Storm's Fury is as 83,000 words (332 pages) and counting. (Thanks Deb, for your consultation services.) I'm trying to curve it toward an ending, but like everyone has known, it has a mind of its own.

I've been kicking around a few ideas for my fantasy and a horror. And I had a sudden bolt of inspiration on a robot story, but I have to mull it over.

Goals for this week: I'm aiming for the 90,000 word mark. Plotting out my short story/WOTF entry for next time.

How about you?
 

This is the last week that I'll be bogged down in classwork. My last final is on Thursday, woot!

I do sometimes find time to write late at night. Last night I got a good amount of the relationship between two main characters thought out. Oh, my novel, you were so much easier when it was just Celeste wandering around the dry lands!

Anyhoo, in any spare time I have this week, my goals are to work more on the outline, because no matter how often I think I'm ready to proceed with a next chapter, I find I need to do more thinking!

But my primary goal is to do well on my two finals, and on the three papers and one homework assignment I have due.
 

And, thank you for the thank you. I only did it because you're too cool.

[This message has been edited by debhoag (edited December 05, 2008).]
 

I'm still working on a backlog of critiques, and having a great time doing it. Bored Crow, I would love some more from you, if you're ready to send it. I'm probably way behind where everyone else is. Anyone else in need of a critique can send it over too.

I'm ready to start outlining the third(and probably final) book in this story. I have one of the story lines totally worked out in my head. The other story lines--not so much. So that's my goal for this week--start figuring out where this is all going. Once I have a working outline for the last story, I am going to make some changes to the first book and ask for some critiques.

Have a great week everyone!
Melanie
 

Were you able to recover anything from the computer that got damanged?
 

[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited December 06, 2008).]
 

Anyone else ready for five? I'm so scattered right now, I can't remember whom I owe what to...
 

[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited December 08, 2008).]
 

Weekly Status: Nothing to report.
 

I've got to get this idea out of my head and onto paper, it won't roll over and die. Well to be precise, the character won't, she is giving me an earache from all the chatting .

Not to mention the toilet wall covered in post-it-notes, an idea each time you pee or the bog monster eats you!
 

Weekly, we report our goals for pages/words, and keep each other informed. When you're ready and some others are ready, you can trade chapters. Just let them know what writing program you're using.

Welcome aboard.
 

I promise to not be a pretentious blowhard

I'm now 44934 words into a YA Fantasy, tentively called Winternight, although I have changed the title now five times, and am still not settled on what I've got.

My elevator pitch line is...

After being infected with a disease that will destine her to turn dragon, and overdramatic young woman struggles to find the cure before she grows scales.

Anyone want to read chapter one? I am more than willing to trade chapters for edits.
My babies distract me, but I edit the best I can.
~Sheena
 

I'm feeling a little more coherent--at the moment--but I have to catch up on two before I can volunteer for any more. But, I should be able to help you out soon.
 

Sounds like a fun story. I'll definitely read chapter one.... but not quite yet. I have to survive finals first, and then return all the critiques I've promised to people lately. But I'll let you know when I'm ready.

Glad to have someone else join the party.
 

Unfortunately, you are behind a mammoth crit for IB, so there will probably be some lag time before I can read your chapter, but I look forward to it.

[This message has been edited by Unwritten (edited December 09, 2008).]
 

I am excited to get help, or even just a kick in the pants occasionally. I have been off site for about the last six months as this darn story keeps taking up all of my computer time.

I am entering the third and final act of my story, and am having difficulty tying down to just one ending, hopefully something satisfactory, and somewhat surprising to the reader. I keep alternating between happy endings, and miserably sad yet ironic endings. I'm leaning towards the beautifully tragic, yet as I write closer to the ending, I find my attachment for my characters is causing me to want to find someway to make things happy for them, hence the dilema.

Heck though,for me any ending is fine, I just want to hold up this thick stack of paper I am enormously proud of and say,

"Yes, I wrote a novel. I finished what I started."

Oh and my goal for this week is to get started finding that ending. Whatever that entails. I might just let the story tell me how it wants to end. Whatev, I'm flexible.
 

On critting others:
I am happy to crit, just one at a time though, please spell check it first. If you don't, I may not be able to survive to the end, and you may see red lines everywhere.

I am ok with both US and UK English.
I do warn you that I am a grammar freak, and I tend to call a spade a spade.
If I find a problem, I try to help with a solution.
Tell me what level of crit you want, basic storyline truthful (polite) or truthful with sugarcoating (polite but not quite so harsh), I don't do other versions.
One chapter max at a time.
One person at a time.
I normally crit or edit my own work for an hour each evening.
I am six + hours out of sync with the US, as I live in France, so when you are going to bed, I'll be getting up. Use it to your advantage! If you are stuck with a short chapter (8 pages say) and really need help, email. I'll try to reply before you wake up.
I use Word 2000.
I read over 200 novels a year from the following: SF & F (all types), Crime, Historical, Thrillers and Horror.
Do not send me Romance or ChickLit, even if masquerading as the above fiction types. Also if you are writing about 'good' vampires, count me out.

My present writing obsession:

Working title: The Furies.
Genre: Dark Fantasy.
Brief synopsis: The winter solstice is the most dangerous magickal time of the year. For Lilith McRae it was almost her last night on earth, she survived. Two of her fellow Furies didn't, one was her best friend. She has 12 nights to avenge Isobel and stop her rising as a Grigori, and to find the killer before he becomes immortal.

Progress: World, and characters good to go. Brief plotline because I like my stories to be character driven.

I'd like to try for a first draft chapter per week.

Sheena, I am thrilled that you've buckled down and come so far. I should follow your example. I'd like to read your story, because I liked your characters so much over in Character Interviews. But please don't send it; I am not offering to crit anything until I get my own writing further along.

Wrote two paragraphs last night. Better than nothing.

[This message has been edited by MrsBrown (edited December 10, 2008).]
 

Your story sounds very interesting; I'm looking forward to reading it.

And for when I get writing again, are you okay with non-grammatical critiques? Since I'm on the first draft of my novel, I don't worry so much about action verbs and adverbs quite yet, and I'm much more interested in feedback on story content and flow. Though I too am quite anal about grammar and spelling, so I promise the draft won't terrify you.
 

Does anyone want me to crit anything? I do not claim to specialize in grammer, but I am good at character analasis, motivation, and trained in pacing and flow.

Way to go Mrs Brown. I have to tell you that I used the character interviews you did of Ida. They inspired me in the character of one of my Dragons. Ida is sassy and I really look forward to reading more about her, so keep going. I can't read it if you don't write it, that is just a fact.

[This message has been edited by shimiqua (edited December 10, 2008).]
 

I will crit in a style of your choice, storyline content, grammar, or both on any draft. Bad spelling is just rude though. It takes seconds to run a spell check program, but without the check the crit stalls whilst I'm figuring out what 'uresed' means. I feel that my time is worth that courtesy.

If however the words being mispelled are in a language that you do not speak, and I do, I will be happy to correct them for you, or to suggest real conversational language in that tongue. One of my biggest hates was Laurell K. Hamilton's use of very bad French in her books.
 

So be careful where you fling the "spellcheckers are easy to use" comments.

Normally I catch names, and the ad/as typos etc. The sentence itself gives that away. I've been critting over at Critters for 4 years.

Unwritten
I don't do Romance, simply because I know my limitations. I don't read them, so critting them is not only difficult, but unfair to you. If you have a plot where romance is a small integral part, it is not an issue.
 

I spent the morning training my OCR software to catch handwriting better. Procrastination at its finest.
 

Sometimes, getting those little bits of words out can be just as important as big chunks.

[This message has been edited by BoredCrow (edited December 11, 2008).]
 

Beginning, middle and end. There you go.

Pacing is one of those things you can only really focus on when you are finished, and editing the unessentials. You really can't know what is unessential till you get to the end anyway. I find myself trimming as I go and then wishing I kept most of what I trimmed.

So unwritten, if you want you can send me whatever you want and I can help with layout and finding where transitions would be helpful for flow. Or you can wait till your almost figured out and I can help with picking out what isn't neccessary.
Whateve, I'm pretty easygoing.

It doesn't bug me that your stories end up love stories. Most of everything I write ends up that way too. I write about disease and disfigurment, and it ends up being a teenage love story and I'm left asking "How did that happen?"

It doesn't bug me though, because love makes people do crazy things, which is fun to write, and love also raises the stakes when things go wrong. Which they always do.
~Sheena
 

Up until just recently, I've been struggling to just get my one short story a quarter out for WotF, but have someone found some way to start working again on my novel, which has been floating on the back burner nearly this entire last year. So, I thought that I'd see if I could jump on this bandwagon and give myself some good impetus toward getting more of it done.

My novel is in the realm of epic fantasy, but is very character oriented. I'm co-authoring it with a good friend of mine, and so far it's been the best experience of my writing career. We agreed early on to keep the novel to ourselves until the entire thing was out (definitely first draft, and probably through the second, consistency-focused, draft too). I know that there are lots of people looking for crits here for their novels. I'd be willing to crit, no problem. Just don't expect to see any chapters from me for a while. Don't know quite when it will all be done. Still have a ways to go. It's currently about 130K words, and I'm guessing it'll top out somewhere in the 225K range, dropping to around 200K by the time the second draft is complete.

Mostly, I'm just looking for some reason to make me write during those few times that I don't much want to and have nothing but excuses to keep me from it. I'll watch for next weeks post and put up some goals. Then cross my fingers and hope that I don't overshoot by too much.