December 2020 Challenge - Write Every Day!

https://ibb.co/9ThVMv4

My typewritten replies.

Wrote a whole short story yesterday!!!

Chase: Good luck with Chapter 26!

Daniel: Nice job! (Edit: Amazing work writing a whole story!)

karasunoyashi: Yay for finishing the flash!

Magnus: Great work getting in a session even on a crappy day.

Pterofan: Good luck avoiding the internet! That is always my biggest challenge.

Layla: Nice work doing all the things!

More planning for me yesterday. I *think* I’ve figured out all the really tricky questions (though I’m sure I’ll find another hole soon), so now it’s on to actually mapping out the chapters.

Day 2

Word Count 536

Dress Her in Chameleon - LBL. Finished and posted the description on KDP. 4 chaps to go.

April - Good luck with the whack.

Chase - Good luck on splitting chapters and the 200 words.

Kara - Grats on the 600 words.

Layla - WTG on reading and notes

Day 3- I managed to get another 100 or so words in last night. Today I did some editing and then put in 300 words on my personal project.

Second- Breaks are good, so is sleep. Another round of applause for book drop day!

Magnus- Congratulations on the session. Also, good luck on the cold turkey stuff. I know I should get rid of the caffeine but I just love tea too much.

Ptero- Congrats on the 274 new words and glad to hear your assignment seems to be lining up well.

Layla- You've been doing a lot of unhording lately. It must be hard so way to go!

Daniel- Great work on getting an entire short story done and in one day!

April- Good luck with mapping the characters.

CindyT- Way to go on the description and the 536 words.

Day 2 - 0 words. I took a walk and decided that I was writing as short story from the wrong POV. I was much more interested in the girl's POV than the boy's. (which is odd because, I usually prefer boys' POVs despite being a female myself) I will rewrite it from the girl's POV and hopefully that change will give me the motivation to write.

Kara - Yes, breaks are very good.

Cindyt - Good word count.

April - Good job with those tricky questions.

Daniel - Yay! How long was the short story? Mine are usually from 4,000 to 6,000.

Day 3 - a bit over a full page in the small notebook, so somewhere between 300-350 words. Maybe more; there were some long paragraphs in there

Since books 1 and 2 on the laptop are currently stalled and book 3 is already written, I decided to hop ahead to book 4 for my morning longhand. As you can see, it picked up this morning. I'd already figured this one would be more character-driven since I didn't have a plot, but then a plot occurred to me while I was dealing with the FMC's thoughts. Best of all, it sprang organically out of things I established in book 3 and will help to advance the overall series story arc. All this before noon. This is one of those rare times when being a pantser pays off. Writing is fun again!

Meanwhile, the paid work will have to sit for a bit because I want to go grocery shopping. I'll catch up on the weekend.

Daniel - Whoo-hoo! Way to go!

April - My latest YouTube distraction is "Random Superhero Movies Performed by SpongeBob." Some people have way too much time on their hands. The problem is, they're all so dang creative. I'd better just unplug the WiFi if I want to get anything done.

Daniel: Great job on the story!
Kara: Nice job on 600+400 words
Second Moon: You deserve it!
Magnus: I hope decemeber goes easily for you
Ptero: The internet is quite a dangerous thing
Layla: Nice work on the tasks
April: I hope the mapping goes well
Cindy: Congrats on 536 words

Day 2: Did 2 more sections of ch 26. I threw out what I wrote yesterday and tried again and it turned out better, hooray. Should be able to finish it today and be able to keep on moving ahead

I've had a headache all week--I think it's the wind we've got in southern california.

But, update: I've spent the last couple days working in accumulated feedback from writers' group -- which covers about 12,000 words somewhere in the middle of the manuscript. And at this point I've gotten feedback up to the 70,000 word mark. So, that's good. Manuscript is still hovering around 117,000 overall.

Tomorrow perhaps I'll read through this chunk of 12,000 (chapters 12-14), then print it out and do the hard copy round of polish.

Two of my siblings (my 'friendly betas') are happy to read this first part of the story, which I suppose is about the first 60% of the manuscript. Hey, it's progress. No complaints.

Driveby for me today - did the things - so glad you guys are here!

(w00t! I finally got the smilies back - at least some of them)

Cindyt: Woohoo for posting your description! I always find them really hard.

karasunoyashi: Excellent work!

Second: Walks are great for figuring things out.

Pterofan: I love SpongeBob. I’m going to have to watch these now …

Chase: Sometimes you gotta do it wrong to do it right!

Magnus: Yup, caffeine withdrawal is very unpleasant. It should ease very soon though. Good luck!

Woolly: Great job working in all that feedback.

Layla: Yay the things!

I battled with my plot all day yesterday (and a couple of characters). Thought it was all a disaster but then I had a brainwave right before bed. I’m hoping my brain has ironed out the kinks overnight.

Day 3

Word Count 335

Dress Her in Chameleon - LBL. 2 chaps and the epilogue to go.

April - The description was hard. I picked out two historical novel descriptions on Amazon (books I’ve read) for examples, and used some of my opening paragraph. The end creation is original, and I’m loving it.

Chase - Good luck with finishing Chapter 26 up and moving on.

Ptero - That’s a smokin’ alien. Pun intended.

Kara - WTG on the editing & 100 and 300 word counts.

Moon - Here we go again. I am a woman, obviously, who feels more comfortable using a man’s POV lead. So, I began my 18th Century historical with Joe Owens’s, and then BOOM! I was so caught up with the female supporter, that I changed her to the main POV.

Layla - I have trouble with the smilies too. I usually reload the page or just wait a bit and they pop on.


I am exhausted, but the light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter.

*Drive-by*

Day 3 - 229 words.

- - - Updated - - -

*Drive-by*

Day 3 - 229 words.

https://ibb.co/k0g68dC

Me: Just internal planning/organizing going on in my head. Nevertheless, today I will write!!

Until you awake!

Day 4- I wrote another 300 or so words on my personal project. I also did some tightening up on the short that I'm writing for the kids I know. I read some of it to my daughter and she said, "It's alright." Given that the last thing I read to her had her begging me to just read my college science texts, I'll take that as a step in the right direction.

Ptero- Congratulations on find the plot and the 300 plus words.

Chase- Way to go on getting better.

Magnus- Great work getting in two sessions.

Woolly- It's awesome that your sibling are willing to help you out.

April- Hope the kinks worked out.

Cindyt- You can do it! Nicely down with the 335 words.

Chase!!! I'm sure you've seen this (probably ages ago) but I just did and you were the first person I thought of.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/science/bird-beaks-touch.html

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.2322

(p.s. waking up and girding for battle with the WIP. More coffee!)

Temporary drive by: a minor mishap this morning necessitated emergency laundering, so I missed my morning longhand. Then I got a call this afternoon re: an appointment I had scheduled for the day before my work deadline, which is now rescheduled for the day after my work deadline, so now that pressure's off. I'll write longhand before bed.

April - I take no responsibility for you losing writing time. Some of the clips I didn't understand, but "Age of Ultron" and "Dr. Strange" were right on the money.

Cindy and Daniel - now that Supernatural's gone, I figured it was time to switch out the avatar. The new one derives from The X-Files. A crisp high five to anyone who can name the episode. (Or just look it up on Google Images, which is where I found it.)

Somebody on this thread was trying to quit smoking a couple months back, but I can't remember who. My apologies if you find E.T.'s bad habit offensive.

Magnus: Aha! Another SpongeBob fan!

I tried to quit caffeine cold turkey over a decade ago. I had headaches and feelings of anxiety, even though intellectually I knew I had nothing to feel anxious about. I went back to drinking tea and was fine in a day or two. Never tried again. I did cut back drastically on caffeinated soda, though. Good thing I like root beer, which is caffeine free.

Magnus: I can live without caffeinne but not sugar; if I haven't eaten in awhile I can't concentrate, even if I'm not hungry. Sugary stuff is the quickest way to get my brain back on track
Woolly: I'm sorry about the headache I hope it gets better soon. Also I haven't seen that yet, I'll take a look!!!! [This] was the first thing it made me think of lol
Layla: Congrats on the things
April: I hope so, too!
Cindy: Nice work on 335 words
Second Moon: Congrats on 229 words
Daniel: You can do it!!
Kara: At least kids are honest

Day 3:
I'm gonna do the sandwich thing
Good news: I finished chapter 26!!!!! Finally!!!!!!
Bad news: We're shutting down again, gonna be just like March
Good news: I had some $$$ left over at work for free books so I poked around here for recommendations (Dreyer's English, The Forest for the Trees, Daemon Voices and Write to be Published). Also got the Handmaid's Tale graphic novel since why not

Read through those three chapters to smooth over, and ready to print them out for editing hard copy. Hurray!

Keep up the doing the good things, y'all!

April - brainwave is good!
Cindy - excellent 335 and LBL (glad to hear the tunnel is brightening up)
Moon - congrats on the 229
Daniel - nice work with the planning
kara - congrats on the 300 & on 'it's alright'
Magnus - much feelz - glad you were able to get in a session
Ptero - ach. Emergency laundry.
Chase, congrats on Ch 26!
Woolly - wtg with that reading


Day 4


WIP 1) reading & notes WIP 2) added words
R/SC - got nice bread and swedish cardemum biscuits at the fancy shop, washed the dishes & took a niiiice soaky bath
BP/$$ - job, 10 hours

Woolly: Awesome work!
Layla: Those baked goods sound so, well, good!

Day 4: Did ch 27 and the first half of 28 (it's a big one so I stopped at where it would be split). My roommate has been telling me how she's excited to read my book, because we talk about media a lot and try to figure out what tf was going on in the creators' heads but she can just ask me things. Which is both a great feeling and a not so great feeling, because I've been thinking a lot lately about rejection sensitive dysphoria (my fellow ADHD-ers you know what's up) and how that is going to make some parts of the editing/agenting process Very Difficult. So I guess that's my next personal project to tackle.

Sorry folks, need to drive-by. You're all doing great though. (Magnus, that looks like the inside of my head most days.)

I kept plot-wrangling yesterday. Didn't get a whole lot done but I think I fixed the big problem that I found on Thurs. Phew!

Day 5- It is my turn for a headache today. Luckily, it seems like a light one and will probably be gone after some sleep. That said, while writing today, I have really been wishing that words processors came with a night mode. Still, I wrote about 850 words in my project, so I'm doing good.

Magnus- It sounds like you might be peaking. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you're on the down-slope of withdrawals tomorrow.

Ptero- Glad the pressures off. Between the non-caffeinated options and being better flat, root beer is the king of soft drinks.

Chase- Congratulations on the chapters and yay for new books.

Layla- Way to go on adding words. Also, those biscuits sound great.

Woolly- Good luck on the hard copy editing.

April- Good job fining a resolution for your problem.

Day 4

Word Count 385

Dress Her in Chameleon - LBL. Discovered via KDP guidelines that I could insert my name or a made-up publisher into the Publisher option on the KDP detail page. 1 chap and the Epilogue to go.

A DEADLY SPILL OF SCARLET - Changed part and chapter title pages to Heading 1, found a couple of epigrams, and split chapters.

April - Good luck with the plot wrangling

Chase - Grats for finishing Chapter 26 and the free books. Sorry about the shutdown.

Ptero - Jose Chung's From Outer Space. (I googled). I’ve watched the first three seasons at least three times, but I do not remember seeing this episode. I quit smoking over 10 years ago and can take or leave caffeine in soda. The coffee drives me and my blood pressure up the wall, so I stick with decaf--or as a friend calls it, brown water.

Kara - Grats on the 300 words and tightening.

Layla - Congrats on added words