Monday, May 1, 2017

Update through April

When we did this last time:

As of 1/23, the four WIPs along with my plans for them:
    •    The Faux Princess: 91 300 words, to beta reader by Jan 31;
    •    The Voyages Home: 2500 words, draft complete by April 30;
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, draft complete by April 30, and
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 50 000 words, draft complete by Feb 15.

As of 2/1, the four WIPs along with my plans for them, are:
    •    The Faux Princess: 90 956 words, sent to beta reader Jan 30;
    •    The Voyages Home: 2500 words, no change; draft complete by April 30;
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, no change; draft complete by April 30, and
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 65 932 words, still on track to complete draft by Feb 15.

As of 3/1, the four WIPs, along with my plans for them, are:
  •    The Faux Princess: 90 954 words was sent to beta reader Jan 30; notes came back by 2/12 and have lain waiting for Low Places to be complete. Goal is to have it ready to publish by 3/31.
    •    The Voyages Home: 8382 words; draft complete by April 30;
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, no change; draft complete by April 30, and
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 81 365 words; failed to complete draft by Feb 15. The goal is now to have the draft by 3/15, and on to my long suffering beta ready by 3/31.

As of 4/1, the four WIPs along with my plans for them, are
    •    The Faux Princess: 108 807 words. Went over notes from my reader. Revisions complete by April 20; return to beta by April 30.
    •    The Voyages Home: 13834 words; draft complete by May 15;
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, no change; draft complete by April 30, and
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 96 958 words; proof and send to beta by April 15.

So, how did I do?

As of today (5/1), the four WIPs along with my plans for them, are
    •    The Faux Princess (Dragons Run My Life Book 1): 110 651 words. Found even more holes with the aid of my reader; plug them with the revision to beta by May 15,
    •    The Voyages Home (Dragons Run My Life Book 2): 37 735 words; draft may be complete by May 15, but more likely, the 30th,
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, no change; draft complete by June 30,
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 99 053 words; found significant problems; revising. First read to beta by May 30,
    •   Amerith (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 19 854 words; proof and send to beta by May 15, and
    •   Rhion Prequel (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 6 013 words; proof and send to beta by May 15.


Here’s April’s work:



I wrote 47 904 original words in March, averaging 1597 per day, with three days of writing nothing and four more of not very much. The short title is at the right.

What happened?
The draft of Low Places is still steeping, since problems in Faux Princess highlighted potential issues there. Who knew my stupidity would carry over from series to series? Not me, for sure! Anyway, I have significant work to redo before that sees the light of day. I plan to get through it during May. We’ll see.

One of the comments I received on Faux Princess drove me to write a short bit about one of the major characters (not one of the protags, however) whose backstory might be interesting, but it wasn’t directly part of either of the stories in process. It fits much better between the two, though it could also be read before either of them, as an introduction, I suppose. That’s the WIP named Amerith, almost half of this month’s words went there.

I decided, more because I needed to know what’s going on than it’s a good stand alone, to write a bit of backstory on another character, to layout just how the big conflict through the first three books (as I plan them now, at least) began. That’s Rhion in the WIP list, and a bit over 6000 words.

While I did a little more than a thousand words I credited to Low Places, basically the rest of the month was writing for Voyages Home. Almost thirty-eight thousand words and I haven’t gotten to the wedding yet! It’s still two days off in Dragon time.

Bottom line: I hope to have three mss to my reader at mid-month.

As always, comments and opinions welcome.

The spreadsheet: Created by Svenja. See svenjaliv.com for more info and resources, including a free online word meter. All images are © 2011-2016 SvenjaLiv (http://svenjaliv.com).