Dec. Project Motivation

[Philip Overby]

OK, just because NaNoWriMo is almost over, doesn't mean the motivation has to stop!

Here, I'd like to start a new "project."

What? Phil. Seriously...dude. Give us a break.

NO! I mean, come on. Let's keep something moving.

The goal of this thread is to discuss any projects you have in mind, your word count goals, your doldrums, your cries for help, whatever. I wanted to start a fresh thread, because I think having one for Dec. could be good to keep it all in here.

So, how about it? You don't have to write 50,000 words again. Just share your goals for the month and try to stay motivated. I know goals will be less substantial with holidays coming up, but you can do it!

I'm going to post my goals below:

1. 30,000 words or completion of my WIP. Whichever comes first.
2. Three short stories to be submitted

Pretty decent goals, right? Please share yours even if they're not super ambitious. I found it's good to have a support group to just keep each other moving. (The Mythic Scribes Blood Pact is also that, but it's kind of one of those BIG goal groups, where this is a month specific group. And there's Word Warriors also, but that's more about just sharing word counts.)

OK, share away!

 

[Butterfly]

Grrrr..... You beat me to this.

I'm aiming for a 30,000 word increase on my current WIP through December. Most of it will be rewriting the naff bits from November.

 

[Philip Overby]

Sorry, I beat you to it, but glad you also had the idea!

I think continuing on from NaNo seems the best idea for me honestly. I did it last year and got a first draft out of it. It was so long and so all over the place, I kind of decided it wasn't able to be saved. But I may yet pull it out and try to salvage something.

So let's keep on with the motivating!

30K after doing 50K should be no problem!

 

[Asterisk]

Not to be a copycat, but my goals were 30,000 words/finishing the missing chapters in my WIP too. Hey, great minds think alike!

One of my biggest writing goals is to work on writing without editing. The urge to let in my inner editor gets strong sometimes... gotta learn to lock that editor in!

 

[Snowpoint]

It has been so long since I have written anything of length. This November I had 2 dental surgeries with 2 more next week. So, Life happens.

I want to write a short story (5,000+ word) In my Blood-Binder setting. And also, to not have bad teeth. That's a nice goal.

Floss your teeth kids. Erryday.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I have no word count goals but I still have some tasks I want to complete - ranked in order of importance.

1. Finish the new and improved outline for the remainder of my novel.
2. Complete characterisation of Amanda, the female romance interest in the novel - at least two short stories
3. One short story about someone getting completely and utterly hammered.
4. Short story for the Jim Butcher Challenge.

Points two is included in point one. Amanda needs to be a real person and I'd like to get to know her in order to have her perform her role in the story to the best of her ability.
Point three is also related to the novel, but is more a case of practicing something that needs to be included. Enar's going to get horribly drunk and make a complete fool of himself and I'm not yet confident I'll pull that off so I need some practice.
Point four is likely going to be combined with point two. I have a vague idea of how I can pull that off and I'm curious to give it a try and see what happens.

 

[Chessie]

My goal for December is to finish using the Snowflake method for plotting a novel, document my progress with blog posts, write scenes in my story world to get a better feel for it, and re start the novel around the middle of the month. A loose schedule for now which I hope to tighten.

 

[buyjupiter]

Goals:

I would like to revise and add about 20-30k more words to the novel I finished in September. I have the ideas for six or seven scenes that need to be added to make the narrative flow a bit more.

I would like to start the YA novel about regaining the dwarves homeland. I currently have a short story starter for the novel, but I've come up with so many ideas to use after it's done that I want to continue with it. I'm thinking a word goal of 50-70k. Which should put me at March for a completion date.

I'd also like to start the resurrected character novel (I'm thinking approximately 90k words here). I don't think I'll get to anything beyond world building in December though.

I absolutely need to have three short stories completed by the 31st, so that leaves me ~15k words to write still. I'm halfway done with two out of the three. (I would like to have five written...but with the holidays coming up that may be too much to take on.)

I need a stronger motivational stick to write on one of these things to completion before I take on anything else. I write like I read, halfway through a dozen things.

 

[Butterfly]

So.. Dec 1st and I managed 3131 words today.

Contemplating upping the monthly goal to 40,000... or maybe making a secondary goal of 40,000.

Might go for another chapter tonight as tomorrow is a rest day. (Got a long weekend).

 

[Philip Overby]

I've started off slow so far, but managed to write yesterday in a state of delirium. I should be able to make my goal, but I'm not keeping up with it every day. I'm going to try to reach a weekly word count goal instead. My goal for this week is 7,000 words. Should be easy (I hope).

 

[Chilari]

I'm going to take a few steps back and start fresh with my NaNo novel, by first writing a series of short stories that occur prior to the start of the novel, to give myself a better idea of the characters' personalities. I'll try to write four short stories in December around some of the key characters. Then in January I'll start writing the novel from scratch.

 

[Jabrosky]

I'm going to finish my 17th century privateer romance over the course of this month. Hopefully studying for finals at UCSD will not cut too much time into that.

 

[Philip Overby]

OK, folks. I haven't written in three days. Post-NaNoWriMo malaise I suppose. I'm not stuck or anything, I guess I've just been getting into that winter laziness and such.

Someone cattle prod me!

 

[Chessie]

Someone cattle prod me!

Fresh out of those today, sorry. Enjoy the break! You just wrote straight for a whole month so maybe your mind needs to unwind. Three days of not worrying about all that must feel great.

 

[buyjupiter]

OK, folks. I haven't written in three days. Post-NaNoWriMo malaise I suppose. I'm not stuck or anything, I guess I've just been getting into that winter laziness and such.

Someone cattle prod me!

Do you need to hear what other people have accomplished in order to feel the need to compete in order to sit down and write?

Because, if so...I'm halfway through my first goal of the month. Not word count wise, but story completion-wise. I found the research I needed for the last short story, so I can start writing that tonight. (Hope that helps!)

 

[Philip Overby]

I don't necessarily need to hear what others are doing to motivate me, but it definitely helps sometimes.

Thanks for sharing. I worked on some stuff last night, so I broke my "fast." Good to hear you're cranking out some work. Good luck!

 

[buyjupiter]

I don't necessarily need to hear what others are doing to motivate me, but it definitely helps sometimes.

Thanks for sharing. I worked on some stuff last night, so I broke my "fast." Good to hear you're cranking out some work. Good luck!

Whoohoo to working on stuff!

I only mentioned it because I get, um, a bit competitive at times.

 

[Chessie]

I did a flash fiction story today. At least it was something. I also worked on the outline for my WIP. And I got a brilliant idea for a short story. This always happens to me when I'm planning something serious. *rolls her eyes* So I jotted down the details in my notebook for later. I hope to finish doing my outline by the end of the weekend, then start writing on Monday.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I'm also getting some good work done. I've done a fair bit or work on my character Amanda (all of it's available in the Showcase forum). I have a second flash-fiction series brewing and will probably be starting on that in the next few days.

 

[Philip Overby]

I knocked out a chapter last night and I'm wanting to really pare down a short story I did a while back. It's just too long. I'm thinking about cutting the whole beginning, but that means I'll have to do all the "intro" stuff I did somewhere else. Oh well. That's what editing is!