Had writing class. Got shredded in feedback. Some days it just doesn't pay to gnaw through the restraints.

I know I'm getting better at this writing thing, and also that Maralys has a tendency to target us speculative fiction writers in her class (which tendency she is aware of; I have discussed it with her). But, honestly, the things I expect people to jump on me for routinely never are the ones they do.

For instance, not a single person brought up the helix of the ear and asked WTH I meant by that....

Oh, but toothycat? They loved your drawing. ^_^

I'm not going to do the irresponsible thing and start another book until I've finished the one I'm writing. I am, however, going to participate in the following format:

My novel (Queen's Choice) is currently at 80,492 words. My goal for November is to average at least a thousand words a day, bringing it to 110,492 words. If I manage to exceed this to the NaNoWriMo goal of writing fifty thousand words (an average of 1,666 words a day) and achieve 130,492 words, I will buy myself the good pair of pearl earrings I have been coveting. Alternate to this sum is if I find the story wraps itself up before 130,492 and I finish the novel, I still get the earrings.

(Baen wants 100-130K. DAW wants 80K+. Mira wants 90-100K. Luna wants 90-120K. The other publishers I know of in the field don't list their specs on their pages, but I assume they'd be in a similar range.)

I will post daily writing totals (and commentary, probably along the lines of "X got to Y," "grr character Q is being a pain," and "huh. didn't expect that to happen") here so that my friends can keep me honest and motivated. And, if I utterly crash and burn, hopefully you all will at least be polite about me being a failure.

This means I have four days to find my desk.

A video link for myself to watch later on a computer that has sound. Since Max in the novel'verse has been going on in my head recently about cooking bugs.

Ah. And an article to go with the video.

Have a blister/spot/painful fluid filled thingy on my right thumbpad. Fortunately this is no big deal for typing (typing using the side of the thumb), but for activities like sorting papers it hurts every time the thing is touched. Expect me to be a snarly hate-filled K-chan until the owie goes away.

It is now October. I decided a few weeks ago that October is going to be a writing month for me, meaning that my goal is 2,000 words a day on The Novel before I let myself do anything else*. Which includes fanfiction, my current embroidery project, any sewing, and getting the house cleaner than it currently is. I am doing this in hopes of finishing the thing off finally (it's been stalled at 72,000 words for months now) so I can start on a new writing project for NaNoWriMo.

*let it be noted that "anything else" excludes dinner, showers, sufficient sleep, and watching my way through "Heroes" season one at the rate of an episode a night because that doesn't belong to us so we really should forward it on soon.

Well, this weekend has been... semi-productive. Probably would have been more so if I hadn't been pretty much dead to doing anything yesterday.

I'd cut out a Civil War chemise on Tuesday and I finished it today (Simplicity 7215), experimenting along the way with Guterman's 100% cotton thread. Nice stuff, if very fine. I used some lace I had (probably polyester, but at least not egregiously shiny) and an old card of celery-colored silk ribbon for trimming. It's currently in the dryer together with the last of the laundry. Unfortunately it looks like I took the corset pieces from the same pattern and cut them out of something, which means they're probably buried in the WIP pile on the futon. I also tightened the bolts on the fourth stair up today, which tends to come loose and rock every now and again; Wonderful Husband knocked off a rather goodly chunk of the shopping list (braving CostCo on the weekend in the process); and together we got the house cleaned up to near pre-Fanime levels of tidiness. I still need to run the vacuum over the floors before I go to bed, but otherwise I'm satisfied with the weekend's doings. Tomorrow (now that the table is clear) I lay out the fabric for Armida's wedding dress and start in on that.

I've also been poking this weekend at Afterwards 14.5. A word to the wise: sometimes when you tell your characters "Just give me the final chapter already and I'll go back and write you smut!" they take you up on it. I have no problem with writing smut: it's fun, and sometimes it can be very revealing of the characters. In more ways than one. ^^;; I'm slowly discovering that what goes on inside Godai's head during sex is very slightly different from what goes on in most characters' heads during sex. His mental place is an interesting visit....

Somewhat relatedly, my only purchases at Fanime were in the Artists' Alley. I picked up prints from two different booths, some of which I purchased specifically because they cast me in the mind of The Novel. I don't have them pinned on the wall by my desk yet, but they seem to be working because I've already realized that something that I thought was a throw-away line is in fact Incredibly Significant and it's all pieces of a puzzle starting to come together....

Today was in fact a good day. Finally got my backlog at work cleared, did shopping so all that's left on the shopping list is (1) kitchen shears, since cutting off trout fins with regular scissors was a pain in the caboose, and (2) laser pointer because it is a no-effort cat toy. Made chicken vegetable matzo ball soup for dinner with Wonderful Husband's help, and some cornmeal muffins to go with, and did my writing. 2,128 words for the night, bringing me to a total of 74,691, and I've got one alliance firmly sorted out.

Word count for the day: 2,048, dropping me at a total of 70,550. I finally introduced a character who's been in my head since the beginning of the novel! Yay! I need to drag out my reference art for her. I also spent some time doing up a relationship chart which will hopefully help me keep a few things straight.

( 50 in '07: book 2, Persuasion, by Jane Austen )

( 50 in '07: book 3, Poison Study, by Maria V. Snyder )

( 50 in '07: book 4, Against the Tide, by John Ringo )

Due to a post about writing titled Potato Chips, linked to by issen4, I pulled out The Novel after months away, reread the last few chapters tonight, and started in again. Now, granted, I only wrote 748 words, which is nowhere near the usual daily goal of 2000 words, but it's a start. I'm into the next chapter and hopefully I'll continue writing now that I've started again. I've also read two novels in the last two days (Persuasion, by Jane Austen, and Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder), so I'll probably review those in the next couple days. The latter, especially, has probably also helped inspire me back toward my original project writing, so we'll see how that goes.

Have started in again on the novel. Word count for the day: 1,532. Total word count: 64,465. A bit less than I wanted for the day, but I'm working again and past that bloody scene with the dragons. The problem with writing this story is I've set up this universe fairly fully and I think it feels like it. I've got side-stories and back-stories for everything I'm putting in or even just hinting at. But I keep running across more people and more cultures and having to write for them as well.... I think (hope) that the dragons are the last subset I need to worry about developing and interacting with. Because I've kind of already dealt with the Fey so they're set in this world. It's just the initial contact that's hard on me, I think. And while I know there're a lot of things I need to ask for help with once I finish and get to editing stages (like horses. and weapons. and whether this whole thing makes sense outside of my head), I like writing this story. I like where it's going and where it ends up leading me.

Even if I only have a vaguest of mental outlines for "oh, I think /this/ should maybe happen soon."