The Finish the Damn Book Challenge

100,910 out of an intended 140,000 words as of 12/1/2011 at 2:45 AM in "Revenge: Daniel."


Updating word counter just to see the progress.

Magarita, nice work on making the best of out of the situation.
Eclipses, I can't believe you're already outlining another story!
Monkey, congrats on finishing edits!
joey, congrats on hitting 75k!

Everyone seems to be doing marvelously.

I've been doing really well with my plan. I've written over 800 words a day (instead of 625). My total for the last four days is 3373. At this rate I would actually be able to finish by the 31st but I'm sure I'll slow down at some point.

Changed my habits again. I'm writing at night now. The story's changing, getting darker and more introspective. I'm not sure it's good, though. I'm going to read over what I've written tonight. I definitely feel less clear-headed writing at night but I think maybe I also lose myself more in the writing.

Go Margarita! Go Monkey! Go LStein!

680 words today for me! Go me!

Nice job on everyone's progress.

I slowed down a little bit today, but I'm hoping to hit 80,000 words by Saturday. (78.3k as of right now.)

LStein, I'm glad your new night-writing is working out.
Congrats on the synopsis, Monkey.

I finished my Green Light Delivery revisions and submitted them. Happy but nervous!

Just been editing my first novel, finally finished.
It's gone from a first draft of 54,448 to first edit of 68,932, an increase in word count of: 14,484.
I do have a few other places to add things to, then I can put it to critique.

Wow, congrats everybody! It seems it has been quite a productive week For me as well I hit around 1200 words almost each day and it is developing in a way I did not think about...let´s see where the story goes...

Still really struggling at that just under 70% mark of my first draft. Only managing a few hundred words a day where up to now I've been averaging about 2300 words a day.
I'm going to allow myself some time tonight and write about what I am going to write-- just some freethought writing and see where that takes me.

Hahaha. I wrote almost 2K in a little over an hour last night.
How did I do it? I wrote about my story a bit, adjusted my outline, got to know a new character then went on facebook. Facebook? Yes, facebook. I said "I am going to write 300 words then come on here and tell you when I am done. If you see me on here and I haven't said I'm done then yell at me."
Of course, then if I went on another website, or read, or looked blankly at a blank page then everyone would know how long it had taken me to write those 300 words. So I went and wrote them and kept doing this each time.
This got me past the tricky spot and I am back to fine sailing now I know where I'm going

71% through the first draft!

I hit 80,000 by Saturday, so my goal is complete.

So, anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 left. 15 chapters or so.

My next goal is to hit 400 pages by the middle of next week (I'm at 373 right now).

I have written nothing in the past few days. I'm stuck on a scene because in my research I cannot find what I'm looking for to write it, and instead of skipping forward, I've ceased writing altogether. Sigh. I need to force myself back to writing again. Once I stop for more than a couple of days, I have a hard time getting back into the groove.

But, congrats to all of you on your accomplishments!

Good work everyone! Keep it up!

I already posted this else where, but I wrote 1702 words yesterday.

I've also figured out some of my plot.

My goal is to finish this novel by the end of January with a word count at around 100K.

105,000/150,000: added 10k words to original final word count on Revenge: Daniel.


Revenge: Alex / handwritten: no known number of words.


Revenge: Leon - not started


Revenge: Damian - not started


All Our Children: 35,000/90,000 words
Superstars: 20,000/90,000 words
Christian's Doppelganger: approx. 15,000/100,000 words
Christian and Laura: 5,000/80,000 words

Started chapter 7 - Did 182 words on it. My hands are killing me - I washed my new dog today and now I'm paying for it. My hands are covered in eczema blisters adn have swollen up to the point it's painful to type.

I'm just going to leave it at that for tonight. I'm, hoping the swelling and blisters have gone down by tomorrow so I can get the chapter finished. If not then I may scream. Be prepared to hear me from the other side of the world.

French Maiden said:

Started chapter 7 - Did 182 words on it. My hands are killing me - I washed my new dog today and now I'm paying for it. My hands are covered in eczema blisters adn have swollen up to the point it's painful to type.

I'm just going to leave it at that for tonight. I'm, hoping the swelling and blisters have gone down by tomorrow so I can get the chapter finished. If not then I may scream. Be prepared to hear me from the other side of the world.

Click to expand...

Awww hope it feels better soon!!!!

Congrats everybody on being so dedicated and moving forward! I wrote 570 words today (could only write one way of my commute...)

Close to 114k words on Forever or Never: Daniel. Yes, I know, it's insane, the title keeps changing, but I loved the title and well, this is good. I like bringing these crazy characters to live, my craziest characters ever. Did a total of 3992 words today, some in the early morning between 3-7 AM, some in the afternoon. Tomorrow I hope to write a lot more, though. I am starting to get tired and I can't wait to go to sleep. I usually go to sleep by the time it starts getting dark.

After writing a grand total of zero words yesterday (well, technically I wrote a sentence, but wasn't satisfied with it and ended up erasing it), I've corrected that error today and hit 82,000 (shooting for 83,000).

Unfortunately, the two timelines aren't matching up quite as smoothly as I thought they would be (rough draft), and the end is still quite far away. (But I'm getting there.)

Great Job everyone! I'm still here cheering all of you on.


I'm still working on my outline. I'm, actually working on the character sketches now.

Tepelus, I know what you mean. This happens to me, too. I'll get stuck on a storyline and just stop writing. Why don't you try switching over to another character's storyline. That's helped me.

French Maiden, that's being called dedicated to your craft.

Congrats Lizardmaker! Thanks Aphra and Monkey.

Well, last week I lurched to a stop. After updating the thread, I didn't write for three days. So my tally for last week was 3373, about 1,000 less than my goal. Then Sunday, I wrote 1550 words. And yesterday nothing.

I feel like an old standard car that keeps slipping into Neutral.

But yesterday I did make some plot progress. I think I got stuck because a new development came up in the story that I hadn't prepared for (and I'm worried it's kind of hokey) but then yesterday, while doing dishes, the rest of the novel sort of mapped itself out in my head. Don't know if it'll actually go in that direction but it's nice to have some guidance.

I might go back to writing in the morning. I seem to be more productive at night but I'm less clear-headed so I'm worried my writing is more muddled.

Anyway, congrats to everyone on this board. You're all fantastic and inspirational. And I'm still finishing this damn book by the 8th.

So far:

Forever or Never first volume, 115,000/140,000 words


Haven't been working on anything else because I am trying to get the first volume to highlight the important events that made my main characters the way they are now. The title has changed again to Forever or Never: Daniel's children, because the seven main characters overpower the story while Daniel, their father, is sitting there, doing work in favor of them behind the scenes and he has very few scenes in the MS. Picture him like a mob boss, but exactly the opposite of what a mob boss is, with a good heart, taking control of every situation when it comes to his children, helping them out when they're in ruts, always. I plan on doing some work on Forever or Never - Adam and Alex, the novel that focuses on Adam and Alex's adult lives after their forties, sometime before it gets dark because I don't like having to turn on the light in my room just to be able to write by hand. I prefer to type in the dark because I never have to look at the keys in order to know what I am typing. I mastered that ability of writing without looking at the keys, in 1999, thank goodness, after taking a keyboarding elective class in high school in my freshman years in 1996.


Good luck everyone, and for your progress!

Congrats on finishing the revisions, Lizardmaker! Wow, everyone seems to be doing pretty well. Tepelus, I know you can get back into that groove - do it!

Still working on my urban fantasy, still don't have a name for it.

Untitled Urban Fantasy
25,656/90,000

I've been revising Lestoor's Chosen at the same time, and am about 1/5 of the way through it. I know I'm going to have to go back and touch up the beginning again, which I'm dreading, but trying not to think about that. I'm hoping it'll be easier when I get to it.

I need this again to finish up the fourth book in my steampunk novella series, The Steam and Steel Chronicles.

Current Word Count: 21,948
Target Word Count: 27,000
Daily Goal: 1,000 words

If I can actually meet my daily goals, then I'll have this finished by the end of the weekend. Let's see if I can stick to that!