Good week. Early update.

Hey, I am probably not going to be able to share as normal tomorrow, so I decided to sit down and share tonight instead.

I had a really good writing week. Well, week isn’t quite right, I wrote half of all my words for the week last night, but I have the draft over 81k now after adding 2k to it. Yay!

It’s a bit painful after adding like 10k a week early on, to be adding like 1k each week if I’m lucky, but this is just where I am at at the moment and I am going to choose to be happy that I am still writing.

I’ve spent some time reading through some of my other wips this week without getting derailed, which was nice. It’s actually pretty encouraging because I think some of what I have written in those (and this one too) is really good. I don’t think I am actually terrible at this writing thing.

Well, the technical side is probably going to require a very well paid editor, but I think my story craft is pretty good.

Here’s a little snippet:

He snapped another book shut with a growl upon discovering it was also a useless record of crop yields.

The fields they recorded had long since been destroyed.

With a grunt of frustration, he slammed his hand against the shelves once. He paused a moment before repeating the motion again, and again, in rapid succession until books began to rain down from the higher shelves.

He spun away from the shelves, opening and closing his fists. His foot caught on one of the books and sent it skittering across the grimy stone floor. To his surprise, the pages slipped readily out of the cover. Only, they weren’t exactly pages as they had a soft leather cover of their own.

Not a big week

I was very busy this week, long shifts at work and a lot of catch up around the house from being taken out for the better part of two weeks. I am about 70 words away from having this draft at 79k.

There is a lot of creative energy running through me at the moment, though it isn’t particularly focused on this story at the moment. Hopefully now that I am caught up, I can settle in and get another good chunk of this story down.

No snippet this week cause the scene I am working on is really spoiler-y.

Thanks for reading!

A good bad week

I have been horribly sick this week with a migraine along with other complications in my health. Despite this, I wrote a little more this week bringing the draft just over 78k.

I finished the difficult emotional sequence I started last week and have moved into another plot line that is fun in part because I don’t really know what I am doing with it yet, but it’s with Harkin in the old, occupied capital. Despite being a little hazy on the details of the plot, I have a pretty good idea how I want the plot lines to be woven together for this part.

Hoping for another good week.

Here’s a little snippet:

Pulling back into the vent, Harkin berated himself silently for reacting. If he’d been heard…

“Harkin.”

With his eyes squeezed shut, Harkin remained where he was, flattened against the bottom of the vent shaft, hardly daring to breathe.

“Well, that explains how you’ve been getting around then. I already know you’re there; you might as well come down.”

He made no movement. Perhaps Keiran would assume he’d imagined it and leave. The sudden warmth in his enchanted slave cuffs disabused him of the notion.

I have reached a major event in the story

It’s taken me a minute to be able to get to this part and now that I am here, each time I sit down to write is more productive.

It is still a bit difficult to get a chance to sit down and write. I have manage to add over 1k to the draft bringing it nearly to 76k (I might even pass that if I get another chance to write today).

This next part of the story is kind of rough emotionally. I have parts of it mostly written out, as I have had this event (more or less) in the story since the first draft.

A little snippet from the action this week:

While there had been people who went ahead to scout and ensure it was safe, this was the first time he or Aila had seen it. He stepped to her side and took her hand which she immediately gripped as a lifeline.

“It’s gone.” Her voice rang like steel, revealing both her sorrow and the rage it fueled. “The ruins are ash. They’re…” Aila broke off and Aaron dropped her hand, opting to pull her to his side at the sight of her tears.

Heavy Week

Like many of you probably have been, I have had a very heavy heart this week. I got a few hundred words in early in the week and have been unable to write since both because I have had obligations with my family and just too sad and distracted to sit and write. I do have the draft over 74k now and hopefully I will be able to write again soon.

Doing creative things on my instagram has been pretty cathartic and writing has always been a good outlet for me so I don’t anticipate being off my game for long. It’s good for my mind and heart to write.

This scene isn’t necessarily cannon, it’s a little fluff scene I wrote to introduce Zuriel and Aila’s relationship, but I thought a little fluff would be good to share this week. Enjoy friends.

“I don’t know if I can do this.”

Aila stepped closer and held his face in her hands. He kept his eyes closed so she kissed his cheeks trying to draw him back to her. After a moment he finally met her eye.

“You can do this. You are doing amazing, Zuriel.”

He shook his head. “No.” she said firmly and pressed her hands against his face forcing his mouth into a pout but stopping the movement of it. She could feel his cheeks tightened briefly in a smile beneath her hands.

With a sigh she pulled his face down until their foreheads touched. Her heart swelled with love for this man who was facing death for her; for all of them. She directed her affection to the link and felt him relax and press closer to her.

“What would I do without you?”

She smiled, relishing the warm affection shifting to desire in the link that bound them. His mouth found hers as he pulled her closer. She returned the affection until it swelled further. Pushing back against his desire and body, she met his gaze and smiled warmly.

“Stop that, you’re trying to distract me.”

He laughed and kissed her forehead. “You are not a distraction, love. You are my light in all things.” He sighed and settled his head against hers again. “I need a little light today.”

Progress Update

Still making painfully slow progress, but I am getting a few hundred words in each day.

It has only amounted to about 1k this week, but it is 1k more than it was so, I’ll take it.

This draft is currently just over 73,500 words and I am approaching some of the key scenes I have been really eager to write. Hopefully once I get there I will have a little rush where I get a bit farther, a bit faster than I have been.

The nature of what I wrote this week combined with how little I did, I don’t really have any excerpts to share. Hopefully next week I will.

Thanks for reading!

Making Slow Progress

I completely spaced on doing an update last week. I am still working on The Shadow of Vale, I am just having to do it very slowly because my children are not a fan of me being on my laptop lately. (I have two little ones under the age of 4) So that has been a complication keeping my daily writing down to a hundred if I am lucky.

I have a lot of ideas for this book and a deeper understanding of the meaning of the story and the character arcs, so I am happy with the progress and when I do get the chance to sit down and write, I haven’t been struggling to come up with words or ideas.

This draft is currently 72,500 words give or take.

Harkin is going through it unexpectedly. haha! I have always known he had a rough backstory, but a bit of the darker notes surfaced in a scene I wrote recently. I have also written back in a relationship that I was planning to cut from the story, but it just really feels like it belongs there for some reason I can’t quite pin point just yet.

Maybe when I get to the point of letting other people read the full draft I can work out some of that stuff.

At any rate, here’s a little snippet (Be aware, it’s a dark one):

A scream broke from his lips as he recalled the feeling of the maternal link. The bright warm light that soothed him and acted as his strength and sanity through the merciless beatings and terrifying tests. His mind frantically reached for that light, but it was long since gone.

He was alone in the dark again.

Thanks for reading!

Surprise!

Tuesday I actually figured out what I was doing in The Shadow of Vale and sat down and wrote like 2300 words.

I have been struggling to get more in since then, but not for lack of inspiration.

In total I added 3500 words to The Shadow of Vale this week bringing it just over 70k.

It has been so much fun to be writing in Vale again and spending time with Zuriel, Aila, Halvar, and Harkin.

Hoping to have a few more thousand added next week.

Here’s a little snippet:

She smiled. “That’s pretty incredible, Zuriel. Naims don’t pick up bleeds within hours.”

His expression softened further. “Like nymphs don’t link to life points in a decade?”

She felt her smile widen. “Exactly.”

He turned back to the garden and let out a long breath, but his entire bearing was different now. He was focused, but a touch more relaxed. Determined, but without the intense irritation.

Halvar looked at her with another smirk. He nodded his approval.

“Got it!” Zuriel cried as a bleed opened. He shot an excited look to Aila before stepping into the bleed.

Update

I know I missed a week, I was trying to work out what I am going to be working on. As of now, I am going to be shifting away from The Shadow of Vale to work on two of my other wips (they are contemporary romance).

I don’t know how long it will be before I come back to this story or if I will pick it up where I left off, or start it over again. While I like this version of the story and I think it works better than previous versions, I have been getting more in tune with my relationship with God and it has been shifting how I structure and write stories. So, I’ll see where it all ends up when I come back to it. Maybe the fact that I have lost inspiration for it is related to it not yet being the story I need to tell.

If you want to keep up with other things I am doing, I am most active on Instagram: @words.and.lore

Blessings!

Michelle

Pausing

I haven’t been writing very much of anything, but when I do it has been some of my contemporary romance wips. I had a new story idea surface this week and steal my creative energy. While I do have a goal in mind for publishing The Shadow of Vale, I am doing my best to not freak myself out when I hit dry spells like this.

I’m going to wait and see where my mind settles this week, if it settles anywhere. I probably just need to get out some stray energy and go back to examine it big picture before diving back in.

Hopefully I’ll have a better idea how its going next week.

Blessings!

Michelle