• What were your goals last week and did you accomplish them?
• Describe what you worked on.
• Set goals for next week.
• Did you learn something during this week?

Here is a list of things that you can do each week as we work on our novels (suggestions welcomed).

• Writing on a novel
• Characterization
• World Building
• Relevant research

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I was able to accomplish my goal for chapter four this week, barely. My wife's birthday was this week so I did not have as much time to write. I think I may have rushed the scenes as well so the quality for these are not as good as I would like. In addition, the chapter is much shorter than I want it to be. I have another scene I could write for this chapter but I did not have a good sense of what I wanted to present so I will leave it in the outline and come back to it if I feel it fits.

Another reason for my reduced writing: Brandon Sanderson's Warbreaker. I attended his Release Party and the book is good so far.

My goals for next week:

• Chapter 5, first draft
• 2 - 3 blog entries

Chapter five will be a bit difficult because it is more of a transition chapter where I move the main character from the current location to the next where more action takes place. I may use this chapter to show other points of view to fill up the chapter. I won't do this simply to fill it up, however. I do have some scenes from the other PoV characters that will fit here.

The one thing I am learning over and over as I get deeper into the book is that I have much more worldbuilding left to do for this novel. I have much missing on how this society works that I will have to give this book a large revision later on. However, right now I want to finish it, which will help me determine what worldbuilding I will need.

That's it for now. I hope your week was more successful than mine.

Here's my update:

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1) Character building: Decide on the key elements of two of my characters' pasts and figure out how they will come into play in the novel's plot.

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2) World building: Do some research on government structures to come up with some political intrigue.

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Oh yeah, and one more thing--come up with log lines for my books. All of them.

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This is where I got a little carried away. I got a log line down for two of my books, though I'm not entirely happy with them. And then I started doing the snowflake method and got pretty far with it. I almost have a full plot. The climax is still a little unclear. But I decided to go with a hero myth structure for this one, and I think I've decided on how that will work. And then I started doing the snowflake method for one of my other books.

For this week:

• Need to come up with a list of scenes for WOTW. I've actually decided to solicit the help of a "plot consultant" with this one. Not something I'd normally do, but I had a couple friends consult with this particular woman who were very enthusiastic about her and said she really helped them clarify their story. We'll see how it goes. I desperately need help for this piece.
• Need to decide on center most conflict/ premise for T.
• Need to finish snowflake method for TWOH.

One thing I've noticed, about all my books, is that I tend to start off very slowly. I tried another method where in you divide a sheet of paper into three columns, so you have act 1, act 2, act 3, and then you write down what your main conflict is for each act. In almost all my books I have a huge amount of set up before anything actually happens. I think I have to be better about trimming that down and getting the story moving more quickly. I feel like I'm on the verge of some sort of breakthrough in realizing how plot, structure, and character work together to move the story forward. Of course, now that I've stated it here, I've jinxed myself.

Last week's goals:

Get to the end of Book Two.
I did and I actually like it, this time. Letting it sit for the moment before I start back through for revisions.

World building for Dreamer's Rose. Finish the map.
Because I can't draw with a mouse to save my soul, I went back to pencil and paper. I don't draw much better that way, but it's easier to erase just small bits and fix them. So the map is rough and I still need some place names. But I do have a map and the map itself has started to give me more ideas about this world.
I also read through what I already have for this story. (It started as a short story that turned into a novella and will now be a full-fledged novel. So about a third of it is already written. Although I'm sure some of that will change.)

Find, research, and submit Book One to five more agents.
I'm in the process of printing out and preparing snail mail packages for four agents (five would make it thirteen, total--not that I'm superstitious. ) Those will be mailed later today.
I did recieve one more rejection this week, for a total of five.

This week's goals:

I've signed up for a bunch of critiques, and two of them are long. So I want to work my way through two (and one of those should be one of the long ones) this week, so I can give them each the attention they deserve.

Continue world building for Dreamer's Rose.

Keep the writing muscles flexed by working on another short story, The Spirit of the Lion, which is partly based on a chapter from Book One. I played with this before, but I tried to force it into a set length--which I won't do again--and it didn't have enough conflict. I'm not sure it will have enough conflict this time, but it will have more.

As before, find, research, and submit my query for Book One to five more agents.

I'm surprised I've gotten this much done, really. It's been a hell of a week. I don't think I'll get a decent night's sleep, or a moment's peace for a while.

I didn't get crap done on the editing I wanted to. I haven't gotten to sleep before 7am in a week.

Next Week's Goal: Do better.

This week's goals:
1) continue wordsmithing for my upcoming summer job
2) keep up chapter exchange w/satate and finish up all promised crits
3) not vanish off the face of the Hatrack earth

I finally got back into the novel plotting process. This year has been incredibly disruptive in respect to work and family, and writing has suffered for it. I came to the realisation today that if I clear my office such that all distractions are out of my line of sight I'll be able to, for a short time, shut out those other things and concentrate again. And, what do you know, it works. The plot's actually starting to sound exciting.

* What were your goals last week and did you accomplish them?
The goal to rewrite several chapters to a second draft went better than expected. Five chapters got to that point and the first 13 lines are up in F&F.

* Describe what you worked on.
The most work came when I began importing the manuscript into yWriter from Word. I immediately gained the advantage of orgainizing the story by scenes, since chapter breaks are an important part of the rewrite. yWriter5 still has features I haven't tried, and won't for a while since this story is through its first draft already.

* Set goals for next week.
More chapters of rewrite. If I have to commit, I'll say 5 chapters.
Keep up with the crits I've offered to do.

Current: The first two chapters of my young adult novel are being proofed by a few people, both from this board and elsewhere. During this time, I'm also working on tightening a few of the scenarios in the later chapters that feed the ending.
Goal: I want to conclude my tightening of the last three chapters.

I'm still working on it as we type, but I am most definitely happy with the results so far. Oh...and I might have finally written a worthy agency query letter.

Current: Work on my supposed "main project" has been put on hold for the time being...
Goal: I want to jump back into this project in a big way, but only when the enthusiasm level is just right.

The enthusiasm for this project never showed up, but I did give it some minor thought the last several days, so it's just a matter of time before I get back to it.

UPCOMING

Current: The YA novel is only a dozen scenes away from being tightened and finalized.
Goal: I want my proposal to be in the hands of an agent by this time, next week.

Current: My supposed "main project" is still on hold.
Goal: At the very least, I want to finish at least one scene.

Current: I have two science fiction novels and one mainstream novel that are currently on hold.
Goal: One of those three novels is regaining its active status this coming week.

S!
S!

Do you allow new people to join? If so, where do I sign up?

Of course you are welcome! No sign up necessary; just introduce yourself and your novel. And then join in the goal descriptions and accomplishments!

For me, I'm now focusing on revising Chapter 12. I realized I didn't know quite enough about Dominic, so I'm working on exploring his history a bit more since he appears so prominently in this chapter.

We're glad to have new members.

1) Let us know what (genre) you are writing. (Title is optional)

2) Tell us which draft it is. (So we can help instead of impede.)

3) Post your first 13 lines (so everybody can get a feel for your style and character).

4) Let us know if you'd like critiques--when you are ready for them. (The cost of a critique is giving on...unless the critiquer states otherwise.)

5) Post your goals for this week, every week, and the results of your attempts.

We're all here to help push each other to succeed.

I did well this week. I finished edits on Chapter two and started finalizing chapter one.

On my other novel I have gotten farther on character development and wrote a little.

I am writing a fantasy novel. I wrote a first draft, but now I am totally rewriting it so I don't know if it counts as a second draft or a first draft of a new story.

I am not ready for a critique yet, but I am willing to give one.

I love this story.

Billy's mind flashed again. This time, the sensation felt good. He knew exactly how he would make it happen.

THE END

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"Metzgerhund Empire" has been completed. (not including the crits, of course) Damn, that felt good!

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"Metzgerhund Empire" has been completed.

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