Called Word Count Dashboard, it brands itself as “part word count tracker and part vision board,” and it’s TOTALLY helping me in my goal for word counts on book 2. I mocked up my favorite book two inspiration photo (“Enchantress” by Gaudi Buendia on DeviantArt) as a cover, set my goal, and I was off!
With Word Count Dashboard, you log your writing sessions and can even make notes on them if you need to be reminded of what a particular session brought out! For writing sessions with enough words, you earn bronze, silver, or gold stars, which are definitely highly motivating!
(Yes, you do spy a tentative title for book 2 there. ^_~ )
If you need a change of pace while trying to squeeze out words, I highly recommend it. It’s helped me so far!
If you didn’t already know that about me, I’m going to go ahead and assume you’re surprised because my friends used to say to me: “But Jen, I would have thought Game of Thrones would be totally YOUR THING!” To which I would reply: “Me too. But… meh.”
For whatever reason, I couldn’t force myself to get interested or invested, despite reading the first book. Despite watching the first season. But, I was determined to give it another shot and now… now, I’m invested. I’m not reading the books, which is strange for me. I think George R.R. Martin tells a great story, but his writing style isn’t a good mesh for my reading preferences.
Doesn’t mean I don’t think that he and the television show adapted from his books don’t have plenty to teach me about writing.
For starters, the characters in Game of Thrones are layered and fascinating. The villains may be villains, but we understand the codes they live by, the things that motivate them. We can see character and relationship arcs. We see bravery and cowardice, cruelty and kindness, nobility and moral indifference. We see characters who exhibit all different levels of these traits and sometimes we even see these traits in the same characters who are figureheads for the opposite traits. Good people can have bad days. Villains can have a moment of kindness.
We have Arya, inarguably a protagonist of the story, who has a darkness inside of her.
We have Cersei, whose main redeeming quality is that she loves her children.
We have Joffrey who… No, actually, Joffrey is just an arrogant little prick.
I take all of that away from watching Game of Throne, but actually, what I take away the MOST is this:
Write ruthlessly.
Preach, GRRM.
Because that’s the thing: it is a scary feeling as a fan to not know if your favorite character is going to make it, but damn, it makes for an invested experience. Damn if I’m not on the edge of my seat every time there’s a new episode because no one is safe.
Safety is a nice thing to have in reality, but it doesn’t make for a very interesting story. What makes for an interesting story is characters that take risks and make mistakes, who don’t have a guarantee that they’ll make it to the end in one piece or at all.
Happy endings are great. They’re nice, but not everyone can have a happy ending.
What does this mean for my characters in Book 2 of Threats of Sky and Sea? I’m not sure exactly. I love my protagonists and want very much for them to be happy, but I’m not sure they will be. They’re essentially going to war. War inevitably brings sorrow, pain, and strife. Things are won and lost.
I want the story to be fierce.
And, thanks to Game of Thrones, I’m paying extra attention to that.
It’s been far too long since I write-a-thonned, but progress MUST be made on Book #2 of the Threats of Sky and Sea series.
My goal is simply for 3,000 words. I’ve found that 5,000 is a bit unrealistic for me. I’ve done it before, but by the time I reach word 5,000 I feel more frustrated than accomplished. But Aleta and Bree need their story told, so ON I GO!
I’m joined today by Lindsey Allyson, Angel of Mermaid Vision Books, Christa of More Than Just Magic, and Candice of The Grown-up YA. I love write-a-thons with friends because they’re so helpful to keep me accountable and make sure that I get my shit done! Plus, we all get to cheer for each other’s accomplishments!
10:46 AM: The draft currently stands at 6,144 words, and I’ve just switched into a difficult POV. It’s not a character that I’m as used to writing, but I love her, and I think that it’s time she got more to say. I’ve got my glasses, PJs, and oversized robe on and Game of Thrones on in the background to remind me to write ruthlessly. Things get a bit more serious in this book. AND ON WE GO!
Draft: 6,144. | Today’s progress: 0
11:50 AM: Slow and steady wins the race, right? Within this hour, my laptop died, and I had to go on a hunt for my power cord. I also had a random scene pop into my head, so I jumped very far ahead in the story to “sketch” that out roughly.
Draft: 6,634 | Today’s progress: 490
1:00 PM: AHHHH, the Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones may have been a tactical error to have on in the background while I write, especially since I’m in EARLY scenes, not action. But it does make me want to keep that ruthlessness in mind for later… BUT NOT TO THE EXTENT OF A MASSCARE. That distracted me a bit, and now I’m breaking for lunch. But I feel good about my 3K goal!
Draft: 7,192 | Today’s progress: 1,048
4:40 PM: WELL, lunch was consumed, and then I felt a little less than human sitting around in my PJs and robe still, so I showered and got dressed. I’m actually battling pretty terrible caffeine withdrawal as well at the moment, with no soda in my house. Pounding head, sensitivity to light, all contributing to my nausea.
But I’ve finally gotten back to work! I’m rediscovering how first drafting works for me. Right now, I’m writing a bunch of small sketched in random scenes, and THANK GOODNESS for Scrivener– makes it much easier to go back in scene by scene and reorganize later.
Draft: 7,619 | Today’s progress: 1,475
Sunday 9:56 AM: WELL, yesterday was a bit of a fail. The headache got worse, not better, and took me down. But I refuse to go back to Day Job on Monday without meeting my goal of 3K!
Draft: 7,619 | Write-a-thon progress: 1,475
Monday 9:53 AM: I completely forgot to update this log, but I rewarded myself for roughly every 500 words with an episode of The West Wing, which I was binge-watching a bit this weekend, and I finally met my goal! I had to switch out of this difficult POV for the moment. It’s difficult enough to find the story, and it seemed to be working against me to be struggling to find her POV as well.
Draft: 9,172 | Write-a-thon progress: 3,028
Here’s my favorite bit of non-spoilery dialogue what I wrote this weekend:
“Two silvers.”
Bree chokes and laughs. “What, do you stuff your chickens with emeralds?” She leans forward, hand on the table. “You’re not stupid. Look at us. You think we’ve got two silvers to spend on a chicken?”
“You can have the stew for one.”
She purses her lips and raises her eyebrows at me, looking impressed. “Quite the place we’ve stumbled on here. Emeralds in the chicken and a sapphire in the stew.”
Starting a new book is a daunting task, but a necessary one. Threats of Sky and Sea has only copy edits to go through, and its accompanying short story is drafted as well (more on that later). But it’s the first in a series. I may be uncertain as to the length of said series, but I know this much: there’s at least a book 2. And I’d love to release it at the end of this year– or, at the latest, early next year. So that means I’ve got to write it. Here are some of my favorite, not-so-revolutionary ways to get that done. 1) The notes app on my iPhone. Occasionally, I find myself inspired about a particular scene, have a random snippet of dialogue run through my head, or have an epiphany regarding a plot twist. Every […]
Yes, I was trying to reference soccer with the blog post title. Did that come through? Because I’m such a huge sports fan as I huddle in my writing and reading cave, OBVIOUSLY. So, I went to New York… and then I came back home to sunny South Florida. Also known as BLISTERINGLY HOT South Florida. Summer is truly upon us, but Dorothy had it right, there is really no place like home. Something about seeing the book world come together for Book Expo America was amazingly inspiring. And coming home to my wonderful, but a bit hum-drum life was sad. But the conference really lit a fire under my butt. I want to start living my dream. To that end… some GOALS: -I’m going to finish the first draft of my Work in Progress (tentatively titled Apparent) this week. I […]
