Zaria Fierce

2025-04-04: 750 words. This chapter is roughly 8700 words and still going strong😅I might need to rearrange the starts and stops of chapters.

2025-04-02: 885 words!

2025-03-21: I have no words.

2025-03-20: I just discovered four of my books have been pirated and used to train AI.

2025-03-18: 1111 words. The last chapter is almost 7000 words. I’m at 74,000 words in the book.

2025-03-17: 600 words

2025-02-25: 750+ words. 72K in book.

2025-02-24: 1000+ words. A major plot point has just happened.

2025-02-13: 550+ words. 🥳

2025-02-12: 750 words. 70K in book.

2025-02-10: 500 words. 69K in book.

2025-01-11: Over 500 words and Egil is making a move.

2025-01-09: 550+ words.

2025-01-07: Some, not as much as a I wanted, too many things needing attention in the house.

2025-01-06: Added more to the word count, fixed a few errors in logic.

2025-01-05: 300+ words and some research.

2024-12-19: 800+ words. Chapter 13 complete. 1 chapter and the epilogue to go!

2024-12-11: 450+ words tonight. Nearly done with the chapter. So close! Just tying up two separate parts of it like a little Christmas present… with a shiny bow.

2024-12-10: 550+ words. 6K in chapter. 65K in book.

2024-12-09: 800+ words. 5300 words in chapter. Someone has returned!

2024-12-08: 900+ words. 64K in book.

2024-12-07: 310 pages, 63K in the book. Nearly cried when I thought I had lost 5 chapters, but it turns out it was the wrong file.

2024-12-04: Long day, not much time for writing but I still sneaked in 300+ words.

2024-12-03: 550+ words. An old friend has joined the battle.

2024-11-19: Very little. While plotting out the next phase of the battle I looked up a character name. Found out that I had misspelled this character’s name five times in book 8. Of course, I had to fix it. I updated all my files for ebook and print and updated them on Amazon so the new copies will be distributed with the corrected name.

Also had to spend time redoing my description spreadsheet that somehow grew to way too big and had tons of empty columns and rows being counted by Excel with content causing it to freeze and keep crashing and saying I had no memory. Weird admin tasks tonight eating up writing time. It’ll make my life easier going forward to have fixed this, but like, how did it happen in the first place?

2024-11-18: 500 words. More of the battle is unfolding. The group is trying to figure out their next move. 4-5k left to write for this chapter.

2024-11-17: Not as much as I would have liked written, but the scene I connected is now edited to include the extra character present with them. 61K in the book.

2024-11-16: Another good writing session. I tied in that one scene. About 1400 words added to the story between the scene and my new words.

2024-11-15: 800+ words, 60K in book. Finished chapter 12. A scene I wrote waaaaay waaaaayy long ago got pushed to the next chapter. I’ll eventually tie it in. Maybe in the next writing session.

2024-11-13: 700+ words tonight. 59K in book, 5K+ in chapter 12. Getting close to ending the chapter. Only 2 chapters left + epilogue to go!

2024-11-12: Another renaming of a chapter (the same one). Had to research previous things I’d written to ensure accuracy of creature descriptions. I also had to lookup what I’d used before for group names / collective nouns for certain creatures. To aid in this search I combined all my final copies of ebooks together and guess what? Over 2400 pages make up this series so far!

2024-11-4: 850 words, 58K, 281 consecutive pages, 300 total pages. Today’s writing session was done with a friend. She was working on her paper for school. We had a good time.

2024-11-3: 700 words. 57K in book. On page 278. About 3K left for chapter 12. Retitled this chapter from what it was to something new. It made more sense and gave me time to get to the plot point. All chapter titles from this point were moved down by one. Epilogue got completely renamed and it’s original chapter title is no more in the book.

2024-11-2: 1200 words today. 56K. The final battle is picking up strides.

2024-10-31 part 3: I made it and with a little extra to spare 55,580.

2024-10-31 part 2: We’ll see if I still have this high a word count when I’m done. I forgot I pulled in some paragraphs from other books describing characters so I would have consistency and not mix up how they look/behave. I’m doing my best! Up to 800 words tonight (now at 55,340 count)

2024-10-31: I am currently sitting at 55,555 words which I thought was fun and worth a quick break to report. Happy Halloween!

2024-10-30: 700 words / 54K in the book.

2024-10-29: 450 words. New characters revealed. Research into previous books completed for consistency. There’s got to be a better way for me to look things up then go into each manuscript and searching.

2024-10-28: 950 words. 53K in book. Chapter 11 complete. Just 3 chapters and an epilogue left to go.

2024-10-27: 1000+ words, 52K in book. Chapter 11 nearly complete.

2024-10-16:  400+ words today.

2024-10-10: Hurricane went overhead. Lost power in the house. No writing today.

2024-9-20: The stock I’d ordered to have on hand for signed copies of the Zaria Fierce Series arrived. They were lovingly stored away and are ready for gifts/sales.

2024-9-13: 750+ words on my birthday. Great present to myself!

2024-9-11: 550+ words and the final battle is beginning….

2024-9-10: 50K words in the draft. 500+ new ones from tonight. Another 2-3k to write for this chapter.

2024-9-9: 650+ words tonight. Getting close to some action!

2024-9-7: 500+ words tonight 

2024-9-4: 400 words 

2024-8-12: Finished another draft of the ballad in book nine. Completely in pentameter now (a true feat let me tell you! Never before in my life have I counted so much on my fingers LOL). Back to writing chapter 11.

2024-7-8: Wrote 600 words. Played around with pentameter for cleanup on the ballad. Have more to do there but paused on that to finish chapter 10! Which I did! Book stands at 250 pages all together.

Keeping up with good habits and documenting my writing sessions.

2024-07-07: Wrote 1000 words today. Book is at 47K and nearing the end of Ch 10.

2024-07-06: 1200 words today, nearly 700 of them a ballad the Stag Lord sings.

2024-07-04: 750 words today. I am grateful to break the dry spell again and that things are flowing.

2024-06-11: I was sucked into the void of my author website due to some bad plugins making it behave like it was on dial up internet and exposing debug information to the world. Yikes. Tried to fix the issue and keep the plugins. Didn’t work. Got rid of them. Site runs great again

2024-06-08: First time writing in a while 600 words and counting I’m going to keep working on the book today and see how far I get.

2024-05-04: Finished chapter 9 of book 9. Onto chapter 10!
Edit: This is where some fun pants-ing comes into play because someone showed up at the end of the chapter carrying something and I have no idea what they have on them, but we’re (the characters and me) about to find out together.

2024-04-24: 519 words and I named some new animals in the books. ❤ That was fun! I should be one or two writing sessions from the end of this chapter. Hurray!

2024-04-21: 500 words for 42.5K in the book. First time in a month getting back to it. I put on slow tv featuring aerial views of Norway (terrible music, will need to use my writing playlist next time). Proud of myself for breaking the slump.

2024-03-04: 600 words tonight. 3800 words in chapter 9. 42K total in book. Got to keep remembering potatoes, potatoes, potatoes.

2024-03-03: 700+ words tonight. 41K+ in the book. 3200 words in chapter 9 so far. I used a timer again. That’s been super useful recently so I will keep using a timer as long as it helps.

2024-03-02: 800+ words today, 2500 words in chapter 9, 40K+ overall. I feel a bit like a lawyer today arguing to sides of a situation in the books and presenting a burden of proof. LOL

2024-02-27: I made my 500 word count for the day and managed to go a little over. I also used a timer again to help me do this sprint session. I am at a good part in the story to pause and reflect on how I want the next few pages to go.

2024-02-26: I used a timer today to get me started when I found myself wanting to goof off instead of write. I set it for 30 minutes and did focus writing. I wrote 500 words and brought chapter 9 to just over 1K. That’s pretty good for a Monday after a long day in the office. Book is at 39K

2024-02-25: Another 300+ words. Every little bit counts. I was happy to write this conversation today because Zaria tells Christoffer something important.

Writing book nine has taken longer than I expected it would, so I started a writing journal to help keep track of my writing sprints.

2024-02-24: Wrote 300+ words today.

2024-02-22: I spent a lot of time in the weeds of research back into my own books. It’s amazing to me how much I can recall of my favorite books, but how much harder it is to recall what I’ve spent hundreds of hours writing and editing and reading and hearing when it’s my own series. I made sure to take copious notes. I am officially done with chapter 8. It is 5,089 words in this first draft. TBH I forgot to take note of the word count before I started, so I’m estimating between 300-700 words for today. I am glad I took the time to end it well so there’s no holes or gaps. Onto chapter 9 of book 9 tomorrow!

2024-02-21: 700 words tonight. The end of chapter 8 appears to be in my sights. Maybe one more day of writing. We have some returning faces from previous books and the second half of book nine is underway.

2024-02-19: Forgot to update about yesterday. I made my daily goal. It took a long time but I kept at it until I hit the goal. Today I reached the goal much quicker. We’re 4K in chapter 8 and 37K in the book. The pacing keeps surprising me but that is not a bad thing.

2024-02-17: Wrote 600+ words today and which were harder to write (transitions always feel difficult because you don’t want to break flow but you want to get to next big moment). I’m 36k+ words into book 9. Still working on chapter 8 but getting close to finishing it. I’ll see if I get inspired for another writing session before the end of the day.

2024-02-13: Scene setting today and a little slower paced but here’s to 500 more words 💪

2024-02-08: Another 1000+ words tonight. I ended up stripping out about 50 or so words because I didn’t like the direction the story was taking for one of the kids. Everything’s on track and chapter 8 is even further along. 35K

2024-02-07: A little research done and 1000+ words written tonight, bringing us to 34K in the book. Chapter 8 got a good start tonight.

2024-02-04: I tried honestly I had the laptop open after church and was sitting there telling myself to open the file and I just felt sad (not about the book) but missing mom so I prayed a little while and took a nap. I tried again after dinner but I focused instead on something else. It felt right even if I still feel a little guilty about it. Tomorrow is a new day and it’ll be ok.

2024-01-31: Officially halfway done (33K)! WOO! Also I changed the chapter name. Original chapter name and final chapter name both contain the word “arms” LOL

2024-01-29: 600 words tonight and still somehow not near the end of this chapter even though I’m 3K+ words into the chapter. Just got to keep telling myself I’m almost halfway done with the book! Even if the bar for half way and this chapter keep moving lol in addition I’m Trying to figure out how to link the chapter title with the contents of the chapter, but this chapter just might need a new chapter title. Decisions, decisions.

2024-01-28: 1600 words written today. 32K words total to date in the book. We are leaving Malmdor and heading north to Stabbursdalen National Park. Does anyone remember who is located there? Hint – we know about them but haven’t visited them yet in the series.

2024-01-24: Finally settled on that fourth requirement. Yay! Moving on to the next steps. Approximately 2100 words left to go for this chapter / to reach the halfway point in the book.

2024-01-11: No writing tonight. Decompressing and working on that 4th idea in a list of things for the book. I had some good sounding boards with Josh, Tammy, and Michele so I think I have a few good options to ponder.

2024-01-10: Eh… some words on paper still trying to noodle out this fourth item so I can continue the story. About 100 words tonight and some research.

2024-01-09: Officially at 30K words and counting! I made my daily word quota by a factor of x1.6 (800) and the new chapter is off to a good start. I am noodling what to make as a 4th thing in a list of things. Is that vague enough? lol!

2024-01-08: Made a little headway today and avoided a rewrite catastrophe lol the lesson learned here is counting is fundamental!

2024-01-07: Finished chapter 6 and exceeded my word count goal! Woo hoo! Time to reward myself.

2024-01-06: I was making a push to finish chapter six, which I haven’t done, but I did write more than double my word goal (1000). I connected two parts of the chapter together which is great and in the process had to edit who said what as characters shifted around with what they were doing but that was easy enough. I am at 138 pages in and almost 29K words and the chapter currently sits around 3.2K words. Taking a break and may return to knock out more writing later.

2024-01-04: A couple of starts and stops today but I got there. Some research had to be redone because I couldn’t find my old research. I had a lovely helpful chat with Michele Carpenter and got some motivation to keep going. Finished tonight with 1500 words written. Yay!

2024-01-03: Finished a pun off in the chapter I am working on. It definitely stretches the noodle. Hit word goal (500).

2023-11-15: I got a little bit of research done tonight did a forensic dive into my previously written books to ensure that I had all of the correct information that was kind of fun. It’s always interesting to see what you still have in your head that hasn’t made it to paper versus what’s already made it to print, this trilogy has taken a turn that I was not originally expecting but in retrospect, I really should have because I’ve put all of the groundwork in and laid all the clues for it just goes to show you that everything is new when you give yourself a little bit of a break, and it makes it fun again.

2023-11-12: Hurray! I managed to get in some writing this weekend and met my goal for today. Glad I settled in tonight to try because I got past the next transition.

2023-11-07: Small progress, not as much as I had hoped. I did not meet the daily writing goal. Maybe got half the goal (250)? I wasn’t able to focus on it tonight. I spent time cleaning up some of the writing from yesterday and other parts on visual research. I will try again tomorrow.

2023-11-06: Finished a chapter! Wrote 1.5 times the daily writing goal (1500). I’m two chapters from the halfway point in the story. Things are starting to pick up.

2023-11-02: Slightly less than my daily word goal. I made up for that with a little bit of research.

2023-11-01: Wrote again tonight. I wrote 1.5 times my writing goal (750). 50% more than I planned. It feels good and now we’re getting to a really fun scene that I can’t wait to write. All the prep work is in place. Now it’s time for a show!

2023-10-26: I wasn’t up to writing the last few nights, but tonight I made up for it by writing double my word count goal (1000). Zaria and Christoffer just had a heart to heart. Now they’re up to a spine chilling task.

2023-10-23: I exceeded my word count for the day! Hurray! Not as much as yesterday, but a solid respectable number. I’m about halfway through a chapter at this point. I am 2.5 chapters from reaching the halfway point in the book.

2023-10-22: It took a long time to find the motivation to start today, but I told myself I had to write something. Even if it was small. Even if it was just 100 words. Something. Anything. I am so proud to say that I committed the time and sat down to write and when I did not only did I write that 100 words, I crossed 100 pages into the manuscript, and I met twice my normal writing goal (1000). I guess the characters knew what was going to happen and were just waiting for me to be ready. Writing is definitely about perseverance, commitment, and dedication. It is good to get back into the habit of it again. I am very grateful.

2023-10-18: Today was a good day. I didn’t get new writing done, but I re-read and finessed another chapter. One last chapter to review before I continue the story in earnest. Somehow the word count in the document went up again. I call this “potatoes” when I flesh out the story where the “meat” was before.

2023-10-17: I did manage to get to the manuscript eventually. I logged about 30 minutes of edits. I will take wins where I can get them.

2023-10-16: I am working on writing book nine again. I took a very (very) long break to focus on other personal matters and I’m hoping this will help me get back into the right headspace to be consistent in my efforts. I listened again to all my books (1-8) by the talented Michele Carpenter. I have jotted down some reminders to myself to include. I have reread and lightly edited (nothing plot specific, just sentence structure) the first few chapters. This actually increased my word count slightly. It always amazes me when I hear writers have to cut things out. I tend to always add things in! My hope is another update tomorrow.