Dec. Project Motivation

[Philip Overby]

After several "suck" days, I picked up things again tonight. Good deal. Wrote about 1,000 words or so, but I'm happy I did anything after my relative dry spell since NaNo. I guess it's good to recharge a bit after such a flurry of writing, but I'm really hoping to get this first draft done before the end of year if possible. I still think it's doable, but I need to propel the story toward the final conflict sooner rather than later.

 

[Chessie]

Because I can't say it better than my facebook post:

"In a mad writer's rage, I plotted out my entire novel last night in 3 hours, at 7 handwritten pages. I have a solid finish this time. Today, a spreadsheet for my scenes (and some dishes) and I can start writing tomorrow. I'm going to meet my deadline and that's awesome, whoohoo!"

-Along with some help from Paul McCartney, of course. By the way Phil, looks like you're warming yourself back up, wonderful. I also want to finish this draft of my story by the end of the year. Let's see if we make it to or close to that.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Good work.
I'm making a bit of (non-tangible) progress on the Jim Butcher challenge and I have more or less figured out what I'll do with all the stupid ideas I picked. Now what remains is to weave them into an acceptable plot.

 

[Philip Overby]

@Chesterama: I love the term "mad writer's rage." I did that once in a hotel room while waiting for my wife to get back from meeting her friend. I had about three hours to just sit there and I wrote out an outline on paper. Good going!

@Svrtnsse: Sounds good about the Jim Butcher challenge. I'm still flip-flopping on what ideas to use. I have a slight idea, but it may not turn out so awesome. Either way, it'll get done!

 

[Chessie]

December hasn't gone as great as I thought it would for working on my writing. And even though I have all this crazy time off, I admit to being lazy. Sigh. Anyway, I do feel good about having my novel's plot done and I'm in the process of working on the plot for a short story I wish to write this coming week. I'll be on vacation for a few days so I should feel rested and motivated enough to write an 8,000 word story. I do want to at least get that out this month.

 

[Philip Overby]

I'm not doing so well either. I've been sitting here trying to get myself to write for the past three hours. I know what I want to write, but for whatever reason I'm just not doing it. Ugh. OK, screw it. Writing time!

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Phil: Your motivation is that if you don't write, I'll come over to your house and glare angrily at you until you do.

On a completely unrelated topic, please PM me your address.

 

[Philip Overby]

I wrote, I wrote! Please don't glare angrily at me.

And my address is:

123 Writing Now Lane
Off My A** City, Japan 223-4012

 

[Philip Overby]

So after writing pretty well the other night, I'm getting that "feeling" again. Ugh. Maybe it's just the cold making me feel crap or something. OK, time to take my own advice and work on a short story for a couple of days. Maybe then I'll get the novel spirit back. I do have a short story due on Dec. 31st for an anthology I agreed to send something for, so I need to get on that. I've had two things I'm not overly happy with, but I have to polish them up and get them on their way one way or another.

 

[Aspasia]

Late to the party, but I shall join in anyway . I want to get back into writing daily, and NaNo + college doesn't exactly work out for me sadly. With a lower word count goal (750 words / day) I hope I can start actually finishing stuff rather than being overwhelmed by my "Unfinished" folder. I want to get more practice writing short stories. For the rest of December, I plan to brainstorm short story ideas, and whenever I feel I have some good ones (a conveniently vague goal ) I will start writing them, 750 words a day. By the end of December I want to be writing regularly again, and NOT on my long-suffering novel-length ideas. Honestly, I'm getting bored / burnt out on those ideas I've kept so carefully for years. I need to have fun! And short stories are the way to do it. Hoping posting here regularly will give me the push to actually DO it.

 

[Butterfly]

December has been slow at the moment and I seem to be super busy while also experiencing a bout of winter tiredness due to the lack of sunlight. I have managed a chapter in a week, which is slow for me. Usually 2-3 days I can scribble one out. Rest day tomorrow, and Christmas shopping, but maybe I can push out a thousand words in the morning, added to a second attempt later in the day.

 

[Philip Overby]

Seems we're all having a sluggish month. It's to be expected I suppose. However, every time I post here, I write afterwards. Weird. It's like I feel "I just said I haven't been writing on a public forum so now I need to go write." I also got a better idea for the short story I was working on. I like it more anyhow.

 

[Chessie]

Its the holidays baby! Of course we'll be meh to writing when there's parties, presents to buy, family obligations...

I'm on vacation right now so all I've done this week was work on the plot to my short story on the plane. I plan on writing it this weekend when I get home though. I do want to finish it by the end of the month.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Progress has been made.
I finally finished the outline for the short story for the Jim Butcher challenge. I iterated on the original idea three times, including scene/sequel splits and I feel like I now have a very good idea of what's going to happen. I worry it'll be a rather long story though. I can easily see how it's possible to drag it out to novel length if I'm not careful.
Perhaps I'll end up doing just the first few scenes or so. We'll see how it goes - as long as it's fun I'll stick with it.

 

[Aspasia]

So I have not actually made progress writing-wise.
I have gotten down a good set of ideas, with a very brief sketch of beg-middle-end events, that I want to start writing short stories off of. This will be for practice, as after several years of not writing I am quite rusty.
I do plan to start writing them soon, I promise ... I am totally not procrastinating at all ...

I am really quite satisfied with the variation of my writing ideas. Generally I get stuck in a rut, writing the same sort of tales again and again, but this time I have many different ideas which will push my boundaries. I just need to, you know, write them.

 

[Svrtnsse]

...and I'm started! I've written the first 800+ words of Sailing With Thunder and it's worked out great so far. I still haven't actually referenced the outline, but the amount of work I put into it means I still have it clear in my head and I know almost exactly what's going to happen and when - at least for now. Good progress is being made.

 

[Chessie]

Awesome, Svrtnsse! I'm curious what this story is about now. I like the title and knowing that its for the Jim Butcher challenge makes me want to read it even more.

Last night, I started on 'Jar Of Lights: Escape Of The Fae'. Yeah...so I decided I really wanted to write a story about faeries. I plotted it out while on vacation and have been eager to write it out. Turns out that its a bit darker than I anticipated...from the first paragraph. Anyway, my goal for the story is 5,000 words but it might turn out a bit longer. If that's the case, I may just shoot for a novelette length work. We'll see.

 

[Chilari]

Well, with all the crochet and flu I've been busy with, I've not written anything this month. Today that changes. I said three short stories set in my novel world, I'm gonna give the first a try.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

I'm about six chapters from the end of the sequel (THE SILVER WAR) to THE QUEEN OF MAGES. December's been pretty productive. It was just the first ten months of the year that weren't.

 

[Graylorne]

My December's been busy. After this year's unsatisfactory NaNo I started a new WIP at Dec 1st and I just passed the 30.000 word limit yesterday. So I'm more content than usual, this time of the year.

It's an adventure fantasy with a colorful cast and some slight LGBT influences. (Nothing heavy, but then I'm not writing social drama). I posted a bit in Showcase, should anyone be interested.

All in all 2013 has been a terribly hectic year, with four books on Amazon and two Dutch ones.