Tag Archives: change of plans

Up and Down

This entry is part 49 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

So over the course of the last few days, I have fixed my computer three times and it has unfixed itself. Virus scan tomorrow.

Reading

I am reading The Flood while reading other books because frankly, I'm not ready for the Fire and Water series to be over. The other books were the Queen's Thief books by Megan Whalen Turner. A very long time ago when I was fourteen years old, my writing instructor recommended The Thief. I fell promptly and wholly in love. I never picked up the other books. This year, I rectified that and wow, these are so incredibly good. I want more too. Much more. I feel new fandom coming on.

Publishing

I got through page 20 of justifying/hyphenating the updated trade paperback interior of Dowse and Bleed. This proof already comes to hand too easily. I'm so ready to publish more and update Gone Hunting and write more. Alas! Only so much time and energy.

Writing

Started at 1696 words on Tracing Trouble, wrote 211, dumped those words, then went to the end and kept writing. I wanted to get 1000 on both this story and the collaboration today, but my computer was still crazy and my aunt visited today. I expect my evenings for the rest of the week to be similarly shortchanged.

Word Counts

  • Fiction: 526 words
  • Poetry: 0 words, 0 lines
  • Blog: 215 words

Splintered Gates

  • Today: 0 words
  • Total: 2493 words

Collaboration

  • Today: 0 words
  • Total: 3409 words*

*written by me in 2014

Tracing Trouble

  • Today: 526 words
  • Total: 2011 words

January Totals

  • Fiction: 8967 words
  • Poetry: 212 words | 45 lines
  • Blog: 6924 words

Completed Pieces

  • Poem: "Before My Eyes," 220 words | 47 lines.
  • Fanfic: "Mistakes," 1397 words.
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Where HAVE I Been?

This entry is part 47 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

Well, to be honest, reading The Drought, Honor of the Queen by David Weber, and getting ready to dive into The Flood while also working on getting all formats of Dowse and Bleed ready for publication while trying to resurrect my dead-in-the-water home computer (registry error).

I'll get back to updating after I start scribbling again instead of just percolating and tech supporting. Did I mention tech is not my color?

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Sabbath Usually Means Very Little Scribbling

This entry is part 43 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

Did some reading and catch-up with comments and emails and sent off my book cover for the formatter, but that's just about it.

Word Count

  • Fiction: 90 words
  • Poetry: 0 words, 0 lines
  • Blog: 65 words

Splintered Gates

  • Today: 0 words
  • Total: 2175 words

Collaboration

  • Today: 90 words
  • Total: 56,470 words

January Totals

  • Fiction: 5322 words
  • Poetry: 212 words | 45 lines
  • Blog: 6023 words

Completed Pieces

  • Poem: "Before My Eyes," 220 words | 47 lines.
  • Fanfic: "Mistakes," 1397 words.
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Here, Have a Snippet

I've got a handful of stories that are on the table right now:

  • belated Yuletide gifts (1 or 2 will do, she's not picky)
  • the collaboration (she's patient, which is good because I'm deep in revision/formatting wonderland)
  • Splintered Gates (which is my learning how to write on a tablet book)
  • Collateral Damage (the follow-up to Dowse and Bleed)

I've had an 4100+ word opening to Collateral Damage from before that phrase appeared in Dowse and Bleed, but I didn't know which direction to turn after that because it starts out from the perspective of Andre and Shift instead of a direct head-on with Rachelle. Which meant I hadn't the foggiest idea whose story it was and why. I only knew what was going on: the crisis.

Today, I went for the dubious option of just pick one. Here's the snippet:

Breathe. This was not supposed to happen now, not so soon, and not like this.

It was an effort to breathe, to shift gears from the world as Rachelle had always known it. Cycling was survival. She had to move the flood of genetic entries through her vascular system and into archive as soon as possible, or the backup would overwhelm her veins, which could only handle so much. But this day had been coming a long time, and it hit her hard when she incorporated one more entry into her own permanent genetic makeup and then felt that harsh inability to breathe that it was the archive out of space.

Don't cycle. Don't cycle. Back up, spin the paddles, find a shield and stop her own genetic flow. How can you deny your very bones?

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Scribbling Equals Headdesk?

This entry is part 35 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

12:09 a.m.

Yes, I know. I'm crazy. So I wasn't going to write on this today, due to the lateness of the hour and all that, and technically it doesn't count for the 4th anyway but the 5th, due to the lateness of the hour and all that, but here goes because I'm really, really tired of this particular story not wanting to even get started. There went 8 sentences and 179 words on Splintered Gates. Still hate it.

:scowls:

Writing

So on day five of the wonderful new year, I'm banging my  head against my desk. Mind you, I did scribble at 12:09 this morning, but didn't like what I got and hit the collaboration later this morning even though I had intended to get my gift fics done. They're not flowing and the collaboration is making me want to tear my hair out. I'm rethinking the whole structure I tried working with because as usual, I plot too late and don't really get the opening plotty bits right until I come up with the later material. I have ideas, but...

Yeah. :headdesk:

Finally getting somewhere, then stop, drop, and undecorate, etc. Back to work... Who is related to who in which exact way? Calling it even, though I barely got any new words because I'm knee-deep in structure and percolating again. Ah, well. Sorry, thecatisacritic. I'm getting somewhere, just not fast.

Word Count

  • Fiction: 352 words
  • Poetry: 0 words
  • Blog: 256 words

Splintered Gates

  • Today: 179 words
  • Total: 2060 words

Collaboration

  • Today: 173 words
  • Total: 55,978 words

January Totals

  • Fiction: 1685 words
  • Poetry: 0 words
  • Blog: 1673 words
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Scribbling on the 3rd, aka This Way Trouble

This entry is part 33 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

Fandom

I am crazy. I have never successfully completed a big bang or NanoWrimo type challenge in my life, and I just signed up to do a 10K couples big bang writing Tris/Four, which is basically an AU required to happen.

:headdesk:

I am positively certifiable.

Reading

On the rest of January 3rd, I finished reading The Tenth Hell. Crazy me. Another awesome, gut-clenching, nobody's good, nobody's bad, it's all too real round of Picoult.

I always figured Rachelle would like Picoult's books. They fit her worldview.

Publishing

I also finished finalizing my publisher file for Dowse and Bleed. Anyway, it just needs hyphenation, which is driving me batty. I'm going to have to do it manually, and I already hate the idea.

Found via Hugh Howey a wonderfully formatter who will turn my Createspace .doc (which I will separately convert to PDF via OpenOffice) into Kindle and Smashwords files for only $35. I have decided now would be a good time to start putting money into publishing. That saves me a lot of work for a very small cost, all things considered.

Writing

Wasn't I supposed to write in there? I'm sure that was on the agenda. Tonight then, me and the keyboard shall meet. The Drought beckons, but I can't read through all my scribbling time.

So it's scribbling time and I did the normally very bad thing of going on Twitter first. This time it was a good thing. Check this out: My Write Club. Lovely. Thanks, Kayla!

Started in my seven sentence fic, got carried away, and am not going to try and count the sentences. It was 344 words though.

:mulls over scene: I've known the opening scene of this for me for a while now and it keeps coming out wrong. I'm going to kill it and start in the middle like I always seem to do anyway. Ah, well.

I imagine that total is about to get totally shot for Spintered Gates, but that's my no-pressure project anyway. I'm basically percolating it on paper instead of in my head.

Back to collaboration. I don't have Scrivener on my tablet, which is a real pity, though I feel compelled to share the joyous news that my CD backup arrived today and is now tucked safely on my bookcase. You didn't need to know that, but I sure felt like being giddy about it. So what the collaboration particularly needs from me right now is some plot-noodling. Let's do that on paper, shall we?

So in searching out my plot, I didn't find what I wanted, but I did find something interesting. I left way too many gaps when I first started drafting my part of this collaboration. My writing partner is much better disciplined than I am. I sketch, percolate, then gap-fill. It's kind of painful.

And off to bed...

Word Count

  • Fiction: 1284 words
  • Poetry: 0 words
  • Blog: 597 words

Splintered Gates

  • Today: 344 words
  • Total: 2060 words

Collaboration

  • Today: 940 words
  • Total: 55,978 words

January Totals

  • Fiction: 1333 words
  • Poetry: 0 words
  • Blog: 1417 words
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Winter Tidings of the Scribbler, October 21

This entry is part 20 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

Dear muse,

Please get with it. November is coming and my dance card is now full.

Love,

the scribbler


Feels like winter is here at last, and it's time to get this mind gearing up for November beyond percolating possibilities. Time more to get some serious writing back into gear, especially seeing as I've got plenty besides to do this season.

So checking out the exchange front, I'm thinking through this [unnamed] prompt again and can't even hit it sideways. I already wrote that story, so hm. I guess it's just winging it on the fandom. :grumbles under breath: I had hoped for something to go on. Oh, well. Let's just see what we can come up with.

Well, I was going to fic that, but instead I fanficced my own and thecatisacritic's world again. Seriously, is it okay to post fanfic of this kind of stuff on AO3? I know the original creator and we're working together, but it's seriously AU fanfic.

Back to exchange... Didn't get anywhere on that. Then I spent some serious time hunting up fics to collaborate on, got back wonderful comments on "Dowse and Bleed" which may take it to novella-length, and typed up board meeting minutes. Also, got a 418 word start on a poem. Don't like it all yet, but it's a start.

Beta'd a piece. Hit a few more pages on my proofread. I'll try and pull something together after computer hours, but no promises.

Count

  • Fiction: 2291 words - Month to Date: 25,330 words
  • Blog: 279 words - Month to Date: 8,337 words

365 Challenge

  • 230–231/365 – Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture and Recall Crossover: And So It Goes… – 1873 words

WIP

  • Kingdoms and Thorn poem: The World Backed Down – 418 words
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Reading vs. Writing: Wait, I thought you guys were friends!

Yeah... not always. And this is the perfect summation and what to do about it, from Kristine Rusch:

Back when I was training myself to sit down and finish something, I learned the hard way that my greatest distraction was not other people or my computer or games or the phone or the television. My greatest distraction was other novels.

If I started reading a novel at lunch, I would finish at dinner. And then I’d deem it too late to write. So I had to make reading my carrot. I didn’t allow myself to read until I was done writing.

I’ve mentioned that a lot before, because the stupid compulsion remains. I cannot read fiction before I’m done writing my own fiction or I won’t get anything done.

But there was another component to my writing back then, one I dropped as the deadlines, publication dates, and payments took over. I wouldn’t let myself read anything if I hadn’t written that day.

In other words, reading was my reward. If I finished 3,000 words, I could read a book. If I didn’t, I couldn’t read until I did.

Carrot, meet stick. Stick, meet carrot. I had forgotten you guys.

- See more at: http://kriswrites.com/2013/10/16/the-business-rusch-carrots-and-sticks/#sthash.FuKcyUvN.dpuf

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