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Catherine Elcik's avatar

CATHY'S WEEKLY R.A.P for July 17, 2023

RECKONING—I finished chapter 27 and read my notes for the last two chapters and epilogue. I finished reading the first chapter in Wonderbook and LOVED it, but did NOT finish the post about it. Also, Shiloh has been approved for day care which means that once a week I'll get a day of concentration!

ANALYSIS–I'm glad I didn't rush last weekend to finish Chapter 27--it simply needed a little more TLC and I'm glad to give it. I am also looking at the long revision process ahead of me and thinking I may switch my expectation to getting a rough draft down--it makes little sense to revise when I know that going back to the start will require me to revise the end when I get there, so there's little point in revising it now, however much I'd like to. I think it was important to do revision work for 26 and 27 because they are revelatory chapters for the story, but I think I can move faster going forward. Also, I was delighted to find that when I sat down to read my structural draft notes for the last two chapters and the epilogue, I felt they were the right beats and enjoyed the scenes that are already in various states of drafted (my structural outlines are very long and detailed--my structural outline for chapter 27 was fifty pages because of all the drafts and snippets collected).

PLAN–Hmm. I think I'm going to prioritize writing about the Wonderbook first, particularly since that post is about how I want to change my process moving forward. And then I would like to get through a rough pass of chapter 28 and begin reading the omnibus about the trick that's pivotal for chapter 29 (my book is about a sleight of hand magician, and diving into her signature trick is part of my plan this summer). Also, I would like to finish a draft of the next Tenacity Tales to ship it back to the subject so we can run it in the next couple of weeks. So to recap: Wonderbook post, rough past of 28, research, Tenacity draft. Yes, that's a lot, but also I'm trying to increase my number of hours spent this week by fifty percent or more.

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Jenna Blum's avatar

I'm going on a writing retreat in CO this week at which I planned to just do yoga and hiking, but now I may actually do some writing… I'm too shy to spell the plan out because I'm afraid if I do I won't do it, but I just want to let people know that there is a plan! To hold myself at least that much accountable.

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