I had two goals for ROW80. One of them was to get Haunted Lake edited. Well, I kind of cheated on that one because I had two whole days off from work, so I edited during that time, before ROW80. After finding a few typos, a couple of discrepancies, and one really obvious contradiction (my beta readers didn’t even catch it, lol), I think I have it finished. I’m one of those writers that edits chapter by chapter as I write so that I don’t have as much to edit later. So that goal is accomplished…even if I cheated by starting early. But I saw no reason to waste those two days. And, unlike NaNo, you don’t get slapped on the hand for this.
Also, I’m ahead on word count by a little over 500. My goal was 500 words per day, and I wrote 991 the first day. On the second day, I struggled to get word count in (but I did it) because I’m not loving this story yet. But I felt the same way about Guardian Vampire and it ended up being the best thing I had written. So I’m not giving up on this baby.
lauralynnelliott.com 
Ooh I admire you for being able to continue writing even if you don’t love the story. I have huge problems with doing that… and there’s always some point during the project that I hate the story so it’s quite often that I struggle with that.
Well done for keeping your word count goal!
Thanks, Tanja! I’m one of those people who hate not to finish what I start. And since I was able to love Guardian Vampire eventually, I’m confident that I’ll get to that point.
It always takes me a while to really love a story, a few weeks of talking about it in your updates and you might start getting the love on. 🙂
Well done on starting early, you’re like the anti-Claire for working when you don’t have to. LOL.
Claire, this is my first attempt at a story that’s more horror than paranormal romance. It’s about a haunted garden gnome. There’s going to be romance, but that’s not going to be the main focus. So I’m struggling a bit.
The way I figured it, if I got the editing done, I wouldn’t have so much to do during ROW80. LOL
Love how determined you sounds. Encourages me to keep moving forward!
Thanks! I’m kind of a determined person. LOL
Excellent start, LauraLynn!
Beginnings are difficult for me too, I edit and tinker as I try to find my way into a story. I’m a pantster – sort of. There is a touch of plotting, but sh-h-h don’t tell anyone…
And a haunted garden gnome? All right, I’m intrigued. 🙂
Yeah, I’m a pantser all the way. I mean, I have ideas, but the characters do things I had never imagined they would do. I think that’s part of the fun.
I was just looking at a garden gnome one time and thought about how creepy they looked. And I thought, hmmm….
I have so many abandoned stories from over the years, because I lose interest, and have ‘look–something shiny’ syndrome. The shorter e-books helps with my attention span. I guess I’m a ‘pantser’ too. I couldn’t plot something from beginning to end if my life depended on it–and I’d just end up changing it anyway if I did. But, there’s something to say for non-linear thinking. I think it makes stories more unpredictable and exciting as long as it all ties together in the end.
I want to read about the gnome. Gimmee the gnome…
I get bored easy, too. That’s why I’ve never done a series. If I did, it would have to be a series of novellas. I’m still not sure I could, though. My brain is all over the place sometimes. I like the idea of the stories being unpredictable…at least to the author. The characters just do what they want to in my books and I have a hard time reigning them in.
I hope the gnome story doesn’t end up being lame. I’ve never written a true horror story, although the last two I wrote are a little “tenser” than the others. LOL
After the pain in the butt that Devil’s Eye is, I don’t know that I will EVER push through on something I’m not loving again. It just took SO MUCH out of me, and while I think that the end result was fine, it’s not going to have the…soul, I guess, that Red will. And really, that’s one of the benefits of being an indie is that you’re NOT under contract, so if you fall out of love in a bad way, you’re free to move on to something else without repercussions.
But hey, good on you for keeping on going
But Devil’s Eye turned out really, really good. And if I hadn’t pushed on when I wrote Guardian Vampire, I would have missed out on something I ended up loving after all. The way I figure it is that I’ll give it a couple of weeks and if I still don’t love it, I’ll start something else. But I think I can learn to love it even if it wasn’t love at first sight. LOL