May Challenge - Write Every Day

Ok - I'm down for my usual - write something - *and* take care of Life and Adulting...

Yep, me too. With a bit of luck this time next month I'll be actually writing instead of planning and outlining.

Thanks for starting another thread Magnus! Hi Layla and Keithy...nice to see you both back here again!

As usual, I'm in. I'll be setting aside draft two of Book 2 (which I hope to finish up tomorrow), and I'll be starting the revisions on Book 1. I don't usually outline, but the revisions included some plot changes, the development of a minor character into a major one, and changing the role of one of the already major players...so I plan to spend May sorting through my editor's notes, brainstorming, and trying to come up with a loose outline that we both agree on before I start.

I have to admit, I'm a bit intimidated by the process!

I'm not going to lay any goals on myself for May other than finishing the outline part, since I will be swamped at the day job for the next few months. I'm also not going to promise myself that I'll work daily on it, or post here daily either.

Just as long as I check in with all of you from time to time, and get the outline done somehow, I'll consider the month a win.

ETA: I did finish draft 2 yesterday as I hoped, so I set it aside for a bit, and I'm preparing to tackle these edits.

Good to see the usual familiar names in here. I'll be looking to build upon a successful April with the following goals:

1) Write at least 250 words a day 5x a week
2) I hit 16K words in April, but I think I can do better. I'm going to shoot for 20K
3) I'd like to finish the outline to one of my WIP. I've got most of the bare bones done, just need to flesh out a bit and fill in the gaps.

It's not quite May yet, but I've done a bit more tinkering today.

And tomorrow, if I get time, I will start hanging some meat on the bones of my outline and see what it looks like.

Here you go, a provisional attempt at the first two lines:

Shana squeezed her eyes shut, but that did not block out the reek of piss and shit, nor the moans and cries of other prisoners. She longed to know if her mother had survived the accident that had brought her here, and whimpered when she realised that she had no idea.

Lots more swimming required.

My May goal is to check in here M-F In general, I want to keep editing Project B and hopefully get back to Project A. I also want to keep walking every day.

I'm not sure how much I'm going to get done, honestly. I'm facing a difficult situation at work. I won't waste your time my ranting about it here, but it's gotten to the point that for the first time my wife and I are seriously considering uprooting and going somewhere else even if it means working outside of my educational background. It's brought about a lot of anxiety and depression, as I don't have any other skills except writing, but no idea how to make a living with it besides stories. In my worst moments I think, "Why have I wasted so much time with this writing hobby? That's all it is, despite my best efforts. I've had no sales in a year and the book still isn't done. Who was I kidding, thinking I could do this?"

Be that as it may, I've got an editor waiting on one piece. The 10,000-word story needs editing and polishing before the due date on 5-31, so that's a goal.

I've got another story to write that's due at the end of June for a different anthology.

I really want to get back to work on my novel. I never thought it'd take me this long, but the way my life is structured right now I just can't work on two projects at a time. I'm good for one spurt in the morning and that's it. The manuscript is almost 300 pages but when I started working on this long short progress just stopped. Probably not a good habit, but I love short fiction.

Anyway, this has the potential to be a really hard month and any time when life is so rough I'm unable to write is very bad indeed.

I'm in too-love this idea! (I'm new to the forum, and loving it so far, especially with ideas like this - just what I need.)

At 10:30pm on 1 May, just made the first day.

My goal is to write 300-500 words every day. I have a rough plot for a story worked out, but I'm still working on the characters, so I want to write vignettes exploring the characters and their interactions and motivations, so I can get to know them better, before I launch into the story as such.

May 1: 519 words, May 2: 529, May 3: 555, May 4: 510, May 5: 505

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I too like writing in cafes, so long as they're not too busy. I like the idea of having small, achievable goals, something is better than nothing! I'm having fun so far.

Okay, I was absolute rubbish at actually checking in with the April thread (half due to vacation, half due to laziness) and since May is the month that I move back to the States for good, it's going to be a busy/weird transition time for me. I'm not going to pretend that I'll be checking in each day, BUT! That doesn't excuse me from writing each day. While I didn't get my last April check-in, I wrote 2,185 words yesterday, and today I wrote another 1,898 (apparently I don't write and then burst write for days). So I suppose my first May check-in is that almost 2k count.

My May writing goals:

-Due to my impending move and the jolt that is, my goal has switched from a daily word count goal to an overall month word count goal. There will most definitely be days I miss. So overall, I want to write at least 15,000 words in May. Given my April end, this hopefully won't be too hard.

-A stretch goal would be to actually exceed that by whatever it needs to be pushed past in order to finish this WIP, which is nearing the 3/4 finish line.

Glad to see everyone back again, and happy to see new faces as well! I hope this thread pushes everyone to get those words out!

I love this idea so much!

I'm new to the forum and came in halfway through April so didin't join THAT challenge. I'm glad I spotted this one today so I don't forget.

Since life has been chaotic (when isn't it?) I've been super irregular in my writing habits. So I'm going to keep my goal for May VERY modest.

I want to write 15 minutes (or more) at least 5 days a week. USUALLY if I start writing, I end up writing more than 15 minutes. But knowing I don't HAVE to makes it easier to start.

I can spend that fifteen minutes on any of my projects: short stories, novel, blog posts, or one of my herbal witchery projects. (Wow I have a lot of projects going ...).

So this morning I'm going to start writing at 7:55. After my alotted poke-around-the-forum time. I'm excited about sharing accountability and encouragement with you all!

I want to write a minimum of 1500/day and a maximum of 2500.

I'm totally down to do this! Let's get on board and set sail!

Glad to see new and familiar faces in this group.

DanielSTJ, great goal, curious about why the maximum though

Magnus, good start to the month.

PNW_Michelle, I have found setting goals low enough to give yourself no excuses not to do it very productive. I've set mine at 250 words and I know I can at the very least pump out 250 words of crap without much effort. But often that leads to 1K+ of usable material.

Sanderson, Great start.

heykatydid, sounds like a busy month ahead.

I started out May with a solid 1,053 words which I'm pretty happy about. It's pretty bare bones and part is almost outline like (he did this and this and then that...Go back and make him feel the desperation), but it's progress. I have a scene coming up soon that I'm really excited to write since it was the scene I envisioned when I started this work, so hopefully pushing toward that scene will help keep me motivated.

DanMorrison said:

DanielSTJ, great goal, curious about why the maximum though.

Click to expand...

Don't want to drain the creative oasis dry.

P.S. Cool to have another Dan (or Daniel) aboard! Ahoy! : D

Welcoming hugs/handshakes to all aboard the good ship May Challenge.

OK, about three hours of writing has produced 773 words today. That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that I perhaps don't have enough plot. I should finish chapter one tomorrow and hence have some idea whether this is a problem or not.

swim swim swim

Checking in early - I hit my 3 already today

Day 1:
Writing: ~1 1/4 page
Responsibility/Self-care: took my rent check to the landlord - did MAD cleaning (moving furniture, getting dust out of corners, washing floors...)
$$ - responded to two head hunters

I may do more but it's enough for checking in.

Here's to a wordful, productive month for all of us

oh snap - I missed Dan's 1K+ and Keithy's 700+ Congrats on a great May 1!

1526 words.

An improvement from yesterday. So tired, but I have tomorrow off work so I'm hoping to hit that 2500 mark.

Off to sleep I go! Good luck everybody!

Here we go again!

Magnus: Good start! I love writing in cafes too.

Dan: Welcome to the 1k club! Everything’s been cleaned for May so it should be nice and shiny for you

Keithy: 773 is great! Are you moving through your planned events quicker than you thought? That happens to me quite a lot.

Layla: Woo! Ha, I’d love to see mad cleaning in action. I’m picturing aggressive strikes with a feather duster.

Daniel: Wow, great total! Enjoy your snooze

I had a so-so day yesterday. I finished my read-through of Project B, and, to be blunt, it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped! Got a lot more work to do than I’d anticipated, and my confidence is rocking slightly (and I watched The Disaster Artist and worried I have the artistic nose of Tommy Wiseau). Got a few annoying Life problems too (companies taking my money when they have no right), and my anxiety is flaring. Meh. My task now is to go through all chaps of Project B and fix ‘em, before I print out for a thorough line edit. My mini-goal is to get this sweep done by Friday (MAY THE FOURTH!) so I can reward myself with a Star Wars binge.

Day 1: Decent bit; 8.5 miles; two decadent puddings for breakfast (because I am a child in adult clothes).

Managed to finish a chapter in the book and do some editing on the short.

Only 454 words today, but better than zero! I'm really tired today and woke up with this awful crick in my neck making it unable to turn my head, so I'm giving myself a bit of a pass. I did do some research, and fixed up some issues with anachronistic armor I'd mentioned, which is really positive even if it didn't add more words.

Taylor - congrats! That's great work!

April - BUT to be fair, Tommy Wiseau is now a legend, so... you'd have that going for you! I hope all your changes go to plan, and you get your sweep done by Friday!

Daniel - 1500+ words! I know you wanted more, but that's still a killer word count, so here's hoping that tomorrow brings even more.

Layla - Three for three on day one! Great job, and a great start to May!

Writing at work in between checking in patients and scheduling follow-up appointments, and I've done 346 words so far (compared to a total of 661 for all of yesterday)! I don't have Great British Baking Show to distract me here.

The good thing is that it's my rest day between going to the gym, so I get to go home and plop in my squashy recliner and write with a glass of maple whiskey tonight!