Happy Monday Friends,
I’m glad to be back with TWiR after awhile without posts. But first, an apology:
I’ve been struggling a little lately with balancing life and my writing and my social media feeds, but I think this week things might start looking up. I’ve already started catching up on comments and posts that I’ve let slip away from me and I should be up to date today and I’ll be sure to try to keep up with them more consistently going forward!
That being said, let’s take a look at what I’ve been able to accomplish this week!
Posts on My Blog
My Writing Projects
For the first time in a while, I’ve actually made decent progress on two of my projects. I’ve changed mentalities since February, making sure to prioritize my writing, which hadn’t been the case at all last month.
I’ve set goals for each week in March to help me accomplish my monthly goals. For HERALDING, the first full length novel in the Iníonaofa Chronicles, I’ve set a writing word count of 15k for Wednesday, March 8th — the MS word count stands at 34k. Right now I’m sitting on just a little over 11k of words written since March 1st. Which means that all I need to do is write 2k a day to get there. Absolutely feasible!
Some of you might have seen that I submitted HERITAGE, my 2015 NaNoWriMo novel, to #PitchMadness at the end of February. Well, the choices were made yesterday and I wasn’t one of them. But that’s okay. There were 60 of 1300 that went on to the agent round, and the judges remarked that over 300 made it into the first round ‘love’ pile. Those names weren’t released, but who knows, I might have been one of them — I like to think I was 😉
In any case, I’m editing through Heritage right now. This is the second draft I’m working with. My goal is to get halfway through the MS by Wednesday. This one’s a bit lofty and I’m ready to not make it. So far, one of the biggest change involved combining two chapters that were far too similar and moving up the action, which is always better.When I started, my MS was 84,856 words in length. I’ve cut 413 words in the first eleven chapters. And I’m pleased with the pacing so far. But I’ll definitely be looking for beta readers come the end of the month.
So if anyone’s interested in a YA fantasy novel about a timid fiddler who embarks on an adventure with her grandmother to destroy the rising Shadows threatening to steal the light and happiness from their homeland, let me know 😉
EXCERPTS
I thought I’d share a small excerpt for each of my WIPs from what I’ve written/edited recently:
HERALDING – a bit of dialogue between two characters that I’m rather fond of
“I already told him to go.”
“Obviously, he didn’t listen.”
“Obviously, I have no sway over him.”
“Obviously, you didn’t try hard enough. He likes sex with you. You should use that.”
HERITAGE – perfecting Peggie’s voice is one of the highlights of this novel for me.
My bow descended with a far more spritely attitude than it had before, evoking a light-hearted melody that honoured the night and the white light that graced the land of Adramache. Images of couples dancing and children laughing played through my mind. Happiness, joy, hope: those were the emotions that guided the song. The moon gifted me with them, and I could do little else but bring them to life through my fiddle’s wooden form, expressing through music what I saw inside. Without words, the moon sent me inspiration and I heeded his creative call.
Well, that’s it from me. Let me know how your week has been friends! Any accomplishments? Any happy occurrences? Anything you’re struggling with? Here’s a safe space. So feel free to share 🙂
May inspiration flow like ink upon your quill,
Faith
Awww! I’m sorry they didn’t pick you for #pitchMadness. Maybe they just didn’t see anything obvious that needed work?
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That’s sweet of you to say, my dear! I’m starting to query soon, so we’ll see if that’ the case 😉
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Sorry to hear about NanoWrimo. I think that you did very well. You completed and submitted it. I am sure that yours made it to the first shortlisting:-)
All the best with your writing and reading too. Have a wonderful week.
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Thanks Diana! Hope you’ve had a great week so far 🙂
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That’s too bad about Heritage. But at least you’re moving forward with the next draft, and that’s what counts. 🙂 Keep it up!
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Thanks, Sara! As I always say, better to be rejected than reject myself ❤
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Keep it up! 🙂 You can do it!
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Thank you my dear 🙂
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Balancing social media, work, blogging, writing, everything is so complicated! Good luck with the goals!
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Thanks so much, my dear! So far, so good! ❤
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Never you worry, Faith ❤ Balancing social media, writing, and your personal space is a challenge most days! I'm struggling a little with it this week as well, but only because there's so much excting stuff to do! Well done for making progress on your two projects anyway!!
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