Progress XV

3's Company is ticking along. The type-up is definitely going to be done during Sven, but I'll be interspersing that with one or two other projects so that I'm not focussed too narrowly on just the one thing.

3's Company
New words: 1,153
Total words: 19,213 / 24,000
Total pages: 76.852 / 96
Lucy: Laughing at Sam's explanation
Sam: Not explaining very well
Jared: Not helping at all
Kisses: None
Random sample of text: "It's weird, I know. And it probably makes us sound like psycho, stalker blokes who won't let you do anything without following you everywhere. But we're not!"

Mood: Tickety-boo!
Music: None. Is all quiet. (Except for the sound of traffic in the distance.)

Widgets

Many thanks to Portia for the widget on the right, which is doing a countdown to the end of Sven. I know. Sven doesn't officially start for me until tonight at 00:00:01, but what can I say? I'm keen! (And, with it being Friday and me not having to do the Day Job on Saturday (this week anyway) I could actually stay up and get started early!

Or I could go to bed with my cocoa like a little old lady (no offense intended to any little old ladies who regularly stay up until 3am boogie-ing away in nightclubs! I'm referring to the ones who start nodding off over their supper at 8pm) and then I could get up early (cue Merry falling off her chair laughing like a maniac at that).

Progress XIV

Well, I've broken the 18K barrier - just under 6K to go! (Followed by hours of frustration typing up the longhand notes and doing the first set of edits as I type.)

And taken from Amanda (who got it from Elle)
3's Company
New words: 842
Total words: 18,060
Total pages: 72.24
Lucy: Waiting for the other shoe to drop
Jared: Trying not to scare her off, so he gets
Sam: to give her 'the talk'
Kisses: 1
Random sampling of text: "But, sweetheart. If you don't relax a bit, people will think you've got lockjaw."

Progress XIII

Just shy of 16K. Not doing so well at the moment - real life intruded with a vengeance at the weekend so that was pretty much shot as far as personal time went. But, it's further along than it was. I think the real pain will be typing it up. There are advantages and disadvantages to writing longhand. Perhaps if, when, I get a laptop that will swing it to the side of advantages. We live in hope!
Working late tonight, so I won't be home until 10pm (quick shower, cup of tea and then bed) so I'll try to do what I can during my breaks today and see how I get on.

Update:
Just slipped over 17K! Woo! I'm tired and I want my dinner now.

Mood: Great actually!

Listening to: I don't think now is the best time from PotC: At World's End

Progress XII

Just under 9K to go. Busy day at work today so I had an abbreviated writing period for lunch, unfortunately. I'll do more this weekend, I'm aiming for another 5K as I want this done and (hopefully/ possibly) typed up for the end of the month.

I want to start Sven with a clean slate, leaving 3's Company to sit for a while before editing. I also want to improve on my daily average. When I calculated it for my 2008 business plan I based it on writing every day. So far, however, I haven't done much at weekends so this has brought the weekly/ monthly average down. I'm not doing badly, but I could do better! :cheeky_grin:

Progress X

Nearly 15K done - which is great - but I'm submitting somewhere else so the bottom wordcount has crept up to 24K, so rather than being 3/4 done I'm around 2/3 done. Which isn't bad, but not as good as it would have been with a 20K target!
However. I need a bit more dialogue between my characters. Ahem. :bigcheesygrin: I'm writing longhand at the moment, so when I type it up there'll be lots of 'on the spot' editing. Then, I'll do another pass to get it shiny.

I have a headache now though. I think I've had too much caffeine. :phhhbbbbbt:

Progress IX

Over 13K - yay!

I have noticed, however, that time moves differently when you write. You write for what seems like hours, certain that you've poured out at least a couple of thousand words despite the crossing out. And yet, when you count the words written, they don't total a single thousand. Maybe a bare 2.5 pages have been done. An achievement, certainly. But the impression of one's achievement, gained while actually writing, seemed so much greater than the reality.

Ah, well. Would it be any different (i.e. better/ worse) if I'd been typing rather than working longhand? I shall try it next time (and perhaps by April I will have a laptop. Not quite the laptop of heavanly perfection (LHP) that Chaz Brenchley has, but it will be a nice one if I can get it.)

Anyway, enough about me. How's it going for all out there? Life, the Universe and Everything going ok?

Progress VIII

Progress is slow at the moment. Nothing done at the weekend as I was away, but I've managed a bit more now that I'm back and I'll get more done at lunchtime.

Read a brillian book last night (couldn't put it down, I was up until 01:40 finishing it) Cipher by Diana Pharaoh Francis. First book of hers that I've read and I'm definitely going to be getting the other three that are showing up on Amazon. The characters were great and the worldbuilding (it's a fantasy) was very interesting, a good take on magic. I would certainly recommend it!

The sun is now shining, and the office isn't too cold. This is good. When I went out to the car this morning it was, apparently, -4˚C (it felt very cold) but it seems to have warmed up again.

Progress VII

Another 3 pages! Looking good. Over halfway now.


Listening to: Up is Down from Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (Good ol' Hans Zimmer!)

Mood: Good. The sun, she is shining!

Progress VI

Just got over 10K. (Did 4 pages at lunchtime) I will definitely be heading for the 20K mark, though. I've been writing longhand on this one, just for conveniance at work (I can take it to the coffee shop for a start) but I have a horrible feeling that I should have chosen a slightly larger notebook.
I calculated yesterday that I had enough pages left for about 4K, so the final 6K will have to be on some loose sheets of paper, I think. :phhhbbbbt:

I won't be writing this weekend as I'm visitating, but I shall outline some of the other stuff that I've got in the pipeline (and get ready for Sven's kickoff), so it won't be a completely writing-free weekend. But, there will also be a trip to Borders so there will be a chance to get Interzone & Realms of Fantasy magazines. Yay!

Sven: The Return!

Oh, yes! Sven is back and he's ready to crack that whip!

Sweating with Sven: round three starts on the 1st of March (St. David's Day - don't forget the daffodils on your desk as a pick-me-up) and goes on until the 16th of May. The goal is 60K - 100k words and we've got an extra week built in so there are 77 days to reach our goal(s).
Click here to go to the Sweating with Sven website and sign up/ leave a comment!

Join in the fun!

Not done...

Well, the short piece I've been working on isn't finished yet. I'm getting there, but real life intruded at the weekend (including sorting out the computer which has been having a fit or three) so the submission I had it planned for is out. However, I can tweak it for another sub so all is not lost.

Aim for 2008 - buy a laptop. Even if it can't connect to the internetz, a laptop that can do wordprocessing would help.

Edited at 14:41 to add: Brought it up just shy of 10K. I will be going over (perhaps closer to the 20K than I thought) and then there will be a major type-up and edit-as-I-go phase. But I'm pleased so far. Not with being incapable of keeping to a self-imposed deadline, but pleased with the fact that I've written so much (and I've written every day at work during my lunchbreak, even if I haven't written at any other place/time).

So I've managed to keep to one of my resolutions about writing regularly. I just need to do it at home as well to get enough words/ pages per day. I've proven to myself that I can do it, so now I need to take it a step further and do it in a more difficult environment.

Progress V

Got up to 8802wds yesterday. Didn't do any more in the evening so this means I've a hard slog tonight to get it finished so that I can edit Saturday/ Sunday and send.

Unfortunately, I've just reached the point in the writing where my internal editor (id?) is telling me that it's all crap. I am ignoring her. She is a cow.

Nearly lunchtime, so I shall see how many pages I can add before duty calls once more.

Progress IV

Okay, interim update while I'm near a pc (just about to clock off, will have the chance to write for a couple of hours before meeting up with some chums!)
I've done in the region of 34 pages (out of a possible total of 80). I can't be precise at the moment because I've (a) been writing longhand (and may have miscounted occasionally - either up or down) and (b) when I type it up, Word may decide it's more or less than a hand count, and I'll probably change things as I type them up as well.

But, I'm pleased so far.

Progress III

Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds...(Wm. Shakespeare/ Romeo & Juliet/ Juleit's Soliloquy)

Good progress again! I may actually be able to edit this shortly. It may not make it up to 20K (it has to be between 10K & 20K) so I shall have to see what the natural stopping point seems to be. If I do end up going over, I'm sure there will be extraneous words/ sentances/ paragraphs that can be cut. Certainly if past work is anything to go by, there will be things that could stand being removed!

Listening to: Christina Aguilera - Fighter
Mood: Well... it's raining, and my raincoat's in the car. 'Nuff said.

Progress II

3.5 pages this lunchtime - that does seem to be the standard for writing longhand 3-3.5 pages per hour. That's not bad. So if I actually sat my backside down for 16 hours and maintained my average, I could have this finished and ready to edit in no time.
Unfortunately, there is the job du jour and also the need for sleep so I won't be able to do it in one go (I will ignore the fact that, if I'd done this at the weekend, I could at the very least have worked for 8 hours - if not more.)

But, there is progress. So. Onwards & upwards.

Edited to add: up to 31% completed! Yay! I love coffee breaks! I'll have to do some more tonight although I will be watching at least one episode of Life on Mars: series 2. (I don't want to watch the episodes out of sequence, but I also can't wait to watch the Camberwick Green episode when Sam is tripping. Classic! (And the sad thing is, I remember Camberwick Green. I used to watch it as a littley. ) :sigh:

BP -


Listening to: Enya - May it Be

Mood: The glow of achievement looms above me!