July 2016 Motivation Thread

[norm]

@norm, I'm just throwing this out there, but if you want or need some outside perspective, the forum's workshop is pretty helpful place.

I might consider the workshop, sometime in the beginning of August. I told myself I'd finish this story by July 31, and while that isn't going to happen, it is starting to kind of resemble a story.

My plan next month is to set it aside, and start a new map story. Something with a more focused plot that wont be a pain to cram into 10,000 words. Hopefully that will give me a fresh perspective on my current story when I come back to it, and if the new story is good, I can submit both of them!

 

[N. E. White]

I can submit both of them!

Definitely! The more the better.

 

[danielausema]

Now that I've returned from traveling, I can start thinking more clearly about what I want to do this month.
So here's what I'm looking at:

• Finish revising and polishing the short story I wrote for the Map anthology

Done. Giving it a break for a little while before I check if it needs more polishing or not, but to the point where I expected it to be.

• Continue revisions on the novella I wrote in February

Yeah, making decent progress on that. Slower than I might like, but given everything else that was going on this month, I can accept that.

• Submit some poems and stories (no specific number, as part of this goal is looking back through all the poems I've written and getting a better system for keeping track of what's published, what's out there, what's lingering without a market, what needs revision, etc.)

Submitted four poems, four flash fiction pieces, eight short stories--of which one has already been accepted and one has already been declined--and one novel query--which has already gotten a request for a full. The organization of the poems has begun... I'll just call that "in-progress."

It feels very strange to have nothing with the Spire City seasons in this list of goals...but the final season was bundled and published in June, so now I'm just waiting for the royalty money to roll in. Or something.

Or something

 

[N. E. White]

I friggin' nailed the stretch goal, baby. I got in a short story for the story story contest.

 

[kmtolan]

Restructure the plot arc for my current WIP. Hopefully write another chapter once said arc is in place.

Did this, and started into a second chapter as well. "Siren's Song" also got it's first rating on Goodreads - four out of five stars. Not complaining.

 

[Facing]

Wow. Somebody is keen.
Ok. This month I will:

1. Discover the Main Dramatic Question of the Novella I want to write during NaNoCamp for the contest and write the story that answers that question.
2. Enter the Micro Fiction and Flash Contests

Stretch Goals

1. Enter the Short Story Contest
2. Rewrite Succession

Well, I did enter both the micro and flash contests. The Novella is still a mess. I wrote over 12k words this month without writing a comprehensible story. My short story entry is suffering from the same problem as the novella. I did rewrite Succession but I think I need to look at it again. Bring on August.

 

[PeteMC]

*headdesk* here as well - the book came back for more edits, so I'm doing them now. On the plus side, it's now nearly 10k longer than it was when I first sent it in!

The grimdark WIP will have to sit on the back-burner until I've finished the stuff that's actually under contract.

 

[JonLaidlow]

I think i only need to write 10k today to hit my month's target...

join me in writeclub and see if i can string a sentence together? am there NOW 1710 GMT

https://www.mywriteclub.com/beta/word-sprints#/SFFWorld Sprintathon

 

[kennychaffin]

I think i only need to write 10k today to hit my month's target...

join me in writeclub and see if i can string a sentence together? am there NOW 1710 GMT

https://www.mywriteclub.com/beta/word-sprints#/SFFWorld Sprintathon

You're way ahead of me this month.

 

[SteveW]

My month ended with a whimper, but overall I did well.

I managed 8k out of a planned 10k for Nano Camp. My story is now looking like it will be a novella and I plan to keep adding to it throughout the rest of the year.

I did a lot of submitting this month and Got a whole heap of rejections back, but a couple were personal, so that is another step up the ladder for me.

How did everyone else do?

 

[RedMage]

My goals for the month are:

• Finish outlining as I set out to do in June
  
• Write 2 chapters in Naiad's Shadow (Changeling book 1)

I got my first goal, but I never got around to writing those chapters. Now onto thinking about August's goals...

 

[norm]

Just remembered, I'd said at the beginning of the month that I'd try to write something for the July flash. . . I didn't even find out what the theme was. Oh well.

At least I spent every day this month working on my map story. Every night I do one edit, read through the story from top to bottom and fix stuff along the way. Takes about an hour and a half each time. Even if the deadline hadn't been extended, it's close enough to complete that I might have been able to cram it in if I robbed myself of sleep a few nights here or there.

 

[kennychaffin]

August Motivation Thread is up.

 

[Wilson Geiger]

I managed a whopping 3,000 words this month. But at least I wrote something, unlike the last 4-5 months.

 

[kennychaffin]

I managed a whopping 3,000 words this month. But at least I wrote something, unlike the last 4-5 months.

Excellent!

 

[Beth Wagner]

I didn't manage much yesterday either, just a very basic outline for my weather story and a bit of work on a second attempt for the anthology - a genetic map story.

I thought that said genetic gap...

 

[Beth Wagner]

I discovered that I can mark up for edits, one and a half stories in a month, right now at my current pace. I was able to balance editing and comic work at same time. Tune in next month when I balance more things at the same time.

 

[kennychaffin]

I thought that said genetic gap...

There could be a great story in that as well.