SUSAN TIPPETT BRAITHWAITE

Hiya ?

Last week was one of those weeks where I felt like I wasn’t making any real progress. I was getting work done, but it felt like wading through porridge that’s been left on the side for so long that you could set fence posts in it.

Have you ever had those weeks? I seem to get them a lot.

Anyway, last week I added my non-fiction writing goals into the mix. That could be what made things feel so slow and weird.

Review 23rd – 29th January 2023

Last week’s fiction writing goal was: 

• Write Intro Adam (Act One Scene Two)
• Write Elle’s got company (Act One Scene Three)

On the Non-Fiction book series goals:

• Complete drafting of Book 2

Here’s How It Went

I finished drafting Book 2: Plot for my non-fiction writing series. I’m not 100% happy with it, as I’m sure I repeated myself several times on some points. But that’s what the edits are for. Overall, I’m 85% happy with what I’ve got in the draft. I’m just so glad to have it done so that I can concentrate on Running the Asset.

Speaking of Running the Asset… The writing of the scenes is what felt so slow. When I was working on writing a new introduction scene for Adam, I got a bit blocked. The scene I’d blocked out is easier to write in screenplay format—if a character is watching something play out on a monitor, that’s an easy scene heading. But to write it in fiction feels so clunky to my screenwriter’s brain.

It took me a bit of time to find a way to do that in an entertaining and logical manner. There was a lot of trial and error, but I finally found my way of doing it. Once I’d sorted that out, it seemed to unblock the dam, and the words just started flowing. I completed both scenes with a few notes for this week’s ones.

Overall, it was a great week. A bit juddery to get going, but I got there in the end. Oh, I almost forgot! One of my editing aims is to reduce the manuscript from 115K words to ~90K. So, even with adding those new scenes, I cut an additional 2K, taking the manuscript to 113K words!

This Week’s Goal

• Write Elle’s got company scene
• Write Adam’s at the door scene
• Write The bathroom scene

Ooft! My scene titles are so, so bad. At least these titles aren’t full of swearing—about ten have at least one sweary word in the name.

How did you do with your goals last week? What are your plans this week? Let me know in the comments!

Wishing you all a great week!