Archive for September, 2008

Finished at 13,623

I think the Egypt story is finished at 13,623 words. Now to editing!

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A few updates

September 17 -
I wrote 2559 words in longhand on Tuesday and then typed them all.
September 18 -
I have 521 words to go.  I wish there would be time to watch a movie afterwards, but there won’t be.
September 22 -
I haven’t written a word since Thursday, at least not one that counts.
September 23 -
Plan to just push through writer’s block even if the idea is less than workable. I can always fix it later, right?
I stopped at the thrift store and got a few books, including a new thesaurus!
September 24 -
5:14pm So far about 800 words this afternoon. Want to get 200 more before I leave for the evening.

5:30pm Well, I only got to 849. Oh well. There’s always tonight.

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Research on Middle Kingdom - Word count 7351

I am now at 7351 words, which puts my Wednesday Word Count at 2072. I would estimate the story is half done, so I will probably end somewhere around 15,000 words instead of the lower estimate of 10,000. We shall see. I will write 2000 words a day until it is done.

The Nature Sounds radio is perfect for this novella - ancient sounding music, water sounds, nature sounds, some of the kinds of music you would imagine as movie soundtrack music. No lyrics, no rhythm to most of it. Usually very peaceful.

I am finding out more about Ancient Egypt every day. Today I researched briefly what kind of furniture would be in a Pharaoh’s home, what kinds of plants would grow in his garden and which of those would smell sweet, what jewelry a Middle Kingdom royal couple would wear, and I am sure other things I’ve assimilated already.

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Nature Sounds Radio - Word Count 2720

2720 words done on the Ancient Egyptian novella. Met my goal for today of 2000 words.

I’ve got my outline and my writing goals of 2000 words per day this week should get me to the end of the story by the weekend. Then I can edit and send it off next week!

Found a Pandora station that allows me to block out the ambient noise here and still allows me to THINK. lol
Nature Sounds Radio
(hope that link works - sorry, if you have dialup, I don’t think you’ll be able to use Pandora.)

Did you know that ancient Egyptian men usually shaved all their hair, but when they were in mourning, they let their hair grow? I’m uncertain as to whether the women also did this. But it comes in handy for my story.

I have to force myself to go beyond just reading and reading and reading about Ancient Egypt. I could do that for hours. lol I still need to do some research on Pharaonic names - they had at least 5 names - which do we use when???

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A new writing opportunity

I found out about a writing opportunity of 10,000-15,000 words and so I’m going to do that before working on any other writing. It’s a historical romance that would be published by a major publisher as an ebook. I’ve chosen to set mine (where else but) in Ancient Egypt.

Since I was able to write 50,000 words in one month, I think I ought to be able to bang out 10,000 words in a week or two and then take a few days to edit. Then I’ll try submitting this directly to the publisher.

Today I did a little research into which part of Ancient Egyptian history would be the proper setting. (You did know that the Ancient Egyptian culture flourished for about 3000 years, right? It needed a bit of narrowing down.) I’ve chosen the Middle Kingdom and probably the time of a pharaoh named Senusret II.

I also did some research into dress, names, and other cultural issues. I outlined my story (novella, or whatever) - the basic plotline. I’ve written about 600 words of it so far.

I’d have written more, but I hurt my hand by banging it into a doorframe and it hurt quite a bit earlier. I kept an icepack for a while and it feels better now - at least somewhat. Of course, it’s my right hand. I’ll probably put ice on it more tonight, in hopes that tomorrow it’ll feel just fine. I want to get this story written!

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