October 2019 Challenge - Write Every Day!

Magnus

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This is a thread open to anyone who wants to start, maintain, or reinforce a writing habit. (It can also be about revision, editing, research -- all writing habits welcome!)

The basic idea is that repeating something daily, even if only for a short while, will build a habit that becomes stronger over time.

It's entirely up to you how much and in what way you participate. Post your goals if you like, or just check in when you can!

Here are some tips:


  • Set achievable goals – I can't stress enough how important this is. To build a habit, doing something is more important than quantity or quality.
  • Keep up the habit as many days in the week as possible – even if it's just a few words written or a bit of editing. It reinforces the habit and makes it easier to get keep it up in the long run.
  • Mix it up – Try different types of goals, different times of the day, different tricks to reward or motivate yourself. A good habit is what works for you, not someone else.
  • Be patient – It takes a long time to build a strong habit and you'll always be facing new challenges. Get used to constantly adapting and you'll be better prepared for whatever problem comes up next.
  • Don't give up because you didn't hit your goal – Failure is a natural part of getting improving your skills because it lets you figure out what went wrong so you can do better in the future. When you fail to hit your target, your job is figuring out why it happened. That way, you can find ways to get around your roadblocks (and don't be scared of lowering the bar). If you share your stumbles in the thread, others might be able to help out with tips, tricks, and support! And it's okay to just take a break for a day or two, or have scheduled days off. Find what works for you.

Good luck, and see you on October 1st!
 

Cindyt

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:hooray:Thanks, Magnus!

My goals are to write something every day, work on the sidelines of the story, and read, read, read.
 
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PiaSophia

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Yay!

For October, I have a lot of fun things planned in my personal life. Therefore, I'm not going to set the goal for myself to write every day, because I know already I won't be able to write every day. At least not significantly. What I do want to set for myself is to work on my new short story, which came to my mind the last few days. My goal is to finish that one. And we'll see how it goes :)
 

Layla Nahar

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Whew. October already?

I'm in as usual, and as usual, write everyday and deal with Life. Three is the magic # --

1) Add words to my WIP
2) One action of responsibility and/or self-care
3) On action to earn (more) money, and to work on my Big Project (a big unhoarding - but it will take me ages, and it has other projects wrapped up in it...)

Here's to a wordful October, y'all!
 

sandree

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I’m sticking a toe in. How’s that for commitment? My goal is to finish my first edit of my rough draft concentrating on structure and content. If that’s done, going on to a second/line edit. Then finding some beta readers. Then editing again and so on and so on...
 

starrystorm

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September was a terrible month. I only finished editing half a chapter. Bleh.

Hopefully October I can do some real catch-up.
 

MCPiper

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Hi

A great idea--I especially love--plan achievable goals.
I wasn't going to post before I had an Avatar; but alas--which is easy for many of you--isn't for me, I'm afraid.
So rather than delay a post I decided to post Avatar-less for the moment.
My writing commitment is to get involved in some of the forums and post everyday.
I long to be involved in a writing community; and this offers me a perfect format
And I' m older and being involved in this kind of format is new to me.

Thanks,

M.C.Piper
 

nighttimer

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I started writing my story in July. Got three chapters done.

August: Two chapters done. (It was a lousy month).

September: Three chapters done (despite to back-to-back visits to the E.R.)

October: new month and a new chapter.

Writing every day is not something I enjoy. Sometimes I need a day off from my characters and story. Or I go back over it, find errors and other mistakes and have to clean it up.

Or maybe I simply enter my brain for a while and come up scenarios that entertain and interest me and hopefully will resonate with the reader as well.

I could write everyday, but I don't. Writing is a pleasure, but writing because I think I must every day would swiftly go from a labor of love, to simply labor and I would not enjoy that at all.
 

ubriel

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Ubriel's October 2019

Hello!:e2BIC:

Set achievable goalsWrite another ~50,000 words this month specifically on my WIP. That is ~1600 words a day. 7 days a week. I will be ready for revisions and betas then.
Do beta reading for other people.Exposing myself to the works of others and looking for the grammatical and pacing problems that I will need to purge from my own work will make me a more effective revisionist of my own work. Set aside time to do that each day.
Get one of those progress bar things.Anyone got the code handy so I can set one of those progress bars in my signature area?
Make my blog and participation in social sites a secondary priority.Having other POVs and outlets is important to keep myself from being sucked into the fantasy of my story. I need to spend at least one hour each day participating and mingling with other writers and blogging about my experience and progress. Probably the last hour of my day would be better than the first...
Schedule.
Monday through Friday 7AM to 4PMday job-beta on breaks
Monday through Friday 5PM to 7PMwords on page
Monday through Friday 7PM to 8PMbeta reading
Monday through Friday 8PM to 9PMsocialize and blog
Saturday and Sunday 7AM to 12PMwords on page
Don't give up.I need to be patient but firm with myself. I really have to shift away from thinking of writing as dessert and start thinking of it as the meat. If I allowed myself to write guilt free as much as I want, I would be super prolific. I need to think of revisions and beta as just as important to the formation of my work as getting words on the page. I have wanted this for forty years, it is time I let myself pursue it.
 

Dan Rhys

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Great if you the time for it. Having a 15-month-old makes it pretty much impossible for me for the time being. However, one story writing method that seems to be paying off is imagining the neatest way you could possibly start off a story--it doesn't matter what it is--then build from there. It's amazing sometimes how quickly and easily the story will practically write itself.
 

WGough

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Thanks for starting this thread, Magnus!

Hello, friends! Work and health issues for the past month or so, but I'm back for the time being.

Goals for October:
1) Finish final revision of Saga Book I. Yep, still working on that one.
2) Post here most days
3) Query betas for Book I

Day 1
Revised the last scene of Chapter 17.

Looking forward to reading about all your progress. Have a great month, y'all!
 
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PiaSophia

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Day 1
Thought about my story, have written some words down to remember for myself (167 of 'em). Am going to think some more about the plot tomorrow. Maybe start writing to see how it flows.

Have a great month, everyone!
 

sandree

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Day 1 - edited a bunch. I think my hot mess of a rough draft is starting to make sense. :snoopy:

We also discovered that there is mold in our basement which we need to have remediated. I’m oversensitive to molds and other toxins, so no wonder my inflammation has been getting worse. It’s just nice to understand what’s been going on with me.

Glad to be back. The end of September was a slog.
 

Keithy

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Bit of a drive by

I'm back and recovered from visiting my mother in England. Let's just say that there wasn't much unexpected there.

Today's total was 1142 words. That sounds more impressive than it should because quite a bit of it was lifted and adapted from the previous draft. Shana & co have met the fat boring merchant. He has some interesting wares, including a bit of metal alloy that only Shana's people could make. Um, it fell through a wormhole with her along with some other interesting "artifacts".

Non-writing:

weight loss not going terribly well.
It's my birthday at the weekend so I'm deciding what to do to celebrate.


swim swim swim
 

Magnificent Bastard

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I went quiet in September (it wasn't a great month for me), but here I am again. A bit taking a break from most social media places and The Great Online as a whole, but I'll make an effort to at least do weekly check-ins.

My goal for October is to turn "write every day" into a more specific "add good words to WIP every day", because usually I count all the other work that goes into writing as well. This time I'm really trying to finish one of these WIPs by the end of the year, so I'm focusing on tangible progress and wordcount more than I normally would. Plus, I'm planning to do NaNo (as a rebel, but still!), so getting in the habit soon seems like a good idea.

Non-writing-wise, I want to keep doing more art stuff on weekends, and of course keep up with Inktober.
 

Cindyt

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Hiya Everybody! Welcome Newbies! Have a great October!

Day 1

Draft - 1708

Blog - Continued writing first draft of article

Revisions - 3 scenes on the crime novel.

Research - 1984 technology--shore to sea direct cell phone calls, and laptops and removal of desktop hard drives, I could not find a direct answer about the cell phone calls, but you could make transatlantic direct calls, so I’m going to bullshit it.

Gough - Glad to see you back. Good start on the first day.

Sandree - Good editing. Mold--ew. Good luck getting rid of it.

Keithy - WTG on 1142 draft!

Pia - Decent start!

Billy’s popsicle-purple Ferrari Testarosa was confiscated in a drug raid by DEADco and supplied to his undercover persona. Things were such when he quit that they let him keep it (and The ScareCrow). I discovered today that it has a handy secret compartment in the trunk where Billy can hide a laptop he was forced to pinch from a crime scene.

I somehow skipped a chapter on my scene chart and had to whip the info up and insert it in the proper place.
 
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April Swanson

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Welcome new peeps!

WGough: You’re back! Missed ye :) Ooo so exciting you’re nearing the end of the process for that one. Do you plan to revise them all before publishing/seeking publication?

Pia: Thoughts are good!

sandree: Glad the draft is making sense. Hope that mould gets sorted soon. I’m in a constant battle to keep it off our shower curtain.

Keithy: Glad to hear you’re recovered!

Cindyt: Oooo-eee! Do enjoy your time in the 1k club. It’s been given a new lick of paint since September.

I drafted 4187 for the new Chapter 1 (of Draft 5!) and got thoughts down for Chaps 2-4. I need to get each chap to at least 4k to drag my word count up. So far, so good!

Day 1: Decent bit; 5 miles; mmmm-meringue
 

Pterofan

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Day 1 - A bit over half a page longhand, maybe 300 words.

Our Heroes are almost at the library, where the showdown with the vampires will take place. That means I'm almost done, yay!

Keithy - wishing you a happy pre-birthday :Cake: !
 

vicky271

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I'm practicing for Nano, so my goal is to write 1,600 words a day, and if I can't, strategize ways to make this goal possible! October 1 I managed 1614. I'm working on Day two right now!
 

WGough

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Day 2
Revised Chapter 18. Reading Helen Phillips' The Need. So glad to be back on this thread. It really does motivate me to keep at it.

PiaSophia: Nice thinking. Love a good pre-write.

sandree: Glad of the progress! Sorry about the mold.

Keithy: Hooray for fat boring merchants!

Magnificent Bastard: Glad you're back. Taking a break from the Great Online sounds therapeutic. Especially right now.

Cindyt: Quadruple threat! Way to catch that missing scene!

April: Amazing word count! And, I missed you, too! Yes, I'd like to get all four books revised and beta read before either querying an agent or having them edited. I'm not a patient series reader. Did you ever get around to Normal People?

Pterofan: Nice work! Showdown at the library. I like it!

vicky271: Congrats on meeting that goal!
 
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vicky271

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WGough: Amazing job! :D You must've worked so hard to get there! Did you find revisions hard?

Day #2 Update: 3,259/50,000. Wrote a little over my goal, once again. I got the cover made and the title decided as well! I'm really just pushing myself on this!
 

ubriel

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Days 1 and 2

I got 2,500 words in yesterday and 1,000 more today. :hooray:
I began a Beta Read for someone today and that is going smoothly.:hooray:
I still don't have the code for one of those progress bar thingies...:Shrug:
My blog posts are semi-regular and not suffering... so far so good.:hooray:
My day job is sucking the life from my soul.:rant:
My Chrome book died so I can't easily do writing or edit or anything on breaks till I get that worked out.:cry:
Haven't given up yet but beginning to suffer a round of imposter syndrome.:poke:
 

Layla Nahar

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so sorry to start the month off with a driveby, friends :( Trouble with my computer, and my internet. Days 1 & 2, did all the things.