[metrics] UF - (Day 41/90)

Project: Unnamed UF
New words: 1,495
Present Total Word Count: 25,603
Goal: 80,000

The rogue scenes have been done and we're back onto the scheduled scenes, so the pace (of writing) has picked up a bit.

The PC chum #1 and I bought in February has finally been paid for; after pay day I have to transfer my portion of the holiday money and then I can start saving again. (Yay! Savings! What are those again?) I think people will be subjected to a lot of handmade presents between now and January. Knitting/ cross-stitch/ quilting extravaganza here I come! I think I may have to timetable my weekends. ::sigh::
Anyway, I'm off to the soggy north this afternoon to Newcastle to visit the pater. I'm still undecided as to whether I should risk the A1 (loooooong delays at Gateshead becuase of roadworks) or head up the A19, upon which I have never travelled. The magical mystery tour. Hmmm. Choices.
Ah, the glamour. Can you see it shine?

[metrics] UF - (Day 39/90)

I've started to slow down in the word wars; I'm writing a couple of scenes that I hadn't planned for in the original outline so I'm picking my way through the dialogue rather than blasting ahead. I knew, going in, that there wouldn't be a clean first draft when I was done, so I'm not overly disappointed, but there will be a significant revision process in my future! Not least because I'd planned the first section (of around 10 scenes) to be between 80 and 100 pages; I am on scene seven (one of the new ones) and I'm 84 pages in, so I'm aware that during the revision process there will be the taking out of 'stuff' as well as the putting in. C'est la vie. But, slow though the progress may be, it is still progress and therefore correctable.

I'm glad that I outlined as I'm notoriously messy without one, and I do allow for deviation/ additions to the plan, but those extra scenes were a surprise I should--perhaps--have anticipated. Not that it would have been a surprise then. Anyway. On to the metrics!

Project: Unnamed UF
New words: 1,495
Present Total Word Count: 25,603
Goal: 80,000

Reason for stopping: Had to get back to day jobbery

Things accomplished in fiction: The second new scene added - again, very slowly.

Things accomplished in real life: Day jobbery - More work on presentations. More e-mail. Publications. Fiddling with e-book lists and web pages.
Non-day-jobbery - More Supernatural. Dogs out for a walk. Watched chum #1 argue with water company that directly outside our house is a Section 24 sewer--which means it's public-- and therefore their responsibility to sort out. (Never give in! Never surrender!) Read some of the new issue of Black Static.

Currently reading: C.L.Wilson's King of Sword & Sky

Bookmark is stuck in: Testament of Youth - Vera Brittain (I'm working on it, but it's slow going)

Staring at me from the sofa: NF book on Georgette Heyer's Regency world

[metrics] UF - Day 38 (Monday)

Project: Unnamed UF
New words: 2,542 (this is not all from the same day, but I'm not doing separate posts for it)
Present Total Word Count: 24,108 (up to chapter six)
Goal: 80,000

Reason for stopping: Had to get back to day jobbery

Things accomplished in fiction: The very slow writing of a scene I hadn't planned at all. Not quite at the gouging each word out with a blunt spoon, but it was getting there.

Things accomplished in real life: Day jobbery - More work on presentations. More e-mail. Meetings with colleagues. Non-day-jobbery - Watched more of season four of Supernatural (I'm catching up). Unpacked a delivery from Tesco (yay! we have cous cous! and soup!)

Currently reading: C.L.Wilson's Tairen Soul series (book four is out later this year)

Bookmark is stuck in: Testament of Youth - Vera Brittain (I'm working on it, but it's slow going)

24108 / 80000

[metrics] UF

Location: Orthanc
Listening to: Bella's Lullaby - Carter Burwell
------------------------------------------------

Project: Unnamed UF
New words: 1,416
Present Total Word Count: 21,566
Goal: 80,000


Things accomplished in fiction: Caleb's finally giving Tilly the information she wanted and I'm trying to avoid info-dumpage at this point.

Things accomplished in real life: Finished a powerpoint presentation for work; started planning a tour & presentation; dealt with e-mails &c.
- Took Bear on a training walk, as he's still willful, which knackered us both; tested some more home made Welsh cakes (Chum #1 did a good job, but I'll have to test a few more to make *absolutely* certain.) :oP
- Cleared part of the patio so that the sewerage chappy can get to the drain today. Oh, yes. Hot, muggy weather and the Victorian drains are playing up. Lovely.

Anyway. Progress.

21566 / 80000

[metrics] UF

I've finally cracked the first 25% (although I can already spot the broken bits that will need extra attention ::sigh::) but progress is good, and anything that's on the page should be fixable, technically. Or at the very least illustrate what not to do next time around.

Project: Unnamed UF
New words: 1,786
Present Total Word Count: 20,150
Goal: 80,000

20150 / 80000

Things accomplished in fiction: Got Tilly home safe and sound, although not as freaked as she should be, and stopped at the point where Caleb's explaining what's going on and why the foliage went crazy.

Things accomplished in real life: Almost finished a powerpoint presentation for work, answered some phone enquiries, dealt with work e-mail. Took the dogs out for ball-on-a-rope chucking (although collie #1 isn't allowed off the lead until Friday), went to bed having not seen the Perseid meteor shower. Hopefully next year I'll either not be as tired, or it will be at the weekend.

[metrics] UF

All is joy! Collie #1 had her stitches out yesterday (2 cysts removed and a spaying) and the vetinry is pleased with the way everything's healing. Histology on the cysts came back clear as well - they were just fatty lumps so she's had the all clear. Much relief in our household, although she's still sulking because even though the cone of misery has now been removed, she still has to wear the sock of humiliation (to stop her from scratching the patch of skin where the vet shaved all the fur off) and she has to go for walks on the lead until Friday-ish. So she's not as Eeyore-ish as before, but she hasn't achieved full collie perkiness yet either.

In other news, the un-named one is galloping apace. I admit ::hangs head:: that I did no writing at the weekend. The sun came out y'see, and there was this giant brolly in the garden that completely covered the sun lounger so that I could be in the sun and not in the sun, and well, there went the weekend really. (Although I did labour over spaghetti bolognese at one point.) I also read the Accidental Sorcerer by K.E. Mills (aka Karen Miller) and enjoyed that to the point that I didn't want to do anything else until I'd finished it. So I didn't. Basically it was a weekend of sloth. It was good sloth. Even the cat thought so - she sat on the other chair. However, even though I did bog all at the weekend, I did lots yesterday and some today...

Project: Unnamed UF
New words: 3,869
Present Total Word Count: 18,364
Goal: 80,000

18364 / 80000

[metrics] UF

Location: Orthanc
Listening to: Preparation: Shackleton - Adrian Johnston
Mood: Accomplished

Project: Unnamed UF
New words: 1,239
Present Total Word Count: 14,495
Goal: 80,000

I managed to get the boys' ritual planned out yesterday - I'd left that as a gap in the MS while I thought about it, but now I'm reasonably happy with what I have. (As a first draft, anyway.) I'm aiming to crack 20k by the end of the weekend and as I have the house to myself until about 16:30hrs tomorrow, I should be able to manage that. (Interspersed with dog walking and familial visitations and the like.)

In other news, we have been quite frugal and healthy of late. Wednesday we had tuna pasta bake for tea, and there was enough left to take to work on Thursday. Thursday I made prawn risotto, and again there was enough to bring in to work today (add some pickled chilis to it for a little kick - lovely!) And tonight it is sausage and bean chowder. All cheap, cheerful, and healthy (apart from the cheese on the tuna pasta bake - but there wasn't a lot of that, I swear.) :-P

14495 / 80000

The trouble with meeces

The squeaking, furry, oh my god hide from the cat/ dog behind the bookcase kind.
Normally, our cat will start to torment and consume the little rodents during the autumn; occasionally releasing one into captivity in the house for us to race round in an attempt to capture it before it hides in the walls and breeds. The second year in this house we had an infestation of mice. It was like living in Lovecraft's The Rats in the Walls. Seriously. >.<

Sunday night she lost one in the back room and we couldnt' get it. An hour later, Baby Bear wandered in and gently deposited something on the living room carpet, then stood back and stared at us as if to say What do I do now?
Yes. He'd found the mouse; gently picked it up and carried it in for us to deal with. (I deposited it back into the wild.)

Last night, she brought in a tiny field mouse which Chum #1 managed to trap under one of the dog's dinner bowls. Again, it made it back outside. If she's doing this now, god only knows what she's going to be bringing in during the autumn/ winter months. Capybara's?

[metrics] UF progress

Word wars rock! I feel very accomplished.

Project: Unnamed UF
New words: 1,143
Present Total Word Count: 13,256
Goal: 80,000

Brice: got the ritual he wanted and his friend 'officially' on his side
Caleb: gave up some blood and had a moment
Tilly: Her boredom is about to come to an abrupt end
Things that got beat up today: Nothing yet, but it's coming.

Random sampling of text:
“You know,” Brice said slowly, “in the old days the allegiance ceremony was done in a more traditional way.”
Caleb smirked. “In the dark, you mean?”
“Very funny.” Brice mock frowned, curling his lip to expose his teeth. “Actually, I was referring to the fact that the blood exchange wasn’t done with a chalice.” He looked at Caleb, unable to hide his hopeful expression. “It was a direct exchange. Some people still believe that any alliances forged in that way are stronger.”

13256 / 80000

[metrics] UF

Had another word war yesterday evening and managed to jiggle out another 2K or so and I'm into chapter four so we're ticking along nicely.

Project: Unnamed UF (I have no idea what this is going to be called - Tilly's Tribulations?)
New words: 2,706
Present Total Word Count: 12,113
Goal: 80,000

12113 / 80000