Becky and I both thought the other had the list taken care of. It was going to her, but she’d changed her email address, which meant she didn’t receive the renewal notice.

So she’s now putting the list back together again.  Both our apologies for the crash. If you receive a request to rejoin the story list, it really is from us.

Holly

My two-month old computer suffered a catastrophic screen failure about two weeks ago.  For the past two weeks, I’ve been struggling to put together the How To Think Sideways Walkthrough from my laptop, with all the material I had on the main computer unavailable while it was in the shop.  And, as noted elsewhere, the migraines and vertigo are back with a vengeance.

The current version of TalysMana was in the other computer’s backups, which I cannot mix with the laptop backups.  So no words for me, other than putting together the How To Think Sideways Walkthrough.  The computer is back now, though, and I’m getting ready to set it up again and put all the data back on it.

Hoping things will be less eventful from here on out, and I’ll be able to get more on the story soon.  The villain and I were having such an interesting conversation.

Doing an interlude with the villain.  Ugh.  Got his philosophy tonight.  467 words in twenty minutes.  I’ve heard this guy in various guises in the real world, and I didn’t like him or his view of the world any better on my pages.

But he is what he is.

How about you and your words?

Only got 240 words today, but I’m back at the story again, and I finished the chapter “Laying Bait.”  I love this chapter, and at the same time I think it’s going to be one of the ones that requires the greatest revision.

I’ll post it tomorrow.  I’m still running behind on my stuff for the How To Think Sideways Walkthrough and need to work on that for a couple hours more.

How about you?  Any words?

I was rolling along beautifully.  Getting the words written, getting the How To Think Sideways walkthrough put together, getting the NovelWritingSchool.com site running…

And the single piece of new technology around which I’d built the Week Four Walkthrough, putting hours and hours into lesson setup and demonstration, died on me.  Second time I used it.  Brand new thing.  Dead.

And with it, an entire week’s work went down the toilet, and I had to figure out how to completely redo everything while recasting it into a different format.

Hell of a week.  I have no new words to report.

Hope your words are coming better.

Yesterday I got 320 words in twenty minutes.

Today I got 321 in ten.

Some days are just better than others. But I like the conversation I’m building between Will and Kettan and the gathered Spinners.

They’re talking about creation and destruction, and about why individual creation matters—and to WHOM it matters.

There’s too much dialogue right now—I know that. But if I stop letting them just talk to each other, and start creating background action, I’m going to lose the thread of what they’re saying. So first draft on this part is going to be pretty straightforward talking heads.

I may end up going back in revision and splitting the conversation up across scenes or whole chapters. I’m not sure.

First, I just have to hear what they have to say—so that’s what you’re going to get in the first draft.

How are YOUR words coming?

Yesterday was toast. My schedule was jammed from wake up to wipe out, and I did not have a single ten-minute interval that was not filled with something I had to get done.

Today I got 304 words. Not in ten minutes—took me nearly twenty, but this was the start of a new chapter (LAYING BAIT) and I had a hard time finding my entry point to it.

It picks up just after the last chapter left off. I’m still iffy on what I got, but it’s the right number of words, and it’s progress. And there’s always revision.

How’s your work going?

No words to claim, but significant word on the outline cards for the next couple of chapters.  I have a pretty good idea where I want to go—nice to know after having been gone so long.

How did you do?

542 words today. I got sucked into finishing the chapter that I left hanging ages ago. It flew, and I was so glad to be back in the world of Talysmana.

No time to say anything else today—I still have to get all the Monday work done on the walkthrough.

But The Few, The Proud went into the chapter delivery hopper today—I didn’t realize I’d left something so close to finishing. Sure made it easier to get into the story again.

How’s your writing going?

I apologize for being gone. As you might have guessed, I’ve been dealing with headaches, and have missed a lot of work.  I’m way beyond playing catch-up—everything I had scheduled is going to end up moved back by months.

And Becky has run into a scheduling problem, and won’t be able to devote much time to TalysMana for a while…so I’m putting the story on hiatus again, this time until the beginning of next year.

Write A Book With Me is going to leap over to my writing diary for a while…it’s going to have to be a sort of “Write Short Stories, Write Bonus Lessons, and MAYBE Write A Book With Me” deal for a bit.

First WABWM post is over at the writing diary now, though.  Join me there for a while, and we’ll come back here when Becky is ready.