Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Rolling

Condensed version:  The novellette draft is up to 11k right now.  Up roughly 9k since the last check-in post so technically my word count goal is achieved this week.  Visit the other participants who are linked here.

Long, rambling version:  I've written 11k since Saturday.  The basic storyline is done, I'm in the process of padding it out with (hopefully real) facts and character development.  I like to work that way on shorter stories.  I've spent way too much time staring at detailed maps of Ireland and figuring out what route the characters will take.  More fun than it sounds.  Stuff like that never makes it into my stories but I like to know which direction people are going in and how long it will take. 

The end story should hit around 20k.  First draft might be finished this week.  I'll probably drop it and get back onto Taunt before the week is out because I want the draft of Taunt to be finished this month.  I can dream.  :)

Family schtuff.  This week, my big girl turns four (and my little girl, seven months).  Her burns aren't healing well as expected and it will be next week before a final decision is made on the skin graft - plus her physiotherapy starts next week too.  This month is looking busy - we have to enrol the big girl in primary school (hello, long arse queues in the birth cert office) and the twins in playschool to secure their places, the baby is due a hearing/development test, we have to go through the (too freaking slow and red-taped) speech therapy assessment crap with our eldest again and all of the animals are overdue on their boosters.  The joys of large familes.  :D

10 comments:

  1. Wow.

    Perseverance, much?? Great goals, and how you dive into then in/among/despite/in spite of/because of family is somewhat...miraculous. To me, anyway. I'm sorry the healing isn't quite where you guys were hoping, but young ones, thankfully, do heal so much faster and better than we do. I'm sure you'll have even MORE writing energy when you know she is clearly mending properly!

    Hang in there, I can't wait to see your update on Sunday.

    Take care, you are doing beautifully.
    S.

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  2. Thank you, Shari. I'm finding working at night keeps me from obsessing over my daughter getting hurt. I'm hoping it's a habit I'll keep! You're right they do heal fast - despite the wound still being nasty, she's running around as normal most of the time so that's great. :)

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  3. "I like to know which direction people are going in and how long it will take"- Me too! lol

    Looks like you have your hands full with your wee ones. Good luck with everything. ROW80 will still be there when you can sit down again. :)

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  4. congrats you're almost at the finish line and sounds like you'll soon have less kids around during the day. I haven't figured out yet how my characters get from a-b, I know they walk mostly but that's about it.

    Hope all goes well with the children.

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  5. I'm just going to say, and I think I've said this before, I'm tired just reading all that you have ahead of you. So glad your daughter is getting better. Kids are our heart! So I know the struggles are painful, but you are accomplishing so much. Give yourself a hug. You so deserve it.

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  6. Thanks for the comments. @CM - it's funny but it really grounds me in the story if I know exactly what's going on, even if it's a really unimportant sounding detail.

    @Katy - Yeah, I'm on my way to dumping them all out of the nest. ;)

    @Judith - I'm not doing it alone though and we're lucky enough that all of the schools and stuff are practically on our doorstep. My OH does more than his fair share of the hard work too, I'm the slacker in our house. I think I have the easiest life of everyone taking part in ROW80, that's why you all impress me so much. :)

    I'm glad she's improving too, the little minx gave us an awful fright for a bit there! She's totally milking the attention too. LOL.

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  7. Congrats on all the progress! I hope your daughter heals quickly - I'm sure all of us ROW80ers are sending her good vibes :)
    I don't know how you manage to get so much done with everything else that's going on. I live at home with my folks and work part time and I usually still struggle to manage that time. I shudder to think what I'll be like once I'm back at uni...
    Keep up the awesome work :)

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  8. Congrats on getting 11k done even with all the family stuff going on. I know what you mean with mapping out their routes. I've done drawings of whole town and did the interior design of one of my character's homes. Just have to be able to see it in my head.

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  9. I'm just going to send general good vibes your way for all the family stuff you'll be taking care of with the OH. Wow, that's a lot to fit on one plate.

    I think it's great you study maps and get the tiniest details worked out even if they don't make it into the final draft. I once read the GI Joe voice actors had a detailed bible of all the characters with complete histories. All to make it easier for them to perform at their best, which means you're working like the pros.

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  10. Rebecca, I can only do bunches of words every now and then - and remember, they really need a lot of spit and polish to prettify them. :)

    Thanks Robin - the one thing I would really love is photos or drawings of my characters, if I could draw I would waste so much time doing that. :D

    Thanks Andrew - that's really cool actually, I didn't know that. I'm really keen on having detailed bibles on my own characters but it's taking me a lot of time because I didn't do it properly. Get there in the end.

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