I have a lot of time on my hands lately, so I’ve been exploring new options for writing projects to work on. Unfortunately a head cold limits me today, but I’m hoping to post my writing progress here for the next week, and possibly month.
So here goes.
1. Follow the Tracks
This is a middle grade to young adult adventure novel set in dystopian Melbourne.
Having a bit of trouble with this one as it’s my first time writing middle grade, and I have found myself getting stuck by the genre tropes. I need to do some adventuring myself before I can write freely!
18/02: Planning completed. 1 page written.
20/02: Minus 1 page. Cut prologue and chapter 1. Started again from chapter 2. 4 pages written.
24/02: 5 pages written, up to chapter 2!
26/02: 1 page workshopped. 5 pages re-written, plus 2 more pages.
28/02: 10 pages written.
07/03: 14 pages written.
10/03: 17 pages written.
13/03: 20 pages written.
2. Better than Famous
A YA chic-lit style drama about a pair of girls who win a month with their favourite boy band.
I started this one in high school! My old notebook actually says ‘Biology’ on it because I often wrote in class. That means it’s at least a decade old… by the gods. I’m re-writing what I had originally (I’ve thankfully matured my writing style since high school) so it’s pretty smooth sailing for now.
18/02: 83 original pages. 10 re-written pages.
19/02: 13 re-written pages.
3. Untitled vamp fiction
A romantic fantasy about a widowed woman who takes a housekeeping position for a pair of vampire brothers while completing her PhD on doomed romances.
This one spawned from a recent dream, and I couldn’t stop myself from writing it! It will be smutty, as most vampire fiction is, but I felt that I needed some sexiness in my writing given that I so often write YA (in which all the sexiness can only be insinuated).
18/02: Planning 50%. 5 pages written.
19/02: 7 pages written.
24/02: 10 pages written. Too early for the vamp reveal?
Check back for daily progress! Any writer friends out there who’d like to set combined goals, I’m happy to work to push each other.
C J Cleghorn 