Progress Report for Jessica Day
Jessica Day is the name of my protagonist in my Starfall novel.
I’m currently working on chunk 20 of my second draft.
What is a ‘chunk’? Well after I wrote out the first draft (admittedly I only got to about 90% of the story as the ending wasn’t feeling right, I stopped at around 95,000 words) the story felt like it was fishtailing too much.
Okay Einstein, what is ‘fishtailing’? Its a phrase “I” use (no Copywrite pending) when the end is no longer in line with the bulk of the story. In other words, its flapping ‘this way’ and ‘that way’ and needs to be streamlined. So upon starting up my second draft, and flattening out that wild fishtail, I broke the story into manageable chunks in order for my peers to better review. *Most* chunks are under 3,000 words and should not be considered chapters, though they are linear** to the story as a whole.
**Yes I do have some backstory elements but they take place during the story and are not done as ‘maid and butler‘ event.
Anywhoooo….
I’m currently working on chunk #20. Overall I’ve cut deep into some stuff and expanded upon others. At chunk 20 (2,800ish words each) that puts me at just under 60,000 words overall. I feel as if I’m roughly close to the halfway mark again.
Ohhh… in two nights is the next meetup of my evening writing group. Both of the writing critique groups I’m in are reviewing the same story. One is twice monthly (day group) and the other is just monthly (nightly group).
Okay it’s now 6:35 am and its time I start wrapping this freakshow up and heading into work. I didn’t get much writing in today but the guilt over ignoring my blog was eating at me.
Tootles peeps
Fight the Dwight!