October Challenge - Write Every Day!

Barely managed 3/4 of another page. Once again, I jumped into a story without adequate planning or forethought, but by golly wasting paper is just what I do on my day off. Setting it aside. After getting another rejection and being reminded that my parents only consider this a hobby, I'm feeling pretty low. Trying to remember when writing was actually fun and fulfilling.

Deadeyemouse: Woo 602! I feel your pain; I just finished a chapter only to realise the whole thing needs redone. Part of the process, part of the process… *swigs wine*

xenylic: My knees ache at the thought of your 7 mile run. Great job writing 1.1k! Nice to see professors still living up to their absent-minded stereotype.

Layla: I know we need Life to have something to write about, but sometimes it’s a right pain. Yay 1/2 page!

Jason: Chuggin’ along nicely there.

Taylor: Hugs. When we push harder it is easy to lose the fun. I wish I had an answer for how to find it again. Still searching myself.

I had a cookie for breakfast, which probably explained my midday slump. But, the cookie was really good, so…I’m sticking with my life choices. I wrote a couple hundred words, then spent some time planning Chapter Two. Also spent far too much time in the depths of Twitter, and, weirdly, watching self-defence videos. Come at me, ninjas.*

Day 16: Wee bit; 4 miles; Anime penguins all gone

*Please don’t.

Day 15 - 588 words

Day 16 - 429 words

As you can tell from the word counts, I'm entering the home stretch. Yes, about 300 of those words were retyped longhand, but still. I could have this puppy done by the weekend. Then it's dive into the romance series, or put that off by diving into the SF M/M romance instead. This is usually the point when a totally new idea strikes from out of the blue, leads me astray for a week or two and then peters out. I'm with Taylor. Writing used to be fun.

If I can motivate myself, I'll be mowing the lawn this afternoon.

I’m bailing for the rest of the month, maybe longer. Can’t get anything finished and when I do I hate it. Too hurt to go on. Maybe if the urge comes back so strong I can’t resist I’ll try another story, but until then, I dunno...

Good luck everyone. Hope you find your audience and get lots of uplifting fan mail.

Congrats to all - my day was kinda busy, so no words yet. Maybe will get some pen time in tonight...

Day 15
Planned, read craft books. Fidgeted.

Day 16
Revised a scene. Cut, cut, cut.

starrystorm: If you have the energy for all of them, go for it! Kudos.

Deadeyemouse: Glad you're back. Nice word count. If it doesn't work, save it for something else. On the word choice front, reading poetry helps me there.

KayMitch: Way to edit. Yay, wi-fi!

Layla: Nice going on that 1/2 page.

Pterofan: Great word counts. It's been raining here for almost two weeks. I think I have a swamp monster in the back yard.

Cindyt: Feel better soon!

xenylic: Wow, that's some work. Sorry about school. It'll be over sooner than you think.

Taylor: Sorry to see you go, but I understand. Do what you need to do and come back!

April: Breakfast cookies! It's a thing. Way to write and plan! I only revised Book I on paper. I started redrafting in Scrivener today. Waa. It's hard. And so slow.

Two turkey vultures are chowing down on roadkill across the streets and my dogs are going nuts!

Way to keep at it, Jason!

Taylor, yeah, it's so easy to lose the sense of happiness we get from writing.

Congrats on the new words, and the other stuff, April

Way to go Ptero

Gough - you're a trooper


Day 16


WIP - 3/4 page
R/SC - tidying, arranging & re-arranging; a bit of cooking
$$ - some writing exercise for my indy project

35 words yesterday.

I had a huge nap today, so I'll be ready to rock hopefully.

I also have reading week next week-- nothing going on, so I'll be on here working away!

Keep at it!

1,000 words written and an exciting plot point ahead of me (finally!).

I also managed to squeak in a four mile run between classes. Slowly but surely the confidence is coming back to me

Day 16 Oh man, I had to cram in some writing into a very short window of free-time I had today. However, got 841 words!

910 words today.

I'm back in there!

I'm back from my two day break (I can tell I'm in poor writing shape since I had to look at my previous post to remember how to spell "break" ). I'm going to do some editing today, but have decided if I get free time somewhere I'm not with my current WIP on hand, I'll start planning a new book (just planning, no writing).

Great job for everyone who has written!

Pterofan: Chin up! Those are solid word counts. And, it’s always better to have too many ideas than too few

Take care, Taylor. Sounds like you really need a rest from it all.

WGough: Any recs for the craft books? Yeah, I’m with you: revising on a computer is much harder. Wish I had your view… The seagulls have mostly left and the crows aren’t as interesting to watch. I need birds to entertain me.

Layla: 3/4 page! Whatcha cookin’?

Daniel: Huge naps are the best. Awesome count!

xenylic: Lots of good stuff goin’ on there! Nice work

Deadeyemouse: Whoop! You must have been super focused.

I wrote 2360 words in Chapter Two, then decided to step away from drafting and spend the rest of the day sketching ideas for the last chunk of Chapter Two, and musing a second project. All good, all good.

Day 17: Decent bit; 6.5 miles; fruit infusion champ

Day 17 - only 93 words, but that's so far. Everything else is out of the way now, and there's nothing on TV, so I should be able to add at least another hour's worth of work after dinner. Unless I decide to read instead.

WGough - swamp monsters? Sounds like you've got the plot for your next book already.

Day 17
Still raining. So tired. Redrafting a particularly cumbersome scene. Do I have to harmonize world-building with characterization? Mlark!

Layla: What a great day!

Daniel: Great word count. You're back!

xenylic: The confidence always returns. Glad to hear it!

Deadeyemouse: That's amazing! Way to work it in.

starrystorm: Stupid brain. Love the planning phase. Good luck!

April: All great! That's amazing work. Craft books are tricky. I'm trying Troubleshooting Your Novel. I've found a lot of these are polishing guides geared toward the author's preferred style of writing more than revision guides. Self Editing for Fiction Writers falls into that category. Don't use adverbs, show don't tell, don't use passive verbs. Yeah, those tidbits are the foundation for my mountain of student loan debt. Sooze's site is much more insightful. Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer focuses quite a bit on language. One idea I'm trying is to precede a violent paragraph with a lyrical paragraph. La la la, pretty, pretty, pretty...ATTACK. Any revision book recs are greatly appreciated.

Pterofan: Swamp monster or tentacle monster? I'm so torn.

Daniel - I love naps (oh, and hey! Congrats on that 910!)

Xen - nice work - & hope that was a fun run!

mouse, that was one successful cram!

Nice keeping at it, Starry

Whoa April - 2K+ - great job

Ptero - 93 words sounds great

Gough - I have faith in you - it will be some sweet harmonization


Day 17

WIP - 3/4 page
R/SC - earning service - almost the same commute as before, but less by ~10 minutes.
$$ - indy - research & analysis

Bit of a throwaway type of writing session today; nothing of real substance to the words I added, but to be fair, I was pretty exhausted and had a late start. I got my 1k in today, but no run sadly—ran out of time. Tomorrow for sure, I'll start to dig into that juicy plot point that's so nearby!

College update, my professor found my test (surprise, surprise, it was in his possession the whole time!), but this whole fiasco has left me on the back foot trying to keep up with assignments. Still trying to figure out a rhythm on the other class that involves an application that I can't use remotely. For the time being, all that's on hold as I just try and stretch myself out to the weekend. I promised myself no writing this weekend since I've been making a pretty good comeback during the week. That should be a nice change.

Hanging in there (narrowly at the moment). You guys have been doing amazing stuff! Keep it up!

DAY 17
(Drive-by post)
Edited my first chapter with line edits. Had to chop a 500-600 word section and watched my word count drop. But then my computer started acting strange so, in fear, I stopped typing. I know I have backup, but still...

Day 17 Man, it feels nice when a burst of inspiration hits you. I was able to get 2101 words on the page today.

Hanging on!

655 today.

Busy day tomorrow, but reading week approaches!

Yesterday was so crazy busy I got the big goose egg for a word count.

Rinse repeat, I got another goose egg today *sigh*

Not giving up though, will find my resurgence tomorrow. Congrats to everyone for all your efforts and support.

Pterofan: Good job for getting some words down already.

WGough: BLLLEH world-building! My personal nemesis. Good luck with the scene. I know what you mean about craft books; my method is to read lots but then take only snippets from each one, forming my own view in the process. I really enjoyed The Breakout Novel by Donald Maas; also the Story Book by David Baboulene (I think that’s the name of it). I’ve read John Truby too. To be honest, I didn’t find it as helpful as others. Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft is also pretty good.

Layla: Glad your commute has decreased a wee bit. Yee-ha 3/4 page

xenylic: 1k is awesome. And you never know – it might be more substantial than you think. Keep hanging’ on!

starrystorm: Oh snap. I began today’s session with ‘This file could not be opened because it doesn’t exist’. And I was like, yeah it does. Thankfully, all was well. Don’t focus on that word count – it’s important to see which bits need to be chopped.

Deadeye: Yay inspiration! Yay 2101 words!

Daniel: Great job sticking with it.

Jason: Awww, a big goose egg! I’m gonna think of it like that from now on. Don’t dwell on past eggs. One’ll hatch soon

Brain just didn’t fire up today. I slogged my way to 1k, then decided to switch to musing via hand. I also read, ate a doughnut, and listened to LeVar Burton tell me a story (not personally, sadly; via a podcast). So it was a mixed day.

Day 18: Decent bit; 5.5. miles; manual aquafaba whip FAIL

So far today I've managed to successfully avoid writing. Time to have another sit-down with myself in regards to procrastination.

Last night I added an extra 100 words to the daily count when I revised an old flash fic that I realized could be expanded into part of a possible book. One that wasn't on my project list, by the way. My subconscious likes to trip me up.

Deadeyemouse - Whoo! You go!

WGough - one of each. Then have them fall in love.

Day 18
Still stuck in that same scene. Think I found a decent revising book. The Last Draft: A Novelist's Guide to Revision by Sandra Scofield. I'll let you know.

Layla: Nice progress. Ten minutes better spent.

xenylic: Way to make your goal. Hope things run more smoothly for you soon!

starrystorm: Remind me, are you editing as you go or editing a finished draft? Argh! Glitchy computer sends me into a panic.

Deadeyemouse: Wow! Way to burst!

Daniel: That's some nice work, pardner!

Jason: Great attitude!

April: Thanks for the recs! Love the LeVar Burton podcast. 1K words is nothing to sneeze at. Nice work!

Pterofan: Your brain is my new bff.

Words is hard. Write, write, write.

Edited two pages today. Ugh. Stupid grammar. I get hung up on simple sentences, trying to figure out if there's a better way to convey my thoughts.

@WGough--No, I never edit as I go. My second draft is where I open a blank document next to my first draft and rewrite the first draft on that blank page. That way I can make big changes as I go. My third draft is more conventional. I run down the second draft, changing things as I go.