Ready. Set. Write! (Goal for Week 5)
HOW I DID ON LAST WEEK'S GOALS
I wrote! And I actually met my writing goal of 500 words. I wrote a little bit more than that but I am so excited! Especially since I wasn't home for a few days and haven't really been writing that much lately. This is definitely a step up from the three sentences I wrote last week.
MY GOALS FOR THIS WEEK
Unfair is currently about 26,000 words in all. So right now I'm just working on fixing the beginning and, more importantly, the pacing. The majority of the book takes place over the course of one day which wasn't my intention so I want to work on changing that but right now my goal for this week is to fix the beginning.
A FAVORITE LINE FROM MY STORY OR ONE WORD/PHRASE THAT SUMS UP WHAT I WROTE/REVISED
Here's the new and improved first line: "Kneeling beside Queen Rowena's massive left foot, it took everything in me not to launch a stone at her cold, expressionless face."
THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE I FACED THIS WEEK
Not being home was a challenge (I'll talk more about this on Wednesday) but the biggest challenge would have to be getting reacquainted with my main character's voice. I figured out part of the reason why I haven't been writing had to do with me not remembering how Camellia sounded. So, to remedy that, I reread parts of my wip to get a feel for her voice again and that seemed to do the trick.
SOMETHING I LOVE ABOUT MY WIP
The languages! Okay, I'll admit. I haven't really came up with my own languages for the world Unfair is set in yet. Shadow & Bone and The Girl of Fire and Thorns are both books that do a great job of using existing languages and twisting them around a bit to fit their world. I haven't gotten to that stage so, as of now, I'm just using the actual language as a placeholder. Since Solterra (the place where my main character is from) is based off of Cape Verde (geographically not culturally), I wanted the people that lived there to speak Portuguese or at least a version of it. And in Casselein, another place in my story, the characters speak 'German' (this is mostly a nod to the Brothers Grimm since they are from Germany and this is a Snow White retelling). I hope, in later drafts, I can make the languages more unique but it has been fun incorporating them so far.
I hope everyone had a productive week. Good luck with this one!
10 comments
Rereading parts of my WiP is how I start every writing session - it really does help me refamiliarize myself with what's going on and keep the voice consistent. Glad that helped you too!
REPLYGreat progress last week! SO glad to hear you're writing again and I hope you have another wonderful writing week!
keep working at it. I find the "write now, edit later" method works best for me. If I think of some big change I want to do that affects the beginning of the story, I write it down and save it for later. This keeps me from getting stuck in the first draft stage. Thanks for sharing!
REPLYI love how much thought and planning you've put into the worldbuilding of your story, Raven. That part is always fun, but it's a lot of work! Good for you for getting some words down this week too! Whenever I sit down to write, I always read what I wrote during my last writing session to get myself in the zone, for the same reason you mention--familiarizing yourself with the voice and whatnot. That always seems to help! Have a wonderful week! :D
REPLYI love making up languages - it's one of the most fun parts of writing fantasy! Great job getting some words down. Hopefully, reading through the draft again will make it easier! Good luck! :)
REPLYSounds really awesome that you're working with different languages! I love linguistics! Congrats on meeting your goal last week and good luck this week :)
REPLYHey, some writing is better than none! Way to go, and good luck this week! I tried making up new curse words for a fantasy book once, and it was tough--I can't imagine making up a whole new language! Go you. :D
REPLYYay for hitting your goals and always a reminder---any writing is better than none, even if its just 1 word. LOL at least thats what I tell myself! :) Good luck with your goals this week and making up your own languages…so neat!
REPLYGreat job this week. Fingers crossed the momentum continues. I am totally impressed with your languages. I can't even imagine making up a language, even one based on existing languages. Sounds incredibly hard, but totally awesome!
REPLYI loved how the Grisha series developed words in sort-of-but-not-quite Russian but definitely FELT Russian. I like your references to Cape Verde and the Grimm brothers!
REPLYLanguages are definitely a part of world building I usually stay away from. It's pretty much the one part that intimidates me :)
REPLYGood luck getting more writing in this week!