MayNoWriMo 2019 - Face to the Sun

mrsmig · Apr 30, 2019

"Be like a flower
And turn your face to the sun."
- Kahlil Gibran
:Sun:

Welcome to the May 2019 NaNo goals thread!

April Camp is over (although July Camp isn't far off!) and it's time to start fresh and start your goals for the merry month of May. Your goals don't have to be just for writing, and not even for just writing and reading: anything goes. So put 'em down here, rev up your engines and get ready to go - and help the other denizens of this thread by cheering them on!

I had a good April and am hoping for an equally productive May, so I'll get us started. I got 10k written last month (which is a lot for a turtle writer like me), so I'm going to scale back just a bit and aim for 2k a week in May. If I do more than that, bully for me! I'll also be working on getting Book Two of my series republished, as well as continuing with my usual reading goals. I was an utter failure at my exercise goals last month, but I'm going to attempt a slightly easier goal in that arena for May, rather than just give it up entirely.

What's on YOUR agenda for May?

Write 2k words a week on Book 5 of my series (approximately 285 words a day)

[ ] Week 1
[ ] Week 2
[ ] Week 3
[ ] Week 4
[ ] Week 5

[ ] Read 3 books
[ ] Continue reading one short story a week
[ ] Take five nature walks of at least 1.5 mile

Get Book Two of my series republished

[ ] Review text, rewrite front and back matter and send to formatter
[ ] Approve cover design
[ ] Decide on promo schedule
[ ] Republish on Amazon (this may slop over into June depending on how fast the turnaround is)

Tamlyn · Apr 30, 2019

Once again, the look of my goals don't change much. Writing a different story, editing a different story, but still the same essential goal. I wavered back and forth over whether I would do more queries this month, but I should so it's there.

Almost at the end of Ginevra, then I'll probably go back to the long form I was working on before I started that (which is Haven). It wasn't going smoothly when I stopped, but I've had a few thoughts of late that I hope will help.

Otherwise same old, same old, really.

1. Read five books.
2. Edit one story.
3. Draft one new story.
4. Game planning.
5. Query S&M.
6. Finish Ginevra.
7. Plan/assess Haven.
8. Write/edit each day, with one dedicated writing day per week.
9. Bake a thing.

bdwilson · May 1, 2019

Okay, let's go!

A lot of my goals lately have been around establishing a writing routine. I think I've got that going now, so I'm going to just maintain it and switch to some of the things I've let slide while doing so, like chores and exercise :tongue

But I'm easing myself in, so hopefully this will go well. Also, the decluttering ones and such are back. Of course.

● Decluttering progress:

[ ] Sort and clear out office shelf.
[4/5] Sort through storage boxes from under the bed.

● Activity Minutes (30 mins a day):

[ ] Week One
[ ] Week Two
[ ] Week Three
[ ] Week Four
[ ] Week Five

● Cook dinner for myself at least three times per week (toast doesn't count):

[ ] Week One
[ ] Week Two
[ ] Week Three
[ ] Week Four
[ ] Week Five

● Watch a writing/creativity course lesson or do a writing exercise once per day:

[ ] Week One
[ ] Week Two
[ ] Week Three
[ ] Week Four
[ ] Week Five

Saoirse · May 1, 2019

I'm in.

[] 10k on The Vanishing
[] Oubliette words
[] Newsletters (0/5)

Jaymz Connelly · May 2, 2019

I've started the month off in a 'fun' way... with computer issues. We may have located the issue, though, so hopefully there won't be any more drama.

May's goals are pretty much the same as April's, but I'm hoping I'll get the first draft of BGF done soon so it doesn't gobble up all my time. It's a ridiculous story that likely no one else would find the least bit interesting, but my brain is obsessed with it, so I need to get it done so I can do other stuff.

[ ] cross-stitch
[ ] READ the stories!
[ ] exercise of some sort six times per week (minimum 1/2 hour)
[ ] week 1
[ ] week 2
[ ] week 3
[ ] week 4
[ ] week 5
[ ] finish the first draft of BGF

Good luck to everyone with reaching your goals!

Woollybear · May 3, 2019

Simple goals this month:

[ ] Sub to about a dozen small presses (I expect more rejection and plan to self pub this fall, but must move these wheels along on schedule!)
[ ] Send full ms off for another beta read (in prep for self pub)
[ ] Finish second draft of short story I've been workshopping IRL
[ ] Finish my world map--both by hand (currently tracing onto clean paper with Pigma micron pens) and upload and digitally "WOW" the heck out of it

Good luck everyone!!! I haven't seen y'all since February, and it's nice to be back with a month and a list.

Saoirse · May 3, 2019

Good luck to you, too, Patty!

mrsmig · May 4, 2019

Nice to see so many of our regulars on the thread (and Patty, welcome back!). Hope everyone's month started well.

Mine has been VERY busy thus far. A lot of family stuff going on as my mother was transferred from the hospital and into rehab, where I'm guessing she'll be for at least another month and a half. Things have finally settled down a bit and I'm hoping they'll stay that way.

I got kind of the bare minimum of words done on my WIP, mostly due to the family stuff but also because I spent a lot of time reviewing the manuscript for Book 2 and rewriting the front and back matter. The formatter has everything now, and I'm aiming for a tentative release date sometime in mid-June. So I'm pretty pleased about that.

Reading is on schedule. No nature walks yet, unless prowling around in my back yard counts.

Write 2k words a week on Book 5 of my series (approximately 285 words a day)

[x] Week 1 - 1423 words (four days @ 358 words per day)
[ ] Week 2
[ ] Week 3
[ ] Week 4
[ ] Week 5

[ ] Read 3 books
[ ] Continue reading one short story a week
[ ] Take five nature walks of at least 1.5 mile
Get Book Two of my series republished

[x] Review text, rewrite front and back matter and send to formatter
[ ] Approve cover design
[ ] Decide on promo schedule
[ ] Republish on Amazon (this may slop over into June depending on how fast the turnaround is)

Woollybear · May 5, 2019

Thanks for the welcome (and sending calm thoughts all around. )

[ 1 down ] Sub to about a dozen small presses
[ X ] Send full ms off for another beta read (in prep for self pub)
[ ] Finish second draft of short story I've been workshopping IRL
[ ] Finish my world map--both by hand (currently tracing onto clean paper with Pigma micron pens) and upload and digitally "WOW" the heck out of it.

I might add a goal of writing appendices for the novel. My word count is 97300, and one of the presses I plan to sub to wants 100,000 words at a minimum. I can plump up a few scenes (have been ruthless at keeping word count down because it has a tendency to creep up every time I go through it), but don't want meaningless fill. Ho hum, what to do. Maybe I'll spiff up the embryonic appendix I've started, and that'll for sure get me past 100,000 words. Plus it'll be modular...

bdwilson · May 6, 2019

Some progress. Didn't hit a full week on any of the dailies, but that just gives me room to improve during the month :tongue

I did finally go through the last box. I ended up keeping most of what's in there, when I should really trash a bunch. But I don't have another use for the trunk it's all in, and I won't be getting rid of the trunk at the moment, so I'll wait until I have that added pressure before I get rid of the stuff.

● Decluttering progress:

[ ] Sort and clear out office shelf.
[X] ~~Sort through storage boxes from under the bed.~~

● Activity Minutes (30 mins a day):

[3/5] ~~Week One~~
[ ] Week Two
[ ] Week Three
[ ] Week Four
[ ] Week Five

● Cook dinner for myself at least three times per week (toast doesn't count):

[2/3] ~~Week One~~
[ ] Week Two
[ ] Week Three
[ ] Week Four
[ ] Week Five

● Watch a writing/creativity course lesson or do a writing exercise once per day:

[4/5] ~~Week One~~
[ ] Week Two
[ ] Week Three
[ ] Week Four
[ ] Week Five

Jaymz Connelly · May 6, 2019

I've accomplished the big fat sum of nothing so far this month. I've been majorly distracted by computer issues.

Not sure if it's the graphics card dying, or the operating system being corrupted, or a combination of the two that is causing my computer to blue screen randomly. I might try reinstalling the operating system (and every other thing I have installed on the computer) to see if that fixes the problem, but that'll gobble more time. I have a feeling May isn't going to be a good month for getting things done.

[ ] cross-stitch
[ ] READ the stories!
[ ] exercise of some sort six times per week (minimum 1/2 hour)
[-] week 1 (5 of 6 and one of those times was only 20 minutes)
[ ] week 2
[ ] week 3
[ ] week 4
[ ] week 5
[ ] finish the first draft of BGF

Tamlyn · May 7, 2019

Good luck with the computer problems, Jaymz :S

One week, and I've procrastinated a bit. I finished Ginevra. Draft is complete, so at least I'm not all red on goals. I spent most my writing day doing the last chapter and a half. I'd expected it to take less time, but I had to stop and look things up a lot. I know nothing about ships or ship battles, and the entire book is basically set on ship >>. It's going to need a lot of research before edits - but that's probably not going to be for years anyway. I have lots of first drafts to choose between now.

Did a bunch of submissions (and already got one of the rejections) for short stories yesterday, which wasn't a goal, but still felt productive. Otherwise I've started editing a flash. My goal was for non-flash pieces, but if I do a two or three I'll be happy to count that.

Don't think I've really done anything else. Started Blackout by Connie Willis, but was too braindead after work to read it so have also started another Famous Five. So no real reading progress.

1. Read five books. 0/5
2. Edit one story. Started a flash.
3. Draft one new story. Nope.
4. Game planning. Little bit.
5. Query S&M. Nope.
6. Finish Ginevra. Yes!
7. Plan/assess Haven. Not yet.
8. Write/edit each day, with one dedicated writing day per week. Yep.
9. Bake a thing. Not yet.

Saoirse · May 11, 2019

You are making progress, Tamlyn, and that's all that counts.

Jaymz - Hugs on the puter issues.

Update:

[] 10k on The Vanishing - 5,018 so far.
[] Oubliette words
[] Newsletters (4/5)

mrsmig · May 11, 2019

It's almost the middle of the month already! Go go go everyone!

I continue on target with my writing and reading goals, although between auditions, workshops, my little retail job and the weather, I haven't had a chance to take any nature walks yet. I finished Smokin' & Cryin' by fellow AW Devil Ledbetter (really enjoyed it) and started Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters by Anne Boyd Rioux. Also started a new short story anthology, Great Stories by American Women, and have already discovered a new (well, new to me - she was active back in the late 1800s-early 1900s) author whose story I liked well enough to order a collection of her short works. On the self-publishing front, my formatter/cover designer has all my material for Book 2 and I'm waiting for her to get back to me. It looks like mid-June is probably going to hold as the re-release date, so I'm crossing that goal off my list.

Write 2k words a week on Book 5 of my series (approximately 285 words a day)

[x] Week 1 - 1423 words (four days @ 358 words per day)
[x] Week 2 - 2161 words (seven days @ 308 words per day)
[ ] Week 3
[ ] Week 4
[ ] Week 5

[ ] Read 3 books 1 of 3
[ ] Continue reading one short story a week
[ ] Take five nature walks of at least 1.5 mile
Get Book Two of my series republished

[x] Review text, rewrite front and back matter and send to formatter
[ ] Approve cover design
[ ] Decide on promo schedule
~~[ ] Republish on Amazon (this may slop over into June depending on how fast the turnaround is)~~

Woollybear · May 12, 2019

Ouch, Mrs. Mig, you're right--middle of the month, ack! Soon middle of the year, double ack! But goals are proceeding, so that's something. Saoirse, Tamlyn, Jaymz, and bd--congrats on the progress, all progress is good progress! (bd--this includes partial exercise goals realized! You are doing better than me. I've been such a slug lately.)

[ 6 down, woot woot! ] Sub to about a dozen small presses. (halfway there!)

[ X ] Send full ms off for another beta read (in prep for self pub)

[ ] Finish second draft of short story I've been workshopping IRL (this might not get done but let's hope it does.)

[ ] Finish my world map--both by hand and digitally. Most hand-drawing and shading done. Most components scanned. Just a few geysers to draw, and then it's all digital work.

[ X ] Appendices for the novel. I've written seven that I'm happy with and they're getting a beta read now from a naive reader. I'm still brainstorming for one appendix on this thread if you're interested.

Overall, a productive month so far, but travel coming up... hope to keep steaming onward.

bdwilson · May 13, 2019

I did a decluttering thing! I'm actually kind of surprised I finally took the time to do that. I'm doing better with the cooking, too, though one-off nights out are throwing off the third day when I would usually cook :tongue

Overall, making some good progress on the new habits.

● Decluttering progress:

[X] ~~Sort and clear out office shelf.~~
[X] ~~Sort through storage boxes from under the bed.~~

● Activity Minutes (30 mins a day):

[3/5] ~~Week One~~
[X] ~~Week Two~~
[ ] Week Three
[ ] Week Four
[ ] Week Five

● Cook dinner for myself at least three times per week (toast doesn't count):

[2/3] ~~Week One~~
[2/3] ~~Week Two~~
[ ] Week Three
[ ] Week Four
[ ] Week Five

● Watch a writing/creativity course lesson or do a writing exercise once per day:

[4/5] ~~Week One~~
[X] ~~Week Two~~
[ ] Week Three
[ ] Week Four
[ ] Week Five

Jaymz Connelly · May 14, 2019

Thanks for the thoughts on my computer issues, Tamlyn, Saorise, and Patty. My only 3 year old SSD apparently decided it had had enough and carked it. The graphics card is working fine with the new SSD. BUT, that meant I had to reinstall everything.

I opted to go with Windows 10 rather than do this all over again in 6 months time when Windows 7 is no longer support. :gaah

Let's just say it took a while to get everything working the way I wanted it to - although I STILL haven't figured out how to stop it from waking up in the night so I am having to shut it down every day.

I am hoping to get SOMETHING accomplished in the second half of the month. Big congrats :Clap:

to everyone achieving their goals!

[ ] cross-stitch
[ ] READ the stories!
[ ] exercise of some sort six times per week (minimum 1/2 hour)
[-] week 1 (5 of 6)
[-] week 2 (5 of 6)
[ ] week 3
[ ] week 4
[ ] week 5
[ ] finish the first draft of BGF

Tamlyn · May 14, 2019

End of week two, and nothing really to add. Yesterday was too busy for my writing day so that's happening today.

Still! Of my not really to add stuff: making progress on the short story. Don't know if it'll be a real short story at the end, but it's been fun to write. Should hopefully finish that today.

Some of my write/edit each day efforts were... dubious. I'm counting them, but they certainly didn't have a whole lot of effort in there. I'm looking forward to a break next month, but I need to the daily goals in general or I'd just play games all day and get nothing done ever. (Well. I'd get sick of games and I like writing so it wouldn't not happen at all, but in a funk so it wouldn't help.)

I did finish my next Famous Five. So one whole book, a short children's one, in two weeks!

1. Read five books. 1/5
2. Edit one story. Started a flash.
3. Draft one new story. Nope.
4. Game planning. Little bit.
5. Query S&M. Nope.
6. Finish Ginevra. Yes!
7. Plan/assess Haven. Not yet.
8. Write/edit each day, with one dedicated writing day per week. Yep. Kind of.
9. Bake a thing. Not yet.

mrsmig · May 19, 2019

Not a great week for getting things done, as our anniversary and my birthday were also this week - so everything took a back seat to celebrating. We actually didn't do anything particularly exciting: dinner out for the anniversary and seeing the new Avengers film on my birthday, but I allowed myself a certain amount of loafing as well and it was so delicious that I've had trouble getting back in the harness, particularly where writing is concerned. I've sworn to make up the lack of words by the end of the month. I'm a bit over the halfway mark to my 8k monthly goal, so I think that's still within reach.

I finished Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters. It was an interesting enough book, but the author is clearly entranced with the character of Jo Marsh and gets just a hair strident about it on occasion. I found it a bit repetitive as a result. I'm working my way through Great Short Stories By American Women, an older anthology which still has some great material in it (I discovered a new-to-me author, Mary Wilkins Freeman, and ordered a collection of her short works as a result).

Approved the new cover for Book 2 of my series, and my formatter is starting work on the interiors for the paperback and ebook. I'll probably do a cover reveal sometime in the coming week, and then start slapping up promo on Twitter and Instagram. I need to think about how I want to price the first book when the second book is re-released.

I have yet to do a single nature walk, so utter fail on that front. I could go out today, but it's going to be hot and humid, and I feel like the sweat would be better spent working in my garden.

Write 2k words a week on Book 5 of my series (approximately 285 words a day)

[x] Week 1 - 1423 words (four days @ 358 words)
[x] Week 2 - 2161 words (seven days @ 308 words)
[x] Week 3 - 1093 words (seven days @ 156 words)
[ ] Week 4
[ ] Week 5

[ ] Read 3 books 2 of 3
[ ] Continue reading one short story a week
[ ] Take five nature walks of at least 1.5 mile 0 of 5
Get Book Two of my series republished

[x] Review text, rewrite front and back matter and send to formatter
[x] Approve cover design
[ ] Decide on promo schedule
~~[ ] Republish on Amazon (this may slop over into June depending on how fast the turnaround is)~~

bdwilson · May 20, 2019

Happy birthday mrsmig

Missed a clean sweep by one lesson. Dang! Oh well.

● Decluttering progress:

[X] ~~Sort and clear out office shelf.~~
[X] ~~Sort through storage boxes from under the bed.~~

● Activity Minutes (30 mins a day):

[3/5] ~~Week One~~
[X] ~~Week Two~~
[X] ~~Week Three~~
[ ] Week Four
[ ] Week Five

● Cook dinner for myself at least three times per week (toast doesn't count):

[2/3] ~~Week One~~
[2/3] ~~Week Two~~
[X] ~~Week Three~~
[ ] Week Four
[ ] Week Five

● Watch a writing/creativity course lesson or do a writing exercise once per day:

[4/5] ~~Week One~~
[X] ~~Week Two~~
[4/5] Week Three
[ ] Week Four
[ ] Week Five

Tamlyn · May 20, 2019

Happy anniversary and birthday!

Woollybear · May 20, 2019

Good work, everyone that has been plugging along!!! I've been traveling and am now checking in from the road. Some goals will definitely spill over to June.

[ 9 down, almost there! ] Sub to about a dozen small presses. This is really my main goal for May and I think I will meet it. And one rejection has officially rolled in...

[ Done ] Send full ms off for another beta read (in prep for self pub)

[ started ] Finish second draft of short story I've been workshopping IRL I've finished the workshopping with CPs and am now starting to play with a next draft. So that's some progress, which is good. Maybe 10% of goal is met?

[ started ] Finish my world map--both by hand and digitally. I'm completely into the digital work now. Maybe 50% of the goal is met?

[ Done ] Appendices for the novel. I've written seven that I'm happy with and they're getting a beta read now from a naive reader. I'm still brainstorming for one appendix on this thread if you're interested.

mrsmig · May 21, 2019

I'm really interested to see how your map work turns out, Patty. And congratulations on your sub progress!

Tamlyn · May 21, 2019

Week three. Still not a huge amount of progress. Had a busy week - trip to Albany on the weekend with my sisters for family stuff (five hour drive each way and I get car sick so can't do anything on the drive) - but still. Excuses, excuses.

Nothing done on the editing front, not much on the game front, no querying. I did not have a writing day yesterday, so I was going to have one today, but one appointment turned into two, combined with car troubles and soreness and now more than half the day is gone and I just don't have a brain. I might get it done Saturday or I might just fail that goal. Who knows. I did buy cinnamon donuts. They make everything better.

I finished my story, and while the start needs a complete rewrite and possibly the end, there is potential in the middle. It's been shoved in the 'drafted' file for now though, along with all my other unedited stories. And I read through Haven - spent a good portion of my writing day doing it, but it counted - and wrote some chapter outlines for where I want it to go. Written only a new chapter or so as yet, but I think it's going smoothly. So I'm very happy about that at least.

I read an Asterix comic (Asterix in Switzerland). It absolutely counts as a book.

1. Read five books. 2/5
2. Edit one story. Started a flash.
3. Draft one new story. Yes.
4. Game planning. Little bit.
5. Query S&M. Nope.
6. Finish Ginevra. Yes!
7. Plan/assess Haven. Yes!
8. Write/edit each day, with one dedicated writing day per week. Yep. Kind of.
9. Bake a thing. Not yet.

mrsmig · May 22, 2019

Absolutely an Asterix comic counts as a book.

I hear cinnamon donuts help with brain recovery.

MayNoWriMo 2019 - Face to the Sun

Write. Write. Writey Write Write.

fish skeleton

Dedicated Lurker

Mi verkas

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

Mi verkas

Write. Write. Writey Write Write.

Dedicated Lurker

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

fish skeleton

Mi verkas

Write. Write. Writey Write Write.

Dedicated Lurker

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

fish skeleton

Write. Write. Writey Write Write.

Dedicated Lurker

fish skeleton

Write. Write. Writey Write Write.

fish skeleton

Write. Write. Writey Write Write.