Outrageous October 500 words/day writing or editing - all genres welcome

Life has been a roller coaster. But I still finished the draft in September!

Life is going to continue to be a roller coaster, but a few things have resolved themselves. So this month is for the final revision. If I can get the synopsis and query letter done as well, hallelujah.

I've also got a short to write. That needs to be done in maybe a week.

Go, all of us!

I'm in! I have started my uni course so lots of reading is in my near future, but I also jotted down some notes for a short. It's been a long time since I wrote a short, so that will be an interesting exercise. If I can fit it in around my course work, I'm also aiming to keep going with the previous editing project.

Hope everyone has a peaceful and productive month.

Salutations Everyone,

Saoirse - Best wishes for a productive month
Liz - Congrats on finishing the draft. Hope it's not too crazy of a month, hang in there.
OSG - Good luck at uni and with your editing

September turned out to be a wash. Not much to show in putting new words to paper. There was some but not enough that I'd call successful. On the plus side, I did finish my read through and dabblings on one project and now have the digital proof in my possession for review. I'd like to say I'll have that wrapped up by the weekend, but probably next week would be more realistic.

Well, I pulled an all-dayer and got 2200 words on the new project, to add to the 500 I wrote yesterday. It goes in tomorrow, and I get my feedback from the class next week.

The pace of this thing is what's getting me. With my first novel, I worked on an idea I'd had for about a decade. I spent two years on that. My second novel (which never made it to a complete first draft) was an idea I had right about the beginning of those two years. My third (which is in redrafts) came from about the same time period. So I'm used to having years to poke at an idea, to shape it into something I find really compelling. Whereas this one... I came up with the idea last month, the lead character last week, wrote the outline for this piece on Tuesday, and the first chapter yesterday and today. No wonder I feel rushed!

onesecondglance said:

Well, I pulled an all-dayer and got 2200 words on the new project, to add to the 500 I wrote yesterday. It goes in tomorrow, and I get my feedback from the class next week.

The pace of this thing is what's getting me. With my first novel, I worked on an idea I'd had for about a decade. I spent two years on that. My second novel (which never made it to a complete first draft) was an idea I had right about the beginning of those two years. My third (which is in redrafts) came from about the same time period. So I'm used to having years to poke at an idea, to shape it into something I find really compelling. Whereas this one... I came up with the idea last month, the lead character last week, wrote the outline for this piece on Tuesday, and the first chapter yesterday and today. No wonder I feel rushed!

Click to expand...

I suspect you'll find that having an external deadline stimulates your imagination in all sorts of ways. However you do it, have fun!

I've made the strategic decision to be late on a self-imposed deadline. (I did share that deadline with someone else, but they never responded, so I'm assuming - with a little trepidation - that the date I gave wasn't important to them.) The story I'm writing has something to it, but I'm still not getting it quite right. Instead of delivering it tomorrow, I'm going to shoot for next Wednesday. I'm close, and I want to keep the pressure on, but I need to let it breathe a little.

Soooo I sent the editor a note saying "not done" and he sent a note saying "oops missed your last email can I see what you have so far?" and I sent it even though it's long on word count and needs a lot of tightening and now I'm waiting.

I guess I should write something else for a while.

Hey guys! I think I'll try to join you! I'm writing the second draft of the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo last year. I just started mid-September. I haven't worked on it every day, and there are some days I've only gotten 100-200 words down due to distractions. I've written maybe 2/3 of the days, lol. It's at 7150 words right now and I really want to move a little faster with this.

I'm enjoying it a lot, much more than I did draft 1. This is exciting! And it's the perfect season for writing.

No goals, really, but the 500 words a day sounds nice.

Hi Lucid!

So far this month I have managed to write 40k words in five days and I’m very proud of that, to be honest, specially since it’s for the first draft of a new story.

Today I did another revision pass on my short, and handed it off to a crit partner. And promptly thought of a couple of changes that I think might solve the problems I've been having with it. I haven't yet heard back from the editor who got the In Progress version, so until I do I'll assume I still owe him a finished product. (And if he doesn't like it? My newsletter could use some fiction.)

No progress on the WIP. Shame on me. I really do want to finish the revision this month so I can enter NaNoWriMo with a clear conscience.

Welcome, Lucid and aryheron!

SO my awesome crit partner reinforced my ideas and gave me some others and I revised the short and sent it off. Still pretty sure it's not tonally quite what they're looking for, but I like it now. If they don't use it, it goes in my newsletter.

Tomorrow: WIP catch-up. Whee!

Got about 800 words done on a new short. I know what's going to happen, but what it's about is beyond me right now. I'll save that for the second draft

Great work everyone, happy to see you're all doing well. Best wishes to you and your cat Saoirse, hang in there.

Fighting a cold, so things have slowed down a bit from being just plain tired. Oh well, it will pass. Pondering about trying out the NaNoWriMo next month, but not sure considering how busy I usually am. Any suggestions or experiences to share on that?

Hope your kitty makes a quick recovery, Saoirse. I've been to the vet with a lot of them; my sympathies.

Sorry about your cold, Zan - hope it passes quickly!

Zan75 said:

Pondering about trying out the NaNoWriMo next month, but not sure considering how busy I usually am. Any suggestions or experiences to share on that?

Click to expand...

Oh! Oh! Me!!

I've done NaNo every year since 2010. For me, it's both incentive, and permission to write like a maniac without obsessing over perfection. As far as specific experiences go: it's exhausting, and you will write rubbish, but more than you expect will be pretty good, and the rest can be handled in revisions.

Best strategy tip I heard was in my first year: When you've got about a week left, stop where you are, and write the final scene (complete with THE END). If you've still got time/need words, go back and fill in a few scenes. As I'm generally a linear writer, it felt very odd, but for me, at least, there was genuine motivational power in having the story's destination written down.

Busy may nail you, but that's OK; there's value in the attempt, even if you don't hit the word count. I think there's a lot to be said for being forced to ignore your inner editor.

Best wishes for kitties and colds.

I got about 1,500 words today, and I reckon there's another thousand in this short, so that will have to wait for another day. I can see if I want to do Nano this year I'm going to have to up my pace! The writing crap thing is where I struggle too. I like having relatively clean copy to go back and edit...

onesecondglance said:

my MA workshop class said really nice things about my work
i am a happy happy cat

Click to expand...

Of course they did! Because you are AMAZING!!! and skilled and talented and you work your backside off.

Go, osg!

Thank you, liz I am hugely relieved. I had no idea what people would think, and the impostor syndrome was starting to kick a bit. Now I can kick it back