Another month has passed, and like the previous, this month was a mixed bag concerning my writing. I’ve been sick a lot, had executive dysfunction that made me feel my brain had entered eternal lag, and self-doubt that made me wonder what the hell was the point of even trying.
Pfff, I’m glad to say I didn’t give up though. Finally, during the last week of February, I’ve been able to produce some nice wordcounts.
WIP: Salandrine
Writing Salandrine has been exceptionally hard again. This story will just not give me a break. When I’m not writing heart-breaking scenes about abuse or the effects there of, I’m simply overwhelmed by all the worldbuilding details that I planned to add.
I kept trying, at some point writing just for the sake of writing, even if it didn’t add any words to my main project (SALANDRINE). It really helps to let go of all worldbuilding and complicated plots and just write some cheesy bundle of clichés and tropes, because that’s a bucket load of fun. I mean, that WIP will probably never see the light of day anyway xD. Writing flash fiction helps to. And short stories when those flash fics get a life of their own (I’m exaggerating, it’s only 59 words too long, ignore my squabbling).
I did write a very important chapter for SALANDRINE though, after some well put feedback from my critique group (they are the absolute best). So far the character development and how the relationship between our heroines progressed really needed just that one extra chapter to smooth the progress. It wasn’t an easy one though. Trauma needed to be dealt with, therapy, and some glances into Amal’s backstory. All in all the chapter added 3659 words to the draft.
With all that, my new wordcount for SALANDRINE is 57.330 (32 chapters).
Some lines from SALANDRINE:
“I’ll press my forehead against yours, chant the words to cast the spell, and I’ll visit your memories along with you. Considering the events surrounding the spell, it could be painful to relive though, so think well on if you want this.” She [Munirah] dug into the folds of her dress and took out a slender crystal rod, brimming with arcane energy.
She [Salandrine] gave a slow hesitant nod, then Munirah did as she explained. It felt like slipping into a deep dream, although she could still vaguely hear and sense Amal in the room, she were suddenly standing in the broken jail cell again. She could smell the defecation, the blood and sweat, it was all fresh in the air.
Someone’s panting rasped against her hearing before the mercenary appeared just as she recollected them. The bruises and scratches on their body, the rags they wore, the sneer on their face. The battle they’d fought passed as if she were right back there, in the past, her body following the instructions of a line that felt like fate, unable to take another course but that which she’d known to be her past. The crackle of fire. Threats off their lips. Her mind took over, fear bypassing all her control, flooding her, then suddenly breaking free.
The return to reality was as jarring as waking up from a nightmare, screaming and jumping free from the covers to defend against their horrors, only to find what you thought to be real to slip away between the folds of the forgotten.
Use for Tweet: The battle they’d fought passed as if she were right back there, in the past, her body following the instructions of a line that felt like fate, unable to take another course but that which she’d known to be her past.
WIP: Omen
As I mentioned before, I worked on some other projects this month. One of the bigger ones is my old WIP OMEN. It’s a fantasy novella with faeries, a cult, and a family dealing with loss (divorce, heartbreak, death of a parent). My new wordcount for OMEN is 7873 (8chapters), having written 4201 of that this month.
WIP: Enchantress
An unexpected fun project! It wasn’t supposed to become a serious attempt at a book, but it seems to be going in that direction now. It’s a fantasy romance which I’m not sure yet if it’ll be a novel or a series for on my website. We’ll see. My wordcount for this WIP is 7945(3 chapters).
Newly finished works of fiction
This month I’m adding the short story “TELLIRIUN FOREST” to my list of finished works, which has fantasy elements, and which is already available here.
First lines:
Near my hometown, there is a forest. A forest no one knows the depths of, nor what roams about in its shadows. But one thing we do know; if you go in, you either return with no memory of being there or not at all.
145 words long flash fiction “STARFALL”. For that length it seems weird to say, but it’s about a tragic romance during an apocalypse.
In total, I wrote 1780 words of flash fiction/short stories this month.
February wordcounts
I wrote more than I’d thought this month, probably because the first two weeks wents so well. Total wordcount: 19.372. Which means that despite me thinking it’d be impossible to do, I met my wordcount goal for this month, with having written 8000 of that in the last five days!
March goals
For next month I’m going to try to write at least as much as I did in February.