Today is the first day in almost a week I haven’t been completely plagued with a headache (or migraine.) Bleh. As such, I’m a big bad 500 words into Rise of the Rift King, but that’s 500 more words than I had before, which is great. (I am still on Assignment #6, in case it isn’t obvious. Hah!) But this is the nature of books. Sometimes, it takes you x5 times longer than someone else to progress.
The real lesson here is sticking with it even when you’re slow. Slow and steady gets the job done. Once again, writing a book is not a sprint. It’s a long marathon, and there are no real time limits. (Well, unless you happen to have a deadline you want to get finished.)
I am expecting my piddly 500 words in my first scene to grow to probably 1,000 words with editorial; my writing process is very barebones with minimal descriptions, and I will be adding in the descriptions once I transfer what I have written from my pomera into my desktop.
I suspect I’ll be working scene by scene for Rise of the Rift King unlike by chapter, which is how I do the rest of my books. This one will need a great deal more editing than my regular books to say the very least.
This is not a bad thing.
So, Assignment #8 is simple. Finish your second scene of your book.
Assignment #9 will be similar to Assignment #7 but with a twist; I’ll be back on Friday to give you Assignment #9, after which you’re going to have two weeks to go through Assignments 1-9 to your satisfaction before we dive into the next stage.
Why two weeks?
Two weeks will give you a chance to really think about your book, your opener, and rewrite anything that needs to be rewritten before we start really digging into deeper storytelling.
Note: Assignment #9 will include a lesson on show vs tell and some other basic writing skills, which may ultimately result in you rewriting various sections of your first two scenes to make use of the new skills you’re learning.
(Which is why I’ll be letting everyone germinate on their books and have time to sit and breathe for two weeks.)
And if you’re done early, that’s great!
There is no word count goal with this assignment. Use as many or as few words as you need.
Good luck!
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