Workin’ on Lowborn

Well, what’s hitting me right now is Lowborn. I haven’t actually written anything on it, but I’m outlining this final chapter, getting the transitions together in my head, and figuring out how to bring all the strands I’ve been weaving together. I’ve got quite a few things to tie up in a pretty little bow to finish this one, so I’m giving it a great deal of muse time.

The characters have some complex issues. There’s the main plot. There’s the title to bring full circle. Finally, there’s putting Mindblind ‘on the road’ to meet up with the rest of the companions eventually.

The way I’m thinking, I’ll probably be ready to start writing in a day or so, because the next couple of scenes are pretty clear. From there, I’ll let Mindblind and the rest help me out. The characters will always be my strength, and I let them guide me quite a bit.

I am anxious as hell to get this one out, as it’s been in the works for so long ( started shortly after Merchant Princess ) but there’s still the editing process to consider once I finish, and we’re talking about 8 chapters. It will need at least 2 cold reads, then my first pass edit, then off to Roust.

Odds are that I’ll pass it back through some of my first readers as well. At least one has been reading it since the beginning anyway, and the only reason she hasn’t seen the latest revisions and chapters is because she’s swamped with school. Sure that she’ll want to see the final and comment before it goes live, though. Her insight has been extremely valuable.

So, even if I had it done, I still couldn’t give a solid release date right now *laugh*

SOTM is getting muse time as well, but I’m concentrating on this one because it’s coming at me stronger. I’ve got several ways I can go with where I am in SOTM, and I’m trying to figure out which has the best combination of action and heading toward the ending of the story.

It’s not as if I’m close to the end, but there are several things going to come to a head soon. The momentum is going to crank up, forcing my girls to go with the flow or get ran over.

Just wanted everyone to know that I’m working 🙂

If I didn’t say it before, Halloween may very well be a burst. I’ve got more than one idea in all three pen names. Six different stories in the Halloween contest aren’t inconceivable. Maybe even more.

A little better…

But still groggy from the cold meds. I’m barely functioning well enough to write simple porn at the moment *laugh* That’s why I’m trying to finish one last story for the Summer contest in my third name. It’s keeping me doing something, even if it’s not the stories most of y’all coming here would really like to see moving.

When I’m coming out of a slump, any words getting on paper is a good thing. Even though these are simple porn, I’m still developing characters, moving them through their paces, and having ideas. When I’m in a slump, there’s simply nothing on the creative side of my brain functioning. There’s a “gone fishing” sign out, and it stays there until my muse decides to come home.

Also exploring a new category with this one, and a little daring is a good sign, too. New categories are never easy to break into. You don’t have much idea what you’re getting into until you jump in, post it, and see what the readers think. I’ve been successful so far, but you never know when that big flop is going to happen *laugh*

Okay, I’m going to try to get a little more written tonight, before the cold meds completely knock me out.

Stupid cold…

Well, this cold is just knocking me down and whipping my ass. It’s obvious that I’m unlikely to finish Blessing for the contest, so I’m going back burner on it. I might decide to release it as a regular story if I finish it before then, or save it to pick up next summer.

I’ll probably move forward with Spirit of the Wood, my idea for Halloween. Lots more time to work on that one, so maybe I’ll finish it *laugh*

Also trying to finish another in my third name, but even set-up and screw porn is hard to write as bad as I’m feeling. It’s only more likely because those stories are short, and a lot easier to write.

Just haven’t done much. I’m miserable when I’m not medicated, and I’m in a zombie-like state when I am. I’m still musing while at work, since my brain is more or less unnecessary in my job. Just not getting any of it written when I get home.

Been several days, so I’m hoping to kick this thing soon. I’m going to give a shot at knuckling down on SOTM and Lowborn when I do. I’d really like to get the next chapter of the first out and start posting the second. It’s been in the works forever.

Up to 6k on Blessing

Up to six thousand words on Blessing after a slow weekend. Just wasn’t in the mode to write, and I was watching the returns from my latest in my third name skyrocket 🙂

Having a pretty severe cold didn’t help.

Also restarted a story in my third name, changing the POV to better fit in the category where I intend to put it. It will be another contest story, if I finish it in time.

Now, I’ve got to drag my butt to work here in a few minutes… Ugh…

Workin’ on it

Getting ready to head back to the word processor after a little break. I’ve been smiling at the returns from my latest in my third name, and finishing stage 3 of testing and coding for my automated contest tracking software.

Up to the point where I can grab all the necessary information from the contest page, then grab the score and category from each individual author’s page, then grab the comments, views, and favorites from the story page itself.

Only one data set left, and that’s the votes from the toplists. Once I have all my markers located, it’s a matter of putting it all together in a single program that actually saves to the database. Hoping to complete the main testing during this contest, then give it a full alpha run during the Halloween contest.

If all works well, I’ll be ready to track full-on with the next Winter Holiday contest, and should be able to track all the contests to gather data from that point forward with little to no work on my part.

Yah, I know it doesn’t mean much to those of you who only care about my writing, but these little victories boost my feel-good factor, which is always good for creativity.

It’s also good to keep my hand in, so to speak, because I need to update the software that runs the site soon, and there’s likely to be glitches and corrections needed. Plus, I’ll be expanding new sections of the site in time. That at least should be of interest, because there will be a lot of behind the story info in those new sections.

Also need to fix the frikkin’ widget that displays the updates from this blog on the main site… Grr… don’t know why it broke, but I think I’m going to eventually ditch the default feed grab and write my own. That is, if the update to the software doesn’t fix the glitch.

Now, off to write.