Badges and Blog-Ins: writing goals, week 11
It’s that time of the week again: time for another 365K Club word count check-in! Numbers, please…
March 12, Day 72: 752 words
March 13, Day 73: 1,182 words
March 14, Day 74: 627 words
March 15, Day 75: 320 words
March 16, Day 76: 690 words
March 17, Day 77: 988 words
March 18, Day 78: 0 words (I ended up spending most of the day prepping for my Nonfiction Authors Association meeting, and then when I got home from that I fell asleep watching a movie)
That’s a grand total of 4,559 words for the week, and 11,401 for the month!
Did I beat last week’s total?
Due to my Friday laziness, I missed beating last week’s total by only 22 words. That’s, what, two sentences? UGH!
But this reminds me of an all-important lesson when it comes to writing daily: GET YOUR WORDS DONE EARLY.
April excitement
Speaking of the Nonfiction Authors Association, I’ve been busy setting up Friday afternoon Blog-Ins here in San Diego, to help get more writers interested in participating in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. This will be my fifth year participating in the challenge, and I wanted to do something different. Since most challengers are simply writing, alone, in their own homes, and then visiting fellow challengers’ blogs, I wanted to get some of them to come out for a “Sit Down, Shut Up & Write” style Meetup where we could discuss our blogs, talk writing, and just have some fun meeting each other face to face.
So, if you’re in the San Diego area during the month of April, come on out to one of my scheduled Blog-Ins, or join us for the kickoff party on April 1!
Here are links to each of the Meetups, for more info:
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And, if you’d like to schedule additional Blog-Ins in your neck of the woods, let me know! I’ll retweet any links to A to Z events you leave in my comments section, or that you tweet me @originaloflaura.
Badges!
This week I also won two badges for the same 365K Club Challenge:
Since I was the only person to give the “genre switch” challenge a try, I received the badge for the challenge as well as a “Lucky You” sole winner badge for my bravery.
Here’s the genre-switching dialogue that won me these prestigious awards. First, the original mystery lines, from my WIP, The Case of the Cunning Linguist:
“I’m Sister Magdalena. Lorraine said you needed to speak with me?”
“Sister Magdalena, you’re one of the Notre Dame lay sisters?”
“That’s correct, Ms. Delmar. I heard about Father O’Malley and I came here straight away. What can I do to help you find his killer?”
“And what’ve you heard?” I asked.
“He was found face down in his chambers with a knife in his back. Oh, how dreadful!” She buried her face in her hands and sobbed at the thought.
“Yes, quite. Have you also heard that you were the last person that saw him alive?”
Here she made quite the theatrical gasp. I would’ve almost bought it, except for the eyes. Her violet gaze was deader than a set of coins splayed across the deceased’s lids. Payment for the ferryboat man of death. How very apropos.
And now the romance novel transmogrification:
“I’m Magdalena. Your secretary, Lorraine, said you wanted to speak with me?”
It was as if a ray of sunshine had cracked through a hidden skylight and bathed my office in its golden glow. Maybe the paper bags and Scotch tape had finally given way. Either way, the woman was divine. Radiant.
“Magdalena, you’re breathtaking!” I cried, unable to look away.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Delmar?” She looked taken aback by my declaration.
“I need a stenographer,” I said, fumbling with a pile of papers on my desk. “Someone to… fill in while Lorraine is away, and I wondered… would you be up to the task?”
“For how long, Ms. Delmar?” she asked, fingering a string of pearls around her delicate, swan-like neck.
“Just a week, to start… after that, we’ll see how it goes,” I purred.
Her violet eyes met mine, and I could’ve sworn she gave me a playful wink.
The woman was bold as well as beautiful. But would I be able to control her in the office, or would she be the one controlling me?
As you can see, this was quite the challenge, since my mystery dialogue and characters didn’t really make sense as-is when plopped into a romance novel. I had to scramble them around a bit, and throw in a bit of corny dialogue. My sincere apologies to all romance writers, as I’m sure most of you don’t write dialogue nearly this ridiculous! (The violet eyes, however, are straight out of Raymond Chandler.)
Goals for next week?
Still hard at work on my “move to Canada” book, with the wheres and whyfores, plus I’ve decided I want to revisit my ninja novel and rewrite it – this time as a kids’ book – so I’ve got some brainstorming to do for that. And check back on Monday for my A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal post to find out what I’ll be writing in April!
Want to track YOUR words?
In an effort to spread the helpful message of 365K Club’s daily word tracking, I’ve created my own Buttontapper Word Tracker. Want a free copy? Just sign up for my newsletter and you’ll receive a link to download it ASAP.
