Where the heck did June go!?
Granted I was travelling a lot, but it still felt like this first month of my summer holiday just evaporated. Given that I was Sweden for a week and then South Africa for almost two, my word count isn’t quite what it could be, but I did however hit my 50k goal. I haven’t touched Scardust though. Sigh. Here are the stats…
Last report wordcount: 40, 004
Current report WC: 51, 039
Writing Issues This Month:
Finding the time between travels to actually get some words down. Getting horribly derailed by a Shiny New Idea that just won’t shut up and will definitely be the next project I work on.
Four things I learned this month in writing:
1. Writing on a plane isn’t all that fun, but it can be done. Despite the constant distractions of pilot announcements, the people next to me hopping up and down for the bathroom, babies screaming and the occasional bout of turbulence, I somehow managed a to write 1k words – albeit on an 11 hour flight. Not a great time to word ratio there.
2. Thinking about a book is sometimes as good as writing. Having not had the time to actually set down words forced some much needed distance between me and the work. I was getting a little bogged down in the plot and having had this time to ruminate on the story, I’ve managed to figure out where the problems lie.
3. Writing 4 first person perspectives is still a peculiar kind of madness and has been part of the problem. Only returning to certain perspectives and sometimes certain characters every four chapters has made me lose touch with the character development – something I plan to rectify in July.
4. That Shiny New Idea is great, but what’s even better is letting it sit for a bit and gather the awesome to it as my ideas expand and develop. Diving into the writing of this one would’ve been a mistake – giving this idea time to fully take root in my mind is going to make for a far better story and much easier writing, when eventually allow myself to start setting down words.
What distracted me this month while writing:
Travel. Family. Friends. Book promo – June was a crazy awesome hectic month, but not such a great one for writing. Still, all these distractions were very much enjoyed so I cannot complain at all!
Goal for next month: Finish this I Heart Robot sequel. I’ve only got about another 20k to go so I’m pretty close to the end, although I will need to do some rewriting and reordering to sort out my character development issues.
Continue to think about Scardust and all the ways I could improve and end that story properly.
Continue to brainstorm and outline the Shiny New Idea. This one has a blurb, but it’ll need a full synopsis before I start writing and I want to take my time developing this idea because it’s going to be awesome! …I hope.
Last 200 words: Again, this is tricky because of potential spoilers so here’s a tiny excerpt that hopefully doesn’t give too much away 😉
“No.” I press my finger to his lips and they turn silver. “I think you’ve said enough.”
Confusion flits across his face, his arms hanging loosely at his sides as he makes no attempt to touch me. Doesn’t he know it was the memory of his kiss that kept me sane through the long nights when I thought my entire life would be lived according to Asker’s whim? Doesn’t he know how much I want him to hold me, to make me feel alive and fill up the hollows in my soul? No, he doesn’t, because I’ve never told him. But that’s all right because now I’m going to show him.
And that’s it for June. How did you do?
