule – hoping to be mostly done with this draft before then) and someone coming in to quote on replacing blinds.  I swear, at times it feels like we’ve replaced half of this house.  But we knew that this work was going to need to be done when we bought the place.  And the house is awesome enough to justify it.  Thankfully, the ceiling work *should* be the last major work that needs to be done.  Everything else lined up is cosmetic.

I’ve finished writing earlyish today, and will go for a walk shortly.  I have a bunch of stuff that needs to be done around the house – none of it particularly urgent, but it would be nice to have it done.  I might make a start on some of it.  And then walk, and then get stuck into review work and slush reading.

Project: White Raven draft two

New words: 2,189

Total words: 95,599

Goal: 100k

Writing:

Not a bad day today.  Made better by the realisation of how close I am to the end of the draft.  I have a couple of big scenes to write, and then some stuff to wrap everything up.  It looks like I’ll end up somewhere around the 100k mark, which makes me happy.  Ideally, I’d like to get the next draft under 100k.  We’ll see how it goes, though, since I am very much the kind of writer to tends to add stuff in rather than take it out when rewriting.

So right now I’m looking well on target to getting this draft finished in the next couple of weeks, the brain being compliant with this plan.  I’m sure that the last few chapters are going to need a tonne of work when I’m done, but that’s the way things go.

Real life:

Cleaned the house, did laundry.

Am currently waiting on a delivery that will hopefully get here today (baby furniture!).  Have also been doing some chasing up of prices of house stuff and running around via the phone.   Overall, a pretty productive day, which is always good for a Monday.

Project: White Raven draft two

New words: 2,563

Total words: 94,059

Goal: 100k

Writing:

And after a bad start to the week, I’ve had a couple of good writing days.  I can handle that – at least a few good days will bring me closer to the end of this draft.

This should technically be the easy part of writing.  I have the end all outlined, and it should be a matter of just following that outline (more or less) and getting it done.  You can all laugh now

I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that I work better when I’m editing, as opposed to writing a first draft.  Right now, I’m essentially writing a first draft of this ending, and it’s coming like pulled teeth.  And as for my constant despairing over not being an outline writer, I think I’m proving something to myself here.  It doesn’t make it easier for me, with my own personal creative process.  I like discovering my hidden world piece by piece, finding my way through the darkness by touch alone.

Either way, this manuscript is definitely going to go through another major draft before I can even think of sending it off to agents or publishers.  And I’m just going to have to accept that I’m a slowish writer (and likely to get slower).  Constantly railing against the process that works for me doesn’t get me anywhere but frustrated.

Real life:

Laundry!  It’s the excitement of my life, and I should probably not even note that I’ve done it.  Except that, yanno, otherwise it looks like I don’t do anything but write and sit on the couch eating bon-bons all day

I will likely go for a short walk and listen to some podcasts soon.  I am currently listening to Mur Lafferty’s I Should Be Writing podcasts from the beginning.  Excellent accompaniment for a very slow walk, I’ve found.  If you don’t listen to ISBW, then you should.

Project: White Raven draft two

New words: 2,360

Total words: 92,206

Goal: 100k

Writing:

Somewhere overnight I had an a-ha moment as to why I’m getting stuck at the end of this book.  Basically, I’d written myself into a corner and I had to figure out how to work my way out of it.  I think I may have found a way (or a way that works for this draft, anyway) and hopefully I can move on and get this draft finished.

Now my brain just needs to stop throwing up ideas for other major changes I could make to the book.  Gah, brain, give it a rest, okay?  I really appreciate you men in the basement working hard, but can you work on this version of the book at least?

Real life:

Walk already accomplished and grocery shopping done for the week.  Both of which took far more effort than they should have.  Well, in my mental version of “should have”, which doesn’t really include the fact that I’m a few days shy of being eight months pregnant.

For someone who considers herself to be a bit lazy, I’ve realised how much I do depend on being able to do physical activity.  I’m looking forward to being able to walk and do stuff without feeling like I’m made of stone.

I also worked on a review and got it posted up at Horrorscope.  I’m slowly catching up on all of the review and award reading I have stacked up, which makes me happy.

Project: White Raven draft two

New words: 2,116

Total words: 91,962

Goal: 100k

Writing:

I feel like I’m hitting a wall.  I’m getting more and more exhausted every day and it’s getting difficult to concentrate on writing.

I’ve been banging my head against these last few chapters and don’t really feel like I’m getting anywhere.  I figured out one major change that I need to make (and managed to stop myself from going back and editing right now to make said change) but these last chapters just feel…flat.  I really want to take the time to make them into something decent, but I worry that I’m reaching my limit for creative work.

I had intended on trying to write for at least the next month (and I will continue to try to do so), but I think I’m really going to have to start scaling back.  Hopefully everything will fall into place and I’ll be able to get some semblance of these last chapters put together.  I apologise in advance to my beta readers, for they are likely to be a mess.

Real life:

Lots of laundry and not much else.

Will go for a short walk soon and try to work on some reviews.

Project: White Raven draft two

New words: 1,940

Total words: 91,100

Goal: 100k

Writing:

Concentration is still all over the place today.  I did manage to get some scenes sketched out – and then I realised that I need to change something in the story.  This change is going to necessitate some serious work, since I need to go back and add in a minor character.  My brain just kind of turned off at the thought of that, hence the lower word count today.

This is where I envy outline writers.  If I outlined, then maybe I would have known this already.  Though, given the way my brain works when I’m writing, possibly not.

Real life:

Not much.  Yet another contractor to see today, which did interrupt my flow this afternoon.  I seem to be having really good luck with contractors lately – they’ve all been really nice people.  Makes it much easier to have them around the house.

Spent a good chunk of this morning feeling under the weather – went to bed really sore and tired last night and woke in much the same state.  Will go for a gentle walk soon to see if it helps with the sore part, and hope that I sleep better tonight.

The last few days I’ve had a bad case of the don’t wannas in general.  I can’t seem to settle to do anything much at all, which is driving me a bit crazy.  I can handle the reluctance to write (or do housework or whatever) – I just hate it when I can’t/won’t settle to do anything at all.

Project: White Raven draft two

New words: 2,216

Total words: 91,703

Goal: 100k

Writing:

A strange day.  I found it really difficult to concentrate today in general (which is always a sign, to me, that something is going wrong somewhere with the book).

I messed around on the new chapter for a bit, trying to at least sketch out a few scenes.  It wasn’t working.  So I sat down and realised that I’d gone wrong a few scenes back.  It seems to happen this way for me – if I’m stuck on a particular scene, chances are I’ve gone wrong a ways back.  I know what I need to fix, but right now, I don’t quite know how to fix it.  So I’m stepping away from the writing for the day, and hope the men in the basement will get to work.

Realistically, I probably only have a few chapters to go until the end of this draft (according to my sketchy outline, anyway) so I could probably slow the pace a little now.  I’m dying to reach the end, though, so I probably won’t slow down much.

Real life:

Cleaned the house, did laundry.  Got perhaps too happy about the fact that it’s sunny and I’ll actually get laundry dry today.

Also spoke to yet another contractor about getting stuff done around the house.  For all that I have a break in medical appointments for the next few weeks, my time’s filling up with getting people out to do quotes and work on the house instead.  Right now, I kind of wish I had an eeePC so I could be more mobile with my work to avoid contractors while they’re here.  My Dell works, but it’s really no longer mobile, being reliant upon an external keyboard and mouse.  Oh well, I’ll just have to deal.  It’ll be getting replaced eventually.

Project: White Raven draft two

New words: 2,410

Total words: 89,968

Goal: 100k

Writing:

A surpringly good day, given that I’m utterly exhausted.  I mostly worked on the scenes that I’d sketched out yesterday, which involved fleshing them out properly.  Also had a couple of minor epiphanies about the plot, and little things that I need to go back and add in on the next round of edits.

This has, unfortunately, had the side effect of making me want to go back and edit this right now.  Which isn’t going to happen.  I still plan on getting this draft done and leaving it to sit until I have the mental energy and time to come back and work on it again.  The next draft should, in theory, be faster, since I’m mostly going to go through and add in a few minor bits and work on fleshing out some of the writing itself.  I’m fairly happy with the general shape of the plot, and so it should stay intact from here on in.  Unless some of my betas find massive plot holes, which could happen.

Real life:

Laundry accomplished and is on the line drying (hooray for spring finally being here!).  I’ve also been taking breaks to get some bits and pieces done around the house.  I believe this may be called nesting

I’m going to go for a walk in a bit, and then maybe do some more bits and pieces around the house.  I am tired of the fact that I’ve left tonnes of stuff half done (since we moved in almost two years ago, in some cases) and I want some order around here.  Okay, I have officially become Crazy Pregnant Woman.  Good thing there’s only nine weeks to go

Project: White Raven draft two

New words: 2,324

Total words: 89,178

Goal: 100k

Writing:

Not a bad day – two writing sessions, the first of which was much better than the second.  The last scene I worked on wasn’t much more than sketched out, which gives me somewhere to start tomorrow.

The end is close.  I need to keep telling myself this.  My focus is really starting to go, and I need to know that I’ll be able to take a break soon.

Real life:

Grocery shopping this morning as well as a short walk, both of which totally exhausted me.  Stamina, I do not has it any more.  And this isn’t going to improve any time soon.  Oh well, it’s only temporary.

Also dealt with a contractor who came out to quote on fixing our sagging ceiling.  Home ownership bites sometimes, especially when you buy a house that needs renovations.  I can’t wait until we’ve fixed all of this stuff up, though.  Then I can finally start doing some of the other cosmetic stuff to the house that we’ve been putting off.

Project: White Raven draft two

New words: 2,533

Total words: 87,330

Goal: 100k

Writing:

Shortish writing session today, since the words were flowing well.  Which is dead surprising, because I am utterly exhausted today.  On a better day, I’d be pushing for more words, but I think some rest is going to take precedence today instead.

I’m at the point now where I’m pretty much going to be ditching the ending I had in the first draft (which was dreadful and rushed) and going back to a first draft level.  I’m actually approaching the end of the novel now – in fact, I’m so close that I can almost feel it.  So things are looking pretty much on track for me getting this draft finished in the next three weeks or so, and I can take some time off.  The challenge is to be stopping myself from beginning another round of edits immediately.  Right now, though, I really need a break – I have review and award reading to focus on, as well as a tonne of books that I want to read for myself.

Real life:

Not much actually accomplished today, thanks to a resurgence of exhaustion and morning sickness.  I think my body is telling me to start slowing down, and in no uncertain terms.  I was going to go and run some errands and do some baking, but ditched both plans.

I will go for a very gentle walk soon and then catch up on reading, I think.