“Wyrd” Progress Report XX

WORDS WRITTEN: 2663

TOTAL WORDS: 96,714

REASON FOR STOPPING: Finished part three of the book!

It seems fitting to hit a big progress report of number twenty for completing Part Three of the book.  I knew this part was going to take a long time and be a big and focal part of the book, but little did I know it would take over two hundred and fifty pages.  Guess my characters had a lot to say and do that I wasn’t fully aware of when I began that part.  And I’ve now hit page 455 with the start of Part Four of the book.  I know this book is easily going to be the longest project I’ve ever worked on and the end is nowhere near in sight, with I’d say at least a couple years left to go.  And you may ask: Do I feel like I’m halfway through the book with the end of this part, and my answer would be: no.

My goal for the year with Wyrd was to hit page 500, but sometimes goals don’t always get reached like you want them to, at least at this point at the end of July.  I feel I have satisfied what I set out to do with this book at the beginning of the year, and while I may not have hit that specific page number, I’ve reached my goal with the manuscript and am happy with that.  I may not return to this project for the rest of the year, so starting the new part just to hit that page number and then abandon it doesn’t feel right.  Of course, there’s still a lot of the year left to go and I may hit my other goals and still have time left over to come back to this one.  The future isn’t written in stone, which is certainly one of the themes of Wyrd.

“Wyrd” Progress Report XIX

WORDS WRITTEN: 2361

TOTAL WORDS: 90,065

REASON FOR STOPPING: Finished a big scene and did some setup for the next; also hit 90,000 words!

It’s been a while since I did a Wyrd progress report.  The novel is going along great, and I can feel myself closing in on the end of this massive “book” within the manuscript I’ve been writing, called “Pictland.”  I’m on target to hit my annual goal of page 500, as I’m now on page 422.  One thing I do continue to realize as more scenes get written, and characters think of more things to say and talk about, is that this is going to be one bastard of a book.  I expect to hit page 500 some time before the fall, and I have this strong feeling that it might just be at or close to half of the book.  We shall just have to see.  I find it very exciting though, as I’ve never written anything quite this long.  But I have a lot of story to tell, and my characters have a lot of say, whether to the reader or to each other.  Also hit the 90,000 word mark today, which felt great.  It’s going to be interesting once I crack 100,000 words for the first time, since my longest manuscript has been 97,000.  It’s going to feel like walking on the moon . . . traversing across a whole new world that I’ve never been before.

Going to take a brief break through the month of June to work on editing and putting finishing touches on Kyra: The First Book of Enchantus, to get it ready for release hopefully in July or August.  But as soon as I’m done with that last “checkup,” I’m coming right back to Wyrd.  Can’t wait!

 

Also once I hit that 500 page mark I will reassess the word counter and likely update it to the 200,000 mark. 

“Wyrd” Progress Report XIX

WORDS WRITTEN: 2472

TOTAL WORDS: 52,710

REASON FOR STOPPING: Hit page 250, shot past the 50,000 word mark, and finished a big, lengthy scene.

Just a quick update to say I hit my last big writing goal for 2011 by reaching page 250 in Wyrd, which makes me extremely happy.  Also beat the 50k word mark and finished a big long scene of the main character telling his story.  I think the goal for this project for 2012 is going to be to hit at least page 500, which should be the end of the book, but I have a feeling this sucker is going to keep growing and growing.

“Wyrd” Progress Report XVII

WORDS WRITTEN: 3571

TOTAL WORDS: 36,175

REASON FOR STOPPING: End of Part III of the book, and finished off Third Interlude.

Wow, what a productive writing session I had yesterday, and most of the words written before noon!  Ended up doing about 2700 words and today did an additional 800 to hit 3571 words so far for the week.  Since my weekly goal of writing is a modest 2500 words, not too bad at all.

The Wyrd manuscript is going to be put on hold for a little.  I was having an issue with working on two books at the same time, where I would switch between each one from week to week, and because one is done in third person and the other is done in first person, I was getting my tenses confused.  I therefore focused on getting to a good stopping point in Wyrd this week, so I would be able to dedicate all my time to White Horse, and get that finished before I would return to Wyrd once more.  I know I’d set my personal goal of hitting the 250-page mark for Wyrd by the end of this year, and even with this delay, I’m still confident that it will happen.

For now, Artorus and his friends, along with some Saxons, are on their way north in longships to face some Picts.  It’s going to be a little while before they get there, but arrive at their destination they will.

“Wyrd” Progress Report XVI

WORDS WRITTEN: N/A

TOTAL WORDS: 30,117

REASON FOR STOPPING: The week has ended and time to continue work on the other project

WORDS FOR THE WEEK: 4007

Hit some neat milestones in the Wyrd manuscript this week: the thirty-thousand work mark, and the 150-page mark.  The other impressive milestone this week was just passing the four-thousand work mark for writing for the week when the average and minimum is 2500.  Something new I started doing this week was bringing my laptop to work and writing for half an hour during my lunch break and hitting the 500-word mark then as well as other writing during the day.  I was partly encouraged and inspired by Jim C. Hines’ recent post on choosing his job ten years ago and writing during his lunch breaks, resulting in six books and over 40 short stories published.

Another successful week of smashing that writing goal, and here’s to the next one with White Horse.

“Wyrd” Progress Report XV

WORDS WRITTEN:945 words

TOTAL WORDS: 26,198

REASON FOR STOPPING: Finished scene

WORDS FOR THE WEEK: 3054

Another chunk of words done tonight in a relatively short time, and another week of hitting and beating the word count goal, with a full day ahead of schedule.  And that’ll be it for the writing for this week with regard to the Wyrd project so I can put some time in for editing Nothing is an Accident, but feeling good I hit the goal.  Also finished a good scene and looking forward to writing the next big one in a week or so when I return to Wyrd.

For now, this scene with everyone pretty much getting some, even the main character who took me a little while to realize is gay.  Yes, they were a dark haired, blue-eyed handsome Briton who found him in the early hours and took him back to his tent.  A nice change on the classic warrior character who isn’t just looking to get the girl.

And now for some words in progress . . .

“You look like you might be in need of some aid in getting to your tent?” the man asked.

Artorus couldn’t help smiling, then laughed.

“Normally I would demand you take you hands off me and let me stand on my own two legs,” he said, trying his best not to slur and failing miserably.  “But it seems that on this night I have become somewhat reckless in the consumption of mead.”

“Indeed, dear Artorus,” the man said.

“Wyrd” Progress Report XIV

Wyrd is alive and back on track.  Got over a thousand words done today and I’m real happy with the direction and where it’s going.  It’s funny: in an earlier draft of this manuscript from years ago I had the chapter coming to an end where the Saxons up and left after Vortigern kidnapped Hengest’s daughter, Rowena.  But now, with the more fully-developed and interesting character that Vortigern has become, he would never do this.  I can feel the story turning away from this earlier draft, and going in a much more precise and right direction of where I want it to go.  Coupled with the eleven-page chapter outline that took me hours to complete yesterday, Wyrd is looking to be a pretty fascinating novel and I’m excited to see where it goes.  Also, with the outline complete, I’m bumping the word count to an estimated 150, 000 words; yes, I feel this manuscript might just end up being that long, at least with the full story I plan to tell.  We’ll just have to see how it goes.

WORDS WRITTEN: 1,375

TOTAL WORDS : 21,376

REASON FOR STOPPING: End of poignant scene, but still lots more to write in this chapter!

And now for some words in progress:

One was a giant of a man, tall as well as wide; the likeness was unmistakable.  When the Saxon looked up at them, Artorus saw in the face the sibling features, and knew this man must be the other of the Saxon horselords, Horsa.  The man’s stare was both indignantly questioning and accusatory; definitely Hengest’s brother.