Word Count Goal: 16,670

Achievement: 18,600 (2016 today)

Now I know why nothing much happens in the first half of Twilight. SMeyer is too busy developing the relationship to develop a plot. And I don’t care what anyone says: Bella is dull enough and Edward overprotective enough to develop a realistic relationship in such a short amount of time. Nothing else happens.

I looked back over my bookcase of books I’ve acquired in the last year to see if any can help me.

Now, I’m stuck here unable to do research because I gave away my copy of the most stupid insta-love I’ve ever seen that made me want to stick my finger in my eye and wiggle it around my brain: Fallen. All I have left to turn to to inspire me is Nevermore, Matched and Paranormalcy, and I have issues with each of them. Fire and Unearthly both developed their romances more slowly and it was much more believable, but I want Tina to be in a romance before the end of the book. In Shiver and Glow, the couples were pretty much already in love, so they don’t help me. In Divergent and Graceling, the romances were secondary to the story and not romances I could be very supportive of or want to think of as my inspiration.

So, guess what? I have to try and develop this romance all on my lonesome. I think I need more time than just November to be able to do that. I will be working on this novel for a few months afterwards for sure.

Anyway, today’s writing was easy because it revolved around Tina actually demonstrating some demon hunting skills in a demon club Tengu took her to. I’m still trying to develop the romance but I think I need to add some things into the back story so it doesn’t just seem like Tina face noms Tengu on her second date. I’ve also started referring to Tengu as Ten, which amuses me because Veronica Roth had a guy nicknamed Four in Divergent. I keep thinking that there’s a joke somewhere there about guys’ names that are numbers.

 

Word count goal: 15,003

Achievement: 16,584  (2829 today, my highest so far)

Tina tricked me.

She’s been resisting the idea of falling in love with Ten because she’s still in love with Noah and feels guilty for being the one who staked him when he was about to turn her into a vampire. Oh yeah, and Ten’s a demon and she’s a hunter.

I discovered Nightwish, my favourite band in the whole world, released their new single Storytime today, so I’ve been listening to it over and over again. It inspired me to skip ahead on the date between Tina and Ten and go straight to the more interesting parts of the romance. Namely face nomming (or kissing, for those of you who haven’t been to my blog for very long).

The thing is, this kind of soul-aching romance, where the heroine is beating herself up over and over again over something that’s out of her control is the type of romance I write best. The type where the heroine’s own head is all that’s standing between her and a really decent guy who just wants to love her. A heroine with abandonment issues, with trust issues. I wrote a scene between Innocence and Garuth (my YA high fantasy couple) earlier this year that had me crying because it was so heartbreaking. Tina’s going through something very different to Innocence, but it’s still really emotional (when I realised what it was, it turns out it’s very similar to Harry Potter’s first kiss with Cho). Tina can’t handle falling in love with Ten while she’s still nursing her broken heart and guilt over Noah. This is something I’m going to have to rectify, but every time I attempt to explore Tina’s emotions on the subject I get overwhelmed and start crying.

I know everyone’s fictional, but I’m an over-emotional weeny.

Tina revealed to me that she has trust issues and abandonment issues. Neither of these revelations surprise me. She’s a little damaged. But I didn’t realise before, and now I know there’s going to be a bit of re-writing in earlier scenes to really get those feelings across.

I am the voice of never, never land,
The innocence of dreams from every man,
I am the empty grave of Peter Pan,
A soaring kite against the blue, blue sky,
Every chimney, every moonlit sight
I am the story that will read you real,
Every memory that you hold dear.

Also – I finally settled on a title: The Oncoming Storm.

Word count goal: 13,336

Achievement: 13,755

I’ve been freaking out over the past few days because I reached the point in my writing where I tend to put things aside. But I have good news! I beat through that horrible point where it was like trying to walk through molasses.  I put aside four novels earlier this year (well, technically one was a novella) because of this stupid molasses-point, but I broke though it! And I cam through shiny on the other side.

Tina and Tengu didn’t make it to their date. I sent Tina to school and she had a run in with Chelsea who’s dating Lachlan the hottie patottie, and turned into kind of a bully. Then I sent Tina to physics class hoping to send her to detention but she refuses to do anything that will get her in trouble like that! So I had to trick her. In physics class they were playing with a Van der Graaf generator, those big ball thingies that create static electricity. I barely remembered what it was like playing with one when I went to high school, so I spent about half an hour talking with hubs who has a diploma in forensics science so he’s done all this physics/chemistry/biology classes that I didn’t take in college but Tina is taking. They say ‘write what you know’ and I know nothing about the generator. So I had to research. And then I wrote a scene about what happened in the classroom when Tina accidentally reveals she’s not exactly normal.

It’s not a detention, which quite frnakly I wasn’t very happy with being my first peak point in the novel, so instead it’s come off as more of an accidental exposure issue.

If you can’t tell by the tone of this entry I’m quite jubilant, and rather happy that the novel is progressing. Hopefully I will get around to the Tina/Tengu date tomorrow! Those two need to get it on! (I might not be so happy tomorrow because I have to write romance and I’m not very good at it.)

 

A review of The Edge of Darkness is up on Gina’s blog, Fantasy Casting. We’re going to do a fantasy cast and an interview as well, so stay tuned for those!

Word count goal: 11,669

Achievement: 12,035

I can’t write romance. I can’t write this falling-in-love thing. I barely remember what it felt like to fall in love with my fiancée. As far as I am concerned I always loved him, I just hadn’t met him yet. I can’t draw on my personal experience because I’ve only ever been in two long-term relationships and I can’t even remember what it’s like to fall in love!

I can’t develop two romances at once because quite frankly Tina is aware that the hot guy Lachlan is being a jerkface and she doesn’t want anything to do with him. I feel like I’m being very mean to her when I make her think inappropriate things about the boy! And now that I’ve introduced someone who’s warning her off Lachlan, I can’t see Tina doing anything stupid like actually attending the planned party (second peak event) with him. I must make her more receptive to him!

I just can’t do this. I’m despairing.

I’m trying to tell myself that this is when I’d normally give up on a story and that I just need to keep going, but it’s hard.

Tina has another date with Tengu tomorrow, and they need to get very close very quickly. I want them to be almost dating by the time Lachlan’s party starts, so Tengu has a reason to go all alpha male on him.

Wish me luck!