Jobation June 500 words/day--all genres welcome!

lorna_w

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YW!

about 1500 progress for me in the last 24 hours, 500 in random places and 1000 at the leading edge.

I only have three more (major climactic) chapters to write. Tomorrow, if the real or inner world doesn't explode on me, I'll crest 50K. This all amazes me. Half of my novel-writing experiences are this quick and painless; half have been torture. I must figure out how to create non-torture experiences only in the future.
 

onesecondglance

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I'm a songwriter by craft (not trade, unfortunately), so much of the novel-writing process and its associated foibles are familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

Song-writing can be an excruciating grind, or it can be a seemingly effortless breeze. The ease with which they come has little bearing on the quality, and even the "easy" ones benefit greatly from a ton of hard work filing down the rough edges.

The main difference I've found so far is length. My songwriter's brain is used to getting the bare bones down in a couple of weeks and then spending months revising. But with this novel-writing lark it's going to take at least another three or four months for me to finish getting the bare bones done. So my musical brain is thinking of revisions to the whole - restructures, altering character arcs, that sort of thing - before I've even finished!

To attempt to answer your question, lorna, I don't think there is a way. By the end of revising, you'll probably have expended just as much sweat and tears on them no matter how easy the first draft was. Probably. :D
 

wonderactivist

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About 600 this morning. Again the gym brought them out, but I have to balance out the positives with the negatives. Not all men are as awful as the aggressive dimwits there today. Must write about nice guys who don't harass people. Later.

onesecond, my husband writes his songs in a few hours, but tweaks them for weeks. Then years later he'll change up my faves again. It never stops.
 
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me-a-monsteR

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Fixed another chapter and somehow added 200 words to it. Still not happy with the flow though.

Good luck to all taking on the word challenge:)
 

BfloGal

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Managed 652 words, sitting outside under my favorite writing tree. Words were flowing when my neighbor came outside and cranked his stereo.

Grrr...ear buds, people. Ear buds.
 

onesecondglance

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Today is 15/06, which means we're halfway... and I am exactly 25% through my monthly target.

Catching up will be required. I must hit an average of 500 words per day to get there!
 

Marya

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Since this morning 1 760 words, taking a break to make a parsnip soup with a little cumin and coriander.

Congrats to all reaching milestones, halfway points, seeing light at the end of the tunnel. And a hug to those who are still getting the bare bones down.
 

heyjude

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I think I wrote one whole sentence yesterday, but I did get some editing done, so there's that.

Keep going, everyone!
 

knightrunnermat

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I didn't get much work done this week on my novel, but I did finish putting together my screenplay for a Western/Thriller that I started in 2007. It's only going to be about 45 minutes long, but I'm really excited that this is finally done.

Next step is figuring out how to make it come to life!
 

Daddyo

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I could go back and check to see just how long ago I posted about my word count, but it would depress me to realize how long ago I actually accomplished anything towards my WIP. I was on a roll (for a couple of days), then life happened once more. BUT, this week I got my groove back with 1700 words Wednesday, and 400 yesterday (before family matters pulled me away once again). Bye now, I've got a word count to generate.
 

muse

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Sounds like everyone is hitting their targets.

I think I wrote one whole sentence yesterday, but I did get some editing done, so there's that.
One perfect sentence is better than 10, which need to be cut later.

And kindly editing granny says well done.:granny:

I managed 678 words today. How long they'll stay is another matter.:D
 

lorna_w

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congratulations to you all: for getting back into writing, for steady production at any level, for getting even one sentence out during a family crisis, for good thinking/planning/inventing, for all that you are getting done. And for embracing your inner granny. Y'all rock, seriously.

Another 1500 for me, half and half leading edge and filling in during revising. And look at my total! hehehehehehe. I'm so happy about that. That's a truly magic number, imo. I went through a chapter yesterday that had me saying "ooh, good!" Still tweaked words, of course, will tweak words until a typesetter sits on my chest and pries galleys out of my grasping hands. But still, isn't it nice upon revising to come to a chapter that you feel really does its job just so? Ahh, the pleasures of earning one's way through, over the many years and the million drab words, to moments like these.
 

Shara

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Hello folks

I'm coming very late to this party!

My goal in May was to get to the end of Draft 1, which I did - yay me!

I've been sitting on the WIP ever since, and I've now decided to haul it out again and start Draft 2. So there might not be much of a word count. I will be adding words, but hopefully some of what I've written so far can stay!

I went through chapter 1 this morning. But then walking to work I suddenly thought I should change it around a bit, so it ends differently, so I reckon I'm going to have to go back to it.

I've also discovered that Starbucks have stopped doing their ginger muffins. How dare they?? Don't they realise that my writing mornings are fuelled by soya lattes and ginger muffins? I shall be a lot less productive without them!
 

wonderactivist

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BUT, this week I got my groove back with 1700 words Wednesday, and 400 yesterday

Awesome Daddyo! Congratulations.

I'm editing today and working on a plot hole. This book has had 13 betas and the Buzz editor still found the exact same little plot hole that's been in the back of my mind for a while. Guess I can't slide anything past her. Those of you who know my lean style of writing/critiquing will love the fact that she's suggesting ADDING words in more places than taking them away. At least it seems that way in the first five chapters.

Looks like I will be adding words today, but not in order, like 2 here, 4 there... Does that count?
 

lorna_w

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a word is a word is a word. Doesn't matter where you add them; count them!
 

onesecondglance

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638 today, and good god were the first hundred hard. Good going everyone else - on days like today you guys are invaluable.
 

Daddyo

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Man, Wonderactivist, you've certainly got some eyes getting your manuscript "up to snuff". That's great.

Yeah, Muse, I was on a roll, but then that "one perfect sentence better than ten" that you mentioned had me re-writing two pages. They are now one.
 

lorna_w

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~1500 new this morning (trying to write long enough on first draft, really milk the climax, but will also have to revise/expand it later, no doubt.) Will do some editing and probably adding back there in Ch. 17 later today. Should end the day with almost 35K in the revised-once doc. But I still need to take a pass through that to expand with bits of description here and there. It's not that I suck at them--plenty of literary and poetry pubs to prove to self I know how--but that I find dialog and action much more fun. It seems to be another part of my growing older, though why age would matter in this, I can't explain. (and ymmv as you get to be an old fart.)
 
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muse

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Yeah, Muse, I was on a roll, but then that "one perfect sentence better than ten" that you mentioned had me re-writing two pages. They are now one.
Ah, one perfect page. Bliss!;)

I have been playing...er working really hard on a time line for my WIP. I need to know where everyone is so I can figure out who the killer is. Yes, I know it would be easier if I had known who the killer was before I started, but it's more fun this way.:D

Okay, back to procrast...work.
 

mccardey

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Hello darlings :)

I'll be back tomorrow. Our New Guests just left (and I miss them already :cry:) but tomorrow I plan to get back to the book, and I'm hoping for 500 words at least.

We have Even Newer Guests in two weeks (did I mention we're in the South of France? Do visit!) but as long as I really maximise the wordage in the Time Between Guests I can make the June 30 500 words-a-day deadline. If I amortise..

*sigh*

Mama never said the South of France would be easy...
 
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lorna_w

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Good to see you back here, mccardey! It's fun that people reporting here are at so many different places in their WIPs. Editing, late draft, early draft, figuring out characters and plot. It's like many little snapshots of different points in different writing processes that make a sort of mosaic, in these threads, of a writer's life. If I didn't know what a writing life was like, reading these pages would be an education.

2000+ though I sort of lost count of everything but the larger total. I had fun writing an argument this morning and didn't exactly know how it would resolve itself, so it had that entertainment factor, too, you know, where you're as interested as you hope one day a reader will be in how it'll come out. I had five characters with five ideas and they were yelling at each other, some out of anger, some out of love. "Fun was had by all."