FebNoWriMo!

Almondjoy

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didn't have time to write these past two days T_T Hope today I can manage 3000 words. Slim chances, but I'll try. Congrats to everyone for the hard work.

@Almondjoy Hadn't heard of Wriye, but as far as I can see, they're still in 2012. maybe they have a new site I can't find on google? The forum doesn't look much active, but, hey, there's no harm in joining, right?

I've been checking out the forums [which you can find HERE] and they seem semi-active. I guess there's not really any harm in joining, you're right!

I think I signed up for WriYe one year, then promptly forgot all about it. Whoops.

I came nowhere near my goal anyway. This was before I realized what pace I can actually keep up with without getting burn-out. 50k a month for 12 months? No friggin' way. 20k a month is more my speed, except during NaNo (if I have time) when I push the limits.

I'm still trying to find my pace. I'm thinking that I need something to keep me consistent in my writing, because that's my main problem at this point. So, we'll see. If I do sign, my pace would be something more of 20 K per month.

Taking a little break from the mountain of homework to crank out some words. Slowly, the pile of homework is decreasing. Slowly.

ETA: Wrote about 650 words, and heading back to the homework. Hopefully I'll have some more time to write some more today.
 
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bdwilson

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I've been making slow progress, but my schedule is still a bit of a mess.

At least I got through that short story, and I think fixed the tenses as well as making a change I needed to the ending. I'll have to go through it again to make sure I caught everything before I can call it really done, but it's something :)
 

Caitlin Black

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Finished cataloguing the last half of the bottom shelf of my big bookcase, and then did the top shelf on the small bookcase as well. That top shelf... I've read just over 50% of the pages on that shelf. Need to get on that! (Of course, the 2 books I'm reading at the moment both come from that shelf.) Compared to about 95% read of the bottom shelf of the big bookcase. :)

Anyway, going to do more of it later, but needed a break. And I need lunch soon. And to work on my synopsis...

Current stats:

114 books.
40,006 pages total.
30,690 pages read.
76.7% read of total.
350 pages average per book.

But seriously... I haven't even finished cataloguing, and I've read just over 30k pages?! In about 4 years? Jeez! That's loads!

(I only started collecting these books 4 or maybe 5 years ago, after selling all my books one Christmas when I was short of cash - back when I had maybe 20 books total. Been collecting books since I started writing, so probably 4.5 years. :))
 

WendyN

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BAM! Did a minor revamp on the prologue and first three chapters, which I'm now feeling pretty confident about. (YAY!) I still have quite a bit to go through in Part III (final part, largest chunk of the novel) but making those first parts all shiny has rekindled my enthusiasm for the story (whew!)
 

SianaBlackwood

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I just wasted half the day trying to borrow ebooks from the state library, leaving me with a stabby feeling that has characters running for the hills. Well, except for the one who just settles back on the couch and folds his arms. His expression says all too clearly that he thinks he can take me and he might even be right.

I have reading material, but only because I gave up and grabbed a selection of old stuff from Project Gutenberg instead.
 

Caitlin Black

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Okay, finished cataloguing my books. Interesting few days...

Stats:
159 books.
53,956 pages total.
41,471 pages read.
76.8% read of total.
339.3 pages per book average.

The madness can end! Unless I decide to catalogue the old Pagan books I inherited from a friend years ago... That would make me sad, though, as I haven't read a single word of any of them. It'd bring my stats right down. :tongue

They're not on either bookcase - they're in a little bathroom cabinet I've had since before I got those books, which happens to be also in the garage.

ETA: Taking a break to watch a DVD, and then I really need to outline my synopsis. And edit my short story, which I keep forgetting about, and is due in a couple of days. May have to submit it tonight, just so I don't forget.
 

TMCan

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Did 686 words today. Almost 200 above my daily goal!
 

VP_Benni

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I love how I get sick right at soon as I have time to myself. It's currently week six in winter term. I also got sick during fall term. In week six. I'm sensing a pattern here...

Going to act glad that I don't have official homework tonight and read for most of the next six hours and see if I can stop sneezing... (The number six isn't my friend today, so I doubt it...)

~Amber~
 

Caitlin Black

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Well, read over my short story again, and didn't see anything needing to be changed. The entire thing felt a bit... flat, maybe? But I couldn't think of a way to make it any better without completely rewriting it, which I'm not going to do.

Going to submit it soon, for better or worse. Hopefully it gets some laughs. :)

ETA: And the flatness might just be that I've read that thing about 6 times in about a month... No surprises left in it for me, so I wasn't taken unawares by a joke or anything, meaning I didn't laugh. So yeah... flat. We'll see how it does.
 

WendyN

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Well, I did it. I posted my query in SYW. I want to submit my pitch to NaNoWriMo's Pitchpalooza at the end of the month; that'll give me some extra motivation to finish my other edits before then as well. Tonight's another big editing night, so I'm getting myself pumped up for that :)
 

bdwilson

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Good job Cliff and WKlein!

I went back to the cut-through for the past couple of days, and got a few chapters down. I'll have to switch to short stories again and get some polished for submission soon.

I've been dragging my feet on that too much :tongue
 

Almondjoy

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Well, I did get some homework done today. However, I have a bit more to work on before I'm going to go to bed. So, there is that. I'm also thinking about doing Uncle Jim's challenge. It sounds like it could be fun.

Just curious, what is Uncle Jim's challenge? I haven't heard of it before.

Well, I did it. I posted my query in SYW. I want to submit my pitch to NaNoWriMo's Pitchpalooza at the end of the month; that'll give me some extra motivation to finish my other edits before then as well. Tonight's another big editing night, so I'm getting myself pumped up for that :)

Yay congrats!! I'm sure you'll be getting some fantastic feedback soon. :D

So I have a ton of homework for the rest of the week, but I may try squeezing in some words later tonight when I'm done.

Good luck everyone! =)
 

Caitlin Black

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Made some notes on what needs to go into the synopsis for TEC. Erm, not good. Some places want a 1-page synopsis, and my NOTES were just over 1 page... Ack.

I think next stop is to research which Australian agents I'll be submitting TEC to, and finding out how long they like their synopses. I mean, if they all are fine with a 2-pager, then I don't need to agonise over making it fit onto 1 page.

I'm sure eventually I'll run up against someone who wants a 1-pager, though, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I think the main problem is that there's a fair amount of plot in this story, along with 8 characters who each have their own character development. I can feasibly cut 4 of them down to a couple of lines, as they're not super important to the plot, but yeah... There's a lot going on in this book. At least compared to squeezing it into 1 page!
 

VP_Benni

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Thanks, Cliff. :) Felt way worse this morning, started to feel better toward the afternoon, but now I'm feeling worse again... Not fun.

I'm finding it ridiculous that writing a 500-word essay for a scholarship is so much easier than a 100-word essay. It shouldn't be THAT hard to write two paragraphs...

ETA: Not even two paragraphs. I get three sentences with 100 words. Three fucking sentences. How am I supposed to do something pretty with them without writing a string of haiku poems and submitting that?

~Amber~
 
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SianaBlackwood

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@xXVampyrePrincessXx Well, if you can get your point across in haiku form...

--

I just finished my last character profile, so now I guess I have to spend the rest of the month putting together the outline and notes for my March-May project. It feels weird - the first draft was all 'pants' and now the second draft already has close to a novel-worth of planning done.
 

VP_Benni

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I might actually see if I can come up with something like that. :tongue I'm terrible with poetry, but who knows... It might turn out better than what I already have.

~Amber~
 

bdwilson

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@xXVampyrePrincessXx Well, if you can get your point across in haiku form...

^ This :)

I managed a couple more chapters, and may have come up with an angle on my antagonist that solves a logical issue, yay!

This is taking too long, though :tongue I think I need to set aside a day to just plow through these changes so I can get back to writing.
 

electroweakstar

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I got caught up in the "overthinking" loop of doom and haven't written a single word besides notes/thoughts.

Sigh.

I need to make myself take at least 30 minutes a day to just write something, more if I get flying...
 

Caitlin Black

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Vamp, a 100-word essay sounds really difficult, actually!

I mean, that'd be what? 25 word introduction, 50 word body, 25 word conclusion? That's ridiculous! How are you supposed to present an argument in that short amount of words?!

On my end, I read about 100 pages of a book yesterday, and a few chapters more this morning. Getting close to the end. Hooray!

Still letting the synopsis ideas percolate. But I need to get cracking on my agent search today... There're only 30 agencies listed in Australian Writer's Marketplace (they don't list US or UK agencies) and a good portion of them are for NF or scripts or the wrong genre... So it shouldn't take too long to sort it out, but I'm having a mad case of the "I don't wanna!"s. *sigh*
 

WendyN

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Well, this editing pass-through is 76% done and I've already encountered one of the big hurdles/scene changes that I was dreading without actually having to do a whole lot of re-writing. Whew!

Query Draft #1 wasn't ripped apart nearly as badly as I had feared. I think Draft #2 is set; I'm just going to read it over a few more times tomorrow before posting the revised version in the SYW section. I feel like I ended up having to chop a lot of the "cream filling" in order to really make the main conflict/plot clear and concise... it kind of makes me feel like putting a post-script at the end...

Thanks for your consideration,
XXX
p.s. By the way, the story also includes the Titanic! And amnesia! And hypnosis! And asteroids! And a really creepy stranger with a dark secret! And history repeating itself in a really bizarre way!


*sigh*