January Challenge - Write Every Day!

kithica - congrats on keeping at it every day - and on finishing a play!!
katy! you're a writing/revising machine! Nice work on rev 2
keithy - you're still swimming, right?
ha ha Esmae - it does sound strange, right? Sending some focus & energy vibes your way for that revision
Magnus, congrats on the revision

Day 19: half a page - I'm really glad I managed to fit that in. I woke up this morning with no heat - so had to deal with that (it's back) but that took a lot of band width. & I'm tired now, so it's 2/3

keep at it, everyone!

Esmae - I have alpha readers who read chapters in chunks and then give me feedback, so when I go through I try to incorporate both those suggestions and my own into it. I have bits I personally know I need to clean up, like how I "tell" emotions too often, and how I overuse both semi-colons and em-dashes. But I'll read through draft two again and see if anything pops out in the plot as something that needs to be fixed for draft three. I generally just go chapter by chapter, haha. It's a long process. Draft two took about two months?
Keithy - You'll get there! Hang in there!
Magnus - yes, the whole novel! It took me two months, but I got through the draft. Now I need to read it (as a reader) the whole way through again and see if anything pops out as a plot issue, character issues, etc. My second draft was largely cleaning up my narrative/grammar and incorporating feedback from my alpha readers. Good luck with your first draft!!
Layla - thank you! It was a labor of love, haha. Now I can start putting more words down, I think, since my brain is no longer in revision mode.

Nothing yet so far today, but I'm hopeful that I'll get some words done on the train tonight as I'm on my way to my event tonight. Good luck, everyone!

Day 20 - Got through about half a scene - a little over 1,000 words. This one's harder because my notes are a little more abstract; I'm substantially altering the relationship of two characters (and the personality of one of the two) so approaching the conversation they have here is tricky. I took a whack at my SSF story too; it needs a whole scene added and I danced around with that for a bit. Also we spent the day at a belated Christmas celebration and it was utter chaos, so trying to formulate coherent words is getting harder and harder!


Magnus, you better get back to that writing soon!

Layla, no heat?! Yuck. Every day it's a new challenge, huh? They just never end.

Katy, I love your book cover! I'm sort of envious of the alpha reader thing. I haven't had quite as much luck with them. I'm sort of going in reverse though; I'm tackling some character issues and minor plot things this go and will worry about specific language stuff later. I'm really hoping that I don't come to hate it and think all the life has been sucked out of it by that point.

heykatydid - thank you!! Good luck on that job app too!
Esmae Tyler - I'm glad you think it's hefty. I keep comparing myself to my NaNo goals and just going....arrrrgh! Good job on the notes though I have a hard damn time being objective with my writing...it sucks.
D.L. Shepherd - this fantasy novel means a lot to me, which is funny, because I started it as a kind of exercise, I never meant it to GO anywhere. Good luck with your tax project!
Layla Nahar - thanks!! Sounds like your goals are rolling right along too

I didn't write anything today because I was photographing a robotics tournament, and now I'm sitting back with a diet vodka tonic and When Harry Met Sally. Maybe tomorrow!! Haha

Hope you had a productive train ride Katy
Magnus, hope you had a nice soiree
Esmae - nice work with the 1K+
peartree - sounds like a good day off


Day 21: I had a 114 word victory against the blank page
did some unhoarding

Not sure of the count each day, but in the time the board was off up to today, Ive written about 6000 words.
Tipping along nicely and figured out a couple of story points along the way

Day 21 - Did some cleanup work on my SSF story. At some point in the draft I shifted from past to present tense so that needed tidying, plus I added a small scene, about 300 words worth. There's a part at the end that needs a major overhaul, but mostly I'm satisfied with it so far. More than I am with the novel. Ugh. Might try and clean up some of the things that need less extensive overhauling tonight.


Peartree - A robotics tournament?! That sounds awesome. And NaNo goals are totally not something you need to hold up for yourself the rest of the year. I imagine there are some people who can sustain a 50k a month pace without burning out like bottle rockets but it's way too easy to compare a whopper like that to something more manageable but maintainable and think you're failing somehow. At the end of the day, any day you get writing done is better than a day you didn't. Unless there are robot tournaments involved. I dunno...

Layla - Keep it up! You're still winning!

Magnus - You're welcome. That's part of what we're here for, right?

Disco - Very nice! 6000 is a pretty decent chunk of words, for sure.

Magnus said:

...my adventures as an enormous squirrel-person

Click to expand...

^then I imagine you'd have a tall tail to tell..

& disco - long time no see! That's some nice progress while you made while you were away.

Day 21: About .5 page handwritten, one housemate call, one housemate email.
2/3

OH - Esmae & me & simultaneous posting - sounds like you got in some revision, some vision and some new words - a great day!

Up to my neck in "glorious officialdom" - writing letters to government departments, I wish they'd leave me alone.

It's more "glub glub drown" than "swim swim".

Layla Nahar - it was, except it left me exhausted. Since I need to deliver the photos soon, I'm making the executive decision to not pick up any work tomorrow and just dedicate myself to editing the photos and getting them online where the teams can access them. Good job on getting those words written and making calls and things. It sounds like you're slow and steady-ing your way to victory

Magnus - glad you had a good day and got stuff done!

discodowney - 6000 words is AMAZING! Wow!

Esmae Tyler - if you google "First Lego League" you'll find out absolutely everything you ever needed to know about it lol. I think it's super cool, and wish it had existed when *I* was a kid, but I'm glad it's here now to inspire our future movers and shakers. I know my NaNo goals are totally unrealistic, but I guess I was hoping to be farther along with my fantasy novel. Still, it's growing, and I think it's strengthening so that's all to the good. It sounds like you're doing really well too, good luck with your "cleaning" process!

Keithy - sorry the government is being annoying. Hope you can start "swimming" soon!


Today I've written 110 words. Better than nothing, I guess!

Day 22 - Lost in the word mines. Please send help... I had a change of heart last night and went back to tackle the first scene, and then the second one. So I've revised one and re-revised another. I decided to bite the bullet and go for 1st instead of 3rd, sacrificing some of my ability to write pretty sentences for the ability to really dig into the protagonist's head and heart. I also added about 800 words between the two scenes, which is a plus because the first one especially was pretty anemic.


Layla, hang in there. It seems like this is a rough patch for you but you'll get through it soon, I'm sure.

Keithy, ugh. Paperwork is the worst. Bureaucracy is an abomination. If only we had something that could legitimately replace all that garbage.

Peartree, that's seriously cool. I'll have to look into it a bit more closely when my kids are older. (Defined as... like... not going to eat the pieces.) And 110 words is awesome! Keep at it!

Magnus, hurray for good revisions! I guess they're right. Fixing something is easier than creating it from nothing.

Write hard guys! January's creeping toward being done!

Kiethy - I dread that stuff - papers and forms …
peartree - hope that photo editing work went smoothly
nice work Magnus
Esmae - beginnings are always toughest, but time well invested up front means smoother work the further you get into it, I think.

Day 22: 2 handwritten pages
& steamed some beans (OH - and just went to put rice in the cooker) so I can save $$ by bringing my own lunch tomorrow
2/3

Hey, thread - I took some days off because I think I was burned out after finishing my second draft, but today I'm going to sit down and read the draft on my Kindle cover to cover and try to think like a reader to see if there are any pacing/plot hole problems. Everyone has been doing great with their daily goals, so big cheers to you all!

Day 23 - Fixed up the third scene, so technically caught up to where I was on Day 20. Then I added a brand spanking new scene to collect some of the scraps I pulled out of an info dump. The third scene ended up about 400 words shorter better but the extra scene is 750ish so I'm still ahead? I don't even know anymore.

Write hard guys!

OK done with the form-filling and sorting out travel insurance.

Last night I spent some time fleshing out and solving problems with my first chapter outline. I cannot believe I wrote the first version without all of this! It's SO important. Me learning all the time, mostly the hard way.

Katy! good to see you - happy revisioning
Esmae - it's aaaall good
Magnus, I'm there. Just writing is a pass. congrats
Back at it, Kiethy, right? (I think the hard way is the only way I learn)

Day 23: 1.5 pages; after work (my temp job) there was a gathering and I spoke to a person who works for a marketing company and told him I'm looking for freelance work. He said he'd look at my website. I also responded to a recruiter's email, and responded to a housemate inquiry. I even got back to my Javascript class - gently, just re-watched the vid that I had worked halfway through, and took a wee peek at the next vid.
3/3 I believe

keep on keepin on yall

Layla - thank you! I felt better after a few days of rest. I think I needed the off-time for my brain, haha. Great job on the 1.5 pages!! And 3\3, excellent!
Keithy - I always learn the hard way, too. But hey, better late than never, right? I hope you can continue to work through the hitches with your outline!
Magnus - I agree, congrats on the revising! Every day, a little bit, and you've got a habit.
Esmae - Great job! Way to still be putting those words down!

As for me, yesterday I spent the better part of the day getting 60% through my Kindle read of draft two and making changes as I saw them. I think I edited the first few chapters TOO much - it sounds weird, but I got all self-conscious about my longer sentences and must have hacked them all way too much, because now everything is too choppy. So I'm going back and addressing those areas, and also hitting any minor issues I see. Once I finish this, it's off to my editor. Plus, today on the train I wrote 456 words! Woohoo! Keep on, y'all!

Hey all - drive by post because I have to get up early tomorrow for work. Photo editing took all Monday, and no writing happened, but today I got down to it after I published them online for the teams to access, and I wrote 294 words in the romance novel I'm working on, and 1218 words on the fantasy novel I mentioned before. I'm at over 6,000 words this month for the fantasy novel, which is pretty good, I think, and it's over 54,000 words now, which is exciting, because I have about 4-5 chapters mentally mapped out until I reach the natural end, so the length is really looking perfect unless it turns out to be guff that must be cut on sober reflection lol.

Okay, must go try to sleep now. Good luck with writing, y'all!

Can I join the challenge, even though most of January has passed?

I've encountered a situation change that's left me more time in the day, which I'd love to spend writing, but there's just so much other stuff still needing to be done that I'm not making writing a priority. I really need to get into a habit.