August 2020 Challenge - Write Every Day!

starrystorm

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DAY 5--184 words. Had like five minutes to write and took it.
 

WGough

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Day 6
Working on Chapter 5 revision. Laptop worked itself out, which is oddly worrying.

Keithy: Oooo, the "special gallery." Sounds ominous. I think I want to know what's in there. Yay for too many ideas. Jot it down! Jot it down!

Layla: Way to do the things!

ChaseJxyz: Same. I had four pages to revise. I think I got through a paragraph. Feel better!

April Swanson: I think your vibes fixed the laptop. So, thanks for that! With great power, etc., etc. Days off are necessary.

Taylor Harbin: Congrats on reaching the end!
 

Layla Nahar

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Chase, congratulation on those 61 words. Like April says, those low word count days are when we can feel really triumphant. We beat the blank page and everything else that was dogging us and we wrote *something*.
April, hope you got the batteries good & recharged from that rest.
Taylor, nice work, congrats on finising a story
Moon, that’s the spirit :)
Gough, nice keeping at it


Day 6


WIP - added words
R/SC - cookies, watermelon and c-drama
BP/$$ - job, 12.5 hours, one housemate email

- - - Updated - - -

Chase, congratulation on those 61 words. Like April says, those low word count days are when we can feel really triumphant. We beat the blank page and everything else that was dogging us and we wrote *something*.
April, hope you got the batteries good & recharged from that rest.
Taylor, nice work, congrats on finising a story
Moon, that’s the spirit :)
Gough, nice keeping at it


Day 6


WIP - added words
R/SC - cookies, watermelon and c-drama
BP/$$ - job, 12.5 hours, one housemate email
 

Keithy

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Chase - ah, don’t worry, that’s 61 better than nothing, and I’ve plenty of those.
April –enjoy your time off
Taylor – well done on that 6000 short! Nice to get something snappy done.
Starrystorm – great total for 5 minutes! That would 15K+ if I did that all day. Plus me exhausted.
Wgough – I’ve been thinking about the latest idea and doing a little research into late-stage pregnancy.
Layla – well done on your work!

My efforts today:

1531 words done on Dustworld.

Read though more of Demon Hunter. It’s the first few sections of the banquet.

Non-writing: Painting guy again, he will be doing this until Saturday. Then put the house back together, ugh.

Keep swimming! 
 
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Carrie

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Keithy: This is the problem with kittens—they want to take over. I had a lovely prologue with just the right amount of kitten in it and the kittens lobbied for (what else?) more kittens and I ended up squandering two days trying to please the kittens. Do not try to please the kittens, that is my advice.

WGough: Your series sounds like tremendous fun! And I’m with you on the self-healing computer thing. My keyboard died and I incorrectly diagnosed it as a computer problem. It was not, but just the idea gave me the willies and I invested the big bucks ($199!) on a new desktop. I feel better.

Starrystorm: I LOVE the idea of having five minutes and taking it. This is what so many people miss. “Oh! I’ll write when I’m retired" (or whatever) instead of taking those minutes where they can find them. It makes me think of someone saying, “Oh! I’ll run that marathon when I retire.” If you ain’t running now, you ain’t running then.

April Swanson: Nice site! And lovely cover art.

I got going on the first chapter today. I got 1275 words, which is about a third of a chapter, I’m thinking, for this book. I love this early part, where all my characters are jockeying for position. There was a bit of a tussle for who would get the opening scene, but Lace wrestled it away from Sadie (and that’s not easy to do). Lace has apparently been keeping a romantic interest under wraps—for two books! So that will be fun. Scott is in the top of a tree, but we don’t know it’s Scott yet. And Sadie. Well, she will cause more trouble, it’s just a question of when and with whom. A very fun day!
 

Kerry56

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Carrie, 1275 is a lot. Good work

Keithy, Dustworld sounds like it is coming along fine.

Layla, you always sound so busy. More on the WIP is good.

WGough, do you find revisions hard? I think it takes more dedication, and I'm starting revisions now.

As for me, I went through my rough draft and got rid of obvious errors. I strengthened a few scenes, especially one that was just hanging there before with no purpose. It now fits in the narrative better. Overall, added 400+ words.

After three, low flying strafing runs through the text, I decided to send a copy to my small collection of test readers. That should be interesting.
 

ChaseJxyz

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April: I hope your break was restful
Taylor: I'm glad you like the genre!
Starry: awesome job taking advantage of the time you have
Gough: What do you mean? Did it just sort of die while you were using it?
Layla: Thank you. Framing it like that is very helpful
Keithy: What Demon Hunter are you referring to? All I can think of is the manga/anime of the same name
Carrie: 1275, that's awesome
Kerry: exciting!

1,128 words today. Finished the (part? section? not sure which is the right-er term. Bigger than a scene but smaller than a chapter and there's whitespace between it and the next one) I'd been working on. I woke up early today because I had to collect samples from myself for a covid study and I had a doctor's appointment at 8 (my insurance is waving copays for telehealth for appointments of any reason? Which is a nice surprise). I was prescribed to start doing yoga so I ordered the things for that and will get that going once it arrives. That should help with my wellness, plus it's a new thing to do and I always find ways to draw from my experiences with my writing.
 

April Swanson

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Chase: Excellent 1k! Also, yoga is amazing both mentally and physically. My favourite style is yin.

Kerry: Nice job getting through the rough draft. The hard part is definitely over.

Carrie: Great work! Enjoy the 1k club :)

Keithy: Another +1ker. Very good job.

Layla: Mmm … cookies. What kind?

WGough: It seems my superpower can only be applied to other people, as my own computer was acting up yesterday. Good luck with Chap 5.

starry: Excellent approach! Well done you.

I dipped my toe into Shiny WIP yesterday, mostly going through the first couple of chapters. I added around 374.
 

The Second Moon

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Day 5 -0 words

Day 6 - 0 words, but got a awesome idea to write a prequel series about one of my favorite side characters when she was a child.
 

starrystorm

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DAY 6...1,517 words written. Working on a new scene. I love how much its boosting my word count.

April--Shiny!

Second Moon--Another shiny idea. Looks like everyone's got ideas today.
 

Cindyt

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1. Release the 1732 historical inspirational Dress Her in Chameleon by or before September 2020
2. Push ahead with the 1985 historical crime A Deadly Spill of Scarlet
3 Write the second part of Growing Up Bufords new memoir series The Hunger.
 

WGough

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Day 7: Finished Chapter 5 revision. 1616 words.

Layla: Way to cookies and watermelon. Yah!

Keithy: Nice word count.

Carrie: Kitten tyranny! New desktop = $199. Feeling secure about your computer = priceless. (Old joke). Great word count!

Kerry56: Revisions make me crazy. I've changed my process from 1) revise for plot then revise for character then revise for world building then revise for language to 2) read through the entire book, summarize each chapter, noting issues, revise in Scrivener. I envy/hate/disbelieve those writers who manage to not end up curled up in a ball at some point during the revision process. Nice work, btw.

ChaseJxyz: Nothing so serious, thankfully. Just the typical running slowly for no apparent reason which is, for me, cause enough for blind panic. 1,128 is stupendous. Congrats on finishing the section. And starting yoga. You might want to check out Yoga with Adriene on YouTube.

April Swanson: Yummm, new WIP. Jealous!

The Second Moon: Days off are good for new ideas. Congrats!

starrystorm: Wow, great word counts all around!

Cindyt: Good to see you!

Have a great weekend, folks!
 

Carrie

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Kerry56: I find revising as I go easy but, once I have a sort of finished “thing,” doing any revision beyond copyediting is virtually impossible until I have either considerable distance or some solid input. I was just faced with that and I’ve decided that, as long as the copy is clean and the narrative has no obvious redundancies or holes, I will just barrel on to the next book and revisit it later!

Chase: Good on the completion of the… chunk (I usually just call them scenes!) and good luck with the yoga! I haven’t done yoga for a while and I kind of miss it.

April: Oooh! Congrats on the toe dipping into the new WIP. Have fun!

StarryStorm: Congrats!

WGough: Great job on the revision! I actually am enjoying my little sandwich-sized mini computer. It is faster and has a larger hard drive than any computer to date. Crazy!

Today I got in 1460 shiny new words and have just over two thirds of the first chapter done. Naturally, we needed to know what Millicent is up to. The ocean has its sharks. The desert has its rattlesnakes. Lake Maribelle has Millicent. The book seems headed off in a slightly different direction from the first two, so I am excited to see where it’s going.

Happy weekend!
 

Layla Nahar

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Keithy, good to see you and nice work!
Carrie, congrats on the 1275 words today :)
Kerry, I’m looking forward to that not being the case… Congrats on the work and the 400
Chase, congrats on your 1128. (I have found that what we tell ourselves can really make a big difference)
April - buscuits, akshulla. Almond bikkies, very thin, very crispy (I have a tin that is doing a pretty good job keeping the humiditiy out) Oooh the Shiny! Congrats on the 374
Sounds like a neat idea, Moon :)
starry, excellent work:D
Cindy! Good to see you!
Gough, congrats on the Ch 5 revision
Carrie, way to go with that 1460






Day 7


fwiw - in some cultures* this is the first day of Fall. It was pretty cool here this morning. I wore sweats and a fleece to sit out in the Summer Chair
*Historically, I think it was for us, too. Hence the Solstice is called ‘Midsummer’


WIP - added words
R/SC - chores and some crafting! :)
BP/$$ - one housemate email, job, 8 hours
 

Keithy

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Carrie – 1275 and 1460 words is a good start, and as they say, if you get off to a good start, you’ll have a good end. And the middle should be pretty good too.
Kerry - I like your strafing runs. Pew pew pew!
Chase – in the 1K club – keeping it going is good. My Demon Hunter involves demons, a teenage alien, and music.
April – well done with your 374 words.
Second Moon – ideas are good, I keep having them.
Starrystorm – 1517 is a mighty total. Hat doffings well deserved.
Cindy – good to see you again.
WGough – lots of work there too.
What a lot of people there are here now!

Today’s Progress:

Dustworld: 751 words written.

Demon Hunter: Read the banquet chapters.

Non-writing.

The painting indoors is almost finished, phew. Lots of going through our stuff and putting it back where it belongs, and there’s dust from sanding everywhere. Just wait until we get the floors done!

keep on sailing... :)
 
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ChaseJxyz

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April: good job on the 374 words
Second Moon: Ideas are still good!
Starry: 1.5k very nice! Sounds like you're having fun
Cindyt: Sounds like you have a favored genre :)
Gough: You should try to use a program like CCleaner to remove some of the old bits of data that can cause a computer to slow down
Carrie: Congrats on the 1.4k
Layla: keep it up!
Keithy: Hopefully the painting hasn't been too disturbing

494 words today. I had coffee with breakfast; quarantine has ruined my caffeine tolerance so it really screwed up my ability to concentrate today. But my roommate will be visiting her parents this weekend so I have the place to myself. Planning on getting some big writing done, would love to get to the next chapter and the POV character that's my fave to write.
 

Cindyt

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Day 7

Word Count 69

Research - Communication devices and internet, email services in 1985.

Dress Her in Chameleon - Transferred two chapters to another dock file. I have 20 or less more out of a total of 65 chapters and the epilogue and a spot edit before release.

A Deadly Spill of Scarlet - Edited in new communication app platforms (Email, phone) and later edited the new into the info
Cris P and AW Admin posted on the thread I created. (Which goes to show I should have asked AW to begin with.) To wit: No AOL, Camodore 64 computers were already outdated by 1985; email was primarily used by agencies and colleges and the like. So, I’ve got to use a head’s up phone call for this particular flashpoint scenario.

WGough - Nice word count! Congrats for finishing those revisions!
Carrie - Great word Count!
Layla - Adding words is always awesome! Temps are going down a bit at night now, but the days are mostly still in the hellfire range.
Keithy - Another good word count!
Chase - WTG on your word count. I do love history and the challenge of living in an era through the eyes of my characters. I’ve had a ball doing research.

Thanks, guys, it’s good to be back.

So, why did I run off? I felt guilty because I sometimes counted words that I shouldn't have, that's why, and I am sorry. Forgive me. I renewed my relationship with Christ, which means repenting from the things I shouldn't have been doing.

What did I do while I was in the off AW wind? I worked on my novels more days than not, some new stuff, but mostly editing. I will soon begin writing new wordage on the crime novel. And after the historical is released, I’ll begin writing whichever of my novel ideas flirts hardest. I want to begin the 1865 western White Wolf, but Billy Estrella might flash his white teeth and wink at me. On another note, I wrote and published on Growing Up Buford, The Hunger, which is the first of parts about an eating disorder.
 
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starrystorm

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DAY 7--664 words. I know, I know, it's not 1k, but I just finished part one of my novel and was super pumped. I added ten thousand words to it from the original draft (at least according to notes). Of course the fist part isn't truly edited because I decided to scrap a character halfway through. I would love to go back and edit before continuing, but because of the scrapped character I have to think of an entirely new chapter 1 which is being tricky.
 

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You guys are amazing! Just under 2,500 words today, hoping to do more later because it's Saturday and I'm free all day.
 

WGough

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Day 8
Summary Revision Chapter 6, 1143 words.

Carrie: Great word count. That Millicent!

Layla: I am the green-eyed monster! The heat index down here was 101 today. My squash is wilty. Not a euphemism.

Keithy: Amazed at all the work you get done!

ChaseJxyz: Thanks for the suggestion! I'm on an SSD scheduled to TRIM once a week. I don't know what's going on with this thing. Nice word count!

Cindyt: Busy, busy, busy. Glad you're back!

starrystorm: 664 words is nothing to sneeze at. Way to push through!

Animad345. Wow! Just wow. You are on fire!
 

Carrie

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WGough: Great work!

Animad: Congrats on one hell of a fine Saturday!

StarryStorm: Congrats and good luck on the new Chapter One.

CindyT: Pleased to meet you!

Chase: Sorry about the coffee. I was just tallying up the things that have changed—I imagine permanently—since quarantine. I still have my coffee, however. No one gets between me and my coffee.

Keithy: Good work, particularly under trying circumstances. Heck, I have trouble writing when my desk gets cluttered. Writing during home painting sounds like a challenge.

Layla: The first day of fall? No! Honestly, I am losing track of the seasons. I know the days of the week only because my column comes out on Mondays. Months, seasons… it’s kind of nebulous at this point. But it’s still pretty warm here and the sunflowers have only just started to bloom so I’m going with summer.

1250 words in the bank today and Chapter One is finished! A new character showed up (in a Tesla, no less!) who I had not expected to make an appearance quite this early in the game but he’s terribly eager and it’s not like I get any real choice about it. I hope you are all having a splendid weekend.
 

Layla Nahar

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Keithy, congtats on the 751 words and on the other work
Chase, having the place to yourself is like Heaven, imo. Congrats on the 494
Cindy, congrats on the words, research and editing (that’s part of why I don’t use word counts - it’s so easy to assign some kind of significance to the number and either get competitive, or to get down on ourselves...)
starry, congrats on the 644
Animad, way to go with that 2.5K
Gough, moving into chapter 6, way to go!
Carrie, excellent work with that 1250


Day 8


WIP - added words
R/SC - crafting
BP/$$ - one housemate email, job, 5 hours
 

Keithy

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Chase – great 494 words there. Yeah, some characters are great, some greater.
Cindy – ah, don’t worry so much about miscounting. I’ve done it myself, oops. Welcome back!
Starrystorm – it’s a good point to stop at the end of a chapter or section. Good going.
Animad – ooh that’s a lot of words! I doff my hat at those 2500 words.
Carrie – in the 1K+ club, always a sign of hard work.

My progress today

241 words done on dustworld.

Read through a couple more chapters of Demon Hunter. I am mostly happy with what I have seen so far.

Non-writing

Painting is finished. I’ve been hanging pictures etc on the wall.

Thinking about tiling the kitchen floor.
 
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Cindyt

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Day 8

Word Count 680

Research - History of the Internet in the 80s. The smell of freshly steaped tea: there were several scents to choose from, but I chose cherry.

Dress Her in Chameleon - Spot edited 2 chapters, transferred 2 more to another dock.

A Deadly Spill of Scarlet - Did a bit of formatting. I’ve been struggling with the phone call that sends Billy Rushing to Florence Nightingale Memorial Hospital where Carolina is an ER doctor. She has been carjacked. Today it just fell into place. She call him, using all the restraint she can muster to control her hysteria, asks him to come to the hospital, and then fall to pieces.

WGough - You’ve been busy yourself.
Carrie - Backatcha!
Layla - Thanks for understanding
Keithy - It’s good to be back.
 

ChaseJxyz

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Cindyt: welcome back :) I always really like doing research, too
Starry: that does sound tricky, but by having a second crack at it you can make something stronger
Animad: woah! Lots of words! great job
Gough: great work
Carrie: boy do I know about characters showing up way earlier than I thought they would lol
Layla: No interruptions is very nice!
Keithy: glad to see the painting is finally done!


3,192 words. Finished chapter 26 and got to research a lot of fun things today, like what do you call the thingie you put sealing wax in to melt it or what happens when you die (step by step). My healer character had a mini-crisis when he realized how oxymoronic it is to have magic that comes from a source of poison and death and to try to use it to heal people and keep them from, you know, not dying. This was not a very fun chapter for him but alas! The end of his next chapter things will go even worse for him, but that's how things tend to go with my characters (also he's not the greatest guy so I don't feel TOO bad).