The process for this WIP has been the way I imagine a sculptor works. (Being an Italophile, I'll say this is my fantasy of what it's like to make a beautiful sculpture of marble.)

• Come up with the general concept.
• Make sketches--a rough scenario. This is a must for me. Even if it writhes and mutates like a dream where a rope turns into a snake turns into a horseshoe, I refer to my scenario throughout, to the very end.
• Hew the general shape from the block--first draft.
• Go over it again, so it's still chunky but with the main volumes defined--this might be the second draft, but it doesn't feel that way to me.
• Refine the curves, folds, lines, etc--work on the words, the details, the flow, the feeling.

I finished the first draft week before last. Over the last week, I've gone through the comments (marked ala Cory D with "TK" so I can find them). Tweaked parts that needed more research. Added scenes that I realized I needed only after I was past that point in the first draft (so I just noted them on my ongoing, ever-mutating scenario).

Last night I worked til midnight. I don't usually work at night, partly because things tend to suck more at night, and also I end up having restless dream cycles about whatever I was working on. It didn't suck too much, but I dreamt about Afghanistan, which is where the sub or maybe parallel plot takes place.

Yippee! Over halfway through the WIP.



This one a romance with paranormal elements. Not sure I could call it a full-blown paranormal, even though evil witches are involved.

I think second draft of this will demand more rewrite for language and style than for chunky elements like plot and character development. It started as a screenplay, then I realized I really like writing novels better. But I want to try to keep the sort of rawness of a screenplay, while adding in a lot of emotion (no internal emotion or thought in screenplays; camera can't see it).

I just did a spread sheet for all the projects I've got going on. Chunked various deadlines and goals out, in accordance (more or less) with the tenets I used to preach to up and coming managers in time management class.

When I worked in an office, planning and goal-setting was part of my day. I was a project manager, for heaven's sake. Working at home, I've let it slide, with the idea that it's not necessary. I can just do things when I want, as long as I hit the deadline. Right?

Not really. If I don't plan projects out in steps, they mill in a crowd around my head. Seeing everything on a time line makes me realize I don't have to be working on everything all at once.

Do you find setting deadlines and goals for your writing and / or other projects useful? Or frustrating? What do you do to keep yourself going (not counting coffee and chocolate)?

Memory and Dream, by Charles de Lint. Loved this mostly; though strangely the parts that were supposed to be most exciting dragged for me. Made me want to read more of de Lint, finally.

The Serpents of Harbledown, by Edward Marston. A mystery to feed my medieval habit: murder in the early Middle Ages.

A couple of Agatha Raisin mysteries, by MC Beaton - ultra cozy English village series, but the protag is a caustic self-centered middle-aged woman who's desperately lonely enough to start being a decent human.

Another ultra cozy: Murder on the Lusitania. The maiden voyage of the great ocean liner. Escapist period detail.

Dragonsbane, by Barbara Hambly.

Coraline (graphic novel version), by Neil Gaimon. Got this for my husband for Christmas and we both loved it.

Shylock's Daughter: A Novel of Love in Venice, by Erica Jong. Writing's gorgeous in places, but don't read it for a page-turning plot.

A good chunk of reading time was spent with Codex novel contest stuff.

As for the WIP -- I'm amazed to realize I've done major revisions for Bones since my last post a month ago. It seemed to be taking forever. Now I've got it out to a couple of beta readers from Codex. Here's hoping that it won't be a disaster.

Almost halfway on my WIP Bianca!

I liked the way the end of my desk looked after writing a scene of dialogue that took place through tarot cards. (Bows to Italo Calvino.) Most of the time I sketch out the scene in longhand (the notebook under the cards). Broadly, what will happen, the characters' intentions, a key event sometimes in a little more detail. I was arranging and rearranging the cards as I wrote the scene (on the computer).