March Challenge - Write Every Day!

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niknicnac

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April: Hope it shapes up well. Chocolate always unclogs the brain, but it makes for sticky keys. ;)

Magnus: No worries. You created a great thread that helps us all, but what each of us needs is different. That includes you. Do what helps you, and don't feel guilty about it. You've already helped us, and I for one am grateful.

DL: Solitaire is pondering time, right? 2 hours or 2.5 hours, either way it's still a lot of work. Hope you breakthrough your trouble scene soon.

Dan: Glad you're making good progress.

Layla: That's exactly how emails go for me too. I remember when staying up till 2 or 3, and sometimes daybreak, was the norm. Now, I could fall in bed at 7 and be perfectly happy except I would probably wake up at 3 and not be able to go back to sleep. Another 3/3 day. Way to go!

xenylic: back in the 1k club. Strap on your hiking boots that uncharted territory might have a treasure trove.

Earned another merit badge. Two days, that's the fastest turnaround I've ever gotten. I seem to be hitting a lot of firsts in the rejection collection. Yelled at the insurance company today. Found out that they wrote our policy up as a "property owners" policy instead of a "home owners" policy which is why they're deducting for depreciation only they forgot to tell us they changed our policy from what we discussed. As if anyone would agree to paying for $130k coverage knowing that a claim would only pay out $65k max. I have some very colorful names for them right now and none of them are pleasant. Did manage to get in 687 blood pressure reducers.
 

April Swanson

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Magnus: I’d love to read your essay. I’ve spent years reading book after book, trying to change my bad habits, but nothing ever works for long. Don’t feel bad about not interacting; I know there will be times when I don’t do it either. I’m glad to hear you’ve been doing well. I’m so grateful you set up these threads. This is only my first month, but it feels like I’ve found my wee spot in the writing community, which I was in search of for years. It makes such a difference to my writing day, so THANK YOU :)

D. L.: If dogs can see ghosts, maybe they can see story structure too? Why does writing have to be so sporadic in its progress? It’s a bloomin’ nightmare. Hope you unstick something today!

Dan: All that background stuff will make the words stronger when it’s their time to make an appearance.

Layla: 9pm bedtime sounds glorious! Happy snoozing (and congrats on your 3/3 :) )

xenylic: You continue to amaze me with what you can achieve in one day (even without writing 22k :p). Hope you get a good night’s rest.

nik: The things living in my keyboard… Ah, insurance companies. Don’t you just love ‘em? Congrats on your 687 reducers :) They should prescribe them on the NHS.

Yesterday was…meh. I inched forward on my story structure, then went to see Unsane, which totally depressed me for the rest of the day (and I went to bed freaking about all the information The Internet holds on me). I didn’t wake up in a fantastic mood either, which doesn’t bode well. Part of me thinks I need to bite the bullet and get on with drafting. I know enough about my characters and the general story to make a start. I need to remind myself that a first draft is supposed to be a mess, and I can fix everything later on. I’ve had a real problem with finishing manuscripts over the last year – a problem I never used to have.
Yeah. I’ve convinced myself. I’m going to start! *drumroll*
 

D.L. Shepherd

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DanMorrison: Glad you are making good progress with your notes. I feel the pressure...I'm hoping to get myself unstuck so that April is a more productive month.

Layla: Keep on keeping on!

xenylic:Congrats on getting another 1K+ words down! I hope you're planning to join the April thread, maybe it will help to keep you on track. I've found these threads very helpful, especially on some of those days that I'm just not feeling it.

niknicnac: Can't wait for one of those responses to be a good one! We can all celebrate with you. Sorry about the insurance mess. Sounds like a nightmare. Solitaire *should* count. If it did, my writing/editing times would probably double. Maybe even triple at times.

April: Sorry to hear that you're a bit stuck too. Would you like to borrow the dog?

Another hour and a half of work, and I feel as if I am starting to make some sort of sense of this mess. Maybe. I have three more days to straighten this out. I really want to move forward in April, instead of feeling as if I have completely stalled.
 

Esmae Tyler

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Hey guys! We made it! March is almost over! I sent out for some merit badges today. I think I figured out how to end my little story and sent it off, not with super high hopes but there's only so much you can do in a week, you know? I also sent out a second story, kind of on a lark. I don't have super high hopes for that one either but it turns out I know even less about trying to find homes for short stories than I do about writing them. :roll:But what's done is done and I'll finally be able to pull up a seat at the Rejection Club. More important than all of that I can finally get back to my novel, though I suspect I'm going to kick back and do a fat lot of nothing until April 2nd. Not even pass days, just straight up time off from the ink fountain. I hope to see you all in the next thread!

But before I go...

D.L., I do know that feeling. Chalk it up to a loss of momentum due to circumstances beyond your control. You really are starting to figure out the mess, it might just be taking you longer than you expected. It'll be better for the effort later, when you get past all of this. And I may have started playing Solitaire myself.... oops.

April, this entire community is so far and above beyond comprehensible levels of amazing. Nevermind all the collective intelligence, experience, and resources that abound; the raw supportiveness is staggering. So stick around, huh? And yes. A first draft is supposed to be a mess. You can even go one better and write yourself a zero draft, which is even worse than a mess, more like a dumpster fire where everything is not only acceptable, but absolutely needed. It can totally be fixed later. And I hear you about finishing stuff; it's so much easier to start new things.

Niknic, thank you again! You're part of the reason I decided to go for a merit badge or two of my own. I'm trying to fire-and-forget on what I turned in today (not like it's homework, c'mon) and then ignore my inbox for the next few months, but... Wow, somebody at your insurance company needs a good wallop upside the head. I really hope they straightened that out for you right quick, plus or minus the parrot talk.

Xenylic, I'm glad your project went well despite your classmates' best attempts. And yikes, you sound busy! I wouldn't worry too much about finding beta readers just yet, especially if you're still in the early draft phase. You could, potentially, try to find a unicorn critique partner who is game for developmental swaps, but for actual beta readers you want to hold out until you're finished with the first draft, and possibly until you've done a couple of rounds of revision. Kind of it depends on what kind of opinions you're going for, but if you're still in the place where you're figuring out the core of the idea for yourself, other people's opinions may be counterproductive.

Layla, early to bed, early to rise, something something all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. But 1/2 a page, and your 3/3! You remain a rockstar.

Dan, the planning notes may not specifically count toward your "official" word total but they do still count. The more knots you can untangle on paper ahead of time, the less likely you are to run face-first into a wall when you're writing. Right?

Magnus, it's always a pleasure to see you drop by, even if you're not a regular in your own threads. Keeping up with everybody in the thread does require some energy, for sure, but don't worry about it.

Taylor, happy anniversary! Keep plugging away. I'm glad you're feeling better, and hope that endure while you make it to the next page.

Peartree, good to see you flying by. Rewrites are tough. So is spending 10 years on one project! Wow!

Keithy, have fun in London!
 

Layla Nahar

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drive by. 1/2 page (I thought I would get nothing). Some money training - be under-impressed - listening to youtube videos while I'm working - but still doing some learning, and making a flash-card. One a day. For self-care? Chinese lessons!
 

Lakey

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Drive-by for me as well - on my way to bed. Too late for :e2coffee:

Chapter 26 is proceeding well enough (for me, anyway; it's going rather badly for my main character). I didn't do much on it tonight (had some cooking and chores to do) but it's nearly 2000 words now and maybe 600 of those have been added since I stopped in here the other day. I probably won't work on it tomorrow, because I'll be off to a Passover seder in the evening. So I'll just say this: Chag sameach to those of my tribe, and if I don't see you on Saturday I'll catch you in the April thread. :D
 

niknicnac

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I have to get up extra early tomorrow so I'll catch up with everyone tomorrow night. Yeah, for the weekend! I panned out a couple of new characters and the next scene. Went well, got in 1013 happy little reason to stay up later than I should. Till tomorrow!
 

D.L. Shepherd

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Esmae: I think we all deserve those merit badges, it's been a tough slog! Good luck on the story subs, and have a nice holiday and well earned break!

Layla: Chinese lessons...wow! I'm impressed.

Lakey: Glad to hear that the chapter is moving along so well. Have a nice holiday, and if we don't hear from you, see you in the new thread!

niknicnac: 1000+ words and some new characters? Nice!

I have figured out the order of events that were puzzling me, and I think it helped to actually make the section move forward faster, despite adding a lot more to it. Now I just have to go through and edit what amounted to about three additional chapters. I'm going to try my best to buzz through them today and tomorrow, reminding myself that this is *not* my final draft.

Sunday will be a wash, cooking/having family over, but then Monday I plan to start plugging through the rest of this draft, which I *hope* will be a lot easier than this section has been.
 

xenylic

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D.L. Shepherd: That's a big stumbling block. I was in a minor version of that this week also. It's funny (and agitating) how much the sequential order of events get us stuck. I hope you find a rhythm in those next three chapters!

niknicnac: Congrats 1013! I too am rejoicing for the weekend and the end of this hectic month!

Lakey: Good to hear your making progress! Us authors live to torture our MC for our own enjoyment! :evil

Layla Nahar: It's always great when you can surprise yourself with words when you thought there would be none.

Esmae Tyler: Sorry, I should've clarified. My current book (the one I am writing now) is a sequel to a completed project. That is the one I was looking at beta reading for. I've been querying it for about a month. Sorry to hear about your short story struggles. At least it can always come back out of the shelf if you find a good opportunity for it! I hope the transition back to your novel goes smoothly. I always struggle switching between projects for some reason.

April Swanson: Good luck and more power to you! It's always a tough call to switch from planning to writing, but if you got the confidence and the comfort in what you already have, you can find a clear avenue into creating and enriching the plot. For now, try and enjoy the fresh start on a new and exciting project! Feeling good about getting things started really shows on the page!

The eagle has landed! I repeat, the eagle has landed! Success! Book #2 is now at 25.3K! After crashing so hard yesterday, I managed to find some clarity to push through a tough patch and I've been rewarded with a significantly more satisfying 1.3K session today. I'll have to go out and clean it up in revision, but that's in revision. I had to remind myself I'm not in revision yet for Book #2. My April plans will be to bringing Book #1 back into the light of day, as well as probably a 40K milestone by the end of next month. See you all in the next thread!

:Trophy:
 
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thereeness

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Quick drive by as we squeak towards the end of the month.

Guys, I think I might hit my self imposed deadline of getting Act 2 completely drafted by the end of the month! I finished the first half of Part 2, up until the pinch point, and now I've just got to do the second half! But I have to get it done by the time I leave work tomorrow morning. Aaaggggh, I'm on so many pins and needles, haha.

Good luck with reaching goals/keep on trucking to the end everyone!
 

Layla Nahar

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Happy Passover, Lakey & congrats on those 600 words

Hope you get some good rest, Nic

DL - it's a two-birds-one-stone - I get free Chinese lessons & my teacher is my student. He beta-tests my Japanese lessons, so that's also a mo-money project Double Win ;) :D Congrats on your story progress.

Xen - wow! You are a WORD FACTORY!

reeness - it's an accomplishment to make a deadline but it's a big difference to make a self-imposed deadline. Congratulations & kudos :)

Day 30: Did a half page. I thought I was done at the 1/4th mark, but I managed to keep going. Got keys & returned the deposit with the departing housemate, made another flashcard for one of my $$ projects. 3/3

Tomorrow is a skip day for me (tho I'll still work my retail job) - so I'll wish everyone a great holiday & look forward to seeing you all in the April thread!
 
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niknicnac

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Esmae: Placing short stories is a very difficult task. There are so many magazines and journals out there that it's hard to sort through and find where your story fits. I use Duotrope. It allows you to enter criteria such as genre, length, audience, contest, etc. in your search to narrow down the massive lists of options. Each listing tells if the journal is open for submissions, what is open (fiction, nonfiction, poetry), average response time, pay scale, percent of acceptance and rejections, and much, much more. There is also a link to that journal's site. It also allows you to track your submissions and exclude markets you have pending submissions in from your search. You get a free trial to start and then it's $5 a month. If the story I'm submitting is mainstream, then I use Duotrope in combination with Clifford Garstang's Literary Magazine Rankings List which each year ranks literary magazines according to the annual Pushcart Prize anthology. Hopefully this will help. Good luck on your submissions.
https://duotrope.com/about/pricing.aspx
http://cliffordgarstang.com/

April: Sometimes, getting started is the hardest part. Lots of luck. Hope getting started brings lots of inspiration.

DL: I'm glad things are moving forward and you figured out the order of events you needed to work through. Happy editing in April!

Layla: Wow, Chinese lessons. I love it. You would fit in around our house. We have sign language, Spanish, Japanese and German going on here. If I say something in Spanish, then my daughter usually answers in German and my son jumps in Japanese. It's a bit crazy, but fun.

Lakey: Happy Passover.

Xenylic: Congrats on reaching 25k!

thereeness: Glad to hear you're meeting your deadline.

Family stuff to do so not many words tonight 345. Used my daughter as a sounding board, and will be helping her this weekend prepare for her first public reading :hooray:and celebrating her birthday which is next week. She's both excited and nervous that she got invited to read.
 
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April Swanson

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D. L.: I’m glad the mess is beginning to untangle. As for wanting to move forward in April…you and me both!

Esmae: Fingers crossed for your stories! You just never know what will happen once you take that brave step of sending your work out there. Enjoy your break. It’s always a good idea to take a wee bit of time off between projects. Yeah, I definitely intend to hang around (so soz, yer all stuck wi’ me); I really look forward to checking in each day. Yes, draft zero! I think Terry Pratchett referred to it as draft zero too, and he is a legend.

Layla: Yay for self-care! Have you been learning long? I’m taking myself off to clarsach (Scottish harp) lessons today for the same reason. Prepare for a disturbance in the Force. Good job with 1/2 page. You’re so consistent!

Lakey: The worse it is for your MC, the better it is for you. Simple rule of fiction :) I’m glad you’re getting to grips with your chapter. See you in the Best Month thread :)

nik: Wear that 1k badge with pride!

Last day! Congratulations to all of you for sticking with writing, even when life did its best to derail you. Shiny gold stars all round, I say.
As for me, I started to draft (hurrah!), and the alarm bells rang immediately. I pushed them away for a bit, but they were so persistent, and not about the quality of the words (which were terrible, obviously), but about the vision of the final book, and my gut was telling me I didn’t want to reach that destination.
SO, I browsed through older manuscripts, most of them half-finished, and came across one I wrote four years ago (a draft zero mess) and, for reasons I won’t bore everyone with, I realised that this book was the one I had to complete right now. (Basically, it’s a lot more autobiographical than I’d previously realised, and I’m only now at a point where I can fully understand the main character and her issues.)
SO! I’m going to rewrite it in first person, using some old salvageable stuff as a guide. I’m not permitting myself to change course, because I’ve hopped around so much of late. For the month of April, I’m going to commit to this bloomin’ project. (And I realise I’d be better posting this in the April thread, but hey ho.)

Thank you all for making this thread such a lovely, welcoming and supportive wee nook. See y’all on the other side!
 

D.L. Shepherd

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Xenylic: Woo Hoo! What a great way to end the month. A big congrats to you! Nice that you are going to set it aside and let the draft simmer a bit as you revisit Book 1.

thereeness: That's awesome. Hope you reach that goal today, and even if you don't, pat yourself on the back for getting so very far!

Layla: Hope you are having a wonderful, stress free skip day!

niknicnac: Yay for another 345 words...and congrats and good luck to your daughter!

April: If that is the one that's calling you now...go for it! Have fun re-writing it next month, we'll all be cheering you on!

I managed another two good hours yesterday, and surprisingly I zipped right through those chapters. They are not perfect (are they ever?), but they are good enough for this draft, and I'm going to start moving forward in my edits again. I'm doing some of the prep for tomorrow and have a dog training session to attend today, but I'm going to try to get in at least one more hour of work before this month comes to a close.
 

Taylor Harbin

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350 words on a new story before work. Glad to get something done again.
 

thereeness

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@Layla - I feel you about still working the day job, but hopefully there is holiday pay. Good luck!

@niknicnac - That's awesome that your daughter got invited to read! Best of luck to her and kudos for getting some words in :D

@April - Excellent! A new project in the month that bears your name, in the season known for new beginnings :D Omens abound. Good luck with the drafting!

@DL - Nice! Grats on getting through those chapters so fast. Don't you love it when that happens? You're in the zone and the words are flowing...awesome.

@Taylor - Hey, 350 words is still a chunk of words. *Thumbs up.*

In my case, the universe was officially testing me last night at work. Friday nights are usually okay, but with the holiday weekend, everyone and their brother apparently wanted off, but that wasn't the worst part. For me, the worst part was: I'd have 20 minutes of writing time, then a 2 hour call, then a break, then another 20 minutes of writing time and then another 1 1/2 hour call @_@ I couldn't get anything done! But luckily, around 3 AM things calmed down and I was able to push through to the end! Yes, I finished drafting Act 2, that fricking beast, and can safely say I have met my deadline!

I feel so accomplished and like I deserve a cookie XD I may get one, since it's my birthday on the 4th.

See you guys in the new month and have a good holiday weekend!
 

D.L. Shepherd

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Taylor: Congrats on the added words!

thereeness: That's awesome that you pushed thru and finished, despite the universe acting against you! Nice job!

I edited for another hour yesterday. It was nice to finally move forward a little, instead of being stalled in the same spot. Hope to pick up some momentum in April and finish this puppy. Well, at least this draft!
 
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