November Challenge - Write Every Day

LadyRedRover - great progress, keep it up.
Peartree - lol, I actually used a modification of that line in "Finish The Damn Book" when discussing time management. Everyone has rough spots, but you seem to be weathering them really well, and fighting through yours, so be proud. You are staring adversity in the face, and you might get tired of fighting that monster daily, but it sounds like you are getting some good shots in against it. Kudos.
edutton - Great! Some is always better than none. Do you always write at night?
ktzee - nice job finishing the draft. My monster-book ms started at ~30k, and I really wanted it to be a novella, but it kept growing with subsequent edits. I thing being in the YA category will give you a pretty large range for word count, not sure. Most YA Fantasy, as I can tell, run 70-90k, but I've seen people say that they can dip into the high 50's. Seems to be a LOT of wiggle room in that category, but maybe someone who has pubbed in YAF can comment more. It's still going to depend on the specific publisher.
D.L. Shepard - Maybe just one sentence after your nap? Just one insy-winsy?

Glad to see you all getting words down. I'm going to take care of some publicity strategy for my new release and then hop on my new story. The MC is kind of distant, really cruel, and definitely a badass, but she is also taking care of two small children which are driving her nuts. Should be a fun story, glad I started writing it.
toodles.

More editing for me, so it's hard to judge the progress, but overall, I'm not doing too badly at the moment!

spottedgeckgo said:

edutton - Great! Some is always better than none. Do you always write at night?

Click to expand...

Yep, it's pretty much the only time I have, most days. When I have it.

spottedgeckgo said:

Glad to see you all getting words down. I'm going to take care of some publicity strategy for my new release and then hop on my new story. The MC is kind of distant, really cruel, and definitely a badass, but she is also taking care of two small children which are driving her nuts. Should be a fun story, glad I started writing it.
toodles.

Click to expand...

Eh, anyone looking after two small kids is bad-ass in my books! Sounds fun.

edutton, good on you for creating time out of thin air for writing. That takes some guts.

I'm redoing some character studies, because some of my guys were a tad underdeveloped. It's scary how much I'm still learning about my characters at such a late stage (I'm working on Draft #3). It's exciting... I can't wait to make their voice stronger, now that we're good friends, so to speak.

"Sarah's lies are prettier than the truth. Noisier and brighter, too. Her lies are what she wishes truth would be." (from Sarah's new, enhanced character sheet)

I'm not sure about "winning" NaNo (I never heard of winning it before) but perhaps each word is a victory of sorts?

Anyway... I managed 766 words today - cruising along. I seem to do better on weekdays; although it must be said weekends are not as quiet as they used to be for me.

And all these sick people here banging out words! I must get myself a cold... Oh hang on.

Keithy - wow, 600 words, that's fantastic
whoa peartree, 1793 words - amazing
edutton - congrats on the couple hundred - nothing to sneeze at
ktz - congrats on the FINISHING!! (and thanks for the boost!)
DL - wow, 1300 - that's really great
hi gecko, hope you enjoy doing that strategy work
Raindrop - keep at it!
Good to see you Magnus, hope that editing was satisfying
& Keithy! way to go with the 700+ words!


Holy cow, are we on Page 7 already?

Day 14: Wrote 276 digital words; wrote and sent four job letters, did some training & marketing work. Dealt again with the housemate/apartment situation.

edutton - a couple hundred is better than nothing!
ktzeee - that's so awesome about finishing your first draft! Congrats!
D.L. Shepherd - great total! Hope you're feeling better today.
spottedgeckgo - thanks for the encouragement
Raindrop - editing is good, even if it's hard to quantify!
Magnus - I've never actually managed to sit down in a cafe and write fiction (essays for school, yes, fiction, no). Is it as dreamy as JK Rowling makes it seem?
Keithy - I saw people referring to writing their 50k in the month of November as "winning" NaNo...is that not a thing? It looked like a thing! lol 766 is a good total too!
Layla Nahar - Looks like you had a really good day, good job!

I had a lot of pain today but I still managed 1,118 words for a NaNo total of 9,990 (I admit...I paused and saw that word count and then looked at the time and decided it was fate, time to stop for the evening!), in addition to making it to art class and doing work on various unpleasant aspects of my current life. Tomorrow is looking like a busy day, but I hope I can get a few hundred words done at least...

ktzeee - Daaaaaamn! Look at you go.
Peartree - 50K is the official goal, but I get the sense more and more people are setting different goals for themselves. Congratulations on working through the pain... I hope it gets better soon!

I'm up to chapter 2 scene 2, and the inciting incident has finally happened. Up to almost a thousand words in this scene, and 3,845 total so far...

spottedgeckgo - Noted. Thanks for the input! I'm sure once I'm through with revisions, this book will easily surpass 70k, which should be pretty standard

Layla - Thank you & anytime!!

peartree - The work/school week is always the toughest on us creative souls. I hope you get in some of those words today, but if not, at least you'll have taken care of other pesky business.

edutton - Thank you! And yayyy for writing the exciting scene. Hope it's going well for you

The revisions have begun. Got through chapter 4 yesterday and added almost 3,000 words for a total of ~64k.Got lots more work to do but it's starting to come together and I'm very excited Busy day of school and adult responsibilities but here's hoping I can revise a couple more chapters! Happy writing, all

Ktzeee- good luck with those revisions! I always find that I add a lot because I'm a chronic under-describer, haha.
Edutton- glad to hear that things are going well!
Peartree- I hope your pain gets better and you can get some more words down, you had some big success!
Layla- you have a lot of stuff going but always make good strides through it, so keep it up!
Keithy- cruising along is great! Keep up your routine!
Magnus- editing is definitely not nothing, and I'm glad you are feeling better. Good luck with the cafe work!
Raindrop- sounds like you have a real handle on those characters now, love the line you included!
Spottedgeckgo- good luck on the new story! Sounds like an interesting protagonist.
D.L.- keep on keep in' on!

I'm not dead, yet again, but November has been the month of my job stuff just piling on. Don't they know it's NaNo?! Haha. I'm still behind but have managed to get to 21,900 words, which is still nothing to scoff at despite being about 3,000 behind where I want to be. I've finally gotten to learning the name of the eventual love interest (at 20,000 words!) and have finished up the first "section" of the narrative. Am thinking of how to name the parts of the story that might correspond well to the theme (it's an MM historical fantasy set during Charlemagne's war against the Saxons). Keep it up, everybody, November is halfway finished! Sending good thoughts~

Just a quick check in again. Still feeling crappy, although slightly better, which means tomorrow will be a long day at work catching up. Hope to be back on track with writing by Friday.

Yesterday: Wrote 1550 words/edited 600.

Today: Wrote 1503 words/edited 550.

Still keeping at er'!

D L Shepard & Peartree - hope you are feeling better.
Layla - you sound busy!

My achievements today are very modest: 81 words, plus putting the outline for the remainder of the chapter into better order.

The next few days don't look good :-(

well, Keithy, I'm unemployed (underemployed) so I got time... (I'm low on concentration...)

drive-by check in today. So tired.

Day 15: 364 words

I had an interview scheduled today but the person called and cancelled without a proposal to reschedule. I had mixed feelings about the gig, but - it also didn't feel good to get cancelled like that. On the other hand, I got a call from a recruiter, with a great gig that's nearby. We'll see… It's a hot company, and I'll have a lot of competition. I don't have a degree in design, I'm self-taught. Couldn't find anything to apply to today, & the t-shirt company, with the dogs in the office, where the interview went great - haven't heard from them … Feeling pretty discouraged in this moment.

I'm going to say 2/3 - I'm going to bed now.

so glad to have this thread & everybody on it.

peartree - Hehe, yeah, it does sound a bit weird, but when I say "recover some spoons" it's a reference to an explanation used by people with depression/anxiety/chronic pain/etc. to describe to others how they have a limited amount of energy for day to day affairs and how they sometimes can't get everything (or anything) done. To make it visual, you picture the person starting out each day with a number of spoons. The number varies on things like: how well you slept, your energy level, your mental state upon awakening, etc. Each activity you do requires one or more spoons. Getting dressed may take one spoon but going outside for errands may require three. So when a person says "I'm out of spoons" they're basically saying they have no more energy/fortitude left and need time to rest, recover, shut down, etc.

Needless to say, mini break didn't go as I planned. It involved exploding hand mixers, burned fingers, and physical illness. But I did manage to get another 7 pages written since Sunday, but I've fallen way behind. So it's back to the grind with me tonight.

edutton - woo! That sounds like a great inciting incident!! Great job
ktzeee - you are doing so well. I'm in awe!
heykatydid - 22k...wow. You totally have a chance to get that 50k total! Also, that "blurb" sounds really awesome!
D.L. Shepherd - hope you feel better soon
DanielSTJ - good job!
Keithy - I hate outlines (even though they're the best and I use them all the time) so that sounds successful to me
Layla Nahar - I'm sorry you had a down day. Here's hoping tomorrow is better!
thereeness - I've dealt with depression all my life and I've never heard of that. I love it! What a great illustration. Congrats on those 7 pages too!

Thanks for the well-wishes everybody! My pain has receded a lot (I'm so thankful!), but I did have a busy day including an accidental 3 hour nap so I only got 636 words written today for a NaNo total of 10,626. I need to try and sleep now, since last night I was interrupted by nightmares and TWO phone calls at 4 am and 5 am, so with that plus everything I did today I'm wiped.

You guys have been busy!

heykatydid - well done on finding the name of the love interest! Better that than calling him "dude" all the way to the epilogue. Also, thank you for liking Sarah's line! I'm a bit annoyed this line will never make it into the novel.
D.L. Shepherd - hope you feel better soon
DanielSTJ - good work!
Keithy - outlines are hard work. I should know . It feels like an unrewarding slog, but it'll make the writing easier.
Layla - good luck with the great nearby gig!
thereeness - meeeep exploding mixers! I'm all for making my own food, but I don't know, maybe buy a sandwich next time?
peartree - the spoon concept clicks with me as well, especially as I can't go through the day without a nap (good way of getting one spoon back). No wonder you're wiped out after the night you had!

48 out of 62 scenes outlined! After listing story beats for a while, I thought this was pointless. The book's written already, so there's little point in detailing steps that work already just to get to the ones that don't. I've found a way to make it work for me. My outlines have turned into a list of what I need to explore / play with. It's more along the lines of: "Combine those two scenes, keep descriptions, nuke character A's reaction because it's not what he would say -- actually, *what* would he say? Oooh that's a nice line, did I write that? Keep it." It's a mess, but it's my mess!

Just wanted to let everyone know that they're doing a good job! I'm keeping tabs on you alt, too! Keep up the great work!

= D

@peartree - Yeah, I've found it's really great to give someone who doesn't have depression/anxiety/etc (and doesn't understand the concept) an actual, physical thing for them to compare it to, which helps with understanding. I've even given my mom a handful of spoons when I first found this theory and was able to finally, FINALLY get through to her what I experienced.
@Raindrop - I wish I could've, but it was a birthday cake for my friend/roommate, so I don't think a sandwich woulda worked XD

Wrote another 5 pages tonight, although I had to stop at the fight scene. I love writing fight scenes, and I took martial arts for years so I know what goes where and how to hurt people in various ways, but choreographing that shit? Thaaaat's a bit trickier, especially the bigger the group, the more complex the scene. Luckily I've got a new book to help me out with that! ....If only I'd remembered to put it in my bag last night...

Hope everyone gets some awesome work done today!

476 words today. Not bad considering I'm exhausted. Alas, my back is killing me and I have a busy today tomorrow.

Swim swim swim...

reeness - nice work in the face of exploding mixers and burned fingers! (and then those 5 pages!!)
peartree - so glad to hear your pain has receded & congrats on the 636
Hi Raindrop - congrats on the work, and on finding a way to make it work for you
Hello Daniel
& Hi Magnus - it's ok - we still love you anyway (well, I shouldn't be so arrogant as to speak for the group, but I bet I'm right
Keithay! congrats on the 476! & hope your back feels better soon


Day 16: 317 words.
renewed the room for rent ad on craigslist.
Applied for one job. Worked on my marketing stuff.
3/3

I spoke to someone yesterday who said if I needed money, housecleaning was a good way to make some cash. Sigh. I think I could do that… I'm just … not thrilled or feeling sure about how to get started (this would be working independently. So many complications…)

Got bad news today (not health or anything - career ) and I relapsed and am in pain and suffering nausea again. No writing. Hope everyone else had a good day.

So sorry I haven't been checking in! I've read through the feed to catch up with everybody (sorry to hear the bad news, Peartree), but if I answer individually I'll never get any writing done! My MIL came to stay and I did manage to finish the work I'd planned before she came. Then I sort of...floated around. Watched TV and read a few books, even rediscovered the ironing board. We also still have 1/4 tree to chainsaw and clear away, so that has kept me outside in the autumnal weather, breathing fresh air and feeling rather disconnected from things writerly. Maybe a good thing? After turning around my edits and finishing up my contracted novel, I think I needed a break before I tackled number three on my list: the new novel. Thing is, I write quite quickly (a 95K novel in a month is my average). BUT-and this is a biggie-my first drafts are always all over the place. Quite awful, full of info dumps, reps, lagging pace, plot bunnies... So my challenge isn't to write more, but to write better. I want to do, say, only 3 or 4 passes before this next book is submission ready, not the 10 or 12 I tend to do. It takes 8 or 9 months to 'finish' a full-length project, time I don't really have. I've been a pantser and a planner, and whether I sit and let the words flow, or I have a detailed outline and synopsis to work from, the same thing happens. Today I start my new novel, and if by the end of the month I can get down a scene or two and not have to re-write umpteen times, I will be very happy! I'm going to work from a synopsis with clear 'beats' this time and see if that helps!


Good luck with the writing everybody; I wont be on here everyday but I'll be reading progress and checking in again soon!