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Bleh, still feeling rotten today with the headcold - I tried to do some work just now and my brain just felt like mush when I tried to read some emails - and it's the same with writing. At least I have been able to get some cleaning done as that doesn't require any brainpower!
Get some rest so your body has a chance to heal, then your brain will get what it needs. *Sleep*
buddhangela… just forget it - Very sensible advice, thank you *HeartY*
No writing today, as I've come down with one of those headcolds that makes my head feel like it's full of cotton wool.

...but in exciting life news, we've just had an offer accepted on a house we're hoping to purchase *Mindblown* So writing time might be cut into over the next few days/weeks/months by calling mortgage brokers and conveyancers and whatnot... But I don't mind that so much *Delight*
Found a load of old notes on The Novel hidden away in my OneNote - most were out of date because my thinking/plotting has developed significantly since then - the few that remained went in my and put them into my "master" (paper) notebook today.

How do you keep track of your writing notes? Are you a OneNote-r, a scriven-er, a pieces-of-paper-all-over-the-place-er...?
I make occasional notes in my Notepad here...and, when I'm really in the mood for self-flagellation, I even create a private static item as a placeholder for the wonders that are just waiting to burst forth...any moment now...

I missed a picture prompt contest when I had to go get my appendix removed, and I've got such a static item containing the picture and plot outline, all ready and waiting to go. It's just had its one year anniversary. There's dithering, then there's procrastination, then there's my masterpieces-to-be limbo list.
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As a dedicated Word user, I have lots of Word docs in my 'Unfinished' folder.
A combination of word documents of various notes, notebooks of full of various of notes and pieces-of-paper-all-over-the-place.
Read through chapters 13 - 22 this weekend (i.e. the latter half of the novel), trying to figure out what to do next. It still needs a lot of revising, but at least it all makes logical sense and the characters have understandable motivations for why they're doing what they're doing. I have to get all of that down before I start doing all the fun, shiny bits like describing locations and secondary characters in detail *Rolling*
My water-based research continues as I get mildly distracted by surfing videos today. BUT... I finished this draft of Chapter 22 - that's the LAST chapter in my novel, folks!!


Of course, I'm now thinking of all the things that could go in an epilogue... *Dead*
Small amount of progress with Chapter 22, although I got distracted by looking up videos of geysers. It's relevant to the plot, I promise!!
I'm back on the newsfeed, after the inevitable lapse in my "posting every day" promise to myself....

Working on a draft of my final chapter at the moment!! It's very exciting to be writing an ending, but, gosh, there's a lot to wrap up...

At the moment, it's Chapter 22. I hope I can keep it that way, as I like the number - I got married on the 2nd July 2022, and we lived at house no. 22 then too!
Haven't updated for a bit on here, but I have been slowly plodding on with revising and editing The Novel... well, until the other day that is, when my wrist/forearm started aching (never write with a biro for an extended period of time, folks!) and I had to make the sad decision to only write/type for my actual paid work until it starts feeling better *Cry*
Got an hour and a half of writing in this morning because I'm not working. Mostly going over the logistics of Chapter 19, which is complicated because it's when (count 'em) 5 main characters plus at least 3 minor characters, all with different motivations, travel to one place as the setup for the Big Finale.... How do you handle the logistics of your stories? I think I wrote out the "stage directions" for how all of this works about four times before it actually made sense!
Brief revisions to Chapter 2 complete! I'm sure there will be more revisions to come in future rounds...

How many revisions do you tend to do? I get overwhelmed if I try to do too much at once, so I tend to spend a lot of time looking at plot and character motivations, and I have to have a whole separate round of "polishing", which for me includes all those things I forget in a first draft, like actually physically describing my characters and settings... *Delight* *FacePalm*
Finished the marathon of typing up Chapter 12 - 10,590 words!!

I have about 23 chapters, so if every one was that length, I'd be way over any acceptable length for a novel, even a fantasy-ish one. Luckily I don't think any of the others get anywhere near ch 12 - I just looked at chapters 3-7, and all of those only equal about 26,000. Some rebalancing of chapter divisions may be needed later on!
Continuing to plod through Chapter 12. 6500 words and rising. Will it ever end?!

I had to get a blanket for my morning writing session this morning! I know it's a well-worn cliche, but we really are having a rubbish summer so far here in the UK! *Rain*
Still typing up Chapter 12 - it's the (emotional, dramatic) finale to Part 2, so it's one of the longer ones, and is going to take me a while.

I notice as I type up that there are certain types of punctuation that I overuse - I'm sure in future drafts all my colons will be ruthlessly edited out, e.g.

Another man had entered: he looked a bit older than Simon’s parents, balding, a medical bag in hand.


Do you find yourself overusing certain types of punctuation? For me, it's almost a "safety blanket", something I use when I can't think of anything else to whack in the middle of a sentence!
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I've got an unhealthy addiction to emdashes, and as I can never be bothered putting in a proper emdash, it just ends up being a normal dash.

And studying German many years ago has permanently scrambled my brain re the correct use of commas in English. *Bigsmile*
Kåre Enga in Montana - Yes, that should be a mantra of all writers, I think - "there's always time to edit" !*BigSmile*
Dave Ryan - Comma-littered sentences are a another thing that I'm sure will get edited out ruthlessly in future drafts!
Haven't posted here for the last few days, but have jumped back and been working on revising my opening Chapters 1 & 2 so that they align with events later on in the story.

I love finding moments when going over earlier chapters when you realise that you now have the ability to slip in a little bit of foreshadowing about events yet to come. Great fun!!
Continuing to revise chapter 12 on the train this morning. This climactic scene is tricky because I have about 9 characters in one small room at one point. Do you find it tricky giving all your characters memorable characteristics, physical or otherwise?!
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