New Post Your Progress Thread

[N. E. White]

due to the global economic collapse and political upheaval.

Ug. Yes. I feel this statement. On the one hand, it doesn't really affect me, right? I'm living in my privileged world, I can carry on as usual. But but but WAIT! We can't let this happen! How did we let this happen? Did I let this happen?

I know it is not my fault. There are people in this world in power that want all this political upheaval. And there's not much I can do about it that I'm not already doing (vote, make my opinions known to politicians, give money, etc.). So... I continue writing because otherwise I'd be pretty darn depressed.

Keep writing, Noel. Hang in there.

 

[N. E. White]

Progress update: edits nearly complete. I'm so close to handing off The Rescue of Damndrake to my (hired) editor. I hope she likes it. By that I mean, I hope she doesn't tear it apart too much.

My critique partners think it is better than The Legend of Damndrake, so that's good. (Except, that means TLD could've been better...)

Once that's in her hands, then I'll get started on The Failure of Damndrake, which will be the last in my Draghi Chronicles series.

After that (circa 2027), I'm planning to take a break. Maybe go back to short stories. We'll see.

 

[NoelWell]

Keep writing, Noel. Hang in there.

Thank you for the thought. We really are in the same boat.
I know I should keep writing! But it's the enormous amount of distraction that's preventing that. It was easier to write even 2-3 years ago than now. Waking up every morning and checking 'Have we been nuked yet?' is not very conductive towards the fiction writing.

 

[NickeeCoco]

Was out for the count for a bit there with an infection, but I had an 8hour train ride on the weekend, so I got a lot of writing done! Finished two chapters.

 

[N. E. White]

Waking up every morning and checking 'Have we been nuked yet?' is not very conductive towards the fiction writing.

Yikes! No. It is not.

 

[N. E. White]

Finished two chapters.

Yay! Every bit is that much closer to 'the end.'

 

[Hous1988]

This is a great idea. Starting a fresh thread makes it much easier for everyone to share updates without digging through hundreds of old pages, and it gives writers a clean space to stay motivated and accountable. I always enjoy seeing progress posts because even small updates on a story, novel, poem, or any creative project can help keep the momentum going. Looking forward to seeing what everyone is working on, and for anyone interested in useful digital resources along the way, you can also see full guide.

 

[NickeeCoco]

Yay! Every bit is that much closer to 'the end.'

Very much so! I'm having a lot of fun with this one. In the past, I was writing to market. This one? Nope. I'm writing for me. And know what? It just flows out.

--

My new writing desk arrived today. I work from home, so I wanted a space to write in that wasn't my office.

The new desk is in my front window, surrounded by houseplants. The chair doesn't arrive until Friday. Anyway, I'm excited to sit down this evening to write.

 

[NickeeCoco]

I happily finished chapter four last night while Kevin was at band practice. The desk, view, and coziness of the writing set up was exactly as I wanted it to be.

 

[N. E. White]

I happily finished chapter four last night while Kevin was at band practice. The desk, view, and coziness of the writing set up was exactly as I wanted it to be.

Oh, that sounds like a dream. I work from home, too. And my husband doesn't understand why I write at the kitchen table--because it is so uncomfortable!

But I need to get away from work. Maybe I'll get inspired and somehow conjure another space for writing.

Regardless, I'm glad it is working out for you.

 

[EricJ]

1294 words for New Eden. Yeah, it's going slow, but I'm getting some of the plot worked out as I read another book. I'm shooting for like 60K or fewer words, but I want to make them a little more lengthy than the recent books as well. But it's moving slowly as the world slows down and so on.

 

[EricJ]

Just an update more or less, I am writing again, if not once a week starting next week. I finally found some inspiration after reading a book. So I will post some updates, but while it'll be Inkspired episodes, it's writing more or less.

 

[NickeeCoco]

Oh, that sounds like a dream. I work from home, too. And my husband doesn't understand why I write at the kitchen table--because it is so uncomfortable!

But I need to get away from work. Maybe I'll get inspired and somehow conjure another space for writing.

Regardless, I'm glad it is working out for you.

Honestly? It was an inexpensive bamboo desk from Temu. lol And then I wedged it between the Ikea kallax shelf full of records and the speaker in the living room.

One of my best decisions in a while.

As for my writing, I'm a little over halfway through the book at this point.

 

[EricJ]

I've gotten back into writing, I posted the second episode of a new episodic story that I came up with, it's listed in the Promotion Zone, but while it's not like writing on a WIP, but it is writing, so there's that.

 

[EricJ]

2235 words for New Eden. Got the ball rolling with the plot and so on for the MC to get briefed on what he was supposed to do. I don't know how extensive and how much I'll write for the main plot, but the subplot will be an interesting turn, given world events right now. I'll work on it as I go

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Jewels and Rooks (#13) is uploaded tonight. All major ebook sellers.
Just a few tiny edits on "Tom Óg and the Firebirds" (#14) and it can go.
Very few missing punctuations to fix on #15 & #16 (completed before #14 started.
I was reviewing 1st draft for "Macha and Hy Brasil" (#17) and it's a mess. However I had inspiration how to fix the main plot hole. I thought the solution was the riding school and a farrier, but it's a dressmaker!
The #18 is done long ago as are the two last books in the series, but I'm wondering about a #19 as there is a long time gap and some loose threads. Some scenes written, but no coherent plot yet.

There is a complete draft of the last book in the Talents SF series done some years ago. However I'd decided to set it mostly on Earth & Ireland in 2025. It is an alternate timeline though it did have the Russian invasion of Crimea and Brexit in the last book. Reality seems weirder than visiting Aliens. Maybe I'll mostly ignore current events. Like the Aliens won't interfere. Everyone knows that, right?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Final edit done of "Tom Óg and the Firebirds". Of course it will need proofed again. Epub created. The proofing is always of an epub.

Finally when an ODT is edited for PDF version that is done for paper the created PDF is only proofed for format, layout, headings, footers, page numbers etc, never content,

 

[Alan L]

Okay, so... four months after my self-imposed deadline, and overall after far more time than I want to admit, I have a satisfying ending to my WIP, and a substantially complete first draft. There's still a few things that need to be written to fill in gaps, but I expect that to be relatively easy. I have a pile of edits and notes that will go into the second draft where I also know some of the story lines need to be refined, but at last I have a complete story that works (there has been more then one complete story that distinctly did not work.)

I'm on the home stretch! 90% there! At least for this phase of the venture; the other 90% can come later.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I've never set a deadline except for a final check after uploading.
Never set a size either. Even if plotted rather than pantster, a story has a an ideal size.

Programming projects had artificial deadlines set bu CEO or marketing, usually less than our optimistic estimates.

You can schedule screwing on wheel nuts etc, but not the creative process. Though being self-disciplined to work at it (unlike James Joyce) is important.

 

[Alan L]

I've never set a deadline except for a final check after uploading.

[snip]

You can schedule screwing on wheel nuts etc, but not the creative process. Though being self-disciplined to work at it (unlike James Joyce) is important.

One of my (autistic) traits is that I'm deadline-driven, so trying to set deadlines helps me get more done. The problem is that I need some serious stress to make it happen. Committing to something with my progress partner helps, but it's nothing like the "hey, six months into the project we just discovered that the web component of this $10M project is utter crap because the subcontractor we didn't bother to monitor produced nothing, and it's due on Monday, which is three days from now. Want to come lead a team of ten folks (reconstituted mostly from your team that moved on three years ago) to save our incompetent corporate ass?"

That's the kind of deadline stress I really respond to. I actually love challenges like that. [And yes, by 10pm on the Sunday, with people napping on the floor of the boardroom, we delivered a complex working website.]

Maybe one day I'll have an agent screaming at me to deliver the next book or face having to pay back my six-figure advance [ha, LOL] but until then, somewhat lame self-imposed deadlines will have to do!