Sorry I’ve been totally remiss with my blog. I’m still in the middle of Fast Draft, and it’s sucking up all my time. Of course, if that’s not bad enough, I’m also working on a short novella. It’s very different from my usual tone. No body count or anything like that. Actually it’s rather…fluffy…?

All the King’s Women is going to require a ton of revision, but I like it that I’m doing Fast Draft because I’m beginning to understand my heroine’s motive and her relentless drive. She appears a bit ruthless at times, but the reason for her increasingly Machiavellian method is obvious and sympathetic as the story unfolds (or so I hope).

I’ll post more about Fast Draft and lessons learned on May 15.

It didn’t go as well as I wanted. I didn’t start writing until at least 2:30 p.m. Not a good thing.

Still got 20 pages done, barely.

It started out a bit slow, but wrote 22 pages. Yay!

It’s starting today!

Just twenty pages to go.

My CPs are doing it with me: Jennifer, DD, Valerie and Fionn.

Go us!

Does anyone want to do Fast Draft with me from May 1 - May 14? It’s basically writing 20 pages for 14 days.

FYI — each page is formatted Courier New 12 double-spaced.

I want to try this method (I’ve never used it before) to get the first draft of All the King’s Women written.

If you’re interested, please comment.

I was originally planning to accomplish the following:

• Complete NINE Draft 4.
• Complete NINE Draft 5.
• Complete THE BILLIONAIRE’S VENGEFUL PROPOSITION Draft 1.
• Complete THE BILLIONAIRE’S VENGEFUL PROPOSITION Draft 2.
• Enter SHOMI Contest.

Well, things have changed. So here’s the new list:

• Complete NINE Draft 4.
• Complete NINE Draft 5.
• Complete THE BILLIONAIRE’S VENGEFUL PROPOSITION Draft 1.
• Complete THE BILLIONAIRE’S VENGEFUL PROPOSITION Draft 2.
• Enter SHOMI Contest.
• Complete ALL THE KING’S WOMEN world-building.
• Complete ALL THE KING’S WOMEN outline.

I’m limiting myself to the Internet / email until 9:00 a.m. and then basically write and revise, etc. until noon or so. I found that even with doing housework here and there (like doing the dishes or laundry), I’m so much more productive than I used to be.

A big thank you to Alison & Eric for helping me make the changes.

And a HUGE thank you to Sven team since the changes were so much easier to make with the challenge going on right now.

I got about five hours of sleep last night, and right now it feels like my head is about to split open.

Today I got the following done (I don’t think I’ve ever been this productive in 2008…):

• NINE: Revise Ch. 5.
• NINE: Finish revising Ch. 26.
• NINE: Revise Ch. 27.
• NINE: Add 10 pages.
• NINE: Print synopsis for review.
• THE BILLIONAIRE’S VENGEFUL PROPOSITION: Revise Ch. 3.
• Practice the new scale (I think it’s D# minor…or something…has like six sharps or something — my brain’s too tired to remember) and Kayser Op. 20 No. 17.

I was hoping to write The Billionaire’s Vengeful Proposition Ch. 4, but I don’t think I’ll be able to do it. I’m just too tired to think much less write anything decent.

BTW — as I was working on NINE Ch. 26 & 27, I had a huge revelation about the villain. There was a minor matter that just felt wrong but I ignored it for a while since I had no idea how to fix it. Now I know. Yay!

Inspired by Alison & Eric, I decided to minimize the effect of the worst time sucker called “web surfing”.

Believe it or not, I can waste my entire morning surfing the net. It’s just atrocious. (And then I waste my afternoon & evening with more web surfing…there’s always a new site to visit, new articles to read, etc.)

So for the rest of Sven Round Three, I’m going to limit web surfing to 2.5 hours a day. I figured that should be more than enough for me to visit a couple of forums, read blog posts, update my website, etc.

I plan to accomplish the following by May 16:

• Complete NINE Draft 4.
• Complete NINE Draft 5.
• Complete THE BILLIONAIRE’S VENGEFUL PROPOSITION Draft 1.
• Complete THE BILLIONAIRE’S VENGEFUL PROPOSITION Draft 2.
• Enter SHOMI Contest.