I've slithered past the 55,000 word mark on The Woman in the Wall, with at least three more chapters to go; a key moment that always proves to me that I am nearing the end of something that will turn out to be of actual book length. The Grand Climax is looming and I know roughly what is going to happen, which gives me the confidence that I will actually get there!
I'm hoping to crash through to the end with a writing marathon over the next ten days or so. I'm not entirely confident, thanks to the school holidays, which started yesterday. So if I'm not blogging much, it's because I'm squeezing writing around child needs. (The eyes are infinitely better, thank you for asking, but I think I'll avoid contact lenses for a while! I'll settle for being a specky without actual pain).
I'd really like to get the first draft of this completed if I can, because we're going on holiday for a week in the second week of the school holidays and that would be a fantastic, and complete, brain break before jumping into the rewrites and edits I will have to do before sliding it under the eyes of the first beta readers.
How are your WIPs going? Do you have any official, or self-imposed deadlines, that you need to meet?
I'll be cruising your blogs shortly to ensure you've been keeping up with the Koala Challenge. My claws are itchy, so be ready...
Updated to add...
My claws are more than itchy. Naughty, naughty writers! Tragic, tragic excuses:
"My dog was sick and ate my manuscript! Errr...except not in that order." *
"06-Apr = Got a bad case of the Mondays.
07-Apr = Apologies to Monday. I seem to have the flu" **
Note how many of you are sliding down the scales of approval... Socks up! Pronto! I want 100 words or more from every one of you today!
*This writer has no dog.
** Monday does not accept your apologies. Monday also has claws.
The 2012 Koala Challenge
I think we'll call this column an 'example' of a typical month for a while...keep picking up the badges, though!
Keep writing, keep submitting and earn Koala Love Points! Report in at the end of every month and She Who Is Always Right will total your points and let you know which badge you may display on the side of your blog.
New victims always welcome - please let me know in the comment trail of the latest post. Full instructions for the 2012 challenge here!
Nine or more points:
Angie
Stevie
Pam
Rick (who's Rick? Ah well, he reported in)
Eight points:
Seven points:
Six points:
6 Iasa (it was 5.5, but I'm rounding her up out of amazement. I think it's an Iasa Record)
Five points:
Four points:
Three points:
Two points
One point
Pete
"We were on a break..."
Displease the Koala by neglecting your writing altogether and you may find yourself joining Sarah
KOALA SMACKDOWN
Displease the Koala even more and she may call in her slippery sidekick and put you on:
SUPER-SMACKDOWN!
Aniket
Robin
With thanks to JJ de Benedictis for the fantastic artwork (and her fine abilities with toenail pliers).
Keep writing, keep submitting and earn Koala Love Points! Report in at the end of every month and She Who Is Always Right will total your points and let you know which badge you may display on the side of your blog.
New victims always welcome - please let me know in the comment trail of the latest post. Full instructions for the 2012 challenge here!
Nine or more points:
Angie
Stevie
Pam
Rick (who's Rick? Ah well, he reported in)
Eight points:
Seven points:
Six points:
6 Iasa (it was 5.5, but I'm rounding her up out of amazement. I think it's an Iasa Record)
Five points:
Four points:
Sempra
Whirl (how'd he beat me?! That never happens!)
Three points:
3 McK
Two points
Mar
Sylvia
One point
Pete
"We were on a break..."
Jenna
JJdeGoblin
Displease the Koala by neglecting your writing altogether and you may find yourself joining Sarah
on
KOALA SMACKDOWN
Displease the Koala even more and she may call in her slippery sidekick and put you on:
SUPER-SMACKDOWN!
Aniket
Robin
With thanks to JJ de Benedictis for the fantastic artwork (and her fine abilities with toenail pliers).
About Me
- McKoala
- A marsupial with pretensions to humanity. E-mail the tartan furball at mckoalarado at gmail dot com.
11 comments:
So glad to hear you're doing better. Don't blame you at all for not wanting to stick contacts in your eyes. And a fun vacation coming up? I really hope so!
I want to have Garlic revised and to my prospective agent by the end of this month. So that's my goal.
I think I mentioned I'm not doing the 100 words a day anymore. Instead, I'm doing 4 hours solid on the weekend. I write a lot more that way. The daily thing was too broken up in little pieces for me. But it was a great learning experience.
*shifty eyes* I might have gotten a dog...
Glad your peepers are getting better. I ditched the contacts a couple of years ago after a similar experience during hayfever season. I always intended to go back but never quite got round to it. My eyes feel much dryer these days and - well - I've gotten lazy.
Speaking of which - get your claws out.
I really did have the flu. And on a Monday too.
Well, I made up for it by posting a horrendous scene from my NaNo project. I hate it, but it's fixable - I hope.
So that's another 1,073 added to my NaNo rewrites.
Hope to get some more done on my zombie story this weekend. Seems Horace's mother has been holding out on everyone-including me.
So, uhm, when those claws come clacking my way, just know that I would prefer you work from the navel down as my insurance won't cover a tummy tuck -- but if I showed up in the ER with a deep wound running along my bikini line they may have no choice.
Just sayin'.
Hm, Sarah. Perhaps if you keep up the weekend writing and keep your wordcount nice and high, The Koala may be lenient. I'm watching you...
JJ, yes, but you didn't, did you?
Claws are out Janey. Do I need to drop you down even further?
Hm, JC, I like your thinking. However, The Koala cannot guarantee the results.
Uh oh. The not-so-lenient Koala has reconsidered. Sarah, you are now on Moderate Threat and you will remain there. Other than going down, of course... That's the price you pay for defying the Koala. However much sense it may make to you. Does it make sense? At all?
I REALLY REALLY want to read this one!!! (I hope my past bad reviewer behavior can be forgiven...)
:-)
I've always loved this one. I've said before it seems to be in your natural voice.
Yes, oh claw master. Keep those scimitars sharp. I need the prodding.
My novel is finished. At least I think it is. I'm taking it with me when I go to London later this week- and am gonna read cover to cover, one sitting hopefully, now that it's been over six weeks that I've looked at it - and see if there's anything I need to do. And I'm guessing there will be - I honestly thought I'd finished before- and my brain went number for about a month, but now, little thoughts are creeping in, sentences forming, 'wish I'd said this or that with this part' kinds of things.
Good for you with Woman in the Wall!
Happy Easter, McKoala. Hope you're having a wonderful day.
I'm just catching up and wondering how you did!
I wrote about 5,850 words while I was away so that was good. I am sort of freaking out at how much more work there is left to do though. When I started this edit, I planned to be finished by the end of March! Now I'm sort of thinking June. :P
I need to push forward with the rewrite/edits - I'm going to start throwing every available minute at it starting Monday and see if I can get close to completion before I go away again at the end of May. Claws would come in useful.
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