The weekend has been and gone, and it was a busy one editing my fantasy romance novel #projectmistbound! So here’s a writing update of what I worked on this weekend, including word counts, chapters and the all important, writing music!
Friday 20 October 2023
- Starting word count: 102,783
- Starting chapter: 2
It’s currently Friday, so writing has had to wait until after work. My partner and I have formed a wonderful habit the last two weeks (hopefully we stick to it) of packing up our laptops and heading to the library for 2 hours of dedicated writing time. While I’m working on this novel, he’s currently working on a fantastically sad short story that made me cry when I read it. Our local library has this wonderful ‘hub’ area where we found a table in this gorgeously well lit, white room surrounded by lush greenery. It’s a fantastic spot to write in. And we weren’t alone thinking that. It was packed with year 12’s studying for their final exams.
I managed to get about an hour and a half of productive writing this session, starting out at 102,783 words. Somehow, despite deleting a lot, I ended up adding a lot of words as well. I finished the session at 103,307 words having edited chapters two, three and four. These early chapters see my main character Astrid in a world that is foreign to her, struggling on her first days to find her footing. There’s a lot of secondary characters in these chapters that are introduced as well, including the all important Council. Which, thank god for edits because as I was going through I realised I’d made a mistake in the number of councillors present during a scene which I was able to correct! Bye bye ghost of Councils past.
I also discovered this YouTube creator Abbie Emmon today while looking for some music to listen to. She’s created these wonderfully immersive writing videos to help you stay focused and in the zone with sprints and breaks all built in. I listened to this one and truly felt like I was writing away on a long cosy train ride across the countryside.
Saturday 21 October 2023
- Starting word count: 103,307
- Starting chapter: 5
Today I started writing the best way a writer can, by going to my local bakery and devouring freshly made scones with jam and cream for breakfast. Sure it’s not writing per se but it was the sugary power that was going to get me moving today and motivated to write. My partner and I enjoyed our sweet treat breakfast before heading back home for a morning writing session.
I kicked things off with chapter five. My goal today was to try and edit chapters five, six and seven. I sat down at my laptop from about 9am to 1pm today, and smashed my editing goal, working through chapters five, six, seven, eight and got part way through chapter nine before calling it a day. I added a few hundred words in some of the chapters to clear up specific conversations which I think was very effective. It was so enjoyable working on these chapters as it includes the introduction to some key players, some great moments with Astrid’s love interest and a mini training montage.
Listening to music sprints really helped me keep focused today. I listened to two different ones listed below.
Sunday 22 October 2023
- Starting word count: 103,700
- Starting chapter: 9
This morning was not a writing morning. It was set to get to 30 degrees so we had a beach day! We got up early and caught up with my partners mum at our favourite beach spot for coffee and morning swim. The water was cold, which was really refreshing and helped with some body aches I’ve got at the moment. We also tried an incredible Indian restaurant (I overate so much but damn it was good). Then I fell asleep in a beach/food coma for about 3 hours. So, by the time I actually opened my laptop as I sat on the couch to start editing it was just after 5pm.
This evening I managed about two hours, started with chapter nine, a pretty short chapter which did help with feeling like I had at least achieved something after my long nap. I did a bit of tweaking on character dialogue and positioning of the characters in scene to make things clearer, adding about 100 words to the chapter.
It’s always strange reading back something you haven’t touched in many months, you suddenly can see so many more mistakes or errors with sentence structure or gaps in what is happening that should be filled in. If you’re ever stuck with something, sometimes a bit of a space from it does give you a fresh perspective. Chapter ten is such an important turning point for Astrid and another character’s relationship it was so daunting to edit. But we got there in the end, which was also the end of part one of the book.
Days like this its also great to have a writing buddy. My friend Maree’s Books is always my biggest hype woman in encourage my writing, so we chatted through the evening via messenger as I worked on the chapters. She’s also an incredible writer so we’re going to swap our first few chapters this week for some feedback, which I always find so helpful. Find yourself a good writer friend, they are the best!
As always I did my writing with some music, so had this one looping in the background.
WEEKEND WRITING STATS:
- Starting word count: 102,783
- Starting chapter: 2
- Ending word count: 104,004
- Ending chapter: 10 (end of part one!)
Overall this past weekend was much more productive for my novel than I have been in recent months due to working full time and juggling my Master’s degree. I probably won’t get much done for the rest of October as things are starting to get busy, with family and friends from interstate coming to visit, halloween events and lots of after hours work stuff (such fun!). Thanks for coming on this writing journey with me.
Until the next writing update, happy writing,
For more on my writing click here.