Miscellaney
I know I’ve been really bad this week about blogging daily, but I’m focusing on my last-ditch effort to finish Menu for Romance. I have about four chapters, or 12,000 words left to write. Unfortunately, I’m now at a point in the story where anything I share would give away important information about the climax and resolution, so I can’t do what I did last week and share excerpts.
I did start on character sketches for A Case for Love over the weekend, and I’ll be starting that one the first week of January, giving myself the month of December to figure out more than just the general plot of the story—to work on subplots and secondary characters, to brainstorm some scenes of conflict between the hero (Forbes) and heroine (Alaine), and to do some research on the legal aspect of the class action suit Alaine, her family, and neighbors are bringing against Forbes’s parents’ corporation. Fun stuff. 🙂
In the meantime, I just keep whittling away at that final word count on MFR, which I plan to complete by the end of this week, since I missed the deadline of the end of last week. Next week, I’ll print out the entire manuscript and spend a few days over at my undergrad college (Trevecca) in the library editing and revising.
And because I haven’t been posting, it means I’ve been missing hearing from all of you. So tell me what’s going on. What are you working on? What issues are you running into with your writing? Is anyone participating in NaNoWriMo? What are some series you’d like to see on the blog next year (or maybe a short one in December)? Throw me a bone—I’m starting to feel lonely!
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KayeDacus.com 
Hi Kaye,
Wish I were a plotter like you. I’m feeling a story, and will soon begin writing it, but it requires research too…*sigh*, and not ‘fun’ research. Still, the story is there and I think it has a beating heart…yes, I can hear it. 🙂
(ONLY writers would get that. At least, I hope you all get that. Heh.)
Best of luck finishing MFR and getting started on number three! Very exciting. I can’t wait to read Stand-In Groom!
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Gwen, I never used to be a plotter, but there’s just something about knowing that a manuscript has to be finished by a certain date that has made doing some pre-plotting very attractive to me.
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I haven’t written a single word since before conference. But first-hand experience for a romance writer is extremely important. He is very supportive of my writing
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Prayers for you as you finish MFR. 🙂 I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year. I started last year but quit after a couple of days – didn’t have the peace I needed about pursuing a story. I’m doing much better this year and am almost on target with word count to finish. However, my real goal is to write my story, not reach a word count. Even if I fall short on count, I’ll be happy with my progress because it’s one step closer than I was last year. And what I have so far has quite a few holes in it as I discover missing research and characterization. 🙂 So, that’s what’s been happening in my world.
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I’ve been working several hours a day on my YA novel (mom’s watching the kids).
I have pushed through 5 chapters in the last couple days to make them line up with the plot as it sits (one had to be completely re-written) and I have 7 to go (one that needs to be written) before all 23 will be clean and ready for filling out (my main weakness according to “test readers” is my lack of setting).
Very excited for this gift from my mom. I may even make my goal of having the story complete by the end of the year.
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Hi Kaye
I’ve been reading your posts for a while, and can I just say a huge THANK YOU!!! I have learnt so much from you!!
I’m doing NaNoWriMo for the first time, and your blogs on dialogue have been a life saver. I’ve always struggled with dialogue, but now I’m actually starting to feel confident with it. And it’s working – well, at least parts of it are!
I also loved your posts on character development. I have combined your approach with “The Snowflake Method” by Randy Ingermanson. I have discovered the benefits of being a plotter. In the past I have started, but not finished, about half a dozen novels. I get to the 30,000 word mark and jump ship, mainly because I have no idea where to go next. This time, thanks to the hours I put in to developing my idea before Nov 1, I’m already at 23,000 words and am only up to chapter 6. The writing is flowing easily because I know what I’m trying to achieve.
So what’s my book about? A cutting-edge geneticist unleashes a series of world changing events when he pushes the boundaries too far. Essentially, it’s a novel about what might happen when God says, “Enough!”
Anyway, thanks again. You have been an absolute blessing.
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Hi Kaye,
I finished Kindred, my historical, on October 30th, then celebrated my 40th birthday. “Finished” being a relative term, of course. I have a huge editing challenge ahead of me, but to have it all written, at last, after 4+ years of steady work. What a feeling.
While I let Kindred sit for a week or two (I don’t think I can last two weeks but we’ll see), I’m editing through Bear Country, an early chapter book story I wrote years ago. Like everything I write, it’s too long for what it was meant to be. I’m working on shaving a few more thousand words off it. There’s a snip posted on my blog.
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I’m the pseudo-NaNo participant. I’m doing it but I’m not signing up. Not interested in the forums and all that. Don’t want the pressure of feeling like I failed if I don’t make it.
This is my second attempt at NaNo.
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I was deeeeeeeeeply tempted by NaNo, but I knew that this month was WAAAAY too hectic to try anything like that. Sniff.
I’ve been mainly just working on that wonderful critique you sent me. 😉 I’m just about finished and going on to critique and revise the rest!
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