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Man, I’m knackered! It’s been a major house clean day on top of getting the writing done. But that’s another 1362 new words added to Running The Asset‘s manuscript (MS)–no major deleting session today 🥳 The MS is now sitting at a total of 4320 words.
Woohoo! I just added 1258 new words to Running The Asset. I had to do a bit of rewriting on yesterday’s work, but that’s to be expected. The manuscript is now sitting at 2958 words total. 🥳
Added another 661 words to Running The Asset‘s manuscript–after many deletions and rewrites 🥳
Hi all!
This week has been a hard slog…to no real progress. Well, none that moves the percentage bar. I’ve come across a few issues with my scenes in the form of wishy-washy scene goals. Up until this week it wasn’t noticeable. That was until I started working on the Character pass. It would have been okay; the characters all have scene goals in there, somewhere, and the story still flows and entertains.
It didn’t become a real problem in my eyes until Monday when I was nearing the end of a novel by one of my fave authors. There were several issues in the book, but the one that stood out–because I was dealing with it myself–was that the characters just seemed to go along with the story to get to the overall story goal. It didn’t engage me the way that that author normally does. The problem? The characters didn’t have any concrete scene goals.
Looking at my big stack of index cards with lots of weak-ish scene goals wasn’t too daunting. Yet, I couldn’t get myself to focus. At all. Day after day, my progress slowed to a snail’s pace. Something was wrong.
After a quick look through my planner (I’m a planner geek), I realised that I hadn’t had a day off since 11th June. I promptly freaked out at the thought of taking a day off, until I remembered that Jez was off work for a couple of weeks. So, I’ve decided to take a week or so off to give my inner chimp (Neenee) some downtime, and me some time to unwind and refill the creative well–movies, Halo, and some baking.
Which brings me to the wee bit on Genre Scribes. I’m going to take a break from Genre Scribes until October. Once I get back into Working the Asset, I really want to focus solely on that.
For now, I’m off to make some wheat-free, sugar-free, dairy-free cookies. 🤤
Thanks for reading, stay safe, stay awesome!
Time for a quick update on Working the Asset. My goal for July was to complete Pass #3 (Premise). Amazingly enough, I managed to achieve that on Saturday–a whole week ahead of what looked like a tight schedule!
So, this morning, I started work on Pass #4 (Deepening Audience Delight) and am 7% of the way through.
The story is starting to come alive. I love Elle and Adam and their enemies-to-lovers journey. And, I’m not ashamed to admit, I have a soft spot for Trevor, their Big Bad–he’s so much fun to work with.
Until next time, thanks for reading, and take care.
I had zero plans of posting a progress update on Working the Asset until Sunday. In my last post, I said that I had the foolish goal of finishing the second editorial pass of the outline by Sunday. Well, it’s Thursday, and I’ve done it! The second pass is complete. Woohoo!
Here’s how the last few days went:
Thanks for reading, and take care.
It’s been a few weeks since I last updated on my progress on Working the Asset. As I mentioned in a previous update, I’m writing my outline with my non-dominant hand (lefty) owing to CRPS in the right one.
Fast-forward 27,000 words, a stack of index cards with writing so small only a fruit fly can read it, and a terrifying amount of coffee and this is what you get:
I’ve had my head down this week, getting more of the outline for Deniable Unit 1: Working the Asset fine-tuned. I’m now 80% done with the editorial pass for the plot (1 of 7 passes)!
With every action step I complete, the outline transforms into a better, stronger, and more cohesive story. I can’t wait to see it fully formed and in stores!
If you’re wondering what I mean by “action steps,” they’re from H. R. D’Costa’s Sparkling Story Drafts (affiliate link)–it’s a fantastic series on outlining screenplays and novels.
Progress Update
I’m now at 12% on my outline for Deniable Unit 2!
Well, it’s been a while since I posted an update on my current work-in-progress (WIP).
I started work on the intentional outline for DU 2, made a ton of notes that made total sense, and then went on holiday. When I got back to work a few weeks ago, those notes made absolutely zero sense.
So, I’ve spent the last three weeks getting back up to speed with the outline, made a lot of changes, and now I’ve got the plot to where it should be.
Now that I’m over that speed bump, I know that my progress is going to pick up speed.
Raring to go for the next step!
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