Category Archives: Les Lumens

Houston, we have 10k

Hit the 10k word mark on Secret.  The next scene will be the one that brings together the threads of most of the plot, and the scene after that will be the next day — Earth Day.  With this family, you know what that means:  Sex time!  *laugh*

Might have been part of the way into the sex tonight, except that I wrote a block of about a thousand words that I ended up backspacing.  The original way I’d planned the scene just wasn’t coming across as realistic to me as I wrote it.  I took a nap, took the scissors to it, and came at it from a different angle that works much better, but still has all the same basic elements.

Then I just need to show the final resolution of conflict, the last little bit of character development for young Daniel, and wrap it all up.

After that, I’ll put my main focus on another story — whichever one sings to the me most, and let this one simmer for a couple of days.  Then, I’ll go back and dress up the scenery, address the theme of the contest in a bit stronger terms, and finalize the first draft.

Then, I’ll farm it out for first reads, make adjustments, and get it off to Roust.

Hope everyone finds this a worthy addition to the Magic of the Wood series.  I’m really enjoying the new characters, and of course I enjoy all the continuing ones.  It’s hard not to love Daniel, Xantina, Xanbrina, Xankia, and all the rest *grin*

Okay, time to wind down and hit the sack.

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8k on Secret

Managed to get in a little writing tonight after the young one went to bed.  Everything is set up now for the resolution of the story…  and the sex, of course.

I’m going to go ahead and crash out in a few minutes, in hopes that it will provide a little more time when I’m awake enough to write tomorrow.  I could probably write the next scene tonight before I get too tired, but hitting the hay now might let me get well into the conclusion tomorrow.

At least I’m not feeling pressured to make the Earth Day deadline.  Not only is it still a ways off, but I’m just not having that nagging feeling I get sometimes with a contest/scheduled story that can drag me down and keep me from doing it.  I had a lot of trouble with that in the past on chain stories and contest tales.

VR:DQ is further coalescing in my head as well.  This is all a good sign, because running into blocks that I can’t resolve by musing while I’m at work is the first indication that I’m about to hit a low point where I can’t write.  I’m actually having more frequent flashes of inspiration, rather than fewer.

As always, keeping my fingers crossed.  I feel even more down when I can’t write because I’m down.  It’s a vicious cycle.

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Doing some tweaking

Boy is wound up and a half, so I’m betting that I won’t get any writing done tonight.

Decided to do some tweaking on the story listing pages.  I’m adding some borders to the headers and the story descriptions, which should help focus the eyes.  It just seems too loose the way it is right now.  That part appears to be fine, and also looks fine on the latest releases page, which uses some of the same elements to display.

I’m also going to remove the individual chapter listings from this for Lit, and instead link to whatever the first chapter of the story is there.  Trying to get all the individual chapters to display properly is just a pain in the ass.  Reducing it to a single link will allow me to create a much cleaner page.  It’s not as if Lit is that difficult to navigate from chapter to chapter.

It’s not as good as SOL, but I think that nearly everyone can figure it out.

I might finish it tonight.  If so, I’ll edit this post to note that, and upload the new version to the server.

I should probably be working on the latest releases code instead, but that’s just too involved to deal with while the child is running around and hollaring.

I did at least accomplish something with my writing while I was at work today.  I figured out how to make that transition that I was missing in Secret.  If I can get my frayed nerves together, I should be able to get it down on “paper” in short order.

Once I finish the core storyline on this one, I’ll need to go back and dress it up in places.  It just doesn’t have as much scenery as the previous entries.  Part of the reason for that is that so much of it takes place in somewhat dry locations.  I’ll figure it out *laugh*

I also need to make sure that the Earth Day connection is as strong as the other elements.  At the moment, I’m feeling as though it’s almost a peripheral thing, and that just won’t do for a themed contest.  I made that mistake with “Daughter”, but I was lucky to figure out a way to continue this series in the first place, so I guess I can forgive myself for that *laugh*  I’ll probably need to go back and add some scenes dealing with the theme to flesh that part out.  Already have several ideas, so I’m sure I can find the right ones and the right places to put them without grinding the story down.

Did some thinking about the new VR:DQ as well.  I think I have the overall story locked in my head.  It’s more or less the details that I need to work on.  I need to figure out what equipment and spells we’re going to have, where in the DQ6 world everything is going to happen, etc.  Once I lock in those details, the story should pretty much write itself.

Anybody who’s hoping for a wild romp with Barbara and Mireyu will probably be dissapointed, although they are going to appear naked, and there will be sexual tension with them.  There’s also going to be some nice hot and sticky sex, but it just won’t be with them.  The way the overall story goes just doesn’t allow it.

This second storyline will actually follow the worlds that I’m going to visit in order — 6, 7, then 8.  That of course means that the storyline will culminate with Jessica 😉

Something about what I’ve been writing on SOTM is striking me as off.  It just doesn’t feel organic for some reason.  I’m letting it simmer for a while, and then I’m going to come back and cold read it.  I may just be missing a scene that needs to be in there, or need to cut one out.  Could be that I need to advance to a plot point faster, or perhaps I need to slow it down.  Just too difficult to tell, as of now.

I’m thinking about completely changing the way I started Ch. 05 of Lowborn.  I was going to introduce an important new character, but that just isn’t feeling organic either.  I hate to lose the surprise transition from the cliffhanger at the end of 4, but if that just flows better, that will be the way it goes.  I’m starting to believe that introducing that new character a little later is the easiest way to hit a certain plot point, as well.  I think it will allow me to cut down the length of the story without losing anything, too.  The route I was going was looking as if it would add a whole extra chapter to however many it ends up.

I’m always fiddling around with other ideas, but nothing other than those four stories is getting any real serious attention.  I’m just letting the other ideas bounce around and filing away tidbits when they hit me.  I’m actively thinking about these four on a daily basis.

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Another 1500

Wrote another fifteen hundred words on Secret this evening.  Trying to make a smooth transition into the conclusion of the story now.

I’m hoping that I can talk the same editor who picked apart last year’s entry into taking a look at this one when I finish it.  Her insight was quite the boon, and I consider it as having a lot to do with why that story placed in the contest.  It will be an added benefit that she’s already familiar with the setting and the peripheral characters.

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A new record.

I had 24 spam comments attempt to post to the blog today.  Thirteen of them within the last hour *laugh*

I finished the transition into the DQ world in the new VR:DQ this morning, and the setup for the major turning point in Secret this evening.  Everything in the middle was pretty much lost to either playing with my young one, shopping, or pulling my hair out trying to keep an eye on the tornado child.

I did finish the covers for Secret and the DQ, though.  Yet another thing I do to try to keep busy and stay productive when I’m not in the right mode to write.  Somewhere between writing, coding, and cover work, I try to get at least something done with my writing every day — even if it’s just reading back through what I’ve written recently.

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