Checking In 2-5-13

Here's my progress with the three major writing projects I've got going. To some of you, this looks like a walk in the park. Maybe others think it looks like too much to be doing at once. The nice thing about the middle one is that I'm sharing the fun with my sister/co-writer, Aubrey. She doesn't have a writing blog yet, but if/when she gets one, you can bet I'll be sending you in her direction regularly. She's awesome.

So I probably end up writing on the joint project (time travel YA) about once a week, if that. Even so, our progress has been steady and I'm proud of where we are now. Halfway point! Woot!

The MG Superhero rewrite has been a challenge. I'm enjoying it, but I'm also worrying over it a fair bit. See, I've already written this novel once -- it turned out all lighthearted and cute (until the end). This time I'm writing post-WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL, and I think I know what it needs to make it truly awesome:

Worldbuilding. I'm focusing on that part much more this time around, giving my characters' towns history, larger conflict, and fun details. The trick with worldbuilding for me is consistency. It's so easy for me to forget about some little detail I once mentioned and meander my way into a plot hole. Right now I'm working on the fuzzy middle bit. Well, to be clear, it's the beginning of the fuzzy middle bit, so I've quite a ways to go. Once I solve the problem I'm facing right now (like building a bridge from one side to another), I'll be able to get back on track in my outline.

The NA Contemp piece is kind of my writer candy right now. I've never written anything strictly contemporary - no paranormal elements at all. Well, unless you count bad luck. But I don't. So this is new for me, and I'm being a bit self-indulgent with it, actually including some of my own life experiences (fictionalized beyond recognition, of course). I haven't hit an 'oh, crud' moment in this one yet, so it's all Cloud 9 beautiful.

What are you working on today? 

Just for fun, here's a clip of my newest project:

I wake up in a tangle of smelly sheets with tiny pink flowers on a sea of white. I lift my head a quarter of an inch, but the shooting scream running up the back of my neck drops it back to the stiff pillow. I know exactly where I am. It's the Joyce Mercy Medical Center on 9th street. It's the closest one to Spencer's building, and the one I came to when I slipped on ice at the soup shop down the block and got a concussion. That was when we first got together -- maybe the third date. And that was when it all started downhill. Perhaps it was my bad luck that turned him off. Or maybe it was the sex thing even then. Most guys seem to think third dates are some kind of magic number. Sometime somebody told them a fairy tale about a guy who propositioned a girl three times and on the third time she turned into a sex goddess and gave him everything he wanted. And we females just go along with the fairy tale instead of telling our boyfriends that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Sex Fairy Goddess don't really exist. The fact that I can't even lift my head to find a clock aggravates me. And I want Spencer to come running through the door, apologize for being a dickhead (almost literally), and say he didn't mean it. Just so I can have the pleasure of dumping him. That's how much my neck hurts.