Auxesis April 500 words/day-all genres welcome

heyjude

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705 yesterday. Much fun. I love a good sociopath.

Uh, in fiction. Mostly. :)
 

muse

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What kind of torture, Muse? How about bamboo slivers under her fingernails?

So, I'm giving up. Muse, I hope your torture works out :)

The torture didn't work out as planned. The character got drunk instead, and it's very hard to torture a drunk person. Well, unless you withhold their drink, but I doubt she would have noticed. Grrrr, I hate it when a plan falls apart.:rant:

625 words last night and this morning.
 

Ken Hoss

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Sorry the torture didn't work, Muse. You do have one more chance though. You could always wait until the next morning when this character is suffering from the obligatory hangover. :evil

Got a meager 518 yesterday, and close to wrapping up the chapter. At this rate, this book won't be out until late summer. :whip:
 

kaitie

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Been doing some notebook writing today, and while I don't know how many words, it's 3 pages so far, so probably around 700? Still working, but not sure if I'm going to type or not. It's going better in the notebook so I'm going to stick with that for awhile.
 

mccardey

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Been doing some notebook writing today, and while I don't know how many words, it's 3 pages so far, so probably around 700? Still working, but not sure if I'm going to type or not. It's going better in the notebook so I'm going to stick with that for awhile.

That's exactly what I'm doing! I've filled a notebook since I've been here, and in a very few minutes I'm going to start turning it from plottage into wordage. Which is terrifying - but from everything I've read (one writer's article, actually) that's pretty normal. I hope so. Otherwise I might have to find some vodka or something. 500 words, here I come!
 

Fins Left

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I kind of did the opposite of notebook. I went through a bunch of scribbles and put them into Scrivener. Then got hit with a huge burst of inspiration. Between the two, I've added over 7000 since my last post. One part between a dad and his boy I really like. I made myself cry :-(

But now, my head is squishy and I can write no more.

ETA: Oh, and am very happy, I found an editor today!
 

heyjude

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Congrats on the word count, Fins! But I'm a bit concerned over the editor thing... are you hiring a professional editor? Be careful!
 

Ken Hoss

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Nice wordage, Fins! :D

Went back and added some more dialog to close out chapter 23. Thought I had it done, but Kelli couldn't keep her mouth shut. For days she wouldn't talk, and now I can't get her to stop. Go figure. Total WIP WC is now 49366! Should be over 50k by the end of today. :snoopy:
 

muse

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Sounds like everyone is bumping up their word count. It's funny how moving from computer to paper, and vice versa can spark the imagination.

Went back and added some more dialog to close out chapter 23. Thought I had it done, but Kelli couldn't keep her mouth shut. For days she wouldn't talk, and now I can't get her to stop. Go figure. Total WIP WC is now 49366! Should be over 50k by the end of today.

Glad Kelli is back talking to you, Ken.

I kind of did the opposite of notebook. I went through a bunch of scribbles and put them into Scrivener. Then got hit with a huge burst of inspiration. Between the two, I've added over 7000 since my last post. One part between a dad and his boy I really like. I made myself cry :-(

I love it when I write something that affects me that way. Congrats on the word count, Fin.

No words for me today - yet.

Sorry the torture didn't work, Muse. You do have one more chance though. You could always wait until the next morning when this character is suffering from the obligatory hangover.

Oooh, I like your thinking. :evil
 

mccardey

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Okay - this is the first time i've ever tried writing-to-wordcount, and I'm doing it to try to jolt me into moving from plottage to wordage: I just spent several weeks trying to sort out whether to ditch the New Book and start something else instead. Oh, and moving to France, did I mention that?

So I set a goal of 500 words today and asked an AW member to keep me honest on it, and my result is - 347 WORDS!!! YAYY!!!! And about another 160 to start tomorrow with.

I'm so relieved and so pleased to be moving ahead again.

:)
 
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Fins Left

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Congrats on the word count, Fins! But I'm a bit concerned over the editor thing... are you hiring a professional editor? Be careful!

I"m looking for a political/fiction/humor editor. I'm going to send a sample to the woman that I talked to for her to give me a quote on line editing only. I'm actually going to try about three different people for sample edits. I've been able to track down published works by these three people, so that is why I'm even going any further with them. But, I'm still open if you know a good line editor or copy editors. (Yes, this is paid editing)


Should be over 50k by the end of today. :snoopy:
I can't wait for the day I can say that!

Okay - this is the first time i've ever tried writing-to-wordcount, and I'm doing it to try to jolt me into moving from plottage to wordage: I just spent several weeks tryinng to sort out whether to ditch new New Book and start something else instead. oh, and moving to France, did I mention that?

So I set a goal of 500 words today and asked an AW member to keep me honest on it, and my result is - 347 WORDS!!! YAYY!!!! And about another 160 to start tomorrow with.

I'm so relieved and so pleased to be moving ahead again.
:)

That was me. I was sort of flopping around not getting anything done. Now, I just pick a point and start writing it. By doing that, the rest of the plot is starting to come together. I still have a big gap, but when I write stuff, the little details cause the big picture to mesh together better for me. I also use scrivener and have collections for each character, so I can just read through the characters individually. I've found some big jumps that way... like how did that character get from there to way over there? Then I can fill in the holes or just knock the character back in line.
 

mccardey

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That was me. I was sort of flopping around not getting anything done. Now, I just pick a point and start writing it. By doing that, the rest of the plot is starting to come together. I still have a big gap, but when I write stuff, the little details cause the big picture to mesh together better for me. I also use scrivener and have collections for each character, so I can just read through the characters individually. I've found some big jumps that way... like how did that character get from there to way over there? Then I can fill in the holes or just knock the character back in line.

I've always been a pantser - but this time I did the plotting thing and after that I felt like the party was over and there was no reason to write it, really. So I'm thrilled to be feeling that hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck thing again :)
 

heyjude

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I"m looking for a political/fiction/humor editor. I'm going to send a sample to the woman that I talked to for her to give me a quote on line editing only. I'm actually going to try about three different people for sample edits. I've been able to track down published works by these three people, so that is why I'm even going any further with them. But, I'm still open if you know a good line editor or copy editors. (Yes, this is paid editing)

I don't, off the top of my head. The way I was taught is that each writer should be able to edit him/herself. And I've heard so many stories of writers getting taken, it just raises my antennae when someone talks about hiring one.

Have you seen the threads on hiring an editor? I'll try to find the links...

Here's one thread where it comes up...
 
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Shakesbear

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Just typed up 1080. A sort of prologue. Not sure if I will use it but it helped me. Most of the research is not finished - just one more area to cover. Writing felt good!
 

Namatu

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Fins, what are you hoping an editor will do for your writing? I agree with jude that there are a lot of things that we as writers should learn to do ourselves - it can be difficult to learn, but it also helps our writing as we develop stronger skills. Maybe we can give you some suggestions on how to approach problem areas before you resort to hiring an editor.

On topic, I'm writing right now. I swear it.
 

Fins Left

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Fins, what are you hoping an editor will do for your writing? I agree with jude that there are a lot of things that we as writers should learn to do ourselves - it can be difficult to learn, but it also helps our writing as we develop stronger skills. Maybe we can give you some suggestions on how to approach problem areas before you resort to hiring an editor.

On topic, I'm writing right now. I swear it.

ETA: SHORT VERIONS: I see some terrible writers who think their stuff is REALLY GREAT on here and I am weak at grammar. So, I need to know if I'm as self-deluded as some of the people that I've seen post and I need someone else to go over the grammar.

BEGIN LONG VERSION (Cranky Rant)

Grammar is a weak point for me and I want an external pair of eyes. I want a line editor to go over my MS so I can see where my mistakes are comming from. I do not expect grammar to ever be a strong point for me. It is a bit like I can learn to pluck out a song on a keyboard, but that doesn't make me a keyboard player. Also, the editors that I'm looking at do not have "day jobs." They support themselves as editors (not writers, not aritsts, no bloggers, just editing).

As for beta readers. I have no idea of how to find a suitable beta reader and frankly, I keep getting burned by the concept.

I've done chapter swaps before and found it only marginally useful. The worst was a person that believed they were nearly God's gift to writing (I learned later this was at the age of 19 and as a jr in college) and prepped me to (a) not be discouraged if my work was far below the level of their work and (b) that they would be VERY HARD on the basics because they were nearly a pro and I should have a thick skin. In the end, that author's material was painful to read and even harder to mark up. The deeper I got into the book, the uglier it got. It took me days to work each chapter. In return, I would get generalized comments and a few missed commas.

Then another crappy beta requester wanted a "genuine" beta on content and structure for a non-fiction in my area of expertise. It was a iUniverse mess. I spent days marking up bad logic, poor structure, contradictions, etc. (no grammar at all, since I'm weak there). In return I was told to kiss off. This from an author who requested the input!

So, at this point, I'm not a fan of beta readers or beta reading. I think beta readers are flakes and I just don't have the energy to slog through the horrible stuff that I've slogged through in the past (with a recent exception that I didn't finish because I had work that took over). Of course, my sister and a friend read my work, but that isn't really a beta reader to me. They have to be nice to me.

I had originally intended to post in the SYW area of this site, but after having watched that area (trying to contribut some), I am not interested in that at this point and there is no way that I'd run 90k words thorugh SYW.

END LONG VERSION (Cranky Rant)

So, I'm cranky, but at least I got about 1200 words today. I figured out two characters in the book were actually the same guy. Then once that fell into place, I had to off his wife in a way that didn't make the him seem negative. His wife was a total bitch and I hate writing about her. I'm so glad she's dead now. Good riddence, ya selfish bitch!
 

_Jinx_

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In my current story I have 499 words... 0.0 I need to get some more work in now...
 

Fins Left

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Just typed up 1080. A sort of prologue. Not sure if I will use it but it helped me. Most of the research is not finished - just one more area to cover. Writing felt good!

You'll be amazed at how you'll be able to sprinkle it into the story at just the right points now. So that definitely counts.
 

heyjude

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Fins, I'm sorry you had a bad beta experience. But they are out there! And frankly, I've heard of editors who weren't much better.
 

wonderactivist

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Hey Fins, :Hug2: sorry about your beta experience. I highly recommend seeking out readers, not writers.

The best way to find betas is to ask personal friends on Facebook (or wherever) if they could refer people who read in your genre--and who don't know you. I've only ever met 3 of my thirteen betas. The readers mostly think it's kinda neat to help develop a story. Remember, these are people who just love books. One of my regular betas reads about 5 novels a week for fun. She will be thrilled if someday her name is in one.

Keep in mind that readers do notice grammar/punctuation. They are used to books that carry them away with flowing prose. If you want a good beta experience, you should have edited for grammar and punctuation once before they see it. Then once for flow. They WILL catch the rough spots and don't mind a few, like a couple a chapter. I had a former magazine copy editor beta my first book early on and she sliced and diced my semi-colons. I'm so grateful/

As far as SYW is concerned, I think the very nature of that place is to help you get your opening chapter or query to the point where it could hold the interest of an agent or editor. Maybe an especially important scene or two also. It's a place where you WANT to have your work slashed up. You should be ready to hear the sharp critiques that your family, friends, and even some betas won't say (but might think).

Sort of like pushing your muscles "to failure" in a workout--you have to have that burn. Then you rebuild, stronger.

Warm regards,

Lucie
 
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mccardey

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My beta is amazing. Also, he cooks :)

I got my 500 words today, if we stretch the definition of 500 to, say, 391. But I'm thrilled with that - two days of wordage in a row and I feel like I'm getting the muscles working again. So pleased - it's such a relief!
 

Ken Hoss

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AWesome wordage everyone!

626 on the WIP this morning, in under an hour!! Threw is a great plot twist. I love plot twist. :D

Fins, don't give up on betas. You're getting some good advice here. The betas I had for my first book were just AWesome! (You know who you are. :D )