Category: writing

I’ve been hibernating… I think

I’m a little unsure why but the last couple months have not been productive for writing at all. Ugh. I hope I can say that I’ve been hibernating and composting and that 2023 will be a productive year. My top goal is to finish my mystery novel and to get it published in some form. And I want to dabble in short stories, poetry and freelance journalism and send out more of my work.

So I guess I just need to make it happen, right? I herby declare that I will finish Roadrunner Ridge in 2023 and that I’ll send out my writing. That’s my first resolution for the New Year.

Finally at a milestone

Manzanita Beach

We spent some time in August and September in Oregon including probably my favorite place in the world: Manzanita. I had lots of alone time to walk the beach, pick up shells, visit with sea stars and sea gulls and watch pelicans skirt above the waves. It was truly wonderful.

For some reason, though, I just stopped writing and I didn’t get back to the laptop until a few days ago. On the positive side, the plotting work I’ve been doing seems to be paying off and I feel like I’m moving forward again in a more productive way.

AND I just reached the 25,000-word mark which I’m going to pretend is half way even though it probably is quite a bit short of half way. At any rate, it’s as far as I’ve ever achieved on a novel Work in Progress, so I am definitely celebrating!

Slowly making progress

I’m now at 11,335 words — whew! 

I need at least 50,000, maybe 60,000 but at least I’m seeing the total starting to build. 

The book, “The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing” has been a really helpful guide although I haven’t followed it to the letter. What I love is the chart called “The Novelmaster,” which shows the word length, number of sections and viewpoint characters the novel should have. Again, I’m doing this loosely but it looks like I need 60,000 words, two viewpoint characters and approximately two–thirds of the sections from the main character’s perspective. 

My other goal is to set up a web site for the novel. I need to do more research, buy the domain name(s) and get working on set-up. 

Lots to do. Crime Writers conference is next month!