Goals:

Bone of Yesterday | draft 1 | 00,000 / 80,000

Bone of Yesterday | draft 2 | ??

Bone of Yesterday | beta readers | ??

Project:

Bone of Yesterday | a fantasy novel

From Erdwiy’s rugged highlands to its mist-wreathed forests and far-flung cities, knight-errant Brywen is renowned for two things: capturing the cannibalistic sorcerer Ivander and failing to save her squire from a bloody death at Ivander’s hands. She spends her days seeking atonement by hunting dark sorcerers and their malevolent fabricants across the land, and wastes her nights sleepless with guilt and recurring nightmares.

When Brywen follows a particularly slippery fabricant to a small farming village, she uncovers something strange at the burial ground. The local cleric had written off the empty coffin as a grave-robbing, but the illegible marks scratched into the inside of the coffin and the dried blood in each of the offering bowls sets Brywen’s senses tingling. She knows sorcery when she sees it—and when the cleric accidentally springs the trap left behind, Bronwyn’s suspicions are confirmed.

There is only one person knowledgeable enough to help her track the newly resurrected sorcerer. Ivander agrees to aid Brywen on one condition: once their quest is complete, he be moved to the crumbling island prison of Ortuus to live out his life sentence in peace and isolation. Erdwiy's ruling council accepts Ivander's terms and Brywen must force herself to work alongside the man she hates.

Although Brywen hopes she can use a lesser evil to catch a greater one, it soon becomes clear that dark forces are not so easily tamed—and revenge is the reward of a patient man.

SOLD! I'm so sold on this book! I can't wait to see your updates! <3

love your banner!
good luck seeing this project to completion this year.

Ooo! Good luck!

Best of luck in 2021!

Goals:

Bone of Yesterday | draft 1 | 10,002 / 80,000

Update:

I'd originally intended to update this thread in the middle of the month, but I guess that never happened. I think if I can at least keep to end-of-month updates that should be enough.

10k on this novel for January is pretty good. I'm glad I could get to a nice number. I haven't set myself exact word count goals for this project, and while this is less than I'd usually write in a good month...I got busy, you know how it is. I took off a week from this novel while I worked on a uni assessment and then that week turned into another week. I'm back on the horse now, at least.

I'd also intended to have an outline to work from before I started this novel, but that also didn't happen. Oops. I'm not flying blind, though: I'm working from a synopsis. So it's basically the same as an outline, except I have to decide on chapter length/break points as I go. Hopefully this doesn't come back to bite me later.

In other news, I've also been writing snippets of short fiction, as usual, and trying to work on revisions of a couple that have already been through a few drafts. Started playing around with poetry a bit as well.

That's about it for now. I'll have to make some time to check out everyone's progress threads - hopefully you're all doing well.

end of month updates are good --
any time updates are also good!
nice work with the 10k!

Goals:

Bone of Yesterday | draft 1 | 25,015 / 80,000

Update:

February went slightly better than January with 15k written. I did have a few days off here and there, but in general I'm satisfied with the progress I'm making. My university studies start again this week so I'm going to focus on finding a balance between everything. The story itself is going pretty well and though the writing's by no means perfect I think the pacing is okay as well? And I'm happy with how the character relationships are forming so far. The plot has started rolling and after the next fight scene my MC is going to arrive at the prison to meet Ivander, with her new squire in tow. Hopefully I can get the chemistry (?) right between Brywen and Ivander.

Goals:

Bone of Yesterday | draft 1 | 43,717 / 80,000

Update:

It's only halfway through March and I've already written 18k! I'm also halfway to my word count goal, which is great, yet also a bit odd because I'm not even to the halfway point in my novel plot. Usually my first drafts are more likely to be under word count, so this is an interesting development...will have to wait and see how long this draft ends up.

The reason my word count has spiked this month is I've started regularly doing 15 minute writing sprints. Since it's been staying darker for longer in the mornings, instead of getting up early before work to exercise I've been using that time to do 1 or 2 writing sprints instead. And then usually another sprint in the evening, if I have time. On weekends I've been doing multiple sprints in between my chores and other tasks. It's working out well so far. I did have a day where I only did 1 sprint, and then the next day I didn't write at all, so I'm not totally opposed to having days off but I also don't want to fall into the habit of not writing or going multiple days without writing.

I want to sign up for WriDay but haven't decided on word count yet. I think I'm also leaning towards not doing April's CampNaNo. I feel like it's lost some of its appeal now that it's been moved to the regular NaNoWriMo site, plus I know I'm capable of writing consistently without it, so the idea of having to go online and update my word count daily seems like more of a chore that I don't need? Is there any other upside to CampNaNo, other than the 'rewards'?

In other writing-related news, I submitted another flash fiction the other day, and am going to be working on finishing and revising another short story starting today. I want to somehow, someday get to the point where I've got multiple short stories out on submission so that my impatience waiting for responses goes down a bit and I've always got something to work on etc. (Does that make sense? Basically I want to stop refreshing my inbox after I submit things, though I guess multiple submissions doesn't automatically mean I'll stop doing that.  ) That obviously takes time and work, but it's what I'm aiming for.

Re: Camp I think if updating the word count everyday feels like a chore then don't worry about it. Personally I like doing that. I create projects and update on the NaNo site year round now that's a possibility. I like seeing the graph go up, I find it motivating but if that doesn't work for you then I wouldn't worry. Well done with smashing your goal! You are doing great, big thumbs up!

Goals:

Bone of Yesterday | draft 1 | 50,772 / 80,000

Update:

It's been over a month since I've got down any words for Bone of Yesterday and I want to get back into it. Still juggling work + commute, study, etc. plus now that the days are shorter and it's dark when I get out of bed and by the time I get home from work, it's harder to find the motivation to do lots of the things I was doing in the summer. But I have to figure it out if I'm going to make progress on this novel. (Also, this time of year is usually when I've hit a roadblock in the past as well, so I definitely think the change of seasons is a contributing factor.)

Anyway, that's basically all I popped in to say. Since I've been working from a synopsis until now I think breaking that down into a tighter chapter outline may help at this stage, so that's where I'm going to start. Not for the whole synopsis, but from the point I've reached until the end of the novel. Then I need to make time for actually writing.

Best of luck finding that work/commute/life balance.

Good luck!