Wednesday, May 27, 2015

B writes: Progress

I'm happy to report that this 250 Words a Day writing challenge I set myself is just what I needed to get my backside into gear and finish this pony story I've been sitting on since 2013!

Most days I'm easily going over my target - in fact my average word count is 500 words a day.  I've done seven days of writing, and 3,503 words so far - with a few extra typed here and there that I didn't bother tracking. So far, I'm only doing the challenge five days a week, but I might up that to six days a week soon.

I want to keep it achievable though. That's why I picked such a low word count to aim for. Yes, it would be slightly ridiculous for some writers who are already writing regularly to do the same, but this is for me. A busy mother with three children under four years old, who has many other responsibilities and hobbies besides writing.

250 words, five days a week is not only achievable, but also encouraging. I hit that goal, I want to try for more. So I end up doing more than 250 words each and every time I sit down to write! Sometimes it's a little more, sometimes it's a lot, like 1,013!

Either way, progress is being made and it's good. I like it.

"The first jump was an inviting oxer, with a nice ground line. Simple bars, and solid wings, the jump was set up to encourage the horse and rider to get into the course.

It didn’t look that scary until Jody was standing next to it, and then it was as high as Dudley’s knees, 60 centimetres tall. She could feel the butterflies flopping about. She’d jumped higher than that before – she’d been regularly jumping a meter ten at the riding school, but that had with Bosley; her favourite mount. Now it was just her and Dudley and she wasn’t sure she was ready for that.

She could dimly hear Mrs. Lowe discussing the course as they walked around, and shook herself, panicking. What did she miss? “-so make sure you sit up after the spread and really half-halt to gather Dudley’s strides. He will have flattened out to jump over the width of the triple bar, and you’ll really need to collect them up to get through the bounce clear.”

David nodded in complete agreement, but Jody felt like a vice was squeezing her ribcage when she looked at the pair of jumps set so closely together after that wide staircase spread. 
A triple bar! Then a combination! She could feel her knees knocking together, but David and Mrs. Lowe were already striding to the last jump of the twelve obstacles – the wall.

A solid jump, one to scare the riders, and Jody remembered it’s not just the riders that don’t like wall jumps – most horses didn’t either because they couldn’t see the ground on the other side of the jump. They had to trust their rider that it was safe to jump.

Jody swallowed hard. She and Dudley had been working on their relationship all this time – and they’d had some crazy adventures together – riding for help after Betty’s accident, and then riding out alone to help Cinnamon, but where they ready for this?

Jody squared her shoulders. Well, it was now or never, and as she walked back to her family and Dudley, she thought it was time that Dudley proved himself to be the right pony for her." 

- Dudley's Last Chance by Bonita Vear


Coming soon!

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Tuesday, May 12, 2015

B writes: On Writing

So I've made a pledge to myself. I'm going to start a habit of writing 250 words a day on my books - any of them. A novel, the e-book, anything - but it's got to be on a book, and not on a blog!

I do write a lot every week, but I'm writing on my blogs, on Twitter, on other people's blogs.  I'm not writing on things that are going to help my journey forward as a published author. I'm missing that part in my schedule of things to do, and as a result, all too often the book writing gets completely overlooked.

Crikey, the last time I worked on a novel seriously was.... Uh.  Whoops. I don't even remember. Probably Nanowrimo 2013.

Gamenian did get some work done on it in 2014, but that was mostly polishing and editing; stuff to ready the manuscript for publishing. No real 'writing' as in building the story.

Since I've made this pledge I've written over 1,000 words. So I know it can be done. Bit by bit, day by day, I'm going to finish my next book, and then I'm going to start another one. I'm a writer. So I am going to write.

"Jody stared at the measly remnants of cake in front of her, and poked the crumbs into a tidy heap in the middle of the swirling gold pattern. It was always a bit of a worry when Bridget got that look on her face – mostly because it meant that she had some new idea that she was going to drag Jody into, and any amount of ‘no’s’ just made her all the more determined to go ahead." 

- Dudley's Last Chance by Bonita Vear

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