Progress and Achievements

Update time. I've been hammering away at Blink off and on all day, and I've edited through five chapters. I fixed some sticking points I wasn't happy with, added a net gain of about a thousand words so far, and I'm fairly pleased with the progress.

AWJ has been zooming this week, too. I got about 4000 words done, and I'm about 75% of the way through my projected first draft count of 60K. I don't think I'm going to reach that number, though. This first draft is full of those 'just dialogue' spots, where I was typing so fast, getting the conversation down, that I forgot about any description. That will fill in well on the second draft. Also, I have sections where I wrote ::EXPAND SCENE:: because I knew I hadn't described it well enough but I was in a hurry to get to the next scene, so I put down the bones. I'll meat them up later. I expect my next draft to hit at least 70K, and I'm projecting a final draft total of around 90K. Not bad for a mystery. Anyway, I'm estimating I'll have the first draft done by next weekend.

Other than writing work, I'm working on getting our new digs cleaned and ready for us to occupy. I painted two ghastly bedrooms - one was a funky dark teal/bluish color, and the other was partially white/partially gray. They're now a lovely color called "Seashell". I washed the floors, the windows and polished all the woodwork. The best thing about this house is that it was built in the 1900s and it's full of beautiful wood moldings. Okay, the really best thing is the built in glass-fronted bookcases. I fell in love with those. Too bad we're only renting it, but when I sell my first million books, I'm definitely putting bookcases like that in the house I'll have built. =oD

And finally, I'm helping my niece. She's a single mom (like I was), but she dropped out of school when she was 16. She's had a rough time of it. Since her son was born, though, she's gotten her act together, gotten high school diploma, and now she's started college. I'm so proud of her for taking all this on while she's got a baby to take care of, and for throwing out all the junk from her past so she can move forward with her life. Having she left school early and not getting all that great an education in the first place, she's having a tough time, so I'm helping her with her English.

It's been a great week for me this week. How was yours?