ROW80 Week 8: Pressure

(Other ROW80 participants)

The Mary Sue project has been eating up most of my time for the past two weeks. Reading webcomics isn’t exactly hard work — but filling out a Mary Sue test for every character just takes time.

Which is to say, I haven’t done much writing.

I did steal a bit of time to work on a roleplaying project, though, and I wrote a few world-building notes as part of that — maybe a couple of hundred words in all.

This week, I’m aiming to fit five or six hundred words in between the Mary-Sue stuff. My local writers’ group has a round-robin story I need to add to and pass on to the next person.

Good luck and happy writing!

ROW80 Week 6: Waypoint

(Other ROW80 participants)

I knuckled down and focussed on my story last week, and finished the draft a day early, on Thursday. That left me time to get started on the Mary Sue project on Friday.

However, the weekend was a write-off. I abruptly decided to go to a fencing competition, and what should have been a quiet weekend ended up as two days away.

I’ve come back relaxed and ready to focus, but with a sizable backlog of Mary Sue work which I thought I’d do over the weekend. As a result, I don’t think I’ll get much writing done this week — I’ll be happy if I manage one evening’s worth.

Good luck and happy writing!

ROW80 Week 5: With Lumps

(other ROW80 participants)

I’m still making progress on my story, but in fits and starts. I wrote 24 (A5) pages on Monday night, but then only three more pages and a couple of poems in the rest of the week.

So far, so good. But I have to get my act together this week.

I thought my Mary-Sue project would restart on the 18th, but it’s actually the 12th — this Friday.

My goal now is to write the next five days, and have a finished draft on Friday (plus working on Mary Sues on the weekend).

Will I make it? We’ll see…

What Survives

It is the fate of paladins to fall —
Or else to stumble on, far from the Light,
Left lonely when their cause demanded all
And friends retreated for another fight.

Having no other beacons, they must shine
In lands left black and trackless — stars of hope
That leave behind belief in Dawn’s pink line
When they are snuffed beneath Night’s cloudy cloak.

The wards they leave are hot and iron-hard,
But even these are ashes in the end:
Strewn through dead fields by winds that leave stone scarred;
Consumed by rising depths that reap and rend.

When echoes end, the tallest walls are felled,
But grass sprouts green where Light’s last stands were held.

ROW80 Week 4: Circling

(Other ROW80 participants)

I was distracted this week.

It begun with reading Drowtales — a good webcomic, but unfortunately quite similar to my current story, to the point where I didn’t feel comfortable reading the one while writing the other.

Then there was roleplaying, which got me all inspired about a completely different project.

In the end, I wrote four days this week (out of a goal of five); but I’m in a good place to catch up this week.

Roleplaying has got me back into the right headspace for this story, and I’ve realised I have a quasi-deadline: on the 18th of August, my Mary-Sue project starts in earnest, so I’d better get this draft done before then.

Good luck and happy writing!