picowrimo | Day Twenty-Two

I didn't do much yesterday but since I missed yesterday's post, here's some stuff from Monday: More editing. More adding and fleshing out of the Novella That Ate My Life. The following is actually more of an edit than something new:

The Prince pushed him back against the wall and whispered to him, "So, I hear you like to watch. Come see how I do it." There was something menacingly confident in his tone and stance, which Ges found incomprehensible in a nineteen year old boy.

For anyone who is wondering, my husband is encouraging me to pick up the Donna/Ivan piece once TNTAML is done, because Donna/Ivan is light and humorous. TNTAML is 50,000+ words of dark fic.

In the meantime, I have developed spasms in my right hand when using the computer, so I am slowed down a bit. It's not painful at all, just very distracting. SO I am using my right hand only for typing, and doing all mousing/scrolling etc. with the left.

Ouch, sorry to hear about your hand spasms. I've had mild repetitive strain injuries from too much typing in the past: gentle stretching exercises can work wonders, so can a hot water bottle or some other source of heat against the aching area. Take care.

Sympathies on the hand spasms. I've done something to my right wrist, and learning to use the mouse with my left hand has helped so much with it.

Oooh, hand spasms, very unpleasant. I hope they clear up quickly!

I had some funny wrist spasms on Saturday... while ten-pin bowling, so it's not clear they were anything writing related.

Editing, adding and fleshing out are all good and useful things.

Oof! It's finished! (Well, it's out for other eyes to peer at, and I'll give it a polish in a day or two.) Now for my other Pico-projects!

“The Men of Númenor sought to destroy death. That is how they were destroyed themselves. The Fate of all Men, perhaps – a brief spring of promise; the long fall into winter.”

So he tended to speak to her. Speak plainly! she thought. I care very little for riddles and for twisted talk! “That may be the tale of your people, sir,” she said, hotly. “But mine? We are a younger folk – and I have seen with my own eyes the shadow reversed and life restored.”

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Yay!

Well done!

Thank you!

Well done indeed. And a nice extract.

Thank you! I'm glad to see this story completed, I'll feel I've achieved something on pico even if I don't get through my full list of things.

Well done! I do so love the differences between Tolkien's (wo)Men.

Thank you! You can see the finished version here (http://community.livejournal.com/edhellondawards/20123.html).

Aha, pleased to note I didn't misread the voice in this snippet.

So am I!

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espresso-addict.livejournal.com - 2006-11-23 13:25 (UTC) - Expand

Yay for happy endings for writers!

(But not necessarily their characters.)

Certainly a happy ending for this writer: the story is a month overdue, thanks to a rotten cold last month when I had planned to write it. So I'd been feeling terribly guilty about the delay. About the characters - I shall keep this a spoiler-free comment! ;-)

wonderful!

Thank you!

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*hugs* on the cold. Nasty husband for giving it to you!

Hope that cold clears up soon. I've got to do a fair chunk of my count next week too.

After a busy day and a driving lesson round the delights of Reading's varied roundabouts I really wasn't up for doing anything that required a brain. But I forced myself to sit down and open up my pico script. And I'm very glad that I did because I wrote 815 words to give me a total of 4349! I probably won't get to it again till Monday, so I wanted to be ahead. I think it's going to be more than 5000 when it's done because there's still a fair bit of plot to go.

And I think that deserves a picture with the percentage on it:

815 words in a day?! Yay! Go you!

Thank you!

Wow, definitely deserving of a piccie! Great going!

Definitely, thanks

800 words, wonderful stuff.

Thank you

Wow, look how close that bar is now! Fantastic stuff!

It is, it's very cool

Because you said "roundabouts" I assume this is Reading, UK? I live near Reading, MA, USA, which has a couple of those, but we call them rotaries.

Yes, it is the Reading in England. It doesn't surprise me that there's one in America too.

Today I tackled scene 5 of chapter 5. My plan set this a bit later, and I kind-of felt it needed some linking bits, nothing too important, but something to justify Michael being where the plan says he needs to be. About 300 words into that random linkage, I realised that the reason I'd chosen echoes something in chapter 4 in a way that should make him even more paranoid than he already is. So my throw-away lead-in to the scene ended up as today's 560 words, bringing the chapter 5 total to 3320.

Excerpt:
"What do you suppose that's about?" asked Fiona.
"I really don't know." Michael adjusted his attire. It was unimportant how he looked when immersed in the Visions, but for the bishop's meeting he should look the part.
"I expect," said Jessica, "the bishop has worked out what was behind all these troubles and he's going to tell you what to do about it."

It sounds like you're really settling into chapter 5, and finding unexpected resonances -- great stuff!

It's always great when those little wires connect and illuminate things you didn't know were there.

Sounds like a very satisfying day's work. It's great when those connections start happening.

It's great when things start becoming more than you thought they'd be and link up with everything else

After spending much of the day bashing my head against some solid brickwork, I found a grappling iron, and made a late dash to 440. Which puts me at a total of (drum roll) 10,149!

No doubt the lady considered her performance, as she sank onto a conveniently placed sofa, quite the equal of Mrs Siddons’ Desdemona, but her audience was inescapably reminded of Mr Punch’s mistress – not merely for her most ungenteel screech, but also for the scrumpled state of all her muslin flounces.

Drumroll indeed. Congratulations!

Thanks! I'm amazed the story is taking so many words to finish.

Hooray! Well done! (And that snippet is a lot of fun!)

Thanks! I was surprised to find Punch & Judy went back as far as it did.

That's great, specially after bashing your head against a wall with it

Thanks, Paranoidangel! I think I may have crashed my way through into a part of the story that's easier to write -- here's hoping, anyway!

Congrats

I squeezed out 565 words today, of dubious quality but at least I got to see that little bar inch over 4000 words!

The anger in the earth flared higher, some of it directed at Skaris' own stupidity. Her arms shook with strain and the skin on her palms began to blister.

Next problem: given the number of words remaining, I should be approaching the climax of the story very soon but have almost no idea what it will be. Oh well.

Oh, that little bar does look good! Well done pushing on.

That bar looks great. And you still have a week to work how how it's going to end.

Oh, well done! Fingers crossed that the climax will unfold in your head as you keep on writing.