Slowly but surely

I didn't really get much done this weekend. Saturday was a complete waste, but everyone needs a day of rest now and again. Today I felt much better, and I had every intention of writing a great deal. Alas, DH was watching the last 2 episodes of "Rome" (HBO) and I got sucked in. At least we've seen them all now, so he'll go back to reading at night and I can get more writing done. *g*

There's a great deal of discussion of first lines in the "Openings Workshop" on the Forum. I posted mine: "Elspeth, I'm sorry." I've gotten quite a bit of feedback, and all of it has been helpful. My intention had been to hook the reader by making them want to know who was sorry, and for what. Several people did in fact have this reaction, so that's gratifying. It also reflected the fact that I had no freaking clue how to write the first half of that fateful conversation. Others pointed out the problems with beginning with dialogue (and unattributed dialogue, at that). Of course, All Would Have Become Clear over the following lines, but since I had heard from several places that I should write the whole conversation, I took a deep breath and plunged in.

I roughed it out in a notebook at work on Friday, and got it "on paper" (read: "in word processor") tonight. I also minorly revised the rest of the chapter, and wrapped it up with a quick paragraph. Hopefully, it will get picked apart on the forum and in the "Novels Workshop." I need to make this chapter as strong as possible, so I'm more than willing to write and rewrite.

It will be harder for me with some of my "baby" chapters that I've worked hard on and really like. But anything that makes this book publishable is good. Or so I will keep reminding myself. *g*

Anyway, I thought I hadn't made much progress over the past week, but I added up all the word counts from my various current "chunks" and I'm up to almost 12,000. I made an ambitious goal of 10,000 new words for the month, so to hit my mid-month goal I need to make it to 15,000 by the 15th. That's 3,366 in 5 days. I love a challenge.

Gaidhlig Phrase of the Day: tha mi ‘n dòchas. "I hope."