May 2015 Motivation Thread

[N. E. White]

Does anyone else's brain do this to them?

All the time. It means I don't finish stuff all too often, but when I do, it makes it all the more satisfying. I may not like the finished product, but it's finished!

 

[kennychaffin]

Hot and cold week here....weather is cold an rainy....that's no fun....did a tiny bit of editing on Monday, wrote two flash pieces on tues (about 1000 words total)....they are in the 'simmer pile
Got one submission back and sent it out to the next sucker.
Nothing yesterday....Life stuff going on....
Got an idea and started a new one today....may be more short-story length. about 500 words on it.
haven't gotten back to the novel....
Sent a finalized Flash piece out today for its first trip.

 

[RedMage]

This weekend is a huge comic-con in Houston, and I'll be there with a table. Second draft of "Siren's Song" going gang busters as plot kinks get straightened out and further refined. Press to MECO!

Have fun at the con, Kerry! You will have to tell us about it next week.

I took a few minutes at work this morning to try to write down the chapter/scene list for the Jack Frost story and I got stuck as I haven't looked at the outline in since January. But when I checked it by what's I have in scrivener for it, I found it was all there with two of the chapters in the wrong order--which was where I had become stuck.

Plans for this book are going well. When it's done I'm hoping for something between 60-70,000 words. I would love to have a draft ready for the Workshop by Christmas, but I have the Pirate book and Halloween book 1 to focus on first. Still, things are going well.

 

[kennychaffin]

I'm sitting here wondering if my writing will ever be linear. Will there ever come a day when I can move, in a straight forward manner, from idea to outline to draft to completion? Does anyone else's brain do this to them?

I'm pretty sure this is a big part of the reason I'm relegated to the 'slums' of flash and poetry....my tiny brain can only deal with so much at a time. My more successful stories and poems hit me in a kind of gestalt manner, I write it down, do some revising (sometimes extensively .. even complete re-writes). And sure there are others I work and re-work and rearrange but those are short-form as well. I really question whether I have the makeup to do long (i.e. novel-length) works. Best I can do is follow my muse and see what happens.
I'm pretty good at coming up with ideas, titles, openings and getting something going, but more often than not it completely peters out after a page or two...

 

[Facing]

Of Watches and Waistcoats didn't make it but I'm not giving up on it.
Dear Christina,

We thank you for the time and energy you put into submitting Of Watches and Waistcoats to The Playground of Lost Toys.We had many great stories, which has made narrowing down the selection even more difficult. Your story was one of 30 we had left, but we've had to reluctantly let it go.

We loved the madcap Aliceness of this but found there was a bit too much dialogue with not enough action. Some of the scenes went on a bit, which would have been okay, but you stopped only part way through the quest. It should continue the adventure to get back the watch.

As submissions are now closed, we wish you the best in your writing and in placing this elsewhere. It's a good story and we're sure it will be published soon.

 

[JonLaidlow]

Well I think that's a really encouraging note, so bad luck on not making it but well done at the same time!

 

[kennychaffin]

Yep, too bad it didn't make it, but very close and an excellent helpful response!

 

[J.D. Carelli]

@Facing -- As far as rejections go, that's an excellent one . I love that title, so if you ever need someone to look at it, I'm around.

Well, it's Friday night, the kid is in bed, and I'm enjoying an adult beverage. Life is good.

And...I finished the short story I wanted to write. It's a little rough and will require some work-shopping, but I'm hopeful I can whip it into shape.

 

[Facing]

@Facing -- As far as rejections go, that's an excellent one . I love that title, so if you ever need someone to look at it, I'm around.

I'm going to mull on this awhile. If I'm going to get the rabbit his watch, I think I also have to get him some clothes. When I get the whole thing ready, I'll throw it up in the workshop.

 

[RedMage]

I'm going to mull on this awhile. If I'm going to get the rabbit his watch, I think I also have to get him some clothes. When I get the whole thing ready, I'll throw it up in the workshop.

Yay! The Workshop has been quiet for a while. We need some more stories in there!

And, in case people haven't seen, there is one in there right now from Bodhi that he needs some help on....

 

[Facing]

I added nearly 500 words to my Letters from Home story today. I'm still not sure where I'm going with it. I also added another 350 to the jumbled mess from earlier and it now seems to have a direction. Even stilted progress is progress, right?

 

[CharlotteAshley]

Didn't actually do any writing on vacation. >.> My brain checked out. The good news is, I guess, that I relaxed!

I'm back at the keys today, though. I have fully 4 stories "held for consideration" right now (including the Clockwork Canada one - yay!) so I badly need more stories written in case, you know, I actually sell these. But first, catch up on correspondence and reviews...

 

[SteveW]

Didn't actually do any writing on vacation. >.> My brain checked out. The good news is, I guess, that I relaxed!

I'm back at the keys today, though. I have fully 4 stories "held for consideration" right now (including the Clockwork Canada one - yay!) so I badly need more stories written in case, you know, I actually sell these. But first, catch up on correspondence and reviews...

I am in the same boat. No writing done while off on vacation. New bathtub and shower are done though . Back at it today on my lunch hour.

Charlotte you are a total inspiration all by yourself here on the forum. Your continued success is fantastic.

 

[CharlotteAshley]

Charlotte you are a total inspiration all by yourself here on the forum. Your continued success is fantastic.

Thanks, Steve. I don't feel very inspiring - my word count is awful and I have trunked more stories in the last 15 months than I have written. But weirdly, I still have this feeling of forward momentum. I'm getting more bang for my word count than I used to. I'd rather write one story and sell it within 5 submissions than write five and not be able to sell them, I guess...

 

[kmtolan]

This month will see the end of my new novel's first draft for sure, and hopefully a couple chapters into the second. I will be attending Comicpalooza in Houston with all books on deck and finally get that Vulture I've always craved for in Elite Dangerous.

Rarely do I nail it like this month. All the above accomplished, but the biggest is that I finished that second draft! Third draft is the most fun and gets submitted to my writer's group. Can't wait to get started!

About the con -got to meet writer Jonathan Maberry on a panel I was participating in. He's seriously professional about his work and even teaches too. Not everyone can make a living at this stuff, but he's a good one to show how it's done. Lots of great cos-play going on, with some of the outfits being jaw droppers (ok, so there was this one lady wearing more paint than anything else, but I digress). Had a handful of authors scattered about at tables, some with great displays and a few still sitting there with just a stack of books. They'll learn. I was tucked in between two artists so there was plenty of traffic and book sales were great. Had some interesting celebrity actors there - from George Takei to the fellow who plays Sherlock Holmes Santaran servant in the Dr. Who series (hint, Holmes is female and a lizard who tends to eat the bad guys). Getting home after the con was a chore thanks to Texas floods - had to turn around at one point and seek an alternate route home when major highway got flooded.

 

[kennychaffin]

Rarely do I nail it like this month. All the above accomplished (bunch of books sold at the con and got to meet writer Jonathan Maberry), but the biggest is that I finished that second draft! Third draft is the most fun and gets submitted to my writer's group. Can't wait to get started!

Excellent! Congrats! and with a week left to go!!

will you let it sit for a bit before you dig in for the next draft?

 

[kmtolan]

Excellent! Congrats! and with a week left to go!!

will you let it sit for a bit before you dig in for the next draft?

I'm probably not going to let it sit too long (a few days) as I'm looking to get this submitted to my publisher before the end of the year.

 

[Wilson Geiger]

Congrats on all the momentum and work this month! Keep ticking off those checkboxes!

Not so good end of the month for myself. I didn't write at all over five days, my longest stretch without writing in months. I made the difficult decision to resign from the independent press some local writers had been trying to establish. It was a real downer, and it sort of killed my will to write over the past few days.

I'm back on the horse now, and even though I won't hit my wordcount this month, I still hope to finish the first draft of the sixth and final episode of this first season. Lots of lessons learned along the way, and it's all helped me to refine my writing, know what works and what doesn't, and what kind of expectations my readers have.

 

[Facing]

Congrats on all the momentum and work this month! Keep ticking off those checkboxes!

Not so good end of the month for myself. I didn't write at all over five days, my longest stretch without writing in months. I made the difficult decision to resign from the independent press some local writers had been trying to establish. It was a real downer, and it sort of killed my will to write over the past few days.

I'm back on the horse now, and even though I won't hit my wordcount this month, I still hope to finish the first draft of the sixth and final episode of this first season. Lots of lessons learned along the way, and it's all helped me to refine my writing, know what works and what doesn't, and what kind of expectations my readers have.

Glad to see you climb back in the saddle. Excellent thread this month. Ten pages and we're still not at the end.

 

[JonLaidlow]

Ran into some turbulence this week but did manage to get an entry in for the flash fiction competition, which was one of my goals. No headway on the short story for next month, or anything beyond an idea for Ecotones.

Thanks to @Facing and her spreadsheet help i'll report back on my final May word count at the weekend - mostly fragments and sketches, so nothing *good* but at least its wordcount, right?