December 2019 Challenge - Write Every Day!

Shantini: Words are still words! I roughly managed that as well;.

Aurora Borealis: Not bad! Still clockin’ in.

CindyT: Solid progress! Nice work!

Taylor: That sounds like progress to me! Gettin’ things in order!

Blake: Editing is hard! Steady the course!

April: Oooooo! Exciting times indeed! Keep at it! It’s nearly there.

Pterofan: Not bad! I’m writing longhand today a bit as well!

Layla: Sounds like a day of “all of the things!”

Keithy: You’re swimming! Nearly at the 1K mark! Keep it up!

Blake (#2): Sounds like a solid plan!

Shantini (#2): That sounds like a decent word count.

April (#2): You’re making it happen! The will, drive, and power is there!

Pterofan (#2): I hear you on that! My engine stalled so bad for the beginning of this month. I’m hoping to revamp starting today. Holy moses!

I'm still working on my writing, just wanted to put it in my head to reply to everyone and get used to it. SLOW and HORRIBLE start to the month, looking to keep it organized and focused from this time forward. Luckily, one of my final essays came back: 100% It was worth 25%!. HAH!

Pterofan - you can do it! cheer on! cheer on! woo woo (waves pom-poms)
Daniel - well done with the essay. Long time since I wrote one!

OK, busy day, lots of writing-related things done.

First of all, on Demon Hunter I wrote 216 words. It's the bit where Shana is falling through an interstitial void between two universes before arriving on Hathia. Now, this means that in theory this major edit is done, although I am tempted to have a skim through tomorrow before confirming it. So, it took about 14 weeks to tear the last version to bits and reassemble it. I also finished the first attempt at drawing one of the cities.

Sun Queen - more tinkering with the plot lines and outline.

Logic Bomb - I think I have hit upon an original cheerleading plot. Now, is that the main plot or is it the twisted love story?

research - sizes of medieval castles.

keep at it, keep swimming

Congrats on the 934 Keithy
Cindy - beep beep!
Congrats on that work, blake
Daniel! You’re a champ! Way to 150!
Hello Taylor & Vicky
April, enjoy that brain-soak time (speaking of which - my fav spa is - a soak in the tub. with a book, maybe a cup of tea etc. Then the Exfolitaion, followed by a nice shower & lots of lotion - or else I become a very flaky lady, and I don’t mean like pastry or anything)
Ptero - you wrote. Congrats on that 347
Daniel (#2 ) a SLOW and HORRIBLE start is better than no start at all! Way to stick to it
Keithy, congrats on the 251 - and the drawing!






Day 10


WIP. — 1 page
R/SC - at leftovers for dinner then did a wee bit of chore & after that it was binge reading, then old movies till bedtime.
BP/$$ — earning service

571 today. Looks like the rest of you are making good progress

Keithy: The tides are high, yet you're still swimmin'! Props!

Layla: Good work, steady and solid.

Shanthini: Nice job!

Me: About 650 words today. It was good progress- much better than yesterday. I left my keyboard for my tablet (preferred writing device) at my friend's and am trying to get it back. Today, I used pencil and paper.

Another driveby. I went ahead and finished my author site because it was bugging my OCD. Will likely need a tweek next month. I have been pondering that sticky wet work scene and got a brainstorm. The guy Billy hits turns out to be someone close to him who has been leading a double life. Also, I decided to change Billy's relationship with DEADco. And switch the parts of Lola and Samantha, because I want Samantha for another book.

Pterofan: You’re keeping the wheels turning; I’m sure the engine will fire up again soon.

Daniel: 100% is awesome! Well done you, clever clogs

Keithy: Woohoo for finishing your draft!

Layla: Oo that sounds lovely. I like listening to a podcast in the bath (and tons of bubble bath). Hurrah for a whole page! Are you still on your Mercedes Lackey binge?

shanthini: You’re making good progress too!

Did some character work, fiddled with the ending, and had a wee think about book 2. Oh, and I went to see Frozen 2, which was awesome

Day 11: Wee bit; 5 miles; silent disco

Day 10-11

Haven’t gotten much done. Decided to go a head and start plotting the new chapter.

Day 10 - 253 words

I intended to type this morning, but woke up with a headache that refuses to go away. Hence, drive by. Changes in air pressure wreak havoc on my sinuses.

Daniel, you are a *trooper*! Way to keep at it, 650 on a day when you don’t have your preferred gear
w00t Cindy, congrats on getting through that stuck to the next part!
April, I absolutely am indeed. oh hey, I didn’t know you played violin

April Swanson said:

... fiddled with the ending

Click to expand...

nice work, blake
ugh - Ptero, that sounds awful. I hope you feel better soon




WIP - 1 page
R/SC - ugh. Did a Dreaded Task which I have to do more often than I like. I really procrastinatted on it this time. Ran some errands.
BP/$$ - did work on some repair projects

Shanthini - 571 is a considerable total.
April - ah, now. Characters are usually where I start, with a bit of the situation. Get them right and things get easier, hope that's the same for you.
Pterofan - get well soon, you can pile up the 1K totals another day.
Layla - good wishes for the dreaded task. I get to do them every day.

OK I had a bit of a fiddle around with Demon Hunter and decided that the current draft/revision is officially done. I don't know whether to call it draft 2 or draft 1.5. There's some minor plot issues to overcome but I need to read it through first. So that's on the back burner until after Christmas. I did some more work on the city map too.

Sun Queen - I dusted off the "Willen" plot line that I discarded and am adapting it for the new POV character "Scientist".

Logic Bomb - a tiny amount of work that can only be seen with an electron microscope.

research

mean bullying tricks to play at school

non-work

hunter-gathering aka shopping for food.

just keep on swimming, there's no other way to get there.

CindyT: Making it jive still! Nice!

April: Cool! How was Frozen 2?

Blake: You’ll get there! Steady!

Pterofan: Damn! Hope it fades soon. I get migraines infrequently now, but they suck when they come up!

Layla: Thanks! Dreaded task? Uh oh! I hear you on procrastinating- today was a bit of that.

Keithy: Swimming! You did some good work. You’re right, there’s no other way to get there!

Me: 1000 words, roughly, by pen and pencil. Also, finally got my keyboard back but I had to wash it because it smelt horrible. Still works now! I find pen works much better with my wrist and my goal, I think, for next month is to write a little per day on paper, typewriter, and computer. That’ll be crazy, but I’ll try it!

Keep going everyone!

P.S. I’m keeping clean and am smoke free for now. Gotta keep steady!

737 today. Not bad for a busy day, but I think I need to pick up the pace if I want to meet my weekly goal.

Daniel - I often write with pen and paper when I want to slow down and think about what I'm writing. And I type when the thoughts are flowing faster than I can write I do not use a typewriter, though. Good luck with that. I think it will be interesting to see how your writing differs depending on the instrument.

Keithy - I am jealous of your ability to work on multiple projects at once. I can't focus when I do that.

Layla - nice progress

April - How did you like Frozen 2? I think I prefer the first one.

Blake - Plotting a new chapter counts, I think.

Day 11

Word Count - 181

Revisions - 1 scene

black.e.weis - Good luck!

Donovan -

April - Sounds like you’re swimming

Layla - Congrats on one page! When I’m not fiddling, I’m faddling.

Ptero - Feel better soon!

Shanthini - Decent word count. .

Keithy - Good luck on the plot issues!

Daniel - You’re making it walk and talk.

Decided not to switch Lola and Samantha. I wrote a new scene and did a deep switcheroo on another. I can’t decide exactly how to break things up between Carolina and Billy, and waffling about killing her butt off so that Billy will be fancy free in his upcoming books. Hmmmm.

Day 11 - 244 words

Thanks for the well-wishes, everyone! I'm okay now. Turns out the solution was to take Tylenol instead of Generic OTC Sinus Pills (which did open up my nose but did nothing about the headache). I took a Tylenol this morning; so far, so good. I'll try eating veggies for dinner tonight, just to keep everything on track.

Went to the dentist for a cleaning this morning, have to go back in January for a filling. Something tells me I'll be writing later today. (See previous quote from Mickey Spillane.)

blake: Happy plotting.

Pterofan: Glad you’re feeling better!

Layla: Woo 1 page! You know, I actually used to fiddle in me youth. It’s best for the world that I don’t anymore.

Keithy: I try to start with characters but they inevitably shift and change during the draft

Daniel: I really enjoyed Frozen 2! Great job getting 1k.

shanthini: Overall I think the tunes are better in the first, but I might prefer the second as a story (I’ve only seen the first one a couple of times though, and a few years ago now). Woohoo for 737!

Cindyt: Yay for a new scene; good luck figuring out your characters.

I started another read through then felt really sick and had to stop. Pretty sure the two events are related.

Day 12: Wee bit; 4 miles; democratic duty

Daniel - in the 1K club! I've been using a computer so long that I can type quite fast.
Shanthini - I find that doing different things on different projects helps. (see below)
Cindyt - killing off is a bit drastic? Poor Carolina.
Pterofan - ooh waiting for a filling, that's uncomfortable.

OK I spent some time drawing the other city in Demon Hunter. This and the other one will be sent off to someone who can do digital maps rather than my crummy pencil-drawn ones.

For Sun Queen, I did some thinking and jotting on the new version of the "Willen" plot and working out how much I can recycle from the old version. It's not that much.

For Logic Bomb, I've decided on how many POVs and the basic order of the overall structure, swapping between main and secondary plot as appropriate.

research - cheerleader routine judging system.

non-writing

watching Downton Abbey.

keep on swimming and cheering woo woo woo

Nice work, Daniel (I’m a paper & pencil writer)
not bad at all for a busy day, shanthini! Congrats on that 737
Congrats on the 181 & the revisions Cindy
Congrats on the 244 Ptero
oh dear April I hope you feel better & congrats on the reading
You’ve got some good work going on, Keithy






Day 12 - so that cold I was saying goodbye to decided to turn right back around and start another party in my nose. And chest. And head. Early to bed tonight




WIP - 1/2 page
R/SC — a couple of dreaded follow ups.
BP/$$ — earning service

Day 12
Got about 5 pages done today. Also went back and did some research on Naval Transport names and have found new names for the ships that are mentioned in my book.

Day 12 - not much, I think it was 107.

Looks like I've got another assignment headed my way. Also looks like a rainy weekend ahead, so I can switch back and forth between my stuff and the paid stuff. Maybe treat myself to pizza again.

Keithy - no prob with the filling; it's just a small chip in the front of one of my incisors. Doesn't hurt, just feels funny under the tongue. The dentist will slap some spackle on it and it'll be fine. She says she won't even need to numb it, which makes me happy, given my terror of needles. I would definitely never make it as a drug addict.

Layla - try some orange juice, and/or honey in hot tea. And of course the bed rest. Find a good book to fall asleep with.

blake, congrats on 5 pages

Ptero, congrats on that 107. You wrote! (thanks for info (I didn’t even think of OJ when I went shopping today, but I do have tea. This is the same thing I had at Thanksgiving. It just really seems to like it here…)




Day 13


WIP - 3/4 page
R/SC - groceries & some food prep, paid bills; housemate phone interview (I need a new housemate/subletter for January - last person was a 3-month occupant -- that was the Dreaded Task, listing the room. I really look forward to the day when finding a housemate is a luxury rather than a necessity)
BP/$$ - continued repair project

Layla - oh dear take care, those colds can be unwanted encores. boo, hiss.
Pterofan - three figures is good. Can't always reach four.

OK the first thing I did was more work on the city maps for Demon Hunter. There's more to do on that.
Then I spent more time fussing over the "Willen" storyline for Sun Queen, answering some "what happens next"questions. I'm still not sure whether he will be a scientist or something else.
I've also spent some time laying out the outline for Logic Bomb. More to do there.

So, when January rolls round I can start writing a new first draft on one of these (or Fire Witch) and read through Demon Hunter, probably a 70-30 time split. I'm finding this method of working quite good because I can do something, have a break and start something else afterwards.

research

Meteorite origins
Gravity waves

Non-writing

clearing up after the dog sitting. Muddy paw prints everywhere!

Keep at it... those words won't write themselves.

Day 13-
Edited another 5 pages today. Decided to try and get more descriptive with the invasion scenes.

Keithy- It’s always great when you find a good Rhythm.

Well, I fell asleep at my keyboard yesterday after a long day, so 181, not counting the string of repeated letters at the end

Today, I fared a little better with 385 words. At least I've written something every day.

I do not have anything major planned for tomorrow, so hopefully I can write uninterrupted for a few hours and get more done.

This is a driveby

Day 13

Word Count - 25

Revisions - Historical interlude

I've been dealing with a bully on Facebook and a trickster on the forum where I administrate, which meant staff meetings all day long.