February Challenge - Write Every Day!

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Magnus

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Hello and welcome! This is a thread open to anyone who wants to start, maintain, or reinforce a writing habit.

The basic idea is that repeating something daily, even in small amounts, will build a habit that becomes stronger over time. You can read more in this blog post I wrote.

It's entirely up to you how much and in what way you participate, but feel free to introduce yourself and tell us your goals!

Here are some tips:


  • Set achievable goals – I can't stress enough how important this is. Habits build over time, so look at your current writing habit and set a goal to increase it a little bit, in word count, time, and/or frequency. (For example, I did a lot better with a small daily goal than with a big, looming, monthly one).
  • Write every day – even if it's just a few sentences. It reinforces the habit.
  • Mix it up – Try different types of goals, different times of the day, different tricks to reward or motivate yourself. A good habit is what works for you, not someone else. For example, some people find it works best with a set time. Others – like me – prefer a conditional habit.
  • Be patient – It takes a long time to build a strong habit and you'll always be facing new challenges. Get used to constantly adapting and you'll be better prepared for whatever problem comes up next.
  • Don't give up because you didn't hit your goal – When you fail to hit your target, your job is figuring out why it happened. That way, you can find ways to get around your roadblocks (and don't be scared of lowering the bar - doing something is better than doing nothing). If you share your stumbles in the thread, others might be able to help out with tips and tricks!

Good luck, and see you on the 1st of February!
 

KitKate

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500 words a day. I always hit a slump starting a new WiP because I pants it and spend too much time thinking about where it should go so let's do 500 a day. Just need to sit down and write!
 

Lakey

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I’m going to join up. I haven’t worked on my novel in too long. Around Thanksgiving I wrote a short story, which I worked on into December. Then my day job ate up my life and my energy right up through a deadline that was a little over a week ago. I’m only just recovering; I managed to write a few short book reviews this past weekend and that’s the first non-work writing I’ve done in weeks.

Well, the short story has been accepted for publication and I’d like to use the good feeling of that as the catalyst to return to the novel, or perhaps to another story.

I’m going to aim for 500 words a day. I probably won’t make it every day; I rarely do. But something every day, something to move either the novel or a story forward in some way, I will consider a successful day.
 

D.L. Shepherd

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Hey Magnus: Thanks for starting up a new thread!

Kitkate and Lakey: 500 words a day seems to be my sweet spot for new drafts too. Good luck with building a writing habit!

Now that I've slogged through the first draft of WIP#2, my goal for February is to spend at least 10 hours per week editing my second draft. I'd like to commit to more than that, but realistically I think I should start low so I don't overwhelm myself, which I've done in the past.
 

Magnus

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Welcome KitKate and Lakey, and welcome back DL!

My goal for February is going back to establishing a habit of writing after breakfast, which I really think is the best way to go. It's clear I need to tie the habit down better. Unless I head to a café to write (which I don't have time or money for to do much more than once a week), I tend to push my habit to the end of the day, and it suffers for it.

So the goal is:


  • Write or revise a few hundred words worth right after my morning routine (circumstances permitting, which they should on most days).
 
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Molly Grue

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I'm hopping on this train!

Since I'm a newbie and still really trying to get over the paralysis of perfectionism, my goal is just to write for 15 minutes a day. Some days I will get more minutes in, particularly on weekends, but I am not allowed to feel guilty as long as I've written for 15 minutes on a given day. Solidifying the habit is the key (I'm telling myself)!
 

Layla Nahar

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Welcome KitKate, Lakey and Molly!

My challenge is (because I find it hard to do both Adult Life and Creativity)
1) Write *something* every day
2) Do *something* to improve my income
3) Do one item (however small) of self-care or Responsibility

Here's to a wordful and satisfying February for all of us! :)
 

Molly Grue

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Hey, do you all have a favorite habit-building app you like? Do any of you use that Streak app that I've heard about? I'm looking for something to track my writing goals, even though I'm measuring in time rather than in words.
 

heykatydid

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Hello, everyone! Since my editing is done, I'm back on the words-only track with my daily goals, so I only have one now-

Goal: 500 words a day (preferably in WIP #1, but #2 is also good)

Glad to see familiar faces and some new ones in here! :)
 

Esmae Tyler

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Hi all!

My February goal is pretty much what it says on the tin: write every day. I'd really like to get through one scene in my revision stack per day but since I have a different deadline coming up at the end of the month I don't know if I'll be able to pull that off. I guess we'll see how many days I end up with squirrels instead of an attention span.
 

Eviora

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My goals for February is to either write or revise every day. I have a whole completed manuscript that needs to be tidied up before I give it to more beta readers, then revise again, then to an editor, then revise again... then maybe I can release it! xD
 

Keithy

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I'm going to try getting my outline version of Chapter 1 finished this month.

It's patches of prose and dialogue interspersed with "or else I could do..."

I am hoping my editor can understand this.
 

heykatydid

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And we're off! It's February 1st here, and I managed 746 words today! It's in WIP #2, which isn't bad (it's a short tied in to my duology that I'm hoping to give as a subscriber exclusive to my mailing list). Starting off strong! (Mostly by telling myself I had to check in with words today, haha - thanks for keeping me on task, thread!) Hope everyone else can get some success, either large or small, right out of the gate!
 

Lakey

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Oh, crap - it’s February. I’d better get some writing done today. :D
 

Qwest

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Great thread. I need to focus on getting things done. Doing a degree, so a lot of academic writing, but don't want to let my creative stuff go to seed while I'm doing this.

Plan: spend at least 30minutes on creative writing a day. Try by the end of February to increase that to an hour a day.

Good luck all!
 

Tocotin

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I'll join!

I have 3 chapters left. My chapters are usually awfully long, though. I really need a solid kick in the pants, otherwise I'm going to convince myself that I'm too exhausted to write TODAY, that I can write TOMORROW, and that it's better to go play WoW.

I write in longhand, so I'll try to do a page every day.

I'm also going to try and sleep more than 4 hours every day. Tough stuff.

Good luck, everyone!
 

tjwriter

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I'm going to hop in this thread. I've been lurking for a bit now over the last couple of months.

My goal for February is write for 30 minutes each day.

My plan is to write first thing in the morning during the week and any time on the weekends.
 

Melody

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I did NaNo with some of you all and it was quite helpful in finishing the draft. I started getting the notecards out and revising scene placement and that's what I need to finish up before I start the actual revision process. So...I am posting now in order to hold myself accountable to finish this ASAP in order to be able to move on to the actual revision. ;)
 

Magnus

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Day 1
I did sit down after breakfast but procrastinated to the point of near-failure. I did get some revision and writing done later in the day and I jotted down a fair few new thoughts about another WIP, so I'll give myself a pass on the condition that I do better with the morning writing tomorrow, which is my main goal this month!

Welcome to everyone, good to see some fresh faces along with the regulars!
 

peartree

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January totals:
Fantasy Kingdom novel: 7483
Fantasy Space novel: 258
Romance novel: 3124
Coming of Age novel: 138
Dystopian novel: 178
3rd of trilogy novel: 110

11,291 words for the month of January! Not bad, hey??

My goals for this month:
1) Continue tracking words per WIP
2) Write at least 100 words/day for a fiction novel, and 100 words/day for a romance novel
3) Aim for 12,000 total words in February
 

Melody

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Okay, organized scenes enough to start revising and made some headway on chapter one today.
 

Layla Nahar

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Welcome Eviora, Lakey, Qwest, Tocotin, tjwriter! Good to the new faces - well, avatars ;)

Esamae, peartree, keithy - keep on keepin on! Here we go February

Alright, Katy, 746 words is a nice strong start :)
Magnus - argh! I've been there. Way to get some revision & some new material in, though!
Melody, congrats on the headway with chapter 1


Day 1: about 3/4 page
Worked one part-time job in the morning, one temp job in the afternoon
talked to another person at this incubation center about his company, (also marketing) I could tell from what they do that they don't need graphic designers… maybe I'll circle back one day if I can do some UX stuff...
went to the library after work to print a form for my 3rd job (!)
made phone calls during the day to prevent a bunch of snafus…
3/3
 

discodowney

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Spent the week working on a writing competition. Submitted just now. Away for the weekend then back on to my book, aiming for 1000 words a day again this month
 

Esmae Tyler

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Day 1 - Ugh, February is off to a mindkilling start. It turns out that having sick kids up all night isn't conducive to writing. Or sleeping. Or thinking. I printed out the SFFSS and made some notes to myself. I have a plan of attack laid out for it, I just need to get in there and get at it. But I'll take the "did something" as opposed to the "did nothing" and call it a day.
 

heykatydid

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Layla - awesome work! But 3 jobs?! My goodness, I can barely handle one. I hope things calm down a bit for you - or at least get more stable!
Melody - congrats! That's a great start!
peartree - look at all your WIPs!! WOW! I am just so impressed that you have that many ideas at the same time, least of all that you can be working on! And your January numbers are GREAT! Here's to an equally productive February!
Magnus - still a start, so good luck with your second day of putting those words down!

And hello to all the new faces here! I hope everyone can find this thread as motivating as it's always been for me. :)

Today I wrote 451 words in WIP #1 and 199 words in WIP #2 (on the train). Over my goal, so I'll take it!
 
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