Audacious April - 500 words/editing a day, all genres welcome

onesecondglance

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Audacious because getting anything done in the middle of *all this* is a daring, defiant act.

This thread is all about supporting each other, and I feel like that's never been needed more. So, once more unto the breach, dear friends.
 

onesecondglance

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I made a lot of progress last month. This first draft has taken since October 2018, which is a long gestation period, and I finally have the end of the novel in sight - just five chapters to go according to my outline. But the ending is a real slog. The aim is to break the back of it this month and get the majority down. (I'm not going to say "end it" cos magical thinking and all that, but that's the secret bonus objective.)

Today... was not a good start. Not even 200 words. I did write down a whole bunch of editing stuff, and thoughts about the finale chapters coming up, which is nice, but I just need to get this thing moving again. I wrote 13k last month, and 10k of that was in the first two weeks, 1.5k on one really good day, and the rest spread over the remaining two weeks. I'm crawling when I want to be flying. Never mind. Best cure is to sit down and try again tomorrow. It will be a better day.


Hope you're all finding space and time for writing, or not if that's better for you. :Hug2:
 

Shakesbear

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I've done some writing but most of my time at the moment is taken up with an embroidery project. It has been a fascinating journey for me, stretching my skills and knowledge. My self confidence was given a huge boost when a professional looked at my work and said I paint with my needle! The work is part of a huge team effort where we all have our own project but the designs are from the same book. The work is scheduled to go on display at a museum of international renown. I'll keep you informed.

As I said, I've done some writing, but mostly for the family challenge. I am working on the latest piece but am finding it challenging working to specific story lines. This is the third story and though I have started it I have no idea where it is going!

I hope you are all ok. :)
 

onesecondglance

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Shakes!! So nice to hear from you again. That's wonderful about your embroidery!


I had a better day of writing today - 1300 words. Good old BIC time saves the day. Let's see if I can get something similar tomorrow and end the week on a high.
 

Shakesbear

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HI OSG! It feels very different here.
My fingers hurt from sewing. I'll be back soon.
 

lizmonster

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:hi: osg! And good to see you, Shakes! Glad your tech problems have cleared up, Cindy - your numbers are always an inspiration.

I got up to 61K on the WIP last month, only to start stalling in the same spot. I've tried writing this book 4? 5? times now, and it's always the same problem.

But the reality is all my other work, including the book sitting in my agent's inbox, was drafted at a very different time in my life. My stressors and creative strengths and weaknesses are completely different.

So I'm going to try something new: I'm going to try plotting. Sort of. I'm going to try the much-vaunted Snowflake Method. I'm full of ideas on this book, and I have a rough beginning, middle, and end, but there's so much that needs clarifying and my usual write-it-out-until-it-makes-sense has been failing me.

I did Step 1 (write a one-sentence summary) over the last few days, but I may change it, because I may change the inciting incident. Today I'm devoting to some brainstorming - because it's a series book, I've got a baseline setting from which to start, and a trajectory. My goal is to be willing to toss out everything I've done so far - or keep it, if I decide it makes sense.

I'll still try to get Step 1 done today. That I included the inciting incident in my first attempt may suggest it was too detailed anyway.
 

Zan75

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Hello everyone!

Congrats on the art display Shakes!
OSG - rough start, but I'm sure you'll be putting up big numbers later
Cindy - hat's off to you.
Liz - sorry to hear about the struggle, I'm rooting for you.

Slow start for me this month. I managed to add just shy of a thousand words today, but since I didn't do much over the last couple of days, the daily average isn't so great.
 

onesecondglance

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Well, I added 800 new words yesterday, but I also cut about 1000, so that's a thing.

:hi: Zan, Cindy, liz! If we support each other, I'm sure we can all get what we want done this month.
 

Cindyt

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Day 4

Word Count 2362

Zan - Thanks! You did well yourself.

onsecondglance - :hi: Editing is the same as writing, so says Stephen King. We are here to support each other.
 

BlackKnight1974

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Hi everyone - hope you are all staying safe and sane. It sounds like there's lots of progress being made.

I've managed to get a bit more editing done - and my WIP might be a viable length before I retire! I'm just finishing my "red wedding" and still have a couple of minor points to connect up. The biggest problem being that one of the minor characters that has been cut linked up a major part of the plot, and I didn't want to use anyone else for it.

I'm also going to have to cut some more, which means another pass because I'm still going to be over target, but I guess that's one of those things!

Keeping going everyone!
 

Saoirse

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:waves to everyone and cheers progress:

Wow, I'm late. How'd April happen? How'd the 8th happen?

I did okay last month. Wrote about 8,000 words which is the highest of the year so far. I'm hoping to beat that. I am also hoping to get done or mostly done with The Vanishing. I've got less than 20k to go.

Two proofreading jobs have hit my inbox, so that's happening as well.

Liz - I've used the Snowflake Method. It's really good for getting to the nitty-gritty of things. I used it for Survivor, and I swear I never would have come up with the twists I did if not for the "three disasters plus an ending." I still use that part to this day. Good luck with it. :D
 
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onesecondglance

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1600 words today and another chapter down. Four more to go!

I am most definitely an outliner. I've been stuck on this chapter all week. Spent some time yesterday working on the detail of what's going to happen next, and I had a good day today. I get caught up on minor details when I don't know where I'm heading. As soon as I have a bigger picture to aim at, I can scoot over the speedbumps and get on with the story.

Different strokes, as they say! *cheers everyone's progress*
 

Saoirse

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Cindyt - I am also a pantser. I did fiddle with outlining in the past, but I've found it's the same as you. Totally kills my motivation to write the story. Nowadays I figure out the big things to write toward and that's it. :)

1,277 words today on The Vanishing and I broke 53k. It's going to probably be around 70k-80k, a bit longer than book 2, but that's fine.
 

Cindyt

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Day 11

Word Count 3128

Saoirse, I write toward the big things during the first draft too, then weave in the subplots on the second+ drafts. I also don't use character sheets, because I know my characters better than I know some of my family members. The most I do is use a scene chart to keep up with dates, times, crime patterns, and clues, and such.
 

BlackKnight1974

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Glad to hear that progress is being made.

I'm still editing (in between working, decorating and setting up my new home office), I'm hopeful that I can get to the start of the final act in the next week or so.

I'm a pantser, other than a few scribbled character notes at outline and scene headings insert ahead as I go, all of the story remains in my head. This has meant that my first draft is way, way too long and so it's taking an age to trim it down.

I'd love to start my next idea, but I know if I do that, then I'll never finish this one. Kudos to those of you who can run multiple projects simultaneously!