Decollated December - 500 words/day, all genres welcome!

onesecondglance

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Couldn't see a thread for this month, so here goes!

This thread is for wordcount and daily writing stuff - general chat in the Life Of Crime And Chocolate thread, please.



So... how did November go for you? What are your goals this month?
 

lizmonster

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Thanks for the thread, osg! I was starting to have withdrawal symptoms. :)

November was very good to me. I hit my 50K, and started doing some rearranging and editing. I even got a better idea of where my plot is going, although I still have some incidental characters whispering in my ear.

This month: Write and edit like crazy, because for some insane reason, I told my agent I'd try to get her a first draft by March 1. I could send her the cluttered mess of scenes I have, but I think she'd have a heart attack. :)

So, specific goals:

- 20,000 new words on the WIP
- The first 30,000 words properly edited

Happy December, everyone!
 

Introversion

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November was okay (though 500 words per day just ain't happening).

I'm All But Finished on the current short story, which morphed into a novelette when I wasn't paying attention. I have a final scene to write, hope to do it tonight. The whole thing needs to be shorter, but I've been aggressively editing as I go, so not going to be easy.

December Goals:

- Chop the novelette down to 8-9k words if possible, from 10k-ish now
- Get it beta-read
- Submit it to a market (serial submissions in short markets, I hate you so)
- Start the next story, which I've been plotting in my head, and which WILL be 5k words or less, if it kills me
 

wonderactivist

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November was mostly a wash though I did start writing scenes again so that's good. I want to be part of this but doubt I will get in 500 words per day. Instead, I'll just try to write something each day and be more accountable. Good luck everyone!

Lucie
 

cmhbob

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Meh. I ended up doing 8k words on the sequel during November. But I had done over 21k in October, so I was a little off my game. I'm at 47,600 right now, and really want to finish this by the end of the year. If I can stay at my October average production, I can do it. Fingers crossed.

Started out with 1,020 yesterday.
 

asroc

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Got essentially nothing in November, expecting nothing for December too.

I suck.
 

Saoirse

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asroc - You don't suck. Sometimes we need time away.

I did pretty well in November. I needed to revise my WIP for submission January 1st, and finished the revision quicker than I thought. Then I was able to get feedback (remember, short time frame, bad wrists, etc) so I dove into what I'm calling the "second revision," keeping the feedback in mind as I go. I'm also editing as well, b/c I don't know if I'll have time for another pass.

Goal this month is to FINISH the DAMN THING and submit it January 1st.
 

lizmonster

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Absurd. You have a life, and writing is only one part of it. Tasks must sometimes be rearranged. You do not suck one bit. :Hug2:

Made notes on three more chapters tonight. I want to get through the next eight over the next two days, and then I need to incorporate the changes. I'd originally allotted the full month for this task, but if I can get it done before mid-December, that would be totally awesome.
 

Introversion

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Finished the last chapter of the current novelette. I'm not happy with the way it ends, so will be thinking of how to fix that.

Sent it to a beta reader.

Also unhappy that I can't yet get it under 10k words. :tongue Will save a copy as-is, then stand it up against a wall with a knife to its throat and make it drop words Or Else... :whip::Hammer::deadhorse
 

Introversion

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Beta feedback had, and incorporated.

Chopped about another 40 words. Decided this story cannot slim down to 9k, so submitted it at 10,400.

Opened a new Scrivener project for the next WIP. Too fried to do more. :tongue
 

lizmonster

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Made editing notes on another four chapters, and discovered a gap where a chapter must be written. Overall, though, I'm a little surprised at how much of it works.

Go, words and submissions! :e2cheer:
 

Introversion

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514 words on the new WIP, plus some place- and character names, and notes on plot.
 

Zelenka

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Only a spattering of words as I'm editing an old WIP I found languishing on the hard drive, about an ex detective turned hitman going back to kind of old fashioned detective work. One of his ex targets has turned up alive and wants to know who hired him in the first place. It actually doesn't totally suck, so far anyway. Only thing is I was making it up as I went along so no idea where I was going with it or how to finish it.
 

lizmonster

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Excellent editing, Saoirse and wonder! And welcome to Intro's new WIP. :)

I finished reading over Chunk #1 of the WIP, and started incorporating edits. I figure I need to have this redrafted by mid-month, and then have Chunk #2 drafted by the beginning of the year. That should leave me enough room to properly shape the last half of the book. (Boy, it sounds so easy and sensible when I write it out like that.)

Word-count-wise, I lost 367 unnecessary words. Yay!
 

Shara

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Hello! Happy December!

The only goal I'm setting for December is to get some writing done. I've got two novels in various draft stages, and a short story on a deadline of 31 December.

Two early morning starts on the trot resulted in 500 words of WIP #2 (at first draft stage) yesterday, and 788 words of the short story this morning.

Onwards...
 

Introversion

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Good progress, everyone!

383 net words for me, after some edits. I'm happy with that.
 

lizmonster

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Zelenka, "doesn't totally suck" is damn good for a first draft. :)

Nice progress on the edits, Saoirse! And good for you, Shara, on the early morning words. :e2cheer:

Love the Empress stuff, Intro. :)

Edited another chapter, and knocked off 250 words. It's still far too long, but it's maybe in decent first draft shape now. I figure I've got another ~13 chapters left for this part of the story, so I'll need to step it up a bit if I'm going to finish mid-month.
 

Zelenka

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Go everybody!

Edited the first 30 pages of what I have so far, so I'm about a quarter of the way through what's been written. I spent today trying to figure out what I was planning to do, then making up a better version and now I'm editing what's there to fit the slightly more sensible story.

I seem to have a habit of missing out words when I'm typing though. And one sentence I had to take out entirely because I don't know if it was a typo or if I was referring to something but it made no sense at all.
 

Introversion

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I seem to have a habit of missing out words when I'm typing though. And one sentence I had to take out entirely because I don't know if it was a typo or if I was referring to something but it made no sense at all.

:roll:

Since I write SF/F and invent words all the time, when I go fast I don't always notice that Scrivener has auto-corrected those, into what later reads like drunken jabberwocky nonsense. :tongue
 

cmhbob

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Well....
My net today is going to be something like -12,500. I discovered a plot hole that almost qualified as a Too Stupid To Live moment. So the bad news is, I'm going to cut a couple of chapters. The good news is, the action should tighten up a bit, and I can still pretty much use a couple of late scenes I already had mapped out in my head.

Sigh.

Everyone else, rock on!