ROW80 Week 12: Worth

I’ve been on holiday since the 20th (hence no Week 11 post). It wasn’t as conducive to writing as I expected, partly because I wanted to make the most of seeing relatives I don’t see any other time of year.

As such, I only wrote one day last week, and 3 days in Week 11. A total of 700 words went towards Conkers.

I did finish reading another book, though: Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson. I especially liked the way he created suspense.

Whereas Dracula just has a cycle of plans and counter-plans, Snow Crash has counter-plans the heroes don’t spot in time, so they have to take a lot of risks to recover. And not every risk pays off.

Round Summary

(Here’s the linky for other peoples’ summaries.)

While I wasn’t happy with my last few weeks, it looks like they’ve been nicely balanced out by my work early on.

A Villain’s Holidays

My time is here; all eyes are turned away;
Stood down, the guards who'd watch for evil schemes.
My forces rise and march, this very day,
To strike the sleeping dragon while it dreams.

And on the morrow, other armies ride,
Who will, ere nightfall, spread the word — I rule.
Without their chief, my foes will stand aside,
Or headless fall, if blood does not stay cool.

And when their feasting ends, and weapons rise,
The best-kept knights will find their castles sealed.
The doors to let them out shut fast. My greatest prize,
Their freedom, waiting for them if they yield.

A few scant times the sun will rise once more,
Before the land awakens to my war.

#ROW80 Week 10: Sufficiency

In contrast to my last check-in, my progress this week was evenly distributed among my goals.

I did write five days out of seven — at least, if you count the one poem fragment I only recorded as audio :-). Most of that wasn’t Conkers, but it got 1,200 words on Saturday.

And to try and catch up on my reading goal, I finished two books this week. One was Steven Ericson’s Gardens of the Moon, which I’ve been reading for the past two weeks; the other was Agatha Christie’s first published novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Both those books did a good job of confusing me about who the villain was:

The Affair at Styles had the web of clues I expected of a detective story, with each new one changing how all the previous ones fit together.
The facts were clearer in Gardens of the Moon; but it showed the perspective of characters from every group, so it was hard to think any specific one was in the wrong.

Oh, and here’s the linky for this week.

Good luck and happy writing!

#ROW80 Week 9: Priorities

Last week, I made it a goal to write a draft climax for Conkers. That, I’m happy with. The 2,400 words I wrote isn’t a complete climax, but it’s more than I would have done otherwise.

However, other things fell behind. I only wrote four days out of seven, and put off my reading until the last minute — turns out the book was too long for that to work.

On the bright side, writing the climax has given me a clearer idea of where I am with the story. There’s a lot in it that I haven’t written the scenes to establish yet, but that will be a lot easier to do now I know what needs establishing.

My reflection this week was going to be about the combat scenes I wrote. But having seen Beth Camp’s post on the same topic, I think I’d better read through the fight-scene resources she linked to first.

For other writers’ #ROW80 progress, see the linky list.

#ROW80 Week 8: Plain

My progress this week of #ROW80 (other people’s progress) was fairly average.

I wrote five days out of seven, got another 900 words written on Conkers, and started reading a new book. That puts me behind my goals, but not by much.

Reflection

I haven’t been getting good word counts on Conkers for a while. While the research project is, sort of, an excuse, I think there’s more to it than that.

I feel as though I’m approaching a good stopping point for the plot; it may just be wishful thinking, but I think I can finish the first story arc within a year of starting it.

But I’m not getting any closer to that point.

I keep writing scenes ahead of the main plot, and introducing side stories that will take their own time to finish, and haven’t really got closer to the climax than I was a month ago.

That’s not for lack of thinking about it; I’ve been making plans for Conkers for most of the month, and just not carrying them out.

I suspect the problem is that I’m too focussed on the plans, and afraid to write it in case it falls short of them. In which case, the solution is to just write something, and worry about it once the scene’s typed up.

That can be my extra goal for this week: write a draft of the climax of Conkers

Good luck and happy writing!