The Finish the Damn Book Challenge

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Monkey

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A challenge born out of frustration.

The Rules:

1) You must do something to your novel before you can log onto the internet. You can add a single sentence or edit your last one, but it has to be something, and you have to do it every time.

2) You can't start any other projects until your current one is finished. This includes outlining. (You can jot down ideas, but that's it, Bucko!)

3) You must have a daily, weekly, or monthly goal that is absolutely doable for you, in your current situation, right now. It doesn't matter how small it is. That self-imposed goal should be your absolute minimum number of words for the time period specified.

4) You must post your working title, word count, goal, and updates here so that you can be cheered on.


Any takers?
 

Monkey

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I'll start.

You Don't Have to Cook in the Clink
6,397 words

My absolute minimum goal: 50 words per day/350 words per week
(My hoped-for goal: 200 words per day/1,200 per week, preferably better)

Even my hoped-for goal doesn't sound like much, but that would put me at my current word count in around five weeks, when in actuality, I've been working on this about three months. Some of that was research, but damn. :(
 

NicoleMD

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Man, just what I need!

The Prey of Gods
73,000 words currently

Goal: Write 10,000 words by April 30th (which will hopefully be the end of the book.)
Daily Goal: 500 words

I'm 500 words behind for the day, so I'm logging off as soon as I drop a link in my sig.

Nicole
 

benbradley

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For some reason this thread, and "The Coming Age of Electricity" is screaming my name.

That excerpt is spoken by a college student to his professor who teaches a class on this newfangled electricity thing. Unfortunately, wrote that excerpt at the very start, then proceeded to write 50,617 words of this novel last November, and at the end of all that he's still in high school. But at least his mother was burned as described (a "pretty good scene" of about four pages, about 5k in, but it'll probably be the real start of the novel). At the rate I was going, I project that excerpt to drop in nicely starting at word # 542,137.

Maybe I can move the story along faster, but I've put so much detail into it so far that I can't envision the completed work being under a quarter million words.I'd like to keep all these ideas - at worst, I could excise them, branch off and write another couple of novels or so based on them. Hey, at least I don't have a dearth of material and ideas.

A challenge born out of frustration.

The Rules:
...
3) You must have a daily, weekly, or monthly goal that is absolutely doable for you, in your current situation, right now. It doesn't matter how small it is. That self-imposed goal should be your absolute minimum number of words for the time period specified.
Hmm. Okay, 500 words per day. I might almost get through by November, and then I can try something else with a little faster pacing.

4) You must post your working title, word count, goal, and updates here so that you can be cheered on properly chastized.


Any takers?
Okay. I understand.

Title above.
50,617/???,???
Goal: To end up with a reasonable (? okay, may be too much to ask) and complete story that ends with "The End."

Secondary goal: Write fewer and shorter posts, more fiction. :)
 

Witch_turtle

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Sounds like just what I need. I'm very anxious to finish revising my WIP, but I have a habit of doing about an hour of internetting before even looking at my document, by which time I often don't feel like working anymore or else don't have enough time! I need some rules to stick by.

WIP: "Greyling" (although the title's been changed about 17 times and probably will many more)
Word Count: 93K - Revising some, rewriting some - about halfway done
Goal: To finish by June 1st -- 2 months. Daily word counts are useless to me . . . depending on how many hours of class and how many papers I have due, I could write anywhere from 5 words to 5000 words. Once uni is out (2 more weeks!) I'll have more time to get cracking!!!

:D Good luck everyone!
 

Layla Nahar

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I'm in - I have a short & I have been really struggling with the re-write of it. It's about 5-6K words, and it has about that many incomplete spots. My goal is to fill in and fix those incomplete spots, one per week.

The (working) title is "A Song for Teele"
My word count per day: 50 words/day (I guess each gap will take about 300 words to fill)

I expect to get back to this on Sunday, 4/11

It may seem like less work that finishing a novel, but I started this in August. I only started finishing 1st drafts about a year ago - after (its to embarrassing to say how many) years of trying. I thought it was hard to finish 1st drafts - didn't expect to find the re-write so hard! I really want to be able to actually finish a WIP completely - submission ready :)

'buon lavoro' to everyone in this thread!
& thanks to the OP -
 
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StoryG27

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A challenge born out of frustration.

The Rules:

1) You must do something to your novel before you can log onto the internet. You can add a single sentence or edit your last one, but it has to be something, and you have to do it every time.

2) You can't start any other projects until your current one is finished. This includes outlining. (You can jot down ideas, but that's it, Bucko!)

3) You must have a daily, weekly, or monthly goal that is absolutely doable for you, in your current situation, right now. It doesn't matter how small it is. That self-imposed goal should be your absolute minimum number of words for the time period specified.

4) You must post your working title, word count, goal, and updates here so that you can be cheered on.


Any takers?
I'll be a taker.

Like others, this is just what I need right now. I like the rules and I like that I can set my measly lil' reasonable goals and not feel like an idiot for my low word count goal. I am almost done (I think) with the first draft of a manuscript and I cant, well, finish the damn book. I'm stuck. I've been stuck for weeks, and as time goes by, I'm only getting stucker. . .and now I'm making up words. Great.

So here it is (and I hate the title, but it's all I've got right now)

Still of Night
66,328

Minium Goal: 100 words per day (for the rest of the week days), so 400 words total by Friday night.

Monkey, thanks for this thread! I have a feeling this is just what the writer doc ordered.
 

Alpha Echo

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Sure, why not. I can do this.

Justified
28,834

Minimum Goal: I'm going to say 500/day during the week. I could do more, but...there's a lot of research involved in this story, though I think most of the research will come in during revision.

Okay...well then, time to write!

My ultimate goal would be to finish by the end of this month so that I can revise my other WIP...but I'm not pushin' it. :D
 

Christyp

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I currently have three books that I'm working on depending on my mood...should I just put all three and the word counts and goals? I'm a Sagitarrius...it's not my fault...really!
 

Jamesaritchie

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A challenge born out of frustration.

The Rules:

1) You must do something to your novel before you can log onto the internet. You can add a single sentence or edit your last one, but it has to be something, and you have to do it every time.

2) You can't start any other projects until your current one is finished. This includes outlining. (You can jot down ideas, but that's it, Bucko!)

3) You must have a daily, weekly, or monthly goal that is absolutely doable for you, in your current situation, right now. It doesn't matter how small it is. That self-imposed goal should be your absolute minimum number of words for the time period specified.

4) You must post your working title, word count, goal, and updates here so that you can be cheered on.


Any takers?


Good idea, but it's been my practice for years. It's the old "work first, play later" rule.
 

CheyElizabeth

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Yes yes yes I need this!

I'm currently at 8k and would like to have 50k/the book finished by the end of June.

I already have a goal of 500 words a day, so I'll stick with that.
 

CheyElizabeth

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Also, I kind of can't follow the internet rule at work.. Ever since my flash drive conked out and lost all 20k of my other WIP, I now upload my WIP into google documents and have to download it at work (I write during lunch in addition to at home).

However, I won't do any other internet stuff until after I've worked on my novel =)
 

timewaster

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A challenge born out of frustration.



Any takers?

Yep. I'm on. I am currently at 36,391 of my current WIP (Versipellum) and I want to have finished draft 1 by the 20th April or a little before ie 40k in two weeks.
 

hester

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Yes! YES!

Doing draft 2 of "Dawn of the Chimera" (and yes, that name will change).

Currently at 16,000 words for the rewrite-goal is 50,000 words or thereabouts.

I'll set a daily goal of two hundred words. Doable, right?
 

thewakingself

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Any takers?

I'll bite!

Current MS wordcount: 88k.
Status: Draft three, with one new (longish) scene to write and three key ones to revise. 20k to line edit. ::weeps::
Daily Goal: 500-1000 words/day; if revising, must finish an entire scene/sequel.
Goal: Out to betas by April 20.

This is great since self-discipline has been slow in coming lately. I always seem to get distrac--ooh, shiny internets!
 

deserata

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OHOHO I NEED THIS SO BAD.

If Only You Were Dead
Rewrite status: 26,924 words.
Goal: 80,000+ words

Daily Goal: 500+, on a bad day 100.
I would *like* to reach my goal by the end of this summer. It's been going on three years and I want to see this thing DONE.

I may be crazy for starting this before the academic year is over, but oh well...
 
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emilycross

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Oh I'm in totally!! I spend waaay too much of my free time on internet and not actually writing. I'm not at a wordcount stage but at a weird rough draft/outlining stage, so:

Title: Dark Shines
Stage: Rough draft/outline

Goal:
This week: Chapter 3 outlined
April - complete outline
 

Witch_turtle

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Curses! Old habits die hard. I completely forgot about this, came home on my lunch break, and went right to the internet. Okay, FOR SERIOUS THIS TIME. I am going to complete 500 words of writing or revising before even touching the internet from now on. I'm writing a sticky note and putting it next to my keyboard.

(I never used to be so bad :( writing was the FIRST thing I did in any moment of spare time. I think being in uni has somehow made me lazier!?)
 

Alpha Echo

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Okie dokie - I'm done for the day, and my total is...

...drum roll please...

3,124

That'll help make up for not writing on the weekends!
 

StoryG27

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Wow. Good job, Alpha Echo! I don't even expect that for the week. I'll be happy to get that for the month. :D
 

CheyElizabeth

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Congrats on the impressive word count Alpha!

I wrote 1000 words on my lunch break! Here's hoping I can add another 1000 tonight.
 

Renee Collins

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You read my mind! :D

I'm SO in.

Current word count: 31,000
Goal: Finish first draft by April 30th
Daily requirement: 1,200 words a day. (gulp . . . )

It's going to be a real push, but I have an outline through the end of the book. It's just a matter of pounding it out now.

Good luck to everyone else!!! We can do it!!
 

Monkey

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Wow, what a great response!

:snoopy: Way to go, Alpha Echo! Our first success story! :snoopy:

:e2cheer: Way to go, CheyElizabeth! That's a hell of a word count for a lunch break! :e2cheer:

:Trophy: Great job, Hester! :Trophy:

My own wordcount now sits at 6835, up from 6397, an improvement of 438 words, way over my minimum goal. So far, so good!

EDIT: For some reason, the first time I read BenBradley's post, I thought he'd actually already written over 500,000 words. I guess the number itself just flabbergasted my motivation-starved mind!
 
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