just when you thought it was safe to go back to the keyboard . . .	Current Word Count 47,350
--> P E R S I S T E N C E <-- Lisa Silverthorne | Linda J. Dunn | Kurt Roth | Diana Davenport
drop me your comments

Nov 20	6:31 a.m. -- 1,900 words A pretty good morning. The story is moving quickly, and I wish I could stick around and finish this part. But, alas, work calls. Doncha hate that? At this point, I'm about 3,000 words behind where I wanted to be, but easily within reach of the 60,000 word barrier before the end of the month. I still expect the story to be roughly 80-90K, and I still intend to finish on time. But it's obviously going to take a concerted effort in the last week to pull it out of the fire. [insert imaginary gif of me, donning asbestos clothing :) ] See you tomorrow.
Nov 19	6:28 a.m. -- 850 words Peer pressure was the only thing that got me out of bed this morning. It was soooooo cozy and warm in there, and the morning air was soooooo chilly. Why would anyone actually want to get up at 4:00? Or 4:30? Or 5:00? Or 5:10? I'll tell you why. I got up today because Kurt Roth called the flea-flicker in the face of impending Dare Doom (see his page for what I mean). I got up because Lisa and Linda and Dianna are posting progress every day--regardless of how they feel. So thanks to them, I did nearly a thousand words (three and a half pages). I can tell how tired I was, though. These three and a half pages are really filled with lots of interesting stuff. A battle brews, and Garrick prepares. So, while it wasn't a stellar morning, at least (thanks to my internet buddies) it wasn't a zero day. Who knows, with luck I'll get a few more word out before the end of the day!
Nov 18	8:12 p.m. -- 750 words Total of 2,450 for the day Yes, folks, "shunk" was a typo. I tend to make a few, especially on this page as I tend to throw it together after a hectic morning of shunking. Low and behold, I even managed to "shunk" out a few more words this evening, as well as modify this place to archive some info. If you page down far enough, you'll find my write-ups for days November 1-10 have been whisked away and placed in a safe place for your extended viewing pleasure.. Let me know if the new way of getting to stuff is too clunky or not. Hopefully it'll save you a little download time. See ya tomorrow. 6:21 a.m. -- 1,700 words As Harry Cary would say, "The sun is down, and it's a great morning for writing." Or . . . something like that. The outline continues to pay dividends. I'm sticking directly to it, and the words are flowing easily. I'm feeling positive and upbeat about the story--far better than when I was rolling in the muck merely to figure out what was going to happen. Now I'm actually adding nuance to characters and details to the story line. I wanted 2,000 words today, but came up just a tad short. Oh, well. If I get a chance, I'll shunk out a few over lunch.
Nov 17	5:47 p.m. -- 700 words 2000 for the day Managed to eek out another few words. Outlines be great. 6:31 a.m. -- 1,300 words A very good morning considering I got a half-hour later start than I wanted to. The Fishers 5 meeting went off yesterday, and we had dinner with John and Tammy, and Lisa Silverthorne and Charles. Didn't make it home until past my bed time! Have I mentioned how glad I am to have an outline now? Oh, yeah...BTW, Linda Dunn's last sale (reported a short while ago) was to Dreams of Decadence. Well, gotta go do my real job, now. Maybe I'll get a few more words done at lunch . . .
Nov 16	8:19 a.m. -- 3,000 words Ain't it amazing what you can do when you know what you're writing? Armed with my new handy-dandy outline, I've averaged over 1,000 words an hour this morning. And it's been great fun, too. Garrick and Darien have seen new pieces of each other, and been surprised by them. Garrick struggles within himself (but hopefully only briefly before the action begins again!). I'm thinking that the second pass will entail a good deal of inspection as far as character development and setting the stage for revelations that come later. I needed a good morning, though, because I'm off to this month's session of the Fishers 5. My internal critic was beginning to taunt me, telling me I wasn't going to finish. But I rose to today's challenge, and I'm pleased with myself. Overall, a very good morning.
Nov 15	7:24 p.m. -- 1,800 words And yet again the Dare striketh! Congrats to Linda Dunn on her most recent sale. Details will follow as soon as I hear them. Lisa Silverthorne sold a short story to Millenium SF during last February's Dare. Charles Eckert sold a story to Pulp Eternity a few days ago. If this keeps up, we'll just have to go on a perpetual Dare! I sacrificed words for clarity this afternoon. What this means is that I spent an hour or two writing a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of where the rest of the book will go. It's paid dividends already. Until this afternoon, I was doing about 4-500 words an hour. Now, with clarity of the outline, I upped that to roughly 8-900 words an hour. I'm feeling good again, despite being off the pace I wanted to set. I figure I can make it to 90K if I can manage to get to somewhere around 50K by the 20th. This is a little stretch, but I think I can make it now. On the story front, I learned something new about Darien (Garrick's closest partner) this afternoon. Actually, it was startling. I just sat there and watched it come out of my fingers with a big loopy smile on my face. Yes, it needs work. Yes, its sloppy. but it went a long way to describing why Darien is so . . . well . . . so like Darien! 1:54 p.m. -- 0 words I spent some of last night and the entire morning completing critiques for tomorrow's session of the Fisher's 5. There are certainly some nice stories there. I'll be getting back to the Dare this afternoon. But for now, you may want to check out the newsflash above.
Nov 14	6:28 a.m. -- 1,000 words Minor progress. But at least it is progress. It's obvious that I'm going to have to add a weekend to my month in order to get this thing done! That is no problem, of course. I had kinda planned to take a vacation day or two to get through it. Yesterday conspired against me (car in shop, garage door broken, Brigid late, etc, etc) so I had a difficult time dragging my butt out of bed at 4:00 a.m. Suffice to say it didn't happen for me, and I got a very very late start this morning. On the "interesting news" front, my site (and the Dare) is being reviewed by Kristyn Rose at "Suite 101". Who knows exactly what she'll say--but it seems exciting right now. As I understand it, the review will be available on November 21. I'll post a link as soon as I can.
Nov 13	6:15 a.m. -- 1,050 words I had an unexpected turn of events in that my car didn't start last night. This, of course, affects me by cutting my morning's activities short in order to catch a ride into work today! So, all in all, 1,050 words is a good output. Garrick took another interesting turn today. I really like this guy. It makes me embarrassed to be punishing him so! I should just write him into a nice, loving relationship and a house in the mountains. He certainly deserves it--or does he? [evil grin]. I have a couple pieces of interesting news that I'll pass on in the next day or two as I can (how's that for baiting the hook?). Gotta go get ready for my ride.
Nov 12	6:27 a.m. -- 1,550 words This was a pretty decent morning, as I expected it would be. Lots of good action in this part. Garrick battles sorcery and learns more about his ability. I learned a little about it, too. The world is preparing to weave its web around him a little tighter. Is Garrick a savior or a demon? People close to him are beginning to do more than just wonder. HAVE I MENTIONED HOW INTERESTING I FIND THIS CHARACTER? The plot is detailed out for another 2-4,000 words, so I'm hoping these go fairly quickly. Then I'll need a bit more thought. But this gives me a day or two to let it simmer. See you tomorrow.
Nov 11	6:31 a.m. -- 1,200 words HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOST EXCELLENT BELOVED!!! Yes, I know this thing is getting too long to download. I'll work on that soon, I promise. Lisa suggested I just make this part of my standard November journal. Any comments? I got the story kick started again today, and I left off with Garrick ready to get himself into another tight spot. So today was fun, and I expect tomorrow's stuff to be a blast. See you tomorrow.
Nov 10 thru Nov 1	THE DARE ARCHIVES DARE TO BRING HOME THE BACON: November 21-30 DARE TO BE BAD: November 1-10 A Special Effort Just to Aid Your Download Time!
Sep 28	We're at it again. February wasn't enough. Lisa Silverthorne and I have challenged each other to another Novel Dare. As with last time, I'll be posting progress here. The ground rules: Plot and Write a Full Novel (minimum 60,000 words) Don't start until November 1 (thinking about it is okay!) Finish before November 30 Sounds pretty straightforward, eh? Last time, Lisa ended up with Experiencing Deep Purple, and I ended up with Gene Splice. Both of these have undergone major surgery since our February Dare, and both are about ready for the market. To make it even more challenging, we've got four new Dare-ites, Linda Dunn, Kurt Roth, Diana Davenport, and James Hartley are planning to join us. I'll add links to their pages as soon as I see if they're planning on having one! Tune in to check it out.