Week 1 Year of the Book

Change up

So… when I launched this site, I had planned Sunday to be gaming posts and Wednesday to be writing posts (which also included reviews, talking TV, tropes, etc etc).

But now that I’m gearing up for the Thesis, which starts today! I want to keep a diary of what is going on in my weekly journey. So, starting today, we will try to have a post every Monday. We’ll be talking about my word count from the previous week, we’ll talk about what chapters and elements I’m working on, and then we’ll touch on the school work I have for the week.

More Scrivener:

Last week I had off from all schooling. As such I decided to get a jump on my word count. Now in my last post, I mentioned buying Scrivener and trying to figure everything out. I have been a Word user for over 20 years (and I’m still using word for everything else), so learning scrivener took a little bit. I will admit that I screwed up and didn’t set up my default template BEFORE I imported my thesis from Word.

I highly recommend setting up Scrivener BEFORE you start writing. In other words, set your font, double space, and how your folders are set up. Scrivener is all about the folders and integrating your research right into your work interface.

I personally still love having my outlines and notes all on paper while I work on the typing of my novel, but yeah, transferring in my pictures and maps and such make writing the whole novel a lot easier than hunting for a scrap of paper or notebook.

Words

So, I managed to get in three sessions last week, and technically I’m writing this on Sunday and I’ll be getting in a bunch more words AFTER I write this blog, but those words will be counted on next week’s post.

Last week, three sessions earned me 6,694 words. It brought my WIP total up to 35,510. As mentioned in the previous post, my Thesis class requires me to have two finals, each one between 10-15,000 words. BUT, almost 20k of those 35k words was used in previous classes. As of this morning I have my first final already cobbled together. (I don’t know if I should hand in the rough draft or not. Since in my latter classes I need to show revision on these chapters, I think it might be best to hand in the rough drafts that are super wordy and redundant, and then later on I’ll cut them down.)

My first final is sitting at 15,289 words. I am 2306 words into my second final already as well. Doing the quick math, I should only need 13,000 words to finish. However, I want to go over goal. My personal goal is 20k for the second final. 17,700 to go. I have to apply for the due date for my second final and I’m putting in for week 6. That means I need to produce about 3000 words a week.

What’s happening in the WIP

I’m still in the first Act of my novel, but this section of writing brings everything to the point where Act 2 is kicking off. My part one final consists of chap 6-8. It establishes all of the characters getting ready to enter the titular Ashlands.

I will be adding details to the Ashlands page as we continue. Including blurbs, character write ups, and little bits of teaser information.

As of this morning I am about a third of the way through chapter 9. Nine is where I consider Act 1 to end. Starting in 10 and beyond, all of the chapters take place within the Ashlands. The action ramps up and everything becomes a race to survive.

Other classes

This term also has a second class that will be dividing my attention. It’s the final class I need for my teaching cert and it looks like it might be a lot of fun. It is focused on revision and editing. Both doing for my own writing, but also in how to teach others to do it.

Personally, I love workshopping and reading early drafts of a work. It gives me great pleasure to be able to work on a story with one of my peers. Finding ways through plot holes, asking questions that the writer somehow over looked. Doubling down on good writing, not just bashing the bad writing.

Figuring out the theme, symbolism, and other elements that people try to employ in the early stages… especially if they aren’t so sure about those things in the first place. I have a habit of including foreshadowing in the very first draft of a story, I’m always looking to seed elements for the later chapters. But some writers have to go back and add all of that in in their revision stages.

Workload

So my goals for this week:

I have a bunch of reading to do, 90% of it is done as I type this.

I need to get in my minimum of 3000 words this week. I have two discussion posts that are due by Thursday. In my Coaching/Editing class I need to produce five pages of a novel or story and track edits and changes on it. As of this moment I have those pages already marked up with the first editing pass. In my Thesis class I need to apply for the due dates on my Finals. My first choice is week 2 and 6, otherwise 3 and 7 will be fine. Overall, I am ahead of the game for week one.

Thank you ALL.

Thank you for coming along this journey. I might try and change up the format every week for a while, we’ll see how it goes.

And a reminder that the game posts might come back or they might stay quiet for a while. I don’t have a lot of material left for the TORG story, but I could start talking about the various games I play in, instead of telling the story of a game I run? Perhaps I will merely do some reviews or talk about games I’m looking to run once I can gather with my friends again.