2021 Weekend Progress Report Thread

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regdog

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Welcome to all Weekend Updaters, past, present and future. Yes, it's a new thread for a new year!
















To refresh for those long-time Progress Reporters and to clarify for all the new ones -- we're here to help you achieve your goals by being the place where you're accountable, being a cheering section, the shoulder to cry on, the folks who say those people who rejected you are fools, FOOLS, and they'll rue the day, the folks who cheer wildly when you get an acceptance, and so on.
















The "Rules" for posting here are pretty simple.
















1. You don't have to write humor to post here -- any writer writing in any or all genres can post here. But you can be funny if you want. We're all over the funny.












2. Every weekend, starting on Friday and ending on Sunday, we post the progress we've made with our various writing careers. This includes whatever you consider part of your career -- writing, editing, submitting, critiquing, promotion, brainstorming, research, etc. It's your career, it's up to you.












3. How to report? Give us your word count for the week, your submissions for the week, the number of words you edited during the week, any acceptances garnered, and anything else you did to move your career forward. It's that simple.












4. Since many writers are also artists and musicians, we count art- and music-related progress as well, as long as it's also part of your overall career.












5. The WPR Dominatrix (that's me) hands out virtual prizes and encouragements and so forth. We occasionally have a Guest Dominatrix just because.












6. There are prizes for: The most words written in a week; the most submissions for the week; the most words edited for the week; the first to report each Friday; and the last to come in late (we don't encourage competition for this one!); the exciting news of the week (like acceptances, media coverage, getting paid, etc.)












7. What counts for submissions? Anything where your piece could be rejected. Blogs count for word count, but not for submission, UNLESS your blog can (really and truly) be rejected by someone else other than yourself, aka an actual editor/boss. When posting, be sure to make the distinction for a rejectable blog, so it can count in your submissions tally for the week.












8. Remember that being accountable helps achieve goals. We encourage updates even when someone hasn't done anything or anything much. The act of reporting IS an important step, and we want to hear from you, even if it's to say you achieved squat for the week.












9. Yes, if you drift away and come back there are no penalties. This is a support thread, not your job or your mom. Therefore, it's up to you how frequently you update. Studies have shown that being accountable is a huge factor in success (seriously, and we are not making this up), but it's all down to you, and we will not be down ON you.












Still confused about how it works? Check out the 2020 thread for examples.












Welcome to 2021, let's make this the Year of the Updaters and really achieve those career goals!
 

regdog

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Nanner-:banana::banana::banana:


70 pages-:Jump::Jump::Jump:
 

regdog

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Awards For This Week’s Awesomeness



NANNER-Saoirse





Qgq1YRT.jpg












WORDS EDITED-Saoirse 70 pages





yRao0jS.jpg
 

Morgan Morrow

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This week I revised 11 pages of my WIP, and I finally came up with names for some side characters.

I also made an account here because I need to build up a better writing support system and this seemed like a good place to start.
 
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TeresaRose

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Hi fellow rose, Morgan. Welcome. This is a great place to come for all sorts of info.

My progress this week: Got through the first edit of a manuscript I wrote a few years ago. Bringing it to life and will self-publish soon. One more computer edit, then I'll print it out and edit from the hard copy. Don't really want to, but experience has shown me that when I edit from a hard copy, I catch a lot more errors, or more so, weak areas that need improvement. It's Women's Fiction/Romance.
 

Laelia

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Well, as a newbie I might as well start here!

Progress this week:
I submitted a piece of flash creative non-fiction (eek!)
I wrote 1500 words of my WIP (that fact that I still haven't worked out the whole plot is just a trifling detail!)
 

Picker

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I am a discovery writer so sometimes my word count doesn't add up to much.
This week I have come up with some character names, written some plot twist scenes for a grand total of 1500 words in the first draft of my current WIP, a sequel to a first draft completed a month ago (Letting it sit for a while before editing begin).
 

regdog

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I am a discovery writer so sometimes my word count doesn't add up to much.
This week I have come up with some character names, written some plot twist scenes for a grand total of 1500 words in the first draft of my current WIP, a sequel to a first draft completed a month ago (Letting it sit for a while before editing begin).
Nanner-:banana::banana::banana:


1500 words :Clap::Clap::Clap:
 

regdog

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TeresaRose and Laelia I apologize for not responding last week. your rewards




NANNER-TeresaRose



:banana: :banana: :banana:






Qgq1YRT.jpg








WORD COUNT-Laelia 1500



:Jump::Jump::Jump:





HzMTwjO.jpg








WORDS EDITED-TeresaRose



:e2writer::e2writer::e2writer:





yRao0jS.jpg







SUBMISSIONS-Laelia



:e2crown::e2crown::e2crown:





xJVE2FP.jpg
 
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Nether

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Well, this'll be my first weekly progress update on AW and... it's a down week.

From Sunday to Saturday (the week of 8/28), I clocked 20,760 words. On one hand, it's better than where I was when I got started again. On the other, my productivity had been scaling up project after project, but now I'm going down rather than up.

My last project averaged 32k+ words per week. Right now, my averages are a bit worse than they were while working on my fourth book (which was about 22k+ per week). While I'm tempted to blame newfound distractions on part of it, my weeks have been consistently down since starting I started drafting this book.

I'm sitting on 81,785 words for the entire project now (and I'm thinking I might finish it in another 15-20k words). And it's certainly not my best work. It's probably going to require as many revisions as book 5 will, despite being a simpler story (and also the fact that I'm not even writing it as quickly).

I think part of the problem is that I got into the habit of doing marathon sessions on Saturdays and Sundays to make up for weekly shortcomings, and I haven't been doing that (or, at least, not as hard).

And I'm still waiting on my beta readers.
 

regdog

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Nether 20,760 words-:Clap::Clap::Clap:
 

RobMcDonald

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I just submitted my first-ever essay/article for our writers' guild quarterly magazine. They look for 500-700 word pieces on writing experience, interviews with writers, etc. I took a brief look at my history with purple prose. The deadline is two weeks away, but I'm one of those people who can't stop tinkering with something, so submitting early saved hours lost to pointless reconsideration. I should know in a couple weeks whether it will fly. Since it's about purple prose, and intended to be funny, I maaaaaay have gone a little overboard. :p
 
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regdog

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RobMcDonald-Submission :snoopy::snoopy::snoopy:
 

Nether

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Last week was just 13,890. 12,896 was on the first draft of my sixth novel (which I finished), and then 1,024 on the short story (which is... not even a quarter finished, although I want to keep it short).

This new week might be tricky since I'll be trying first-person present tense... although if I can't hit 2k words on day 1, I might switch back to 3rd person. I'm at 814 right now, and it took a lot longer than usual to even get that. It's hard to know how much of the problem is the different style versus just starting a new project.
 
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regdog

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Nether-13,890 :Clap::Clap::Clap:
 

regdog

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NANNER-RobMcDonald




:banana::banana::banana:







Qgq1YRT.jpg












WORD COUNT- Nether-13,890




:Jump::Jump::Jump:








HzMTwjO.jpg











SUBMISSIONS- RobMcDonald




:e2cheer::e2cheer::e2cheer:










xJVE2FP.jpg
 
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Nether

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Wrote 25,183 words for my new WIP this week. (I *think* I just did stuff for the new novel this week, I don't think I touched up one of the short stories.)

I thought my weekly count was going to be a lot higher than it wound up being because it seemed like I was making a lot of progress on my new WIP compared to that last crappy manuscript. I guess even though the numbers look better on an individual basis, it wasn’t a huge enough lead to get the kind of night & day difference I expected.

And I was feeling bored so I submitted book 1 to another agent at an agency where I haven't heard anything from in three months now (and I checked the confirmation email). This agent explicitly covers YA, whereas the other one's profile just noted a history of working in children's lit. I really need to just revise the stupid thing to get it down to a genre-appropriate length... and I should considering doing something to age up the characters from 14 (to a more marketable 16 or 17), although that might cause a few headaches.

And the critique partner stuff continues.
 

regdog

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Wrote 25,183 words for my new WIP this week. (I *think* I just did stuff for the new novel this week, I don't think I touched up one of the short stories.)

I thought my weekly count was going to be a lot higher than it wound up being because it seemed like I was making a lot of progress on my new WIP compared to that last crappy manuscript. I guess even though the numbers look better on an individual basis, it wasn’t a huge enough lead to get the kind of night & day difference I expected.

And I was feeling bored so I submitted book 1 to another agent at an agency where I haven't heard anything from in three months now (and I checked the confirmation email). This agent explicitly covers YA, whereas the other one's profile just noted a history of working in children's lit. I really need to just revise the stupid thing to get it down to a genre-appropriate length... and I should considering doing something to age up the characters from 14 (to a more marketable 16 or 17), although that might cause a few headaches.

And the critique partner stuff continues.
Nanner-:banana::banana::banana:

25.183 words-:Clap::Clap::Clap:

1 submission-:snoopy::snoopy::snoopy:
 

Lintqyel

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That's the very first time I am reporting, and I know that my reports are going to be very similar (exactly the same words and a plus one number), and probably quite dull. I just hope they won't be _too_ boring - or, at least, they'll stay mercifully short!

Updated my "7000 Wonders" blog - 16 Wonders down, 6984 to go! (I never counted words there but each entry is about a couple of paragraphs).
Kept tweaking my second book (Northern Europe)...
 

regdog

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Lintqyel-Nanner
:banana::banana::banana:


Blog Post
:e2woo::e2woo::e2woo:
 

Unimportant

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New here. Hope y'all don't mind me barging in.

I am slowly -- very slowly -- ramping myself up to get back into writing again after about a decade hiatus, with the deadline being end of 2024. (I did mention slowly, yes?) I started by getting back on AW, trying to re-animate myself as a Useful Community Member, and doing some reading/critting: I recently critiqued a really fun MG novel (shout-out to the author I won't name for making me giggle, making me wipe away a tear, and making me go OMG that is a brilliant plot twist). As a next step, I've been re-reading some of the stories I got published back in Ye Olde times (some cringeworthy, admittedly, but some not as bad), as well as the unfinished and unpublished stories gathering dust on my hard drive. I found one short story -- humour, not my usual genre -- that definitely needs editing and trimming, but that I think has some promise.

That's it for my progress. ::hangs head in shame::

Editing/revising that particular story will not be too hard, I reckon, so I'll work on that over the next mumbletymumbletymonths bit of time. Where the heck I'd submit it to -- ~3000 words of contemporary adult light/humour fiction -- I have zero clue. But, heck, I've got mumbletymumbletyyears to hunt down potential markets.

Thanks, regdog and all. It's great to have spaces on AW that cater to every need and every interest.
 
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Nether

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WIP had a bit of a downturn (particularly today), so only 20,505 words there. Then 1,082 on the first draft of a new story, and approximately 500 words on a new project.

So I guess like 22,087 words this week. I'm maybe a week or a week and a half from finishing the first draft of book #7... actually, probably two weeks since I need to fill in some earlier stuff.

I'll need to polish the prose a bit (repetition is a bit of an issue since I'm doing first-person present tense), but it should be fine structurally, so I might start looking for critique partners, betas, etc, not long after it's done.
 

regdog

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Hey Unimportant, nice to see you joined us here in the Progress Report Thread

Beta Reading and critting are absolutely worth reporting. :e2bear::e2bear::e2bear:
 

regdog

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Nether- 22,087 :Clap::Clap::Clap:
 
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