Another day of writing FD under my belt and with a total of 18 pages.  Oh yeah, baby!  And more importantly, it was completed before 11 AM and I won’t be sitting in front of this monitor all day long.

I’m seeing the holes in my book.  Nothing too big, but details that need to be added, and I need more interaction early on between my heroine and the other women in the house.  That will have to be added during revisions.  I’m on page 260, want to get to 360 and only have four chapters to go, which means I may be about 50 pages shy come Thursday or Friday when I finish.  That will also have to be added during revisions. lol

Next on my agenda today, other than brunch, is outlining some of Raven’s Mind, my NaNoWirMo project.  I had some thoughts last night but was too tired to begin anything, so hopefully I’ll remember it today. :P  I’m off to do that now.  I’m realizing I need to add A LOT more external conflict to my stories.  Gonna work on that today.

I didn’t plow through 11 chapters yesterday and surely won’t today.  As long as I fix the beginning, which is the rest of the scene I’m on and the next chapter, I’ll be ok.  I’m sick of the beginning of this book.  I’ve changed it what 3 or 4 times now.  I don’t want to see it every again.  The middle is what needs work.  If there was only one thing this all showed me it’d be how important my outlines are.  I didn’t do a full outline for this book, and I feel like I’m twisting in the wind, following each gust until I realize I’ve gone the wrong way.  It’s ridiculous, and no one could do this every time they write.  I, at least, don’t want to.

So, I need to not be in such a rush to get started on the next book.  As much as Raven’s voice is calling to me, I need to maybe listen a bit longer before I begin.  And then I want to outline it thoroughly.

In the meantime, I have other little things that need to get done today too, so I better get moving. Tomorrow starts Fast Draft at RD.

It’s been 2 months since I started this new blog, and 2 months since I’ve been steadily blogging.  Every day since March 19th–and I just wrote since 3, now 4, times.

This is a major accomplishment for me.  There was a time when I didn’t blog for months.  Now if I could only comment on MySpace half as much.

The problem is coming up with topics.  Obviously, as you can see, I struggled today. LOL  But how many times can I discuss the physical act of writing, or outlining or brainstorming.  I’m boring myself here.

Oh, I can say that I outline my current WIP last night.  I’m 97% done.  ALL in one night.  I am so stoked, and it was a lot of fun.  I didn’t go into detail.  I map out how many chapters there will be, then add anywhere from 3-4 scenes per chapter and figure out what should go where.  I know how it ends, know what needs to be uncovered, so then it’s a matter of filling in where and when.  Sometimes it’s easy, like last night, and other times it so frickin hard.

I normally plan 3 scenes per chapter, but this one is a bit different.  There are times when there’s only one too.  I always plan 24 chapters, 6 in the first and third acts and 12 in the second.  It’s like a jigsaw.  I like to work with parts of Vogler’s Writer’s Journey, so I know the beginning will show the Ordinary World (usually), and the end of Act One will contain the crossover (sometimes).  My current WIP’s crossover occurs in chapter 3, midway in Act One.

Well, that’s part of it anyway.  I’ll break it down another day.  I’m fighting germs or something.  My head and sinuses are hurting (I also need to get glasses), and I can’t afford to get sick.  Tomorrow’s my son’s birthday.