A December to Dismember--500 words/day, all genres welcome

MsDashwood

Getting back to writing...
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It makes me smile to read the reports about the creative work that goes on with peeps in here. Good job, you all!

I haven't been able to write this last week or so, for different reasons. I am now just waiting for my Christmas vacation which starts on friday when I travel to an empty house on an island where I will spend many writing days, with my cat. :) Hope to get a lot of words there.
 

franky_s

still procrastinating
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Wow, thanks everyone for the warm welcome.


Saoirse that's awesome, well done!
Lizmonster, over 2000 words in one day? That's crazy talk. Nice work!

I didn't feel like writing today and probably wouldn't have if it wasn't for this thread. Thanks to all you lovely people, I ended up writing 1395 words!! <-- that's a record.

~franky.
 

Zelenka

Going home!
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Lizmonster - the publication said if I hadn't heard in five months to query, and it's been over six, but it was more the fact they wanted to know the date of the submission. I spent so much time trying to find the record of when I mailed it, and work out when they might have received it and put that in the email, that I forgot to add the name of the story. I mean, they have the date and my name, but I feel like such an idiot.
 

Ken Hoss

Storm Rising A Kelli Storm Novel
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Great to see all of the progress being made! Nothing for me yesterday, busy with errands all day. Not a lot today either, but some progress. Wrapped up a scene and have an idea of how the next is going to start, but just can't seem to get it out. :Shrug: Only 305 today, so far.
 

Logan!

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I've definitely hit a slump. About 25K into this WIP, and I'm bored and unsure about it. Haven't written in like a month. It's not so much writer's block, because I have the next few chapters outlined, I just don't care... Ugh.
 

IAMWRITER

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Couldn't get to sleep last night, so I ended up writing 6 and a half A4 pages instead - you know as you do. :D

So no idea how much I actually wrote but quite a bot over 1k, I'm guessing. Might do some writing later on, don't know yet.
 

lizmonster

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I didn't feel like writing today and probably wouldn't have if it wasn't for this thread. Thanks to all you lovely people, I ended up writing 1395 words!! <-- that's a record.

Yay, franky! :hooray: Here's hoping it's the first of many productive days.

I mean, they have the date and my name, but I feel like such an idiot.

Eh, none of us are perfect. I know how you feel; but I expect they have what they need. You are NOT an idiot, and I suspect they won't take you for one.

I haven't written anything since I last posted, but it felt appropriate to make my 1000th post here. :)

:Cake:

Did I ever thank you for bringing me here?

1144 tonight. Into another chapter, after I said I was going to break to outline; but it's a bit I know I need, in one form or another. Yeah, that's my excuse.

Also, tonight I have to write a resignation letter. Short, sweet, and professional is best, I think.
 

Saoirse

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Good work, everyone!

Logan, I've certainly been there. Distance helps sometimes.

1,870 words today, giving me a 2-day total of almost 4k. For me, that's huge. Here's to hoping that continues.
 

muse

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Congrats to all who managed words over the weekend and :Hug2: to all those struggling.

Logan - I'm so with you re your WIP. I hate mine at the moment, and after 102,181 words I have the feeling it's not going to work out!:Headbang:

I did manage 1,692 words over the weekend, however, and I'm determined to finish the blasted thing, even if it is a load of crap.
 

Ken Hoss

Storm Rising A Kelli Storm Novel
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AWesome wordage everyone. :D

Logan! Maybe it's time to take a step back and let it sit for a while. Maybe you could start a different project and get the creative juices flowing. Just a suggestion. I know that personally, when I hit a slump, getting into another project helped me.

Managed 519 this morning and wrappd up another chapter! Only 628 words away from hitting my goal of 30K by months end. WIP WC now stands at 29,372.


ETA: Added another 565 just before breaking for lunch! That brings todays total to 1084 and leaves just 63 words to meet 30K this month! Might just break the 40K barrier before year end. :D
 
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IAMWRITER

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Keep up the fab work everyone!

Nothing for me today as I've had my lovely Xmas Meal tonight and I'm shattered. Get back writing tomorrow.
 

franky_s

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I didn't write anything yesterday. But I did figure out a lot more of the plot so I don't feel too bad. Now I'm going to cut off my internet and get writing.
 

lizmonster

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I believe I did mention something about it being a massive time-sink... :D

You did. :D But boy, this place has kept me going like nothing else.

Nothing for me today as I've had my lovely Xmas Meal tonight and I'm shattered. Get back writing tomorrow.

You remind me: I will need to plan for my zero-word Christmas Eve.

I didn't write anything yesterday. But I did figure out a lot more of the plot so I don't feel too bad.

That counts! Just not toward word count. :)

1049 tonight. I think I have another character who is going to need some space. I really like her interactions with my MC; she lightens him up a lot. But outlining after this chapter! Really! And maybe some beta edits next week.
 
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IAMWRITER

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The following post is about the importance of saving your work...

People, please do not make the same mistake that I did a mere 10 minutes ago. SAVE your work - your amazing, sacred work. Please don't be a complete and utter idiot like myself that had done some writing tonight - 508 words to be exact- and stupidly decided to leave the window open, unsaved just because they were too lazy to retrieve their memory stick that is located across the room whilst their laptop decided it wanted to freeze completely. The result may leave you heartbroken and completely devastated mainly becuase it was some decent writing. GUTTED.

OK, rant over. I'm sure most of you folks on this lovely forum are smart enough to know to save your work from time to time but if you don't and are reading this, SAVE, SAVE, SAVE your work. Please do not lose it like I just did and be left destroyed.

*Screams in agony and heads to grab some chocolate - a BIG slab of chocolate*
 

Ken Hoss

Storm Rising A Kelli Storm Novel
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Great wordage, Saoirse, Liz and Wonder!

Sorry to hear, IAMWRITER. If you were using MSWord, it does automatically do a backup every few minutes, and once you reboot and reopen the program, it should do a recovery of the last open document.

Personally, I save each time I complete a paragraph, and I have my thumb drive already attached to the USB slot and backup to it as soon as I wrap up.

Speaking of wrapping up, this current chapter appears to want to ramble on and on. A whopping 638 today which brings the WIP WC to 30575! :D Topped my 30K goal for the month and still have a lot of month left over!
 

onesecondglance

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Hear, hear. From my background in music tech, I've heard my fair share of horror stories. There's a saying in IT circles that data doesn't truly exist unless it's in three separate places...

IT tip for the day: take an "image" of your computer hard drive using software like Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost before and after you do any OS updates or install any applications. A drive image is like a photograph of your hard drive - using the software you can restore to that point in time exactly. So even if your computer dies, that last Windows update killed your system, or your kids downloaded a brutal virus, you can restore the image - to a new hard drive if necessary - and it's like it never happened. This is more than just a backup - it's a lifeline that can keep you working when deadlines loom.

(My main music-making PC has a separate internal hard drive specifically for backups - and also an external one and a network attached one for backups as well. And I use offsite backups to the cloud as well... it all sounds a bit paranoid until you have one of those moments. Suddenly it seems like you were playing fire, even with that many precautions.)

My wordage for the day is somewhere around four hundred words. More importantly, I'm finally past 10k on the WIP. Keen observers will notice that 10k was the target for the end of November... thank goodness I finally got there!
 

IAMWRITER

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Sorry to hear, IAMWRITER. If you were using MSWord, it does automatically do a backup every few minutes, and once you reboot and reopen the program, it should do a recovery of the last open document.

Personally, I save each time I complete a paragraph, and I have my thumb drive already attached to the USB slot and backup to it as soon as I wrap up.


I checked that just in case but unfortunately it wasn't there. I think the whole computer decided to fail on me. I guess I need to look on the brightside and that it was only 500 words lost not more.

So, from this day forward, I IAMWRITER will not take stupid risks and will start saving on a much more regular basis to avoid moments like this.

Will start back writing tomorrow...
 

Saoirse

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Great progress, everyone!

IAMWRITER - Hugs on the lost words. I had an unfortunate incident with a Mac back in the late 90s. It ate an entire 8-page term paper a few days before it was due. And for no apparent reason. So, I became completely, uh, anal about backups. I have an eternal external drive, a thumb drive, and I do monthly backups to CD. I have full backups on my two backup puters. I have Dropbox backups and I just added an automatic backup in the cloud program.

So, yeah. I am paranoid.


883 words today.
 

franky_s

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IAMWRITER - Hope the chocolate helped. That is such a shitty feeling, losing your work.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

186 words yesterday.