Happy Insecure Writer’s Support Group day! It’s July and the puppy is huge. Pictures don’t do him justice. He’s 4 months old now, and he’s probably close to 40lbs, if not more. The kids and I have been doing training, but the barking and jumping are things we have yet to break him of.
Despite the constant distraction that is the dog, I have managed to make decent progress on my rewrite. I’m 2K short of where I want to be with this book, but 83K is nothing to scoff at. I’m at a spot where the timeline is unclear to me, and that makes me uncertain which order these chapters will end up in when I’m done, but every day, I’m tightening my events just a little more to keep this book focused and moving forward.
So far, critters on Critique Circle have been entertained by my progression, which tells me I’m on the right track. I’ve completely redone the timeline, and I’ve upped the humor factor to better align with book 2. The fact this book was more drama than humor worried me when I started, since I lean pretty heavily into silliness in book 2. But thankfully, Derek’s shift in character (from attempted suave to hot mess) has brought out the LOLs and giggle-snorts in the comments.
I’m hopeful I can actually finish this book this year.
IWSG Question of the Month – Is there a genre you haven’t tried writing in yet that you really want to try? If so, do you plan on trying it?
Nope. I write what I want, when I want to.
How has your year been going? Do you enjoy a bit of humor in what you read? Got any tips to stop a dog from barking?
About Insecure Writer’s Support Group
You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.
Well done on the writing progress! And yeh for giggle-snorts! 🙂
I love humor in what I’m reading and always appreciate a story that can make me laugh out loud. And reading/writing hot mess characters can be so much fun! And 83k is definitely nothing to scoff at. That’s amazing! Happy writing!
What we did with our bark-prone dogs was to teach them to bark on command. We also had a stop command that was used for everything, but it then enabled us to get them to stop barking when asked. It takes some work to pull it off, but that’s what we did.
Glad you found a way to add some humor.
I bet that dog is huge now.
I definitely like humor in what I read, and I put it in what I write. In fact, I can’t keep it out, though I have moments of veering into darker topics as well. Then up pops the “inconvenient sense of humor” that’s gotten me into trouble more than once.
Love that you write what you want when you want.
Giggle-snorts are good!
I love subtle humor in the books I read, but it is not easy to find. So many writers take themselves too seriously. I salute your attempts to bring humor out in your stories.
I love humor in books, and I’m always trying to find ways to incorporate into my own. Kudos to you on getting to 83k. I also often get to the end and don’t know the exact timeline. It’s not usually till I’m revising that I make a calendar or a timeline to make sure everything is in the right order.
You can do it!
With out rescue, the trainer said that she was stress-stacking as she learned the new environment. And yeah, it took a bit of time it to calm down. We did some training where we specifically asked her to bark and then when she barked when it wasn’t good, we created a distraction and the command hush with a hand signal to close her trap! LOL And treats when it worked. 🙂
You can do it!
With our rescue, the trainer said that she was stress-stacking as she learned the new environment. And yeah, it took a bit of time it to calm down. We did some training where we specifically asked her to bark and then when she barked when it wasn’t good, we created a distraction and the command hush with a hand signal to close her trap! LOL And treats when it worked. 🙂
I wish humour came to me easily so my writing could entertain more. More laughs are great.
I used Aeon Timeline when I started finding chronology problems with my Welsh series – invaluable. https://www.aeontimeline.com/
As for the barking, we have two barkers. The oldest, almost 11, has been impossible to stop all his life – being a Chorkie doesn’t help. Our 1-year-old Beagle bays more than he barks. We bought a device from Amazon that emits a sound that can stop both barking… when they’re in range.
Glad to hear you’ve made progress.
I tend to lean toward serious stories with heavy emotion. I need to add more humor.
Writing while “entertaining” a new pup is quite the challenge! Congratulation on both.
https://cleemckenziebooks.substack.com/
Humor is great in books, but it’s hard to get the tone right. When it’s done well, it’s magical. I aspire to such greatness, but I can’t quite pull it off. Glad you’ve got people laughing along with your work.