The W1S1 Check-in and Chill Lounge and Bar

SmallThing

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*giant hugs* for SmallThing. It's nice to see you :)

Don't feel as if you have to push yourself.

Also: *moar giant hugs*

T'anks for giant hugs, Izz. :)

Also, I should probably amend things to say March was only mostly a wash. Thanks to DSF, I became an officially published writer on March 1. So, there's that.

Onward.
 

Izz

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T'anks for giant hugs, Izz. :)

Also, I should probably amend things to say March was only mostly a wash. Thanks to DSF, I became an officially published writer on March 1. So, there's that.

Onward.
Yay! Well done! :hooray:
 

shelleyo

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T'anks for giant hugs, Izz. :)

Also, I should probably amend things to say March was only mostly a wash. Thanks to DSF, I became an officially published writer on March 1. So, there's that.

Onward.

Congrats!

I struggle with depression, too. *commiserating fist bump*

Shelley
 

Tienci

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...Sort of going along with that, what lengths do most of you generally work at? I know it varies from piece to piece, but I start to get uncomfortable around 5,000 words and it gets much, much worse past 7,000 or so. Most of my stuff is between 2 and 3 thousand. Probably just the result of hearing again and again that longer works are harder sells.

Hmm...my latest piece just dropped my lower end, so my range is about 2k-6k.
 

SmallThing

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Thanks to all of you for the warm fuzzies. :) (I'm having a hard time with mustachio man as Mr. Smiley. Makes me feel as though I must alight my hansom cab and speed away.)

ShelleyO, sorry you also have trouble with depression. I've been doing well for years and then...well, it's been ugly.

Ok. Enough about me. Back to the regularly scheduled conversation. :)
 

Nathaniel Katz

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T'anks for giant hugs, Izz. :)

Also, I should probably amend things to say March was only mostly a wash. Thanks to DSF, I became an officially published writer on March 1. So, there's that.

Onward.

Congratulations! Can we have a link?
 

AnnieColleen

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I was going to inquire as to "S1L1". Simple observation renders that unnecessary.

Microdynamic Fictional Narrative Accounts -- very nice!

SmallThing, I remember that story. Nice job!


(...will try to check out SYW this weekend...maybe...)
 

Smish

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Also, I should probably amend things to say March was only mostly a wash. Thanks to DSF, I became an officially published writer on March 1. So, there's that.

That's great! :e2woo:

And more hugs for ya, too. :Hug2:
 

zanzjan

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Sort of going along with that, what lengths do most of you generally work at?

I find it very hard to write anything under 7k, which is a bit of a pain when it comes to selling things. I think novels are my "natural" length (and that's what's keeping me from jumping into W1S1 right now) but although I only started writing short stories so I could get practice being rejected, I'm finding I really enjoy them in a completely different way, and don't imagine that even if I became a wildly successful novelist with rose petals strewn in my path wherever I go and handsome young men bearing golden chalices of the richest hot chocolates offered up to serve my every whim, I'd stop writing them.

Ah, although, I'd like an opportunity to test that. Especially the hot chocolate part.

-Suzanne
 

Regan Leigh

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So... question... do I fail if I'm finishing editing/writing what I'll submit June 1st? It's a novel... do I get grace for no shorts written and submitted this time? :D

I'm so focused on getting this queried that I have to ignore my insane urge to write a handful of flash pieces. ;)
 

Aggy B.

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So... question... do I fail if I'm finishing editing/writing what I'll submit June 1st? It's a novel... do I get grace for no shorts written and submitted this time? :D

I'm so focused on getting this queried that I have to ignore my insane urge to write a handful of flash pieces. ;)

I made a rule for myself that I was trying for a certain number of things done for the YEAR, even if some weeks/months I might not make that goal.

Since April is Script Frenzy, I imagine my short-storying is going to drop off a bit. But I plan to catch back up once I get that hundred pages of screenplay written.

However, I break rules more than I keep them.

Wait. Are there rules for W1S1 S1L1?
 

Nathaniel Katz

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I'm waiting for my first readers to respond on my steampunk story, which hasn't been working out so well. One forgot that they had a family gathering today and vanished, and the other's been busy for the last two hours. Or maybe it's a really awful story and they're just making excuses. If I haven't gotten comments in a bit, I'll just submit it anyway so I don't miss the deadline. (Actually, wait - what if the editor's in a different timezone and I already missed it? That wouldn't be cool at all...)

Ummm, okay? Says the recently depressed person with the paper bag over her head.

http://dailysciencefiction.com/story/jennifer-mason-black/snowfall

Very enjoyable story, SmallThing. In addition to the ending, I really loved this paragraph:

Tosh's eyes had gone to the clock again. The pendulum swung, slow and steady. One day. The pendulum would continue for a single day without adjustment, and then it would fall still. We'd allowed time to stop twice since we'd been here. Two days without hours or minutes, two trips out to the shed.

Wait. Are there rules for W1S1 S1L1?

Dozens and dozens of them, of course. I just can't think of any. But we should totally have rules. Lots and lots of rules, most of which are really hard to understand and don't mean all that much.
 

Aggy B.

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Oh. And did I mention that in addition to the 2k words of steampunk madness I wrote last night/this afternoon I have also written seven pages of screenplay today?

I really like playing with new ideas. :)
 

AnnieColleen

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I really like playing with new ideas. :)
You're on fire! And yeah, isn't it great?

So... question... do I fail if I'm finishing editing/writing what I'll submit June 1st?

Nope, not a fail! Words is words, for all that. (Just keep the flash notions in reserve if you need a break...)

But we should totally have rules. Lots and lots of rules, most of which are really hard to understand and don't mean all that much.

Every time you play a jack, you have to say "Have a nice day."

No, wait, wrong game...


And of course Murphy the Muse, with his usual impeccable timing, comes up with lines for an idea that's been percolating for a good long while...right about when I need to be sleeping. Hopefully I can keep it from foundering on character/world details I don't have yet...
 

Izz

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W1S1 is less about rules than goals (and guidelines), imo. While officially the challenge is to write a story a week or month, the organizers have emphasized flexibility according to each individual writer's schedule and time.

Which is great, because for the challenge to be personally successful it needs to have some kind of end-game. If it were just a 'let's participate' thang, it'd be very easy to go 'woohoo' and then drift off after a few weeks, without much of anything having been learned or gained.

For some the ideal goal is a story a week, for some a story a month, for other two a month, or maybe it might be four one month and then one over the next two months. Or something else entirely.

I reckon as long as you set short story goals that will challenge yourself, but still be attainable, you're a W1S1er. Even if that goal is to write 2 short stories over the course of the year. For you, depending on your circumstances, that may be a real challenge.

If you decide you'd like to join in, but figure the muse will play hard-to-get if you try to chain it to some goals, that's cool. You can still be a W1S1er. I bet by hanging out with us your productivity will rise, if only thanks to positive peer pressure.

And even if you miss a month or two or three, that's all good. If you pick yourself up and push on you'll get there in the end. Writing's a longterm thing, and challenges like this help us build our writing stamina.

Write hard, peeps!

p.s. but if we do have to have rules, then a drinking game of some sort is definitely in order...
 

soapdish

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p.s. but if we do have to have rules, then a drinking game of some sort is definitely in order...
Well, then, obviously we HAVE to have rules. :tongue

Or maybe just build the game around guidelines. :Shrug:

I'm just putting in my 2 cents here. There's room for development, I think.
 

zanzjan

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I'm just hanging out with y'all. Though now you've got me motivated to tinker with a short story this weekend. Bad influences, the lot of you!

-Suzanne
 

Sagana

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Congratulations Smallthing! That's a wonderful story.