December Challenge - Write Every Day

Day 1 went well. Day 2, I deleted more than I wrote because it needed it. Hoping that my brain comes up with something better for today because it was behaving like a stubborn mule last night. :-/

Nothing yesterday. Plus, I threw out my back, for the first time in my life, and this is the most excruciating pain I've ever dealt with. Sitting, standing, walking, it all hurts. Ugh.

Raindrop said:

Ok, let's see...

[x] Finish Draft 3
[-] Apply for jobs
[-] Book a flight to France for next year.
[-] Submit manuscript to Angry Robot.

Click to expand...

My printer is churning out Draft 3 right now.


Although I usually worship Scrivener and its pretty corkboard, I'm cursing at it right now because it compiled my manuscript in letter format, rather than A4. It might be because of the template I'm using. I don't know. Despite searching on internet, I haven't found a way to reset the paper size that actually works.

Day 3 - 853 words

Chocowrites - Welcome back! Your kitten avatar is distractingly adorable. This thread (and others like it, surely) is fantastic for encouragement to try and get something done every day. It really is motivating to have a bunch of people who are slogging through some phase of work with, and the accountability is... well, mostly personal. Check in every day, let us know how you're doing. (Or not doing.)
Layla - Hurray for interviews! Just keep at it. How big is that pile of pages now?
Sage - Welcome! You're certainly busy over in that corner of the writing world. Keep it up, for sure.
Cannelle - Don't be too hard on yourself. Mule brain is totally a thing. Sometimes you have to kick it back, right?
Raindrop - I didn't even realize that was a thing. I know Scrivener has a bunch of compile options... and this might seem silly, but are you sure it's Scrivener and not your printer settings? Either way, congratulations on finishing Draft #3! Are you printing it to edit it?
D.L. - Ooooouch. Cookies and sympathy. ):

Going 50-50 so far. Wrote on both the 1st and the 2nd, but nowhere near 1000 words either day. In fact, I think my total for both days was a bit less than 500 words. Gonna try to correct that today, as soon as I stop screwing around on the Internet.

Esmae Tyler said:

Raindrop - I didn't even realize that was a thing. I know Scrivener has a bunch of compile options... and this might seem silly, but are you sure it's Scrivener and not your printer settings? Either way, congratulations on finishing Draft #3! Are you printing it to edit it?
D.L. - Ooooouch. Cookies and sympathy. ):

Click to expand...

It's definitely Scrivener. A workaround would be to change *every* compile style to A4, and save them as custom styles. I'm really peeved, as the Page Setup (in Scrivener, Word and in my printer settings) is set to A4, language is set to local (English UK), and basically everything says A4, not letter. So, I really don't get it.

Anyway, yes, I'm printing it to spot typos and clunkers. It's easier than on-screen.

I didn't get any writing done over the weekend, but I did get 62% into reading my first draft on my kindle (like a reader) and making notes on bits that need changing in the second draft. I expect I'll start getting down to some real substantial edits today or tomorrow. And this morning on my commute I wrote 925 words in the new manuscript. So the weekend was a wash, but I'm catching up again!

Good to see everyone here.

Sage - wow, way to go 1130 words
Canelle - you're keeping at it!
DL - ah! so sorry to hear about your back - get well soon!
Esmae - congrats on the 853 (the pile of pages has escaped it's container)
Ptero - any words is good words!
Raindrop - happy editing!
Hey Mangus!
Katy, congrats on the 925 - that's some good catching up

Day 3: 70 digital words

A potential housemate came to see the place; Did some more training (Javascript now woohoo!)

This last week or so has been full of things that have to get done. I'm really happy to have been able to get any words on the page (or in the computer).

Day 3:

350 words written.
550 words edited.

I'm back on the train!

Cannelle - do you ever put the "deleted" stuff in another document so you can go back later and see if there's anything worth re-purposing?
D.L. Shepherd - worst feeling ever, isn't it? Hope you're doing better now!
Raindrop - that sucks about Scrivener. I have it, but I've never actually used it. I'm pretty stubborn about sticking to Word...or handwriting.
Esmae Tyler - woo, great total!
Pterofan - something is better than nothing, right?
Magnus - I actually love revising stuff. It helps me really examine what my characters are up to, and how they've changed under my nose without me noticing...
heykatydid - your commute sounds SO productive! Such a pity I can't work while I drive...
Layla Nahar - your week sounds productive too
Sage - great total, and I'm so jealous you actually make time to read! I have a stack of 7 books on my desk and I haven't touched them in weeks :/
DanielSTJ - sounds great!

I got sod all done on the 1st and 2nd (funny, how work/weekends just sap you of time and energy to get things done!), partially because I spent most of the 2nd at another RenFaire (it was TINY but I still had fun and the food was good). I wrote nearly 2000 words today though, on my "Playhouse" novel, so I'm super pleased about that. And I edited three chapters of the last novel of my fantasy trilogy last night, so again, pleased that I got some work done. Zilch on the sci fi though. Just feel totally drained on it, even though I did nothing the last two weeks of November because I ONLY worked on that one during the first two weeks.

I'm definitely not a NaNo girl.

Magnus - Good luck with the revision!
Katy - Well done on working during your commute. Last time I tried that, I missed my stop, lol.
Layla - I hope you'll find a flatmate soon.
Sage - Yay, flash fiction! And you've just reminded me that I want to go to the library this week to borrow some books.
Daniel - Good job!
Peartree - I couldn't imagine writing in anything else than Scrivener nowadays (well, when I'm not handwriting, that is). I'm grumpy about the printing issue, but in practice, I just have to change it manually. No big deal.
Well done with the 2000 words! It sounds like you had fun at the small fair, too.


No kickboxing for me today because I'm full of cold again. Grrr. Next week!

And guys, if you have time at some point today, I could really do with some fresh feedback on my synopsis (see sig).

Alright, I missed day 1 AND 2, but came back strong and I am ahead of my goal now! Really happy I did this. Accountability is key

I've finished another chunk of pages and have officially hit, and got over, the climax of my story All that's left now is the wrap up and this longhand version is DONE SON! I need to celebrate that somehow. You know, it's the small victories. It's also gotta be a record, I started this WIP (officially) at the beginning of October, although I had many false starts and 1-subject notebooks full of snippets. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and that's exciting!

Thanks for the well wishes. I got nothing done yesterday, I feel *slightly* better than I did on Saturday, so maybe today I will attempt to get back on track.

Hope everyone else is plugging along with their goals. I also plan to catch up on this thread soon too.

Did better for day 3: 565 words, longhand. If I use pen and paper, it eliminates the urge to procrastinate by playing computer games.

Gonna see if I can hit that thousand words today.

Day 4 - One of my children gave me the plague. I didn't get any narrative written, and probably won't, as despite trying for almost an hour I haven't been able to string together any sentences. So I worked on the outline a little. I'm trying to shore up the 3rd act. I guess it counts toward getting the draft finished even if it doesn't add actual word count today.

Esmae- I'm so sorry to hear that you are sick, I hope you feel better soon!
DL- your back sounds terrible! I don't need blame you at all for not getting much done. It's hard to write while in pain.
Pterofan- writing off the computer definitely would help with gaming. It's one of my time sucks!
Thereeness- congrats on seeing the end! That's a quick turn around time, well done!
Fullon- congrats with catching back up! Stick with it!
Raindrop- I hope you got some good feedback on your synopsis. I find it hard to give thoughts because I don't feel confident enough to critique, haha.
Peartree- glad you could enjoy your weekend time. I'm not a good NaNo person, either, haha.

Well, finished up the paperback tweaking last night in preparation for the Goodreads giveaway I'm having in a month, and wrote 547 words this morning. Back on track, little by little. Even started planning the novella to come after book 2! Might start a bit of that today. Good luck, everyone!

515 words written.
600 words edited.

I'm in the game now. LET'S DO THIS!

Sage, congrats on the 599 words!
Daniel, keeping on as usual - nice work
wow peartree - congrats on the 2K!
Raindrop, Esamae - I hope you both feel better soon
Keep at it Fullon
Reeness - looks like the finish line is in sight!
Hang in there DL - rest well
nice work Ptero - I find that writing by hand helps overcome procrastination a lot
nice work, Katy

Day 4: 16 handwritten lines; had a Skype interview, and Skyped to my friend overseas - it's been a year since we've spoken.

3/3, ftw

Just finished going through the editor's annotations to my first chapter and added my own annotations to hers (whose is this book?)

It's a nightmare! The plot was like spaghetti before I started this round of editing! I'm drowning in plots, plot holes and annotations here.

Keep on swimming, glub glub sinks...

Just a quick drop-in before I go to bed early after a long day - wrote a little over 700 words today, 200 in the romance I started awhile ago, and 500 in the "playhouse" novel. Feeling very excited about the playhouse novel, it's starting to shape up well and my characters are developing personalities quicker than usual, which is super exciting!

Layla - The finish line was in sight and has officially been crossed!
katy - Thanks, I was rather happy with how things worked out XD

Everyone, it's DONE. It took me 5 hours, an hour for lunch, a sore shoulder, a pema-indent in my index finger, and it's a pretty sloppy mess, but I was able to write those coveted words, "THE END" tonight.

Now, I'm gonna try to not even think about transcribing for the next two weeks and take a well-earned break.