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Morning all!!

Well, I made the much more respectable DWC of 250/day this week, so I'm quite pleased with myself. 

It's an enjoyable part of the story and I've managed to I think inject a sense of fun into it.

Hope you have all had a good writing week.  Certainly the weather over the past couple of days here in Adelaide has been rather conducive to staying indoors crouched over the heater with the head down and the bum up.

Mdx

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Hi everyone, I agree with you Merryd even up here in Cairns it has been much cooler so its been the perfect excuse. I haven't had a DWC but am on holidays (yeah) and have finally reached the end of my editing for # 1. So now it can be put aside for a while until I can get a few more people to read it. I've also been able to really nut out the storyline for #2 which has been fun for a change. I think I forgot about the excitement of getting started, mind you it is more fun the second time around (without the oh my god where do I start) . I feel like I have achieved more in the last three days than I have in the past month and it feels great.

Hope everyone has a great week. 

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Hi all. Sounds like everyone (so far) has been making some progress this week, so yay.

I'm still kind of chugging along. I'm nearly at the end of the stuff that needs re-writing. It'll be good to get that out of the way since it takes me a lot longer to do that than it does to edit. Every day it's looking less like a draft and more like a story which is a pretty good feeling.

Have a wonderful week.

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Its great to see everyone is having a great week! I've been bogged down a bit with my story, to much happening at once in it... I have eager characters that want to me to keep going... Fiona I haven't been to the Sydney writers festival. As I said, I'm green in this field, so I hardly know anything outside of just writing a story at this stage. But I'm willing to learn.

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"The world is not enough..." James Bond 007

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Festivals will always come around again - I think they're helpful mainly from the point of view of immersing yourself in the literary world and reinforcing to yourself that you are part of it! We all need reminding of that. What a happy bunch you are this week. Congratulations on the progress and the upbeat feel. Today I dropped below 20,000 words to go. What a lovely feeling. In 18,000 words or less even I can write The End in my head and wrap up the newest tome, get it away to my editor. But yesterday I opened a new document and called it Valisar 2 so another book already awaits me and then then I must write at the top of my DWC document.......words to go: at least 150,000. Always daunting but somehow exciting too. Chapter 1 is usually a good feeling. It's usually by around chapter 17 you're beginning to scratch your head and wonder whether you're on the right track - or at least I am. I'm giving myself 16 weeks from the moment I start and you'll share the pain with me I promise! Well done everyone - have a great week ahead. Burn through those words! x

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Hi Everyone!

Sorry I'm super late, but hey what else is new?   My daughter has been out of sorts and I've had the two boys at home with me on alternate days being ill with the flu.  Fortunately I haven't caught it, fingers crossed I won't.

Well, where to begin!  My Mum (who still lives in England) is a roady for a comedienne/singer who does alot of work on the cruise ships sailing around Europe.  And being my Mum she likes to announce that her daughter is a budding writer who's story is fabulous and does anyone know any good publishers! (You can see where I get my storytelling abilities from can't you!)  I'm super excited to tell you this...there was a retired agent on the last cruise that my Mum made friends with, she lives in England and used to deal in fantasy writing, she also owned her own bookshop for 20 years and is good friends with several publishers in the U.K!  She's reading my manuscript and has already commented on changing the start of the story, making chapter one a prologue, etc, but said it's a really great read.  She's emailing her list of recommended changes on June 1st, then once I have made the changes and brought the MS up to the standard required, she is going to show it to two of her publisher friends that she has in mind (one in children's publishing, one in fantasy.)  Then we'll see where we go from there!!   AAAHHHHHH (that was an excited scream!)

That said, I've done very little else on the writing front, I thought it was a bit pointless until I got the comments back from Jenny (the retired agent).

Glad to hear everyone is doing really well this week, Good luck everyone on the writing and editing front.  Oh, before I go, I noticed some of you saying you'd joined writing clubs.  I joined the SCBWI (society for children's book writers and illustrators) last year, they are an international group with regional chapters all over the world.  The Perth group are great, and they always have some great information and advice to give.  I must admit I felt more like a writer and more enthused after going along to the sessions and chatting to some of the published writers there.  The newsletters are always packed with great information too, I'm sure it would be the same for the groups you have joined.  Let's face it the more information about publishing we can get, and what publishers are looking for, the better!

Hopefully catch you all next week and have more news to share.  I'm so excited for us all, doesn't it feel like we're finally doing what we always wanted?  Take care, Claire x

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Clairea thats fantastic to hear, you many end up with a published story before you know it. Its great to have someone with that kind of experiance going over you MS. All the best and let us know how it all goes.Cheers Ebony.

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"The world is not enough..." James Bond 007

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Brilliant Claire!  Well done.  I'll keep my fingers crossed for you and we can all celebrate your success with a cyber-champers. 

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How wonderful Clairea!

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Thanks so much for your encouragement!  I've just received an email from Jenny with notes on some changes, it's all positive though and she said she thoroughly enjoyed it! I'll keep you posted on how I get on...

Claire x