My mid-week report to you that covers the three major commitments I’ve made: to write, to edit, and to read.
Writing
3800 words or so and another 3-4 scenes on Sigils. I’ve got five major “TODO” comments (up +1 from 4 last week) and another 15 scenes to finish (down from 20). I wanted to go BICHOK 6/7 days this week and managed 5/7. I wanted to get the first 2/3 of Sigils wrapped up. Despite progress, I still have 3 TODOs in that section, and 7 scenes to finish.
You may be wondering how I managed to knock out 15 scenes and end up with more TODO items and not finish the first 2/3 of the book. Well… read on for the editing update is all I have to say. I have enlisted a couple of alpha readers (hi guys!) who will eventually have to slog through my prose.
I’ve been doing fairly well with blog posts. I’ve got 4 a week scheduled (M/T/W/F) and I’ve been pretty good about getting at least 3/4 done (I sometimes skip Fragment Fridays. C’est la vie.)
Commitments for this week:
BICHOK. Want to go 6/7 this week.
Get the first 2/3 of Sigils wrapped up (3 TODOs, 5 scenes done)
Editing
Part of my editing work this week was to cut 4k words (and six still-to-be-written scenes) from Sigils. That removed a subplot and a reveal about one of the characters. Since that’s gone, I needed to rework some scenes so the story still moves, add notes to others about how to change them, and then insert a few other scenes to help with transitions.
Unfortunately, all of that goes into the first 2/3 of the book. So that’s how you edit something, knock out nearly all the work you wanted to get done in a week, and still somehow manage to end up behind.
So, once again - to get the first 2/3 of the book wrapped up means finishing of the TODO items in the first 2/3. Those 3 TODOs and seven scenes. So on top of the writing, I’ve got some heavy editing to take care of as well.
I also did some editing for a non-profit I work with this week. Not much, but it took up an evening.
So this week, I will:
Keep to my established editing schedule
Finish off the TODO list for Sigils (no, really!)
Reading
Plugging along in Civil War Pittsburgh: Forge of the Union by Len Barcousky.
Other
I’m continuing to update the #TeamAndMore open calls. I’m going to split up the #TAM Tuesday posts so that I’ve got one topic per week each month:
1st Tuesday - Calls
2nd Tuesday - Contests
3rd Tuesday - Gallimaufry
Final Tuesday - Congratulations
If there are five Tuesdays in a month, the 4th Tuesday becomes a Free Space. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
I’m going to have to take a look at some of the tools I use for writing and editing. More on that next week, if I need to make any changes.
The Lady’s Conference at church went well; I helped in the kitchen & with cleanup a bit. The Day Job continues to move quickly, and I’m slowly coming up to speed. Next big thing outside of writing is the Lady’s Tea, where I’ll be doing a lot of help/setup, but not much aside from that, I don’t think. (Seriously. You don’t want me baking scones). Today is the last day we give the Dumb Blonde Cat his “please don’t die” shot, and his checkup went well earlier this week, so it looks like he is, indeed, done!
Other than all that, I’ve just been trying to get out and get some sunlight and fresh air every day. Difficult given this is the gray rainy season right now, but it absolutely helps everything else go better. A+++, highly recommended. See you all next week!