Robynettely

After last month's disappointing progress, this month I made some changes. I have tons of stuff that can just be typed. If I do some of that, it counts. And of course I need to push ahead with WWS.   Wind/Water/Salt  Chapters 29 - 48:  Need to take up comments and revise.  Chapter 49-50:  Finished and posted.   Chapter 51:  It was nothing but a little heap of bones but I filled it in a lot.  Persephone  (probably not its real name): Madeline Ashby said something really useful on Twitter about blackmail, and I think I can finish a draft now. I wrote eight scenes that run a thread from beginning to end. Now I need a bunch more of those!  Short Stories:  I almost made an outline of one I started, but that never quite happened.  Critted  10  Got back  15 (seems backwards, doesn't it?)  Submissions    Out there  1  Rejects  1 Knitting Penzance socks #2. Out of time-out, finished. I h...

This month I got a job, which had a substantial impact on my schedule. After a year of freedom, I need to find a better way to work my own projects back into my time.  Wind/Water/Salt  Chapters 29-46:  Need to take up comments and revise.    Chapter 47-48:  Finished and posted.  I messed a lot with the POVs of both these chapters.  Chapter 49-51:  Read and revised. Did you notice what I did there? It used to be 50. This book just keeps getting longer and longer. This month I had to write a complete new chapter!  Persephone  (probably not its real name): Notes, as usual.  Short Stories:  Scratched at one a bit.  Critted  9  Got back  6 Submissions  0  Out there  2  Rejects 1, but it was a nice rejection!  Knitting Penzance socks (me).  Started the month with the cuff of the first sock. Finished. Penzance socks #2. In time-out.  Penzance socks #3.  Finished. Penzan...

Wind/Water/Salt  Chapters 29-43:  Need to take up comments and revise.    Chapter 43.2, 44:  Finished and posted.   Chapter 45-(end):  Read and revised.  Persephone  (probably not its real name): nothing to speak of. Short Stories:  Worked on a first draft of one.   Critted  10  Got back 12 Highlights of the month (there were two): Someone who read a lot of the early part of WWS came back to the workshop! And I got into another workshop, this one looking a bit more goal-oriented (if the goal is to get published).  Submissions  0  Out there  1  Rejects  0 Knitting Tee (me).  I'm almost at the bottom rib. Knit most of it while watching The Boys and Queens Gambit. Good shows.  Venezia Pullover (Interweave W2006). Finished.  Never Stressed Schweater (me).  Started Jan 1, did body and both sleeves to armscye, joined it all up.  Practice hoodie (me). Started the ribbi...

Wind/Water/Salt While editing Chapter 43, I realized there was no way to explain from where Preston (POV character) was what Abigail was up to, and how she managed to do it, so I broke that chapter in half and stuck another chapter in the middle. So then I had 50 chapters, maybe 51? Then I read to the end, and deleted Chapter 46, and broke 47 into three. This made it possible for the characters to behave in anything like a consistent way. I don't even know how many chapters there really are anymore. Maybe 53?  Chapters 26-27: Took up comments.   Chapters 29-42:  Need to take up comments and revise.    Chapter 43 (including 43.1):  Finished and posted.   Chapter 44-(end):  Read and revised.  Persephone  (probably not its real name): I got to the part of my library reading list that had a lot of research books for this, which put me in the headspace again. This is the most musically motivated thing I've written, I think. Other people post ...

Wind/Water/Salt:  Sometimes it's afternoon and I think to myself, "well, I guess I should work on my novel now" and then I think "or I could just apply for a job." Because writing cover letters is less arduous than trying to fix this mess.  Chapters 26-27, 29-40: Need to take up comments and revise.   Chapter 41-42: Finished and posted. I was sort of stuck on Chapter 42 and tried to skip ahead to chapter 43, but it didn't work. Without motivating the different characters to do whatever they were doing, I couldn't figure anything out. So I went back. And forward. And back again.  Chapter 43-45 (of 48): Read and revised. Persephone (probably not its real name):  Opened the file, added a few words here and there.  Short Story:  Finally finished one (i.e., polished). Made the first draft of another, edited a third.  Critted 14    Got back   11 Submitted 1  Out there 0  Rejects 1  Knitting Tee (me). Started the...

Wind/Water/Salt Chapter 25/28:  Took up.   Chapters 26, 27, 29 - 38:  Need to be taken up.    Chapter 39 - 40:  Finished and posted.  Chapter 41 - 44 (of 48):  Read and revised.  Persephone (probably not its real name)  I had a scene I wanted to write, and I needed to know where it fell in my chronology, so I dated a whole bunch of scenes. I also drew a setting.  Short Story Started one, worked on another.  Connecting Critted  12  Got back 9      Subs  0  Out there  0  Rejects   1 Knitting Masquerade (Louisa Harding).  Dealt with about 400 loose ends and blocked. Took the whole month. Tee (me).  It's a classic with set in sleeves, knit top down out of sock yarn. Last month I put this in time-out because I needed to rip back to just below the neckline (front) because the sleeve short rows weren't beautiful. I did the ripping out and started back, but didn't get far, bec...

Wind/Water/Salt Chapter 25  - 36:  Need to be taken up.    Chapter 37 - 38:  Finished and posted.  Chapter 39 - 41:  Read and revised.  Persephone (probably not its real name)  Became suddenly unstuck around labor day not because I read a pandemic story or anything (though I did that) but because I was thinking about mobsters and psychopomps of all things.  Short Story The one that I worked so hard on last month, I set it aside for maybe 10 days to rethink its life, and since it wasn't quite working anyway I chose a different market with a different theme and a slightly longer target length. Then I smashed it until it met the story criteria for that market, and now it was 1750 words over length for that market too! So I took out 840 words then tried to make its character have growth. Now I think as a story it works.  Added last month's short to that list of things worth finishing.  Connecting Critted  15 It all went wrong ...

Wind/Water/Salt Chapter 23 - 24: Took up.   Chapters 25 - 34:  Need to be taken up.    Chapter 35 - 36:  Finished and posted.  Chapter 37 - 41:  Read and revised.   Persephone (probably not its real name)   Wrote part of a back story short story for it.  Short Story There's a little list of stories to finish pinned on my wall. I chose one, chose a market, read the story, and decided I could totally take 600 words out of this for it to fit into that market. Then I decided to clarify the setting, and this added 400 words. The main character needed a personality; adding this didn't actually make the thing longer. I looked at the original market again and realized it wanted 500 words less than I was aiming for. So now I'm 1500 over.  And I wrote a 2000-word thing that I haven't looked at since that I think is awesome, but it might be half-baked, who knows.  Connecting Critted  16 (probably more sustainable than last month...

Wind/Water/Salt Chapter 23 - 30: Need to be taken up.    Chapter 31 - 34: Finished and posted (in two batches).  Chapter 35 - 37: I had read last month. This month I broke two of these chapters in half, making things I currently call 40.1 and 40.2. But I might get rid of 35, so everything could shift up?  Chapter 38 - 41: Read all but 41 a couple of times, smoothed things out, aligned them with the way things currently unfold.  Persephone (probably not its real name)  2K words.  Short Story I wrote a few drafts of a steampunk story back in 2016, but then I became uncomfortable with where I had taken it and put it away. Then last month I read "Who was changed and who was dead" by Barbara Comyns, which had a lot of head-hopping. And I decided I wanted to head-hop a story. There was a really good reason to head-hop in this steampunk story, so I started another draft. I also thought about other ones. Not really productive, though.   Connecting...

Wind/Water/Salt Chapter 23 - 28: Need to be taken up.  Chapter 29 - 30: Finished and posted.  Chapter 31 - 32: I combined 32 and 33 into one, removing a pointless stop off to make tea. Almost finished, almost posted.  Made a new Chapter 33 out of part of Chapter 35, originally a Fairfax chapter, but I decided Preston had to do that instead. I deleted all of Chapter 34 but about two paragraphs, and rewrote it to make Chapters 33 and 35 connect together.  Then I recrafted 35; part of it actually made sense when I started and got to delete about half of 36 because I didn't need it anymore. Also read Chapter 37 which looks like at some point in the distant past I combined two chapters together there too, because the POV switched half-way through. I'm sure it's better now.  I'm doing a project management course, and I'm using WWS as the project to manage, so expect this sucker to get finished.  Persephone (probably not its real name)  Last month...

Wind/Water/Salt Chapter 23: based on feedback, most of this chapter got deleted, and the rest is part of Chapter 26 now. Chapter 25: Last month I deleted it. This month I put back half and rewrote half the dialog so the characters were working at cross-purposes to each other. Then I posted it with Chapter 28, because they go together. Maybe I only need one? And if that's the case, it's this one. Chapter 27: Finished and posted. Chapter 28: Finished and posted. Chapter 29: Edit, edit, edit. Chapter 30: Edit. Chapter 31: Edit.  Persephone (probably not its real name)  I spent some time with my timeline and fit the B-plot into the A-plot. It worked better than you'd expect. I added about 4000 words. Short Story Wrote a flash for a contest but it came out too long so I think I'll polish it and send it elsewhere. Connecting Critted 8 Got back 4 Subs 2 Knitting Candlemas  by Jean Moss. I started the month on the gussets, wondering if I would have enough ...

Wind/Water/Salt Chapter 24: Read again and posted. Chapter 26: Read and posted (with an explanation of what happened to Chapter 25 which I deleted). Chapter 27: Read and moved the second half to chapter 29, then expanded the first half so there was some tension (I hope). Chapter 28: I considered deleting this one too, but the world needs more Abigail. Maybe I'll move it into the Chapter 25 spot? Worked on my synopsis, which I will need.  Chapter 29-31: Read for new continuity, because I changed some things that had ripple effects.  Persephone (probably not its real name)  I was wandering about outside one day and my B-plot fell onto me, basically. And it's a good B-plot that makes sense I think now. It basically came with locations and a rhythm that meshes well with the A-plot and uses my characters in an interesting way. Short Story Notes for two. Connecting Critted 8 Got back 8 Subs 2 Knitting Sunny skies of winter  (KP 2015 FI) Finished cuff ...

Wind/Water/Salt Chapter 21-22: edited based on OWW feedback.  Chapter 23: Posted   Chapter 24: Fixed a huge continuity error; refined the motivations of the three characters that are in this chapter (Preston, Metatron, and Sumiel). Chapter 25: Read it, decided it was not necessary, deleted it. Chapter 26: (I'm keeping the numbering system going forward because I added a chapter 13.1 last month, and it's just easier to keep track of this way.) Read. I also went through my notes and worked on my character lists and descriptions, which many reviewers have said were lacking. This does not seem to have made people like chapter 23 but whatever. It's useful for me.  Persephone (probably not its real name)  Started the month with 82,000 words. I mentioned last month, this is hard to work on with a pandemic going on. I got over that by writing how my pandemic learns from that one and is different. I haven't really gotten very far with this, but it's fixable. ...

I think I have been deluding myself. I got let go from my job of 22 years back in mid-January, and suddenly had tons of time to do whatever I wanted all day, which meant I got up at 9 then walked over to one of the dozen or so Tim Horton's within walking distance, then walked home, then read the entire internet, then tried to write for a while.  It's been really nice. I can get to the pharmacy when I have a prescription to pick up, I don't have to plan my workday around when I can get to the library to acquire my holds, I can read every day, I can knit. I don't have to take a day off if I want to meet someone for coffee or take a dance class. However. Before, when I had that job for 22 years, I thought I was writing every day. I got up in the morning and did my morning stuff, then sat down in my writing spot and looked at my writing, and for the last few years because I have enough first drafts already (and a lot of that page-a-day stuff I used to write would be k...

Wind/Water/Salt Chapter 21:   Posted Chapter 22: This chapter was finishable, so I did, and it's posted too.  Chapter 1 3.1: I wrote half a chapter here, maybe Chapter 13.2: This was why I had to write 13.1, actually. I moved half of chapter 40 (!) to here because the tension it adds is way more useful early in the story, and to make that work I had to alter a whole bunch of other stuff.   Chapter 23:  Chapter 24: I did manage to read this and made some markups.  During the process of relabeling all the chapters, I realized the first half of chapter 40 needed to be somewhere around Chapter 12, which meant I had to add some time and figure out what my various characters are really up to in the background (when they're not on the stage). This reinforces the idea that I should go back to the beginning and redo those introductory 20 chapters while I continue to push to the end.  Persephone (probably not its real name)  Started the month wi...

Wind/Water/Salt Chapter 21:   I read some of the comments on Chapter 20, and tried to use that here.   Chapter 22: Did some drafts, made some changes based on reading chapter 24… Chapter 23: At this point things fall apart. I realized there is absolutely no thread of the goal of the bad guy in this novel, and started just making notes and thinking about going back to the beginning and starting over. So I might actually do that – go through a couple of chapters per month and try to make the first half of this project a little more cohesive. Chapter 24: I did manage to read this and made some markups.  Navigationally, I’ve been really enjoying what I can do with Persephone, so I went back and renamed all my chapters with POV character and a bit of what happens so I can find things faster. I’m also considering moving it to Google Docs. Persephone (probably not its real name) Last month ended with me discovering a horrible, horrible thing that one of my character...