Fantastic February - 500 words/day, and/or edits, all genres welcome

lizmonster

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I must begin by saying

I HAVE MISSED YOU ALL SO MUCH YOU HAVE NO IDEA. Twitter is no way to live.

So: What has everyone been up to? Did you use the downtime for work, or did you (like me) huddle in a lonely corner until the forums came back?

What's been working for you? What particular challenges have you faced? What can we do to help you out this month?

Spill the tea!
 

lizmonster

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Jokes notwithstanding, I actually did get a fair amount accomplished. I finished the Endless Revision and sent it off to acquire notes that I will apply to Endless Revision, Take 2. In the meantime, I'm working on a draft that I'm (very) tentatively planning to self-publish this October. I have a book design guy (been working with him for a couple of years on some graphics stuff; he's legit), and a potential cover artist. All I have to do is finish the book. No pressure!

I also have a Secret Squirrel project I'm hoping to finish in early March.

Goals for me:

- 2K/day on New Book
- Endless Revision v2.0 (assuming notes come back)
- The secret thing (which at this point is mostly someone else's work, but it's going to take some of my time)
- Catch up with everyone on AW
 

mrsmig

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I'll join in. 500 words a day is generally my output (when I write at all), so I've been eyeing this ongoing progress thread for a while. I write fantasy but I'll try not to be a bore about it.

I'm working on the sixth (and hopefully final) book in my series. During AW's outrage in January I was bereft and couldn't seem to focus, but I've done better in February - probably a few thousand words. I'll have to start tracking properly now. My goals for what remain of the month are:

500/day on WIP

And that's about it.

Current wordcount: 80,363
 
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lizmonster

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Welcome, mrsmig!

Yeah, it was something to realize how much I depended on this place. When I'd see familiar names pop up on Those Other Social Media Sites, it was always nice, and it always made me miss AW.

I'm off to finish a chapter today. Drafts are a weird thing after doing revisions of something that's basically done - I'm recognizing plot holes and scenes out of order, and I need to keep pushing forward so I can get the whole thing down before I fix those problems. Many years ago I got into the "rewrite the beginning and never finish the book" loop, and the only way I've ever broken that is to just ignore issues and keep going. But I haven't drafted anything since the Before Time, so it'll be interesting to see if I can still do it.
 

onesecondglance

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OH MY GOD I'M SO GLAD WE'RE BACK


Yay for progress, Liz! That's loads, well done you.
Welcome, mrsmig! Liz and I both write SF (mine is sorta crime/thriller-adjacent SF, but still not straight MTS) so no need to worry about talking fantasy.


I am still hacking away at the first draft of the WIP. I'm over the 100k mark (woo!) but I think I still have around 35k to go before it's done. I have a sort of deadline in May but I'd obviously like it ready for betas before then, so I'm pushing for 5k/week to see me done around the end of March. It's going to be tough, but hopefully with AW being back I can keep you all updated on progress.

Go team! :e2cheer:
 

lizmonster

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am still hacking away at the first draft of the WIP. I'm over the 100k mark (woo!) but I think I still have around 35k to go before it's done. I have a sort of deadline in May but I'd obviously like it ready for betas before then, so I'm pushing for 5k/week to see me done around the end of March. It's going to be tough, but hopefully with AW being back I can keep you all updated on progress.

This is awesome! You are almost done! We will cheer you on. :)

I've been keeping up with my 2K/day. About 18K into what I suspect will be 150-180K when it's done. And then the hatchet comes out. :D
 

BlackKnight1974

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It's good the site is back online. I don't really talk to anyone about writing, so I admit that I have missed it.

Good to hear that progress has been made in the forum's absence!

I'm still persevering with my WIP. After some honest thinking, I finally conceded that it would have to be cut down to something approaching the "standard" length. I've trimmed several characters entirely and a load of back stories. I am currently piecing it all together and joining up the gaps. My plan is to have something ready by the end of March - but we'll see what the rest of my life has to say about that!
 

onesecondglance

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Got a hair over 1k done today. Tough chapter to write, this one, but then they all kinda are at this stage in the plot.

Welcome back, BlackKnight! Looks like we're both shooting for March. :guns:
Good progress, Liz, keep it up!
 

mrsmig

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Wrote nothing yesterday as I got a new phone, and it took forever to transfer stuff over from my old phone and get everything up and running. Today I squeezed in about 350 words, which is below goal but at least it's something. I've got some appointments tomorrow, but in between I've got the house to myself and a couple hours' worth of quiet time. Fingers crossed.

Current wordcount: 80,732
 

mrsmig

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Turned out to be busier today than I anticipated (no quiet time), but I got a few words written in this evening. Still not meeting my 500 words/day goal, but they're still words. Onward!

Current wordcount: 81,028
 

onesecondglance

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Finally done with that chapter. Next one will be pretty hard to write as well - this is the lowest point of the story, and I'm finding it as emotionally taxing to write as I hope it will be to read - so I'm giving myself a little break. I'll be under my wordcount target for this week, but I'm still happy to get to this point.


Glad to hear you're making progress, mrsmig. Doesn't matter how fast they come, all the words count in the end. :)
 
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mrsmig

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Thanks, onesecondglance. Had a little bit better day today and made my 500 word goal, with a bit to spare. The first part of this chapter is setup for some stuff to come, and I hadn't quite sorted the finer details before I started writing it. So it was slow going. With that groundwork laid, I can move back into the main plotline.

Current wordcount: 81,546
 

lizmonster

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Well done, everybody!

I've been pushing forward. It's all a mess, but they all start like this. My goal is to get through this draft, no matter how cluttered it turns out to be - I haven't finished a draft in nearly 3 years.

As of today, I'm a little over 24K.
 

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Hello!

So, on this project I was going to crash through the whole thing like I did before, but when I hit 41,000 words I felt like the through-line was getting very murky. I stopped drafting around the end of January and started re-reading these 41,000 words to make sure the line was still there.

This took a while, but largely, the directionality was there, and I cleaned things up.

I worked through the outline again yesterday; a *brilliant* denouement came to me when I was jogging (I've no idea on the climax yet, but the after-climax is gold), and today I started drafting again.

800 words today. First new words in about a month.

My goal (and this is officially recorded in local groups, too) is to have the first draft finished by April 15th.
 
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mrsmig

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A little under goal today, but words is words. I've got a very full weekend and squeezing in writing time will be hard, but I'm going to try.

Current wordcount: 81,947
 

onesecondglance

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Welcome, Patty! And congrats all on their progress so far.

I closed out this week at a hair over 3k: under target but not a washout. Just need to keep going!

Here's to a strong final week for everyone.
 

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Thanks, onesecondglance! And nice to see you, Mrs.Mig!

After a nice 'self-publishing-workshop' at our local writer's club, where I and a few others shared our experiences to date, I committed to writing 1500 words per day for the next 14 days. I'm at about 1100 today.

Perhaps being in this forum will help me build thrills, mystery, and suspense in my science fiction. :) We can hope.
 

lizmonster

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Hi Patty! Excellent work, everyone!

I wrote n o t h i n g today, but since it's my first 0 day in 12 days, I've decided not to feel guilty.
 

mrsmig

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Nice going, everyone!

As anticipated, I got nothing done yesterday, but I squeezed in some words today before I have to go to rehearsal.

Current wordcount: 82,125
 

Saoirse

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Welcome new peoples! Happy to see everyone!

I missed AW terribly! Glad to be back!

I've been meaning to visit since the all-clear announcement, but I've been slammed with work.

I think I wrote something like 5k last month? I've got a particularly huge workload right now, but I'm coming to the end, I can see it...just need to get through this week! Several deadlines colliding.

And then it's back to trying to write every day or as close to that as I can get. Been getting up an hour early so I have 1-2 hours more in the morning, which theoretically was supposed to give me time to write but...you know how it goes. Projects fill the extra space or something like that.

So glad everyone's doing well and writing and posting.

Go team!
 

lizmonster

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Hi Saoirse! Nice to see you back!

I've been hitting my word count this week, but frankly the whole thing is feeling terrible and I'm kind of discouraged. It's only a first draft, but I feel like I've completely forgotten how to write a story.
 

onesecondglance

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Hello again, Saoirse!
liz, I know that feeling. Keep pushing and you'll get through it.


I had a tough week. Only 2k, so well under target. On the plus side, I did get through a particularly difficult chapter plotwise, so that's good. I'm going away for a couple of weeks tomorrow and will be offline (so won't be able to check in until halfway through March), but I'm taking the laptop, so hopefully the lack of internet-based distractions will help me catch up!
 

mrsmig

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Sorry to be absentee all week. I started work on my next theatrical production, and have had trouble settling into a routine. I wrote nothing until today, when I got about 600 words written of a scene that may not be necessary, but I needed to write it in order to sort out some plot points.

Current word count: 82,724
 

lizmonster

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Congratulations to all!

And oops, I forgot February ended yesterday. I'm going to open a March thread. March. I can't believe it.