Acatalectic August - 500 words/day or editing - all genres welcome

[lizmonster]

Here we are in the 8th month of the Gregorian calendar.

How did July go for everyone? Did you meet your goals? Adjust them? Were you thwarted? Did you run into challenges? Share and Enjoy!

What are your goals for August?

 

[JohnnyGottaKeyboard]

Spent July finalizing the edits for the last book. It is off with the pub now. Starting a new novel today!!! My goal is to be a member of the 700 Club (no, not the scary one run by that imp, the one where I write at least 700 words a day for 100 days!)

Today: 755.

Now, off to Skyrim.

 

[Saoirse]

I think I did okay. I was between deadlines, so I mostly worked loosely with several WIPs. Hit 10k on one, need to rewrite the second half of another, and am chipping away at the outline for another (rewrite).

Goals this month are to write and edit a short story due 9/1, finish this freelance job this week (due 8/7), make progress on everything. Basically. And not go crazy.

 

[onesecondglance]

Well, I got more done in July than I thought I would, so that's okay.

My aim for August is to get more done than in July. (Then, in September I will do more than August, and so on. This way, by the time I'm at retirement age, I'll be able to write a whole novel in an hour.)

 

[Jwriter]

I set some modest goals for myself and met them, and I'm still rolling them out weekly instead of monthly. Looking at all I would like to do in the whole month of August would send me back to bed. So I'm putting that together and breaking it up by weeks. And now is when I am hauling out a long-buried WIP to see if I can make it sing. And also, figure out who to kill. Someone has to go, but I could never figure out who.

 

[lizmonster]

Well, I got through the draft in July, but not all the edits I want to make. I also got delayed due to a medical emergency, but The Editors have been quite lovely about that.

So, August is looking pretty easy, after the first week. I need to finish my edits (7 chapters requiring major changes), and do a quick read-through so I can make some notes. The plan is to finish the edits on Wednesday, and do the read-through and send it out on Thursday.

After that? I have changes I know I want to make, but I'll probably be judicious with those, since I don't know what The Editors will say. I have some thoughts on Book 3 that could use some jotting down, since that one will be due in about a year, and I am slow.

 

[M. Frebronze]

July s.u.c.k.e.d. Stupid real life ate all my novel ideas.

August is off to a better start, though. I'm really feeling some new ideas for my W.I.P., and today was my last day of English Comp. I owned it. My professor loved my work.

Goal tonight: Relax with a friend. Should be a good night.

 

[wonderactivist]

August went well, my most consistent month since brain surgery. I do feel upbeat and crazy-confident just now. I have only a couple minor scene fixes before sending Paradox to betas so I've started the next book, Trust Me, a standalone suspense novel set in the Shetland Islands. It sort of the offspring of my short, "In the Company of Forever," and an early MS I set aside long ago.

My goal is 500 per day except this week as I'm packing my eldest for his first college apartment. I had a great weekend of about 1500 words and loads of revisions.

Good luck everyone! I'll check in next week.

Lucie

 

[lizmonster]

Plugging away at revisions, but it's going to be late.

Wrote to my agent about it last night. She'd been on vacation, and as it turns out, I had the wrong date that she'd be back, because officially she's still out. But she replied to me, and asked when I thought I'd be done, and I had to think about that and the quality of what I have and how I don't think it'll ever be as good as I want it to be. So I told her depending on how good she wanted it, she could have it this weekend, early next week, or a week from next Monday. No response yet (which is fine, since I feel bad already for interrupting her vacation with my scheduling incompetence).

Not gonna lie here, I'm feeling pretty discouraged.

 

[onesecondglance]

Don't give up!


I think learning to let go and stop tweaking is a good skill - "it will be perfect if I just change one thing" can be dangerous, because every time you look there will be One More Thing (copyright S. Jobs) - but you do have to be proud of the end product.

With zero experience to base this on, getting a draft through to editors with a few rough spots sounds okay - but if you need more time to make big changes that you believe are essential, then I would say it's not done until you say it's done.

You'll be fine.

 

[lizmonster]

Thanks, osg.

In this case, it's less "tweaking" than "integrating pages of notes from my agent that I've barely had time to look at" and "changing the stuff my beta readers hi pointed out." My agent said it's best to hand off a book that's as close to what you'd want to see published as you can get it. I can't do that by the weekend.

BUT I will get done what I can get done!

 

[Saoirse]

Hugs, Liz. It sounds like your agent is very supportive and understanding, which is awesome.

Still plugging away at the short story edit. Due tomorrow. Ugh.

 

[M. Frebronze]

Liz, I know how hard letting go can be. I'm struggling with my own decision that this will be my last re-write of Playing with Fire before I hand it off to my agent. I like to paraphrase George Lucas, "A good (book) is never finished, only abandoned." Good luck, and if you need someone to crack down and tell you to stop trying to fix something that's not broken, I am here.

Saoirse, good luck with the edit. You'll get it done

-----

I'm having my own issues at the moment with PwF. I had every intention of having at least 10,000 words by today. Unfortunately, real life caught up with me and decided, "NO!" I ended up spending Monday night having dinner with my agent out of town, then Tuesday was tabletop RPG day, and on Wednesday I got left at my friend's house. Sidebar: I have fallen in love with Mafia films and shows.

Today I got caught up with schoolwork for the new class (Computer Literacy), and I'm planning on buckling down and doing at least 6,000 words tonight. We'll see what happens.

 

[Fictionalizer]

For July, I set a goal of 50,000 words and surpassed that with over 67,000 words. I worked in three WIPs at once.

My goal for August is not as lofty, 30,000 words, though I might increase that because I'm close to halfway there.

 

[lizmonster]

Fictionalizer! Wow, that's quite a July! Sounds like you have an achievable August goal.

M., how'd it go? Saoirse, how's the short?

I'm chipping away at this, but I also got something of a reprieve. I told my editors "You can have it Monday and it will be full of things I know you will ask me to change, or you can have it the 24th, and I'll have fixed as many of those as I can." They chose the 24th. Yay! Of course, that means it continues to hang over my head...but that's OK. I'd rather have a chance to integrate more beta feedback.

osg, I was listening to your song on the way home, and I think it nearly shook my whole car apart. That bit at the start when the drums come in? Awesome.

 

[Saoirse]

M. Frebronze, were you able to get your 6k in? Real Life can intrude in big ways sometimes.

Fictionalizer - Holy cow! Awesome on the words and good luck with this month's goal.

Liz - Awesome about the reprieve! Don't know if I mentioned this, but I listened to your theme song and was absolutely stunned at how beautiful and amazing it is. I PM'd OSG about it. I can't seem to stop listening to it. SO COOL.

I finished the edit a day early! I will have to look at it again once she is done with the story, but that shouldn't be too difficult. We leave for camping tomorrow (week-long vacay #2) and I plan on doing some type of writing thing while there. (She says hopefully). Have a great weekend!

 

[onesecondglance]

osg, I was listening to your song on the way home, and I think it nearly shook my whole car apart. That bit at the start when the drums come in? Awesome.

Liz - Awesome about the reprieve! Don't know if I mentioned this, but I listened to your theme song and was absolutely stunned at how beautiful and amazing it is. I PM'd OSG about it. I can't seem to stop listening to it. SO COOL.

You lot are too nice.

liz, that's the bit where the spaceships whizz past in the movie, right? With a big FX shot of the sun rising over the city.

 

[M. Frebronze]

Liz, Saoirse: Nope. I did manage 4k over the last couple of days. I'm not going to Tabletop night tomorrow, so I am planning on using that time to make more words happen until I exhaust my brain.

Liz, good for you! I'm glad they are giving you some time.

Saoirse, awesome about the edit! Have fun camping.

Fictionalizer, that's a lot of words! And here I am terrified of my goal to do 50k this month...

In other news, I procrastinated for a few days and beat the Mass Effect series for the seventh time. The games are a great example of some epic storytelling. They've given me more than a few ideas over the years.

 

[lizmonster]

I finished the edit a day early! I will have to look at it again once she is done with the story, but that shouldn't be too difficult. We leave for camping tomorrow (week-long vacay #2) and I plan on doing some type of writing thing while there. (She says hopefully). Have a great weekend!

Excellent! And I hope you enjoy the camping!

liz, that's the bit where the spaceships whizz past in the movie, right? With a big FX shot of the sun rising over the city.

Yes, that bit. Pretty sure my rear bumper nearly fell off, but I do like to listen to it loud.

In other news, I procrastinated for a few days and beat the Mass Effect series for the seventh time. The games are a great example of some epic storytelling. They've given me more than a few ideas over the years.

It sounds to me like you're doing research on story structures. Which sort of counts, if you look at it a certain way. Go, M.!

I'm down to three chapters to edit, and one new (short) chapter to write. I am a bit distracted by the events of the day, and I'm exhausted because I didn't get much sleep last night. (<--LAME EXCUSE) But I'm >this< close to being done. Wednesday at the latest.

Also, I got another cover draft today. With typography! *swoon*.

Here's to words, everyone!

 

[onesecondglance]

Ooooh, typography.

Today sucked. Hopefully there will be words tomorrow.

 

[lizmonster]

osg. I am sorry about the day. Tomorrow is another one, and it will be better.

I have one chapter left to revise, and another to write. And then the revision is done, and I can start incorporating notes.

to everyone - you can do it!

 

[Shara]

Well, August hasn't gone too well so far. Already nearly halfway through and I had my first writing session of the month this morning.

Approximately 700 words achieved.

 

[Fictionalizer]

I'm past the halfway mark at 16,805 words out of my goal of 30,000.

Thank you everyone for your encouragement.

I'm still wondering whether I'll bump my goal to 50,000.

 

[lizmonster]

Go, Shara! It's always rough getting started again after a break, whatever the reason. 700 is awesome!

Wow, Fictionalizer, that's a fabulous total! Whatever you do with your goal, I'm betting you'll break 30K.

Well, I finished my revision. Now I go back to the beginning and start incorporating the feedback I got from people. Lots of good notes, but most of them general and hard to quantify. I have until the 24th to do what I'm going to do, and then I get to wait and see what The Editors think.

It's not a bad book, I don't think. I'm still wrestling with some of the pacing, but I believe that can be worked out. Me loving it, though, says nothing about what The Editors will say.

I am having post-revision-finishing-depression today, which I must break out of, because there is work to be done!

 

[onesecondglance]

So when will it be on pre-order? I've got to write music n' lyrics n' everyfink, you know.