May 2015 Motivation Thread

JonLaidlow said:
Currently only on between 1000 and 2,000 a month, so... madness and despair lie in my future, I suspect...

(Or career as drama queen!)
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Umm, what I was trying to say was that small steps add up. Keep working at it, allow yourself to not be writing as fast or as much as you dream of. Continue to strive for that dream, continue to make it a goal and you will achieve it.
 
JonLaidlow said:
Currently only on between 1000 and 2,000 a month, so... madness and despair lie in my future, I suspect...

(Or career as drama queen!)
Click to expand...

I think it was Wilson who suggested to me that I track my writing progress. I set myself up an excel workbook with a separate sheet for each month of the year and a final one for the year as a whole. This helps me to see my long term progress and not obsess about my short term failings.

Back at the beginning of January I was barely writing anything and my word count goal for that month was 1500. I only wrote 11 days that month but the achievable goal worked for me and I managed to write a little over 4000 words. I started February feeling pretty chuffed and upped my goal to 7000 words. I didn't even come close. It was too much pressure. I wrote for only 4 days and managed just over 3000 words. Lesson learned? Nope. :rolleyes: March was even worse. I only managed to write on two day for a grand total of 2091 words. Ughh!

In April I did nanowrimo camp with some folks from another writers forum and we had a very active cabin. The daily feedback kept me motivated and I managed to write on 17 days for a total of 15526 words. That's more like it. Here it is May 11th and I'm already at 11099 words and have only failed to write on three days. This could be my best month yet and it could be yours as well. My point in sharing is to hopefully help you find a way to look more long term.

I'm editing today so my word count isn't budging but I'm still writing. Another thing I've learned, is not to subtract anything from my word count. A second thank you to Wilson. :) Yeah for the deleted scenes folder. :D
 
Edward M. Grant said:
I'm going to see if I can write one of those this weekend. I've found some fairy tales I'd never heard of before that I can lift some concepts from and try to build a story around. Just need to make sure it doesn't turn into 'hard-core horror' :).
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I hope your story is going well. While procrastinating, I found a couple of other links you might be interested in. Only the second one is Canadian but both are looking for horror.

https://bloodshotbooks.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/open-call-for-submissions/
http://inaccuraterealities.com/submissions/
 
I began moving to my new apartment this weekend by packing up and taking over 6 boxes of stuff. Guess what they were filled with? Yep, books. And I have at least 2 more boxes of just books to still pack.

I got some writing in this weekend on the Pirate novel and JD and I are discussing next steps with the book. We're often discussing next steps on one aspect or another, making sure we stay on track. It's very helpful. :)

I did not wake up early today as I did not have anything specific to work on and I didn't want to waste the morning in indecision. On lunch I'll look at my Halloween series and this evening I'll probably need to do some more packing for the move.
 
RedMage said:
I began moving to my new apartment this weekend by packing up and taking over 6 boxes of stuff. Guess what they were filled with? Yep, books. And I have at least 2 more boxes of just books to still pack.
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That's all?? 8 boxes? I've got that many in the living room, never mind the library in the basement. ROFL!

I've actually been throwing out some of my old text books and computer books that are way past their 'use-by' date. ;)
 
I know! I thought I had a lot more! And none of them were the backbreaking, watch out for the bottom falling out from under you kind either. My friends and family complain about the amount, but I'm a bit disappointed.
 
Facing said:
I hope your story is going well.
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I was struggling all weekend, trying to work out a plot that worked as a fairy tale, but I think I finally have one :). I should have a first draft tonight, then I can clean it up over the next couple of days.
While procrastinating, I found a couple of other links you might be interested in. Only the second one is Canadian but both are looking for horror.
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Thanks. I feel another Kaitlyn and Bob story coming on...
 
RedMage said:
Those sound so fun! What has happened with the first one? I can't remember if you already told us.
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The anthology editor has been sick, so it's delayed for a while. I was going to post it here for feedback, but never quite figured out what to do with it :).
 
Well, I hope the editor gets better and gets around to publishing this thing. I want to read it!

On a personal note, I've been working on my lunches and breaks the last 2 weeks or so to devise a basic outline for the 2nd of my Halloween books. I am happy to say that I've just finished it! Yay!! Lots more work to go, some things are missing, some things need to be developed more, but the basics are all there now :D

EDIT: ooh, this was even one of my goals for the month. Scratch one off, oh yeah!
 
Well...progress was dismal this weekend, but I did get a chance to work on the outline of a new project (yes, another one that I'm sure I'll abandon when the next shiny new story idea comes along) and that felt good. I hope to set aside time tomorrow to start writing on the story.
 
N. E. White said:
Well...progress was dismal this weekend, but I did get a chance to work on the outline of a new project (yes, another one that I'm sure I'll abandon when the next shiny new story idea comes along) and that felt good. I hope to set aside time tomorrow to start writing on the story.
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Nila, why don't you take a day or two, write down all of your thoughts on the new ideas as notes, then return to the current/previous project you have just been working on?
 
RedMage said:
Nila, why don't you take a day or two, write down all of your thoughts on the new ideas as notes, then return to the current/previous project you have just been working on?
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Ah, the sound of reason - which has absolutely no place in my creative head! ;)

Actually, this "new" idea is a revamp of an idea I had last year (my ghost story short) before my current WIP took over and pushed that out of the way. So, I'm sort of leap-frogging my ideas. Don't you all do that? I'm sure I'll come back to the WIP since that's at around 50k at the moment. It just might not be this year. o_O

Thanks for your support! I'll get 'em done...eventually.
 
For the last year I have had ideas percolating. When it has been slow at work (I am a third time is the charm student and work in retail) I have been world building, creating a religion and myth, character sketches and writing story outlines on pads of paper I've cobbled together with scrap I find in the fitting room.

I now have so much material and characters that I either have to pull a Steven Erickson or simply write a whole bunch of short stories all set in the same world.

I have three stories going on at the same time right now. One is at fifteen hundred words and nowhere near being finished, another at ten hundred and another at four thousand. I am having a hard time focusing on just one, because they share some characters and sometimes I have an idea when writing one that will then affect the other. It is getting to be a bit crazy. My husband hasn't said anything, but I know he eyes the pieces of paper littering the house with accepted annoyance.
 
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