Write Every Day, June Day #28

[auroracloud]

I gave myself a some good long yoga sessions tonight, which helped both with my back pain and with the general mental and physical state. I really need to remember how good it is for me and do it regularly! And when I start writing the novel, I'll have to build some exercise breaks into the day...

Today's Writing

I've done fairly much work on the novel but not a lot of words; I did research reading and notes in the afternoon, and now in the evening I spent a while sketching the home of one of my main characters, both the general appearance of the house and the floor plan. (As I've mentioned before, I can't really draw, so the likeness isn't much, but trying to draw still helps me make the picture in my head more concrete.) I also wrote some notes about the home.


Tally

Day 1: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, luzclarita, ofmonstrouswords, shopfront, silveradept, sylvanwitch, used_songs, ysilme

Day 2: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, ysilme

Day 3: alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, ofmonstrouswords, shopfront, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, used_songs, ysilme

Day 4: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, ofmonstrouswords, shopfront, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, ysilme

Day 5: alexseanchai, alexcat, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, yantantether, ysilme

Day 6: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ellieet, ofmonstrouswords, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme

Day 7: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ellieet, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, ysilme, yantantether (15 so far)

Day 8: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ellieet, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme (14 so far)

Day 9: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme (15 so far)

Day 10: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, navaan, ofmonstrouswords, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, tinx_r, yantantether, ysilme (16 so far)

Day 11: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, navaan, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, tinx_r, yantantether, ysilme (17 so far)

Day 12: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, tinx_r, yantantether, ysilme (15 so far)

Day 13: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, tinx_r, yantantether, ysilme (15 so far)

Day 14: alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, used_songs, ysilme (11 so far)

Day 15: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejean, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (11 so far)

Day 16: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, ysilme (11 so far)

Day 17: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (11 so far)

Day 18: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, ysilme (12 so far)

Day 19: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvan_witch, ysilme (12 so far)

Day 20: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, ysilme (12 so far)

Day 21: alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (11 so far)

Day 22: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (13 so far)

Day 23: alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, ysilme (10 so far)

Day 24: alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, yantantether, ysilme (10 so far)

Day 25: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, yantantether ysilme (13 so far)

Day 26: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, ysilme (11 so far)

Day 27: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans; china_shop, cornerofmadness, silveradept, sylvanwitch (8 so far)

28: china_shop

Let me know if I missed you, or if you wrote but didn't check in yet. You can join in or drop out any time!

Comments

[alexseanchai]

I think I figured out my midpoint, and I need to swap what I thought were the 75% and 90% points so that the action plot has more room to breathe and the emotional plot...words idk. it will work better this way. more in character—the way I thought it was, she has to actually use her words about her underlying emotions, which she has been avoiding doing all story and is consequently more likely to do after the dust settles from the action plot exploding in their faces than before. also if she uses her words about etc, she has to put the thing into words and listen to herself say them, which it does not make sense for her to have done given a pivotal thing she does while the action plot is exploding in their faces.

...wait crap do I need to rewrite the first chunk so she talks around the thing she is now going to say in wrap-up? because she may already have thought that thing in the draft, and if she has already looked at that thought, it won't work...

[auroracloud]

Good luck! Figuring out structure and scene order can be tough, when you need to make sure that all the emotional changes, thoughts, dialogue etc. still makes sense even after something has been changed. But sounds like you're doing well at thinking about all the relevant things. :-)

[sylvanwitch]

Yay for doing yoga! I'm glad you gave yourself that much-needed movement break. :-)

(I did, too, actually, making sure to get up several times to take walks in the yard or around the house. So look at us living up to our promises to ourselves! We rock! :-)

I finally worked up the gumption to start the second edits of the ambush project. These are related to pace and narrative, so they are substantial. I'm working off of detailed notes I took during the first edits, so I have something definite to go on. For example, I spent probably two hours today working on the first twelve pages of the novel. I had to remove a significant scene, which will be moved to later in the book, and then, of course, create new connective material to make the first chapter make sense. I am also working on changing the characterization of the narrator, and that is also pretty substantial. In total, I think I added more than 1000 words, but I didn't keep track, a mistake I'll rectify for tomorrow's work.

At any rate, it feels good to have finally begun this.

[auroracloud]

Yay for both of us managing to do our movement breaks!

Congrats for starting on your edits! Sounds like you've got a lot of work, but also definite ideas of what you're doing. Good luck!

[yantantether]

Checking in for today and yesterday!

[auroracloud]

Will add you! Yay for writing!

[romanajo123]

*waves* Hi! Checking in for the first time. (just wrote about 340 words)

[auroracloud]

Hi again, and thanks for joining us! Yay for writing!

[cornerofmadness]

After a long day melting on the battlefield, I got 133 words on Like Stone

[auroracloud]

Well done for getting something written! I might easily be too melted to get more than an alibi sentence after such a day.

[cornerofmadness]

Tell me about it. Walking all over Gettysburg yesterday it was between 33-34 degrees. The sun itself might have been cooler

[china_shop]

29th: A good writing day. I got quite a few words down, but there was some canon dialogue and some repurposing of another scene, so I can't say for sure how many. I think (hope!) I'm in the home stretch for this one.

[auroracloud]

Yay for a good writing day! I'm glad it sounds like you're getting the story to work out, despite the need to repurpose things etc.

[ysilme]

That yoga session sounds lovely! I'm happy to hear it worked so well for you, and you're feeling better now! *hugs*
I'm kind of lucky in that regard myself: doing my usual household chores seems to be sufficient to keep me moving at regular intervals even during "desk only" days, and keep kinks out of my back, too - but thankfully, my back is also one of the few parts of my anatomy I rarely have issues with. These days it's kind of automatic that I often rise and walk around even when I'm working intensively at the computer, but I think I originally started this because I tended to sit unfavourably for my legs which started to swell in summer, or my wonky knee which got twisted and hurt afterwards. One of the trick that still help me is placing my teapot or water bottle away from the desk so I have to get up to refill my cup or glass.

(As I've mentioned before, I can't really draw, so the likeness isn't much, but trying to draw still helps me make the picture in my head more concrete.)
This is a terrific approach, and I'm sure lots of writers are doing this or something similar, too. I'm a very visual person myself and need to have sometimes very specific ideas of where is happening what, and collect photos as well as sketches or drawings I did myself for that purpose, or do them for a project. And floor plans - can't really live without them. *g* I also always need to describe everything in a very detailed fashion for a story. Since this is often not much fun to read I do this for myself first, and later either condense it into a smaller part of the narrative, or just keep it for myself.
(I think I wrote about this/ talked to you about this before, didn't I? I can't fully remember, thanks to this wretched memory of mine. Just ignore this if I have!)
For my tally, I'm still editing both projects, and wrote 174 new words on the 27th and 389 yesterday.

[auroracloud]

It would probably help me if I was less lazy about chores, I'm sure both my flat and my body would be in better shape then! I have issues with my back quite often, though it's not the joints, thankfully, just the muscles. I have a tendency to tense up my shoulders and the back of my neck whenever I'm stressed, anxious, or just doing something intently, and then the muscles get all knotted up and sore. Likewise, the muscles in my lower back get sore easily, probably because I store a lot of emotion and tension in my hips, which are connected to the lower back, or because that also gets tensed if I'm sitting while stressed.

I'm actually not all that visual myself, at least compared to many other people, though I guess I've become a bit more visual over time when I've focused on learning to describe things better. I don't always need to look up pictures of my characters, though I've found it helps when I do. And sometimes they are based on e.g. characters or actors I like, and then I already have pictures in my head, and it does help to make the visual details more lively.

I haven't really done floor plans before this project, but I found in my last novel project that I had far too little idea of what anyone's house looked like, and this made them less lively. I've also found that if I don't think about the place carefully enough, all the houses become either one of my family's former homes, or my grandparents' house. This doesn't really work, especially when writing about people more than 150 years ago. :-P

Yay for continued progress in your editing, and getting some new words in as well!

[alexcat]

Just 10 words to say I wrote. Hubby and I went on a day trip to the mountains.

[auroracloud]

Ooh, that sounds lovely! I hope you enjoyed it! We don't even have real mountains in my country, though when I've had the chance, I've loved visiting some mountainous regions abroad (some parts of the Alps, for example, and I've been to northern Norway a couple of times).

Alibi sentence days are quite fine, and especially on mountain day trip days!

[silveradept]

I added a post to my queue, and remembered to post an assignment that's coming due.

[auroracloud]

Yay for remembering to post!

[carenejeans]

More nonfiction stuff, though part of it was pulling together some notes for a possible introduction that I had started awhile back. I'm not sure how much of one the publisher wants, so this is mostly for me. But I might post some of it.

I've been exercising too! Mostly walking to the bookshop, taking things to Mr. Bookshop that he forgot. I need to do this every day, walk, I mean. He can remember his own stuff! ;-) And some yard work -- on my own yard. We found an affordable (and good!) gardener for my mom, so I don't have to kill myself over there, and it's more pleasant working on mine.

Now to make myself get on the exercise bike...

[auroracloud]

Yay for both nonfiction and exercising! And I'm sure the introduction can be useful for you even if it doesn't end up published - it can be helpful to think about what you would say about the work in an introduction, making you think through it in new ways, perhaps.

Walking is good! I really enjoy walking, and I don't do enough of it these days. I used to go for 2-3 hour walks, but of course, that was when I lived in smaller places and could actually get to nice places without having to cross noisy roads all the time...