Category Archives: Writing

La Booque

I broke 65K yesterday afternoon. Yay me!

I have a sneaky suspicion that Chapter Two is going to be deep-sixed. At least, that’s going to be my recommendation upon submission of the manuscript. It’s not bad, it just really doesn’t fit the rest of the book. Well, maybe we could rearrange the chapter order. No, no; it just doesn’t fit anywhere.

Today I’m going to further flesh out highlighted bits of info that I left for later. Again, I’d like to set down 5K today, just to get to 70K, but I seriously doubt that’s going to happen. Today is going to involve research and fact-checking as well as writing, so I suspect that while I will be doing something productive (thanks, Ceri!) and it will yield accurate facts, those prductive hours will not be reflected in word count.

Book Update

Today’s total: 2,198 words
Total word count: 63,050

Today was a bit of editing, plus finally a couple of pages of real writing near the end of the afternoon.

I’m 4/5 done. Why, why, why are these last few K so difficult?

Politics, Book Progress, Reading Material

Was anyone else as bored by last night’s leadership debate as I was? It did absolutely nothing for me. I usually enjoy the debates, but this told me nothing new, revealed no new information (policy-wise or otherwise), and was in general an exercise in futility.

I did 2.7K on the book yesterday, brining my new total to 60,852. I was disappointed. I think it’s due to the fact that I made the mistake of calculating that five days of 4K each would finish the book, so now anything lower than 3.5K feels like a failure. At the end of the day I look at my creeping total word count and panic.

Besides the number-crunching crisis, I was very happy with the content of the work I did yesterday. In general it was a great day. Ceri gave me preliminary feedback from her reading of the text and it was positive, so that on top of an inspiring book I finished in the morning gave me lots of impetus to dig in and write.

And I also got a shipment of secondhand books in yesterday’s mail, which included Paracelsus’ Archidoxes of Magic and Pliny’s History of the Natural World, both of which I’ve been waiting for to use as sources for various chapters. Now if the copy of Carmina Gadelica I ordered would just arrive, I’d be thrilled.

Drat…

At 6 AM I woke up with an excellent way to work “Mabel Figworthy” into a random novel scene, fell back asleep, and now I no longer have any clue what my brilliant idea was.

(Mabel Figworthy, BTW, is one of the proposals for the 2004 Montreal NaNo in-joke to be included in the November masterpieces of participating Montreal NaNo writers. Last year it was a psychic ferret, thanks to Miseri mishearing something I’d said in a crowded cafe.)

Book Update

Today’s word count: 4,423
Total word count: 56,889

I’m spent. I had crazy dreams of hitting 58K today, but that would mean almost a 6K day, and frankly I think I’d be useless for days if I did that. I’m so close to 57K, but I’ve been pushing, and pushing, and pushing for so long today that if I push any more something will break. Possibly something valuable like crystal.

I should go get a Haagen-Daaz ice cream bar. That will help.

Book Progress

I spent six hours working on appendices yesterday, and only managed to add about nine hundred words to the damn manuscript. Bloody appendices. The absence of complete sentences does horrible things to my word count. So I opened a random chapter and expanded something which required elaboration, pushing the day’s count just over 1.5K.

I was thinking about a couple of chapters in bed last night as I was trying to fall asleep, and I got up this morning with tentative ideas. I’ve already added two pages to chapter 8, and I just might start chapter 2 today as well (finally – I mean, it’s only been, what, a month and a half?).

Next time, more than two months. Definitely. Absolutely. I may be a goddess, but I’m not stupid.

Spellcraft Book Update

Today’s word count: 2,544
Total word count: 50,916

If I write only 2K on every working day this month, I’ll hit the required target. I feel much relieved.

I sent Ceri home from the writing jam today with an electronic copy of the text so far. I need someone to read through it just to tell me that it makes sense. I’m fairly certain that it does, but I’m so close to it now that I can’t be an objective judge. I know I address similar topics in various chapters (i.e. herbs in different uses/formats) and I don’t think I repeat information; I’m of the opinion that it flows decently. I just need someone else to confirm it for me. I might also be missing something evident that I take for granted. Ceri will be able to point that out.

HRH says hello to all.

Orchestra tonight! I practiced the Bach today.