Happy Friday, Echolettes!
Another week, another lengthy chapter added to Desolation of the Damned (that’s Book 3 of the Damned trilogy, in case you’re catching up).
Tuesday and Wednesday were by far my most productive writing days this week. Monday morning was our monthly grocery run, and I had to balance novel writing with freelance writing all week. I’d hoped to get at least 5,000 new words down and came short of that, but considering the 3,000+ words I did add are all polished and spit-shined, I’m pleased with my progress. Here’s how it broke down:
Monday: Revised Saturday’s output.
Tuesday:
Session 1: 663
Session 2: 267
Session 3: 486
Total: 1,416
Wednesday:
Session 1: 449
Session 2: 558
Session 3: 804
Total: 1,811
Thursday: Editing and revision.
Friday morning: Pre-writing - detailed outline of the next two chapters.
Total words added to manuscript: 3,227, bringing the overall word count to 33,384.
I’m pretty sure this next chapter will bring me to the halfway point, and it’s all downhill from there.
I’m really happy with this new rhythm I’ve got going of writing this novel in phases instead of powering through a first draft. I pre-write a few scenes (basically a detailed outline), and then go through and flesh out each scene, revising and editing as I go, writing in the morning and then editing in the evening after all my other work is done. If you’re a writer and the standard way of writing a crappy first draft and then editing the entire thing in multiple passes overwhelms and wears you out, I definitely recommend giving this method a try.
Friday Funsies
My Instagram friend @thelorijean (who is an immensely talented artist and crafter in her own right) has a daughter who is in Nashville running down her dream of being a country/pop singer, and girl’s definitely got the musical chops for it. She’s already released several extremely catchy singles under the name of Riley Q, and this morning she dropped a new single that is an anthem for introverts everywhere, Please Don’t Make Me Leave My Couch. Give it a listen:
As usual, I’m leaving you with an open thread and a question: what’s one random fact not everyone knows about you?
Wishing you a restful weekend and a tolerably good week.
Until next time,
Jean♥
I'll go first: I played the saxophone in middle school and high school. I made my way up to first chair in 10th grade and from that point on nobody could take it from me.