Wednesday 23 May 2012

InCreWriMa WEEK FOUR: Check In

Hello, dear readers! You're getting this week's InCreWriMa check in a little bit early, because (just in case you forgot) I'm off to Leeds tomorrow to attend the Leeds Book Awards!  

Shadows on the Moon has been shortlisted in the 12-14 category and I'm really excited to be going. Not only is it my very first award ceremony, but I'm going to be talking to lots of the kids who read all the books and voted, and I'm hoping to meet some amazing authors, like Annabel Pitcher, Gill Lewis and Martyn Bedford (I'm not sure if all the shortlisted writers will be there, but with any luck I'll get to say hello to at least some of them).

Bearing all that in mind, I won't be around to answer comments on this much, which makes it even more important that you guys chat to each other and offer support and encouragement.

Just a quick update on my progress today! Last time I told you guys that I'd hit 47,800 words in Katana #2. Since then, I've been doing a lot of work directly on the computer in addition to scribbling in my notebook, and to be honest I've lost track of how many pages I've handwritten and how many I've just put directly onto the Word file, and how many are left to still be typed up. But I can tell you that the WIP is at 54,200 typed up words, which means my week total is 6400 words. Not as much as I was hoping for, but not bad either! I'm still steadily pushing on.

The next week is going to be tougher. Not only am I in Leeds tomorrow, but I'll also be popping off to Manchester to a Walker Books reception, and from there to meet Cassandra Clare in Sheffield and interview her (and there's still space for more questions, guys!).

On the one hand, it's going to be a lot of train journeys, which often encourages me to write. On the other hand, it's a lot of nerves and excitement, which sometimes have the opposite effect. So we'll see.

How has your week been? I open the comments to you :)

14 comments:

Rebecca Lindsay said...

Good luck with the competition and enjoy all your trips :) That's still not a bad word count, it's tonnes more than I have managed.

This week I haven't been able to write anything at all :( The exam pressure has built up even more and I have two in the space of a week. After next Tuesday I'll be finished and will be able to write to my heart's content! :D

Amy said...

Have a good trip! It all sounds very exciting :)

I have written quite a lot this week, only mostly of Media essays rather than novel -.- But I returned to my blog and have written an new post and am working on others, and I've also started working on a couple of short stories. Not exactly what I set out to do, but still writing so YAY :D

Rhia said...

Oh, do have a lovely time at the awards ceremony!

I've finished the difficult chapter - 5945 words - revised my notes for later chapters because one or two things happened to the plot I wasn't expecting.

There's one piece of phrasing that I'm not happy with, but now I'm putting the chapter of one side for a week before going back to it.

The weather's taken a turn for the better and I'm all on course for my Day On A Shropshire Hillside, basking in the sun, eating wild whinberries and scribbling in new notebook because this is going to be research for atmosphere for Romantic Interlude.

I've also realised that my timeline is out, and I need something to happen in my story between late summer and early winter. So that's the rest of this month planned out.

Rachel Balcombe said...

Rhia, your research sounds wonderful! So jealous!

So this week I wrote at least 2,000 words, more than twice my target, and actually posted on my blog for the first time in a month, so yay!

I feel like I've made huge progress in my WIP, as I've now written what I think is the key scene to the entire story. So, all in all, I'm pretty pleased with myself. XD

Jenni said...

Hope you've had a lovely day today!

Sounds like you're making really good steady progress with your writing which is excellent.

Finally after two rather lacklustre check ins I have positive news to check in with today. After days of not getting very far today I've hit the 10K mark. My characters are a little confused, and I know I'm going to have to edit this very heavily very many times, but I'm feeling good about it.

whispering words said...

Good luck with the awards Zoe :) And crongrats to everyone - seems like we've all made progress on out writing this week.

I managed to write another 2000 words exactly, so am very happy with myself! Off to celebrate now with hot chocolate fudge cake! Anyone want some?

Zoë Marriott said...

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for commenting - unsurprisingly I got NO work done today, and also unsurprisingly I didn't win the Leeds Book Award. Shadows was up against such amazing competition that I wasn't expecting to, so I wasn't disappointed at all and have just had a blast of a day :) More about it next week.

Phoenixgirl said...

Rachel - congratulations on getting that key scene written! I know how good that feels, to finally get an important bit that's been in your head for ages down on paper.

I got some writing done this week, but not as much as I might have liked. I keep looking at how much other people have done and feeling like I have a piddly little amount of progress - but then I realize that I actually have no idea how mine would compare, since I'm not counting the words, and 6 pages on a computer, double-spaced and paragraphed, might be quite a similar amount to a couple of pages in my college-ruled notebook with no spaces left for paragraphs. So I may really be writing more than I think...

Alex @ The Blethering Bookworm said...

Ooo congratulations on having Shadows of the Moon sort listed. I hope you had fun in Leeds :)

I have been full of the cold, which them turned into the flu and then an ear infection so I managed to get exactly nothing done :( Never mind though.

Aimen said...

Yay for everybody who's making progress ^_^

As for me, I didn't make much progress this week but a 300-word monologue of mine got published in a national newspaper. So, I guess that counts.
It was partly awful because it happened through my school so I was sort of kind of famous for a period of five hours XD But it was hard writing it because it was about my grandmother's death so naturally, I got an array tactless and arrogant questions from all kinds of people.

But it was equally amazing. ^^ I mean, there were people who gave me such thoughtful feedback and I felt like my words actually made a connection. It still makes me a bit restless because I put some of my most private thoughts out there but in a way, I think it was good for me as a writer.

As for my novel, I think that ultimately, I'm going to make the most progress during the vacations. I'll still keep working on my notes though.

Have fun in Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield, Zoe.
:)

Ruby97 said...

Good Luck with the competition!!! Sorry, i thought i had already commented on this :/ ok, so i did not-very-well this week. I only wrote ONE PAGE. ONE PAGE! I was at school all week and had work every afternoon though, so i really didn't have much time :( oh well! I will do better next week!

Isabel said...

Sorry I'm kind of late for this check-in! I've been ridiculously busy for the past few days with school and piano.

Last week went pretty well for me, because I had a good idea for my book and that's going to make it easier to move forward. I got a decent amount of work done, too.

Well done everyone else! There's been a lot of great progress.

G.M. said...

Hi Zoe. You might wish to correct the post for being shortlisted in the 14-16 category. I have a question for you. Are any of your novels in the "High Fantasy - Alternative World" category?

Connie B. Dowell said...

I'm super late, but I've been out of town where I didn't get as much done as I'd like but I did take notes on a location whose details I intend to slip into my novel.

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