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Welcome to this week's Novel Support Group (NSG). Anyone can join. If you're new, tell us a bit about who you are and what project you are working on. Feel free to update the NSG Work in Progress thread with your current projects. Although we can report on any number of things, here is a list of suggestions (suggestions welcomed).
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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Last Week's Goals
The outline scan clean up continues. I have finished cleaning up the scans and am finalizing the merging of all these documents into one outline (for book 2 anyway). I started with 10 documents to scan and combine. I'm down to the last three scans to combine. Thankfully I have access to a nice program that allows me to compare line by line to find differences. That has saved a bunch of time.
My goals for next week:
Clean Outlines
Scan book 3 outlines
I hope to get all of book 2's scans combined into a single outline this weekend. However, I realized this morning that I will also need to combine those scans into the various copies I have stored electronically as well. So, the process for Book 2 may continue past this weekend. Onward and forward but progress continues.
What did I learn this week?
Document comparison is tedious and boring (but hopefully worth the effort)
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Now that I've finished my move and have unpacked (most of) my boxes, I've decided that I have no more legitimate excuses to keep me from attending to my neglected novels.
Safe House Some of you read an excerpt from my ship-to-ship battle during a recent writing challenge. That's the only part of the novel I've actually written. The story's order of events, the character sketches, and certain key scenes...all reside on my PC in digital audio format. Battle plan: Let the transcriptions begin!
Scripted After letting this one sit for a while, I've brought it back out and am going through it scene by scene to check for consistencies. I didn't find many. Battle plan: Fix the inconsistencies. Duh.
Metzgerhund Empire This novel has essentially been replaced by a series of short stories that take place towards the end of the novel's storyline. I resisted shifting gears like this, but early feedback from the series' first story gives me the impression I made the right decision. Battle plan: use the novel as reference and inspiration, while I work on the short story series.
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I'm currently writing a how-to book. You'd buy one from an unpublished author, right?
Well, it's not for sale. I'm still writing it.
When I'm done, and it's edited, I will give it to anyone from Hatrack who asks.
Based on feedback, I will either keep it solely for my own and my friends' reference, or post it and hope strangers notice only my last name when browsing Amazon.
As is my novel tradition, I will keep a running page count of my progress. (A great use of this weekly thread!)
Ensure that I can open the electronic version of RITN on my computer. --> Done. I have older Word software than my sister does, but we got it to work.
Incorporate into the main draft the relevant scenes that weren't sent to my sister. --> Partially done.
Finish at least one of the incomplete scenes. --> I thought I still had a couple of days...should've paid more attention to the dates.
Next Week's Goals
Finish typing the first chapter.
Finish at least two of the incomplete scenes.
Lessons Learned I finished reading Stephenie Meyer's Twilight and learned more than I'd expected. The lessons most applicable to RITN might be to watch for accidental redundancy, which weakens prose, and to provide clear reasons for character's mood swings. Edward's wild and frequent emotional swings were disorienting and barely explained. They seemed to exist purely as wish fulfillment for a self-abusive POV character and to torment the reader.
Posts: 1139 | Registered: May 2008
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William, thanks for keeping the torch burning for us. I'm finding this very helpful.
last week: Organize my desk and create The System.
update: I did indeed get almost all my papers organized. I also organized my computer desk top and the folder where I keep all my writing. I upgraded to the latest version of Scrivener and spent some time learning about all the fancy functions i hadn't tried yet.
(added on edit:) oh right, and I don't have The System down yet. I have some ideas, but I think I need to try some things. For now, at least, I have a way for capturing story ideas in a holding tank where they are reviewed. Once they become stories they are moved into their own story folder.
this week: - This weekend I need to work on my WOTF draft and get it shape for critting by Sunday. - Reread my manuscript. It's been a couple years, and in my revision I got stuck and maybe got off on the wrong foot. I'd like to reread my old material to see what I can recapture of my story. - Plot a course for my revision.
(edited to add:)
lessons learned I have a lot more material that I thought I did, but a lot of it got lost in the shuffle. I realized that that's disrespectful to the muse -- here she is inspiring me to create, and what do I do? I shove that creation in a pile somewhere never to look at it again. Why should she visit me regularly if that's how I treat her gifts?
I also learned that writing should be treated like a business. Sure, it's important to give creative space, but then you have to let the right (or is it left?) brain takeover and _organize_ what you've written and order it somehow. This way, your creative side is free to create the instant you approach your writing station.
It feels good to be organized. It feels good to be able to think, oh right, what was his father's third brother's wife's cousin's mother-in-law's name? and be able to look that up in the right folder.
Posts: 2185 | Registered: Aug 2007
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Last week: I did really well for a couple days, then my brain decided to go on vacation early (in part, I think, because I made the mistake of finishing my best day at the end of a scene–and then the next day my momentum was gone and I didn't know where to start). I ended up with 3700 words.
This week: No goals, because the rest of me is joining my brain on vacation. I'll keep a notebook handy though, just in case.
Posts: 125 | Registered: Mar 2011
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Thank you for the link. I totally forgot about that. I have updated in my "template" that I use to start a new NSG thread. Hopefully it will work on the next go around.
@annepin
You're welcome. I feel that I need it more than anyone. I've had so many ups and downs lately regarding my writing that sometimes I tend to forget about it. Too busy lately.
Posts: 354 | Registered: Mar 2009
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worked on Angel Kin a bit and on The Rock Within a little more than that. Which isn't much.
Not sure where to go next with Kin, she needs to start working with the bad guys who tricked her into thinking they are good guys or just regular people on the search for something.
With Stone my MC is still fighting that Hell Hound, well now she is actually fighting the giant cat who was getting the best of the Hound. She found out the hard way that bullets have little effect on the cat even though water does for obvious reasons- not only because it is a cat but because it is a hot cat from the same area as the Hound- and now a police officer just saved her life.
Half way through the fight I decided it was going to be too easy for her so I put in that the cat pounces on her and almost bites her and I added the officer to help her.
Posts: 5289 | Registered: Jun 2010
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The story's order of events, the character sketches, and certain key scenes...all reside on my PC in digital audio format. 
