Three Scenes, People!

I am about three scenes from The End--give or take a few. I just got back from a walk with the dog (gorgeous day here in Michigan) during which I ran through those scenes in my head. They should be pretty easy to write. Fun, too. Then I can sink my teeth into the rewrite.

I have "Don't Murder Your Mystery" by Chris Roerden on my desk to be read. I hope to apply her tips and tricks to my rewrite. I will need to put the manuscript away for a week or two anyway to gain some distance. Then I want to print it out and read it through. I'm sure I've forgotten entire scenes!

I know it needs some work from an organizational standpoint. And I'll have to be sure to wrap up all subplots and dangling clues. And give my main character a personality. Ha!

Fun stuff ahead!

In Sight of "The End"

Finally, I am only a couple of chapters away from The End. And I feel a strange reluctance to finish for some reason! Which is ridiculous because I'm hardly done with this manuscript--just beginning actually. I'll probably come in at 70K which means adding another 5 to 10K in the rewrite. That's fine because I write very spare the first time around. I need to do tons of editing and rewriting.

My protag needs to develop some sort of personality in this second draft! She's a bit bland. I need to ratchet up the other characters as well. But I enjoy that part. Now that I've got the action more or less block out, I can concentrate on the details.

And a title. I need a title. Two actually. I envision this as part of a series so the series needs a name and this manuscript needs a title.

Fun stuff ahead!

Live & Learn

I've been thinking about my goals for this new year, 2009. I don't want to make any resolutions--they always come across as negative and things you're *not* going to do like smoke or overeat. No, I think goals are much more motivating.

One goal is definitely to finish my cozy mystery manuscript, make revisions and get it circulating with agents. And the sooner the better.

My other goal is to learn. I want to take some good books off my shelf and really study them--do the whole underline in different colored magic markers thing. I want to try "modeling" as described in Elizabeth Lyons' book Manuscript Makeover. And writing riffs from the same volume.

Once and for all I want to see, inside out, how accomplished authors put their books together. Then I'm going to use that knowledge to write another one of my own.

Filling the Page

I got some more words done yesterday. Not as many as I would have liked, but still... Part of my problem is "holding back." I usually tend to write "short," and subconsciously I think I am afraid of running out of story before I've filled enough manuscript pages.

But going back over what I've already written, I realize my second draft will be longer as I layer in things I've overlooked--scene setting here, internalizations there. My first draft is relatively bare bones in most places. I guess I need to get the story down and first and then go back and fill in the details.

I'm trying to push myself to finish by the end of January. I'm anxious to get started in a critique group to see what they think of this mess...

Panic at the Computer

Had a moment of panic yesterday when strange things began happening to my manuscript (as saved on my flash drive). Lines appeared in the wrong places, some lines were only half visible (as in the bottom half of the letters), etc. I'd save the manuscript on my home computer but there were around 7 or 8 pages that I didn't have anywhere except on the flash drive.

All is well, though. I added the new pages to the manuscript on my hard drive and saved all to both places. I think I messed it up when I pulled out the flash drive and then closed the manuscript--when it tried to "save" there was no where to save it to...so I put the flash back in, and something weird happened.

Finished another scene, and I'm happy about that. Not sure what scene comes next...have to noodle a bit on that one. I'm making slow and somewhat steady progress minus the Thanksgiving holidays.

Smoking!

Last night I was really smoking. The words were coming so fast and furious I could hardly type fast enough to keep up (and I can type REALLY fast). It was great! The scene isn't quite finished yet, but hopefully at lunch today I'll be able to hammer out the ending. Had a lunch meeting yesterday so I didn't get any words done then, but I did put down almost 900 words last night! WooHoo!

I might actually finish this manuscript yet!

I'm also finding that the more involved I become with it on a consistent basis, the more ideas float to the top of my subconscious--usually to be harvested while showering. What is it about water anyway? I'm not much of a swimmer, but perhaps I should go do some laps and see if pool water works as well as shower water.

I know. It's been a while. So what has motivated me to post again? I've signed up for the 70 (actually 77) days of sweat challenge. And they ask for your blog. So this seemed the perfect time to (figuratively) pick up the old pen again and blog.

I have a wip that is stalled at around 30,000 words. Not quite half way there. I need between 70K and 75K. So I'm thinking this 70 day sweat thing might just be what I need to get the thing DONE!

I've always wanted to do NaNo but November is just not the right time for something like that with Thanksgiving and all the cooking, guests, etc. But this 77 day thing gives you time off for the holidays. Plus I'm not committing to a full manuscript--just to completing my wip.

Wish me luck, okay?