Rejection and NEW STUFF (Accountabilibuddies)

ShouldBeWriting

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Writing when you’re sick or have a toddler... there should be an award for that. Or at least cake. :Cake:
 

RaggyCat

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Haha! I don't get to write when the toddler is there full stop. The baby, luckily, is more compliant. My goal is to finish this book before he too becomes a toddler!
 

polishmuse

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Thanks for the cake! Best of luck with the littles! Having mine back in school/day care has made writing so much smoother (and I usually take weekends off when they are home because, phew, agree that it is not easy with them under foot)
 

RaggyCat

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I hope you're feeling better now, polish! I'm ill now - my tonsils, impressingly, are touching each other - but I could feel worse, so I'm going to try to have a revising day so at least I feel I have some progress being made. Too sick to write anything new.
 

polishmuse

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I feel SO much better! I've been writing an article and then my writing group met today, so I wrote for a while with a prompt there. I didn't track anything yet, but I'm hoping you feel better soon. Going to get your tonsils out?
 

Atlantic12

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Now that my edits are gone, I'm back to book 2. I've decided most of what I wrote last fall was meh. Back to the drawing board as far as the particular events. The overall plot and characters are cool. But how to get from A to B etc? How to make it matter?

I've been pretty anxious about this for days, but I have to say, Donald Maas' 21st Century Fiction has *saved my butt.* I am so back on track suddenly, it's amazing. Absolutely recommend this book to anyone struggling who writes commercial/literary, or just want to deepen their genre book more.

Anyway, I probably won't be racking up wordcount until after my edits are okayed. I've given myself permission to replan and strategize. And I've got a shiny new whiteboard to plot everything out on.

Hope you're all busy and in love!
 

RaggyCat

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I feel SO much better! I've been writing an article and then my writing group met today, so I wrote for a while with a prompt there. I didn't track anything yet, but I'm hoping you feel better soon. Going to get your tonsils out?

I'm glad you're better, Polish! Colds linger around at this time of year. I don't think I will get my tonsils out as it's quite an invasive operation, but it's a real pain always having infections go there. It was worse when I used to do public speaking for work - trying to do my job with a bad throat was fun and games (not!).

Atlantic, sorry you've been feeling anxious about book 2 - I do know how you feel, I struggled badly plotting my book 2 after being signed. Suddenly, it feels as though there are very real expectations, and you have to deliver by a particular date, which is stressful as for many of us the book that gets us the publishing deal has been years in the work. I'm glad you've got a whiteboard, though! I have too and I love it. Having a big visual helps. I also recommend post-it note plotting - I find it so useful for figuring out A to B.

I've gone off the boil a bit with week with my editor R and agent call, but I've had an excellent day on plotting the new book. The plot was pretty much there before, but I'm a lot clearer now on what kind of book I want it to be, and I'm adding in lots of lovely complications and false clues. I've really enjoyed myself!
 

Atlantic12

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Great you're plotting ahead! Having fun is the key. Not every writing session is fun, but the process in general should be, or why are we doing this?

I've got a ton of story development done in a short time by focusing on the main characters and their needs, wants, links to each other past and present. I have to organize all these notes starting tomorrow, and I have lots of coloured post it's to help me.

I'm also really visual and have photos of my main characters, locations etc. Anybody else do that?
 

ShouldBeWriting

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Great you're plotting ahead! Having fun is the key. Not every writing session is fun, but the process in general should be, or why are we doing this?

I've got a ton of story development done in a short time by focusing on the main characters and their needs, wants, links to each other past and present. I have to organize all these notes starting tomorrow, and I have lots of coloured post it's to help me.

I'm also really visual and have photos of my main characters, locations etc. Anybody else do that?

That’s exciting. I’m diving back into my WIP today after losing many days to a nasty virus.

And yes on the photos. With my current WIP, it took me a really long time to find a photo of my protagonist because nothing I googled matched what I had in my head. It didn’t help that she is loosely based on my daughter 10 years from now. So of course that made me especially picky. I delayed my writing for a couple of days while I searched, but a photo finally made it up there on the corkboard. (The corkboard was my gift to myself when I got my agent.Before I just taped photos to the wall or stuck them in a folder.)
 

Atlantic12

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It helps to have photos, doesn't it? And it always amazes me when I find someone perfect in historical photo archives. Those were real people, and my characters become a little more real to me.

Good to hear you're feeling better!
 

Cobalt Jade

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I'm a visual writer, but not into the picture boards. I keep these things in head. On my current project (a novel) the setting is a large semitropical island, so I draw on my memories of Hawaii and Mexico, while the mountain areas are more Cascade-like, like the temperate rainforests I've hiked through in the past.

Plus, the fact is, readers are ALWAYS going to visualize the characters for themselves. I was fortunate enough to have a story published with the main two characters of the current project (a side-story if you will) and doubly fortunate enough for it to be illustrated by a fairly good artist. Well, the teenage character came out more like a Wraeththru (Storm Constantine's hermaphroditic gay male creations) with very long dark hair, while the lord, his lover, looked like an evil 18th century French count complete with a monocle, pencil mustache, and van dyke beard. So contrary to my own visualization I had to laugh and laugh. I was delighted that such variety could exist!

MY version of the characters was a very young Bob Dylan, and my ex-husband, who had telenovela good looks, with a ponytail.
 

RaggyCat

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Haha! Great story on the character pictures, Cobalt Jade! I tend in my books to have quite open descriptions of characters (for example, hair colour specified, plus a distinctive feature and body type) so readers can visualise themselves. Planning, however, I find character pictures and paste them in my plotting document - it really does help. Later on I tend also to draw my characters as I'm a decent illustrator, but I find it easier to do when I know them well.
 

polishmuse

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updated the spreadsheet. I'm planning on writing for an hour every night for the next nine nights. I just finished my first night and got over a thousand words. I got an idea for a something today--story, novel? who knows. I'm going to play with it. Haven't had FUN drafting anything in forever so just pantzing it and seeing where it goes.
 

RaggyCat

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Sounds like a good plan, polish! Good luck with it.

I've been doing really well with writing but will be absent from spreadsheet for a bit- my laptop is in for repairs and I've no idea when I'll get it or a replacement back. I've got the use of a desktop at least but the internet is basically non existent on it... could be worse!

33k on new book though, very pleased - and most of those words are decent ones.
 

polishmuse

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Nice Raggy! That's awesome! Slow and steady over here. I ended up working on an essay and a few humor pieces instead of the book this week, but eh, it'll come.
 

EMaree

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I *love* the idea of this challenge! I've joined the spreadsheet and I'm aiming for 1hour editing a day.
 

RaggyCat

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Guys, how have you got on with your writing while I was battling with extended laptop issues?

I'm pleased to say that I've been averaging 2-3 hours a day, which has been easy because I've wanted so badly to be writing! I'm now at the 55k mark (looking for 70-75k). I'm quite pleased but how the book is shaping up, but I've overcomplicated the plot (something I often do) so I'm currently going back and streamlining it. I kind of feel then that I'm best off sprinting to the end and then doing heavy editing...
 
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polishmuse

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Updated the spreadsheet and hoping people will join for April accountability! I know some are doing Camp NaNo, so this is a nice way to track and cheer each other on.
I'm editing old project for an R&R then back to the draft I'm working on (about 17k into that so far and starting to hit a stride).

GO EVERYONE DOING STUFF (very vague cheer)
 

RaggyCat

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What's CampNaNo? Excuse ignorance!

Just popped into the spreadsheet to update. I've had a terrible two weeks with my book - I've had insomnia, and have been unable to concentrate enough to do anything - but I think via some conversations I've successfully refocused my new book, and I'm clear about what I need to achieve with it. For this book I want it to fit really neatly into a genre, because I've come to realise a big failing of my last two books was that they did not fit neatly into a genre - both were significantly revised when I wrote a second draft, and sort of mutated into books that weren't one thing or the other.

I'm also determined not to overcomplicate this book, which I did with the last one.

You've been doing well, though, Polish!
 

polishmuse

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Thanks! Camp Nanowrimo is a shortened version of Nano with setting own goals. I'm not "doing" it this year but I know its a motivator for some!

Go, go, go Raggy! Cheering for you. and for you getting some sleep!
Also, the between genres thing sucks. I do that often, too.
 

Earthling

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Giving this a whirl. I've been struggling so hard with writing since I started having some success, and I need to do something before I lose all confidence. So I've added a modest goal of 250 words a day. Please hold me accountable...
 

polishmuse

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DO THE THING, Earthling!

Finished, printed, and subbed my first story to a contest in a while. Felt good to have a reason to go to the post office!
 

RaggyCat

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Yes! I echo Polish! DO THE THING, Earthling! Sympathy, though. I know how hard it is to ease yourself in...

Haha. I remember the days of going to the Post Office well, Polish! But there is something about hard copy that makes one feel productive in a way that a word count on a screen doesn't.

I've had an OK day trying to rewrite my "messy middle chapters" which got a bit unweildly before I went back and simplified the plot. I don't think I'm going to get much time on Weds and Thurs to write, though, which I resent a little even though today and yesterday I got quite a few hours to write.
 

ChibiUsagi

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Reviving this thread.

I'm attempting to write my sophomore novel. Now that my first book has sold, the publisher said they'd like to see Book 2 in about 6 months. They've invested a lot in me, and now I feel like I have to deliver something spectacular.

I have 50 pages written please help :dire: