Writing Progress Update

I seem to have found myself caught up into the Writing Process Blog Hop again, having been tagged last week by the lovely and talented Teshelle Combs, whom I've featured here a couple of times. My writing process hasn't changed much in the time since I did this before, but I figure it's time for a progress update.

The first major revisions on books 1-3 of Daughter of the Wildings are done and out to the test readers, and I just started on book 4. It's taking a lot more rewriting than I thought it would. Not that the plots have changed so much, but some major issues with the magic are different, and also some character issues. Plus a lot of what I wrote was me just trying to figure out what happens next! I like to plan my stories in advance, but a lot of Daughter of the Wildings resisted any kind of advance outlining. So I'm cutting lots of stuff, and adding lots of stuff, and changing lots of stuff.

Saturday I spent working out the money system a little more. The amount of money Silas and Lainie have is an important plot point at this point; they just got a big payout for services rendered to wealthy rancher Brin Coltor (one of my favorite supporting characters in the series), and it had to be enough to make taking on the job he hired them for worth the risk. On the other hand, there's something Silas wants to do that's going to cost even more than they have. Balancing the money in and money out to keep it all in proportion took some sitting down and calculating. I think I've finally got it figured out.

So there's that, and since it's been a long time since I wrote anything new, I've decided to participate in July Camp NaNoWriMo (because I'm just not busy enough :P). My goal is 500 words a day for a total of 12,000 words for the month (not much, but should be doable on the heavy revising schedule I'm on), and my project is Tales of Azara, a set of short stories to go along with Chosen of Azara. Some readers have mentioned to me that they'd like more background on the characters in the novel and more stories from that world, so that's what this is for.

And I'm doing COYER Summer Vacation! So when I'm not writing and revising, I'll be reading and reviewing. Should be enough to keep me out of trouble!

This week's other stop on the Writing Process Blog Hop is Madhuri Blaylock; go check her out!

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