October Challenge - Write Every Day! (NaNoWriMo prep)

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Magnus

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Hello and welcome! This is a thread open for anyone who wants to start, maintain, or reinforce a writing habit.

I've started these threads for two months now, and I have found them useful, and I'm glad to see that they have also helped many others. We get a bit of accountability and we can support and cheer each other on!

So I'm keeping it up. The basis for the idea is that repeating something daily – even in small doses – means you build a habit that you'll find harder and harder to avoid (you can read more about that in this blog post I wrote).

So introduce yourself, and if you want to, let us know what your goals are for October. I suggest trying to post every day, but it's entirely up to you how much and in what way you participate.

Since NaNoWriMo is around the corner, you can use this to prep for a writing marathon, if that's your thing.

A few tips and reminders:


  • Set achievable goals – I can't stress enough how important this is. Habits build over time, so look at your current writing habit and set a goal to increase it a little bit, in word count, time, and/or frequency.

  • Write every day – even if it's just a few sentences. It reinforces the habit.

  • Mix it up – Try different types of goals, different times of the day, different tricks to reward or motivate yourself. A good habit is what works for you, not someone else. For example, some people find it works best with a set time. Others – like me – prefer a conditional habit (my current goal is to write a little bit after breakfast). And so on.

  • Be patient – It takes a long time to build a strong habit and you'll always be facing new challenges. So get used to constantly adapting and you'll be better prepared for jumping the next hurdle.

  • You can't fail – When you don't hit your goal, your job is figuring out why. When you do, you can find methods that help you do better the next day. If you share your speculations on why you missed your goal in this thread, others will be able to help out with tips and tricks!

Good luck, and see you on the 1st of October!
 

heykatydid

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Thanks for making the October thread, Magnus! I'll get my goals set in stone here, even though tomorrow on the 1st I'll be out all day hiking and likely won't be able to do day one. I have two goals for October, since the September thread was so incredibly helpful in keeping me accountable for actually doing what I said I would.

Goal #1: write 500 words a day. This worked out really well in September, and I accomplished a LOT with this goal. This should take me into the second goal-
Goal #2: finish my current WIP. I'm at the end, and there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and all I have to do is finish it so I can not look at it at all in November and come back in December with fresh eyes to do the first round of edits.

I suppose there is Goal #3: complete edits on my novella, but that's going to happen no matter what as my editor has us on a deadline, so it's sort of a given.

Hope to see everyone in October for some more excellent motivation and encouragement! :)
 

Layla Nahar

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Likewise, glad to see the October thread.

My goals: 1) Write something everyday. For me that means add to a WIP. I'm going to focus on 'writing something' and drop the word count. Might be just an estimate like 'half a page'. 2) Keep writing a job letter every day till I have a reasonable income, and 3) I'd like to add baby steps of one other life-improving project (to be determined)
 

Esmae Tyler

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Hi all! October really is the best month. Where I live it's basically the whole of autumn all condensed down, since September is usually still green and warm, but by the beginning of November the trees are all bare. I wish it lasted a bit longer relative to perceptions of other seasons, but... alas.

My goals for October:

1: Write every day
1b (as in baby step): write more than 2/3rds of the days of the month, because not writing definitely kills my momentum

2: Prioritize writing in the morning instead of at night. As nice as it is to have a small section of quiet time, I haven't really been able to devote that to writing as much as I had hoped. Starting in the morning at least gives me all day to try and scratch out some word count.

3: Speaking of word count... I again want to try and write 660 words per day.

4: Write 20,000 words for the month
4b: alternatively reach the middle of the draft. I know what the reveal there is, so if absolutely nothing else I can just skip ahead and write that scene after Thanksgiving and check this box off. Hah.
 

D.L. Shepherd

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Hey Magnus...thanks for starting up another thread for October!

heykatydid, Layla, and Esmae...glad to see you are all in for another round!

I'm keeping my goal simple...write at least 5 days a week and write more words than I did last month: 10,128.
 

Esmae Tyler

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Hello all! Good company here in October already. :)


Day 1 gives me 811 words, so I'm off to a decent start. Of course it is only the first day so I won't pretend that meets any of my monthly goals yet.
 

Magnus

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First off, hi and welcome heykaty, Layla, Esmae, and D.L., nice to see you all back here! :snoopy:

Second, after a lot of thinking, I've decided to go for a 300 words per day goal. Every day, all of October, with no other conditions. Just write, somehow. I'm going to be harder on myself to get those words down, even if I have to stay up all night and the result is terrible. It can't be that difficult. It isn't! So time for less whining and more doing!

Day 1
344 words on a flash fiction story for a challenge.
 

Layla Nahar

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Hi Katy, Esmae, DL, and Mangus! Good to see you all again!

Esmae - 811 words is a decent start for sure :)
Magnus, congrats on the 344 words & the flash :D

Day1: Less than a page in one hand-written WIP, 181 words in a computer WIP.

A lot of stuff to deal with today, so I'm glad I managed to write.
 

heykatydid

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Esmae, D.L., and Layla - good to see you again for the October edition!

Layla - that's not a bad start, and definitely better than nothing! Keep it up!
Magnus - Wow! Congrats on a wonderful beginning! 300 words is a great goal (doable).
Esmae - 800+ words is fantastic!
D.L. - an excellent goal, and hoping to beat yourself sets up great competition.

As expected, I didn't get anything written yesterday since I was out all day, but I did manage to finish up the second round of edits (95% done) with my novella so I can return that to my editor, and today I got 757 words written in the final fight scene. Progress!
 

edutton

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Thanks for starting this!

I'll be working through Janice Hardy's "NaNo Workshop" blog series this month, ramping up to my first attempt at doing NaNoWriMo. I did some good brainstorming yesterday, made some connections in character arcs that I hadn't thought of. :)
 

D.L. Shepherd

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Layla, Magus, Esmae, and heykatydid...Wow...you're all off to a great start! Nice work all around!

edutton...welcome aboard!!

Day 1: Nothing

Day 2: Probably nothing. I *may* find time to squeak out a paragraph, but it doesn't look hopeful. However, tomorrow I have a big chunk of time free to work.
 

Magnus

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Day 2
855 words. Good stuff! Today was 'easy' though, as I was under pressure to submit to a weekly challenge and I had started yesterday. I had some ideas I really liked, so I didn't want them to go to waste! Still, considering I just wrote over a third of my total from last month in two days, I'd say I'm off to a good start!
Monthly total: 1199 words.

Welcome to the challenge edutton, I hope it helps you prep for NaNoWriMo! I haven't decided if I'm going for it this year. I don't think I'm ready to pressure myself quite that much, yet. But I haven't ruled it out.

D.L. - Wishing you lots of energy tomorrow!
 
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Esmae Tyler

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Day 2 - Calling it at 281 words, written before noon. So two out of three of my daily goals met, anyway...

Magnus, that's an awesome round of words for the beginning of the month. You're definitely off to a good start. It's kind of amazing what having some kind of external deadline to meet will do, huh?

Layla, any day that you get any words out is a good one. Especially with other challenges to overcome. And writing longhand, even! That's actually a very useful technique. There's a lot of interesting research behind the idea that you use a different part of your brain when you write on paper than you use when you type.

Heykatydid, you're totally making progress. And ahead of your own deadlines, it sounds like.

Edutton, welcome! And preemptively welcome to NaNo! Writing 50,000 words in a single month is just short of insane, so any amount of planning you can do in advance is good. The WIP I'm IP on started life as a NaNo novel, but I didn't plan any of it before November. In fact I did NaNo that year because a friend of mine challenged me to, on October 28th. And the project I came up with over the two days I had to plan crashed and burned two days in, so I have about 2k words from that and 48 from the new thing. (Somewhat horrifyingly, my friend won that year too, though he waited until the last possible second and wrote something like 40k in two days....)

D.L., the month is young, and even a sentence counts! Hopefully tomorrow cuts you a break though.
 

Layla Nahar

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DL - hope you got some words in & just do what makes you happy
Magnus - whoa! 855 words that's great!
Thanks Esmae - & likewise - 281 words is still words!

Day 2: less that 1 page each in 2 hand-WIPS; sent one job letter. I'm kind of tired today, & I'll have a lot to do tomorrow. I'll be surprised if I'm able to get anything done…

But here's to more words for everyone!!
 

edutton

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DAY 2 - a little bit of a cheat, since the day's prompt was to write the story hook, which I already have... :) But I did do some additional brainstorming on the day 1 questions.
 

heykatydid

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Hello, everyone! It's day 3! I actually didn't get any words written today, but yesterday evening I got another 1080 into the WIP, so I figure maybe that can be "today's" word count since I'd already written some yesterday during the day (it counts, right?!). Today was one of my super busy days at work, and I just didn't have the time or opportunity to open up that document, and then I got home and had all my chores to do. But, I figure with almost 1800 words down already, I'm ahead. Looking to get some more in tomorrow and finish up this final confrontation scene. Good luck with words!
 

Magnus

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Day 3
436 words on some narrative lore, which is my fallback for days when I have less inspiration (or an external deadline, which does tend to make the words flow).
Monthly total: 1635. [edited, was wrong]

Layla -
Hopefully you can get a little something done. Try to stay positive!
heykaty - Nice to see you, looks like you're off to a good start as well!

Keep writing everyone!
 
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Esmae Tyler

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Day 3? 666 words. Nailed it. Kind of an accomplishment today only because the weather is finally turning the corner toward autumn (yay!) but woah do my allergies well up to clobber me in the head. That of course leads to the need to take allergy meds to combat them, which also clobber in the opposite direction.


Write hard all.
 

Layla Nahar

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Way to go, Katy, that's some nice words!
Magnus, nice work - that's a lot of words
666 words, Esmae - nice number ;)


Day 3: More productive than I expected. ~2.5 pages (handwritten) in 3 WIPs. Wrote and sent 1 job letter.
 

D.L. Shepherd

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Magnus...woo hoo! October is going to be your month!

heykatydid, Layla, Esmae...nice jobs all around. Great starts!

edutton...hope you got some work in today too.

Day 3: 1,171 words (yay!)
 

edutton

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Good job, y'all! I just squeaked in today's work under the wire (it's 23:40 here now). I spent most of the evening working on a sewing project I've already been paid for (so it's a priority!), but I did get the wording done. *whew*

This weekend I'm hoping to get a good start on this book's playlist as well as doing the writing, but we'll see how it goes...
 
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heykatydid

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Well, I didn't hit today's goal (only 287 written) but it's better than zero, and I got my blurb + tagline sent back to my editor so that's something I'll consider "writing", haha.

Magnus - You're already making great strides towards beating your Sept. total! Congrats!
Esmae, D.L. and Layla - WOW!! You all really hit the manuscript hard, that's incredibly impressive!
edutton - I totally understand the priorities, but congrats on getting words in anyway! :)
 

Magnus

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Day 4
I think simplifying the goal has really helped, but it also helps to have a project that I feel enthused about but isn't majorly challenging. I do feel I can't keep leaning on it, but right now writing something is more important than what it is I write. 470 words today. 2105 monthly total.

Esmae
- 'Write hard', I like it. Made me think of the Die Hard tagline. "Write hard. Live free." :D Well done on the devil's words.
Layla - Good work!
D.L. - Over 1k, nice!
edutton - If you did it, you did it!
heykaty - Also hitting your goal, well done!

Everyone is trucking on! Woo! :hooray:
 

Esmae Tyler

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Day 4 - Was sorely tempted to phone it in today and pretend that doing some work for my crit group was 'good enough.' Unfortunately helping their writing doesn't actually get me anything done on my writing. Fortunately for me I hit another spot where I got to recycle something from the zero draft and on the wings of that get 696 words to add to my total for the month.


Layla, 2.5 pages is great! ALL writing is good, even if it's only a few bits here and there. Seriously. If you'd written one page a day every day all year, you'd have 277 pages written. Being more productive than you'd originally planned (or thought you'd be) is just an extra bonus!

D.L., look at you making a whopping jumpstart on your word count. You only need like two days of that and you beat me!

Edutton, I've been toying with trying to put together a playlist. I might have to phone a friend to compile one for one of my characters, since my working knowledge of music outside a narrow window of time is, uh, pretty thin. Yay for making your deadlines though!

Heykatydid, more words than zero is a win. Full stop. Anyway, taglines are hard! Sometimes quality is way more demanding than sheer quantity.

Magnus, it really is all about getting in the habit of doing it every day. I think for most of us that is the biggest challenge here (like your so-perfectly chosen header indicates.) It's so easy to let everything eat into the time and energy you have to write with, and so hard to shove all of it to the side and put words on paper. 2105 words for the month is fantastic!

Keep it up, guys!
 
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