Abodement August 500 words/day--all genres welcome!

heyjude

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Welcome, if you dare, to the August thread! Mwahaha!

No, seriously, welcome. :hi: We're very friendly, promise. Most of us only kill people in books!

We're glad you're here, whether you've been in these 500 threads all along or are just getting started. If you need help keeping track, if you need someone to help :poke: and prod you into getting your daily goal, you have come to the right place!

Post your goals, your successes, your woes, commiserate with others, and please keep it on-topic. Off-topic stuff goes in Mama Jude's Pep Talk or the Life of Crime and Chocolate thread. Thank you!

How was your writing life in July? How do you hope it will be in August?

For me, I actually did some dribs and drabs in July. That's enough for me! I hope for the same in August. :)

How about you?
 

Forbidden Snowflake

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July didn't go so well for me.

I moved countries in June... and since then I've been adjusting, have tried to adjust the dogs and had to build furniture and clean and I was nearly unable to write. And I feel a bit depressed, because I really thought July would be a good month.

Instead I got about 6'000 words out... instead of more...

My goal for August is a steady word count every day, even if I'm just describing the room I'm sitting in.

My partner keeps telling me to be more patient with myself and that moving countries with a dog and giving up my old life was a huge deal and that I just need to adjust.

So, this August, every day at the very least 500 words. Aiming for 2'000.
 

sheadakota

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July was terrible for me in terms of writing. We finished up an addition to our house and had a family reunion, which was all good. Going to try to do better this month. I have a MS that is only a few chapters away from completion.
 

Saoirse

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July was pretty good for me. I added 16k to the WIP, a bit lower than I'd set out to write, but life happens.

This month I'm hoping for 30k.
 

Tazlima

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The end of August is the deadline I gave myself for finishing my rough draft (if I manage, it will end up having taken two years).

Count me in. This is just the kick in the pants I need.
 

lizmonster

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I had three July goals:

  • Incorporate fourth draft feedback
  • Flesh out the plot for the WIP
  • Add 10,000 words to the WIP

The first I exceeded, mostly because I kept getting more edits. I'm currently working on Draft Six. (Lucky Six? Maybe??)

And I did break 10K words on the sequel...but I didn't get it plotted, and I probably won't for a while. It's hard, when I've been working on polishing something that's pretty close to finished, to switch back to "new stuff" mode. I forget that writing new stuff - for me, at least - means a fair amount of "Well, the ending is somewhere in...ah...that direction, so I'll start writing some random stuff and we'll see what comes up." One of the main plot points in my almost-finished book - and one that's going to trickle into the sequel - came from a tossed-off comment in an early chapter that was originally added as filler. So if I have any hope of getting anywhere on the WIP, I have to stop agonizing and start plunking down words.

Which brings me to my August goals:

  • Finish the sixth draft, and any other drafts that come my way
  • 25K words on the WIP

No outline promises this time. :D

Here's to August, everyone! :e2cheer:
 

tarak

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I finally, finally finished my revisions to the MS. I'm hoping for this month to get it off to my beta readers. Otherwise, I'm looking forward to writing something else for a change. :)
 

Ken Hoss

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July was good to me. I had the entire month off and met my goal of finishing the first draft of Eye of the Storm, even if right at the wire. Now to let it sit for a few days, print it out and start editing.

Good luck and good writing!
 

BfloGal

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My goals for August:

1. Send my galleys of book 2 back to my editor by August 5th.

2. Do a couple more passes of book 3 and get it to critique partners so I can get it back to my editor by my extended deadline of mid-September.

3. Salvage a little of summer and do something fun, so I have other memories of the season besides sitting behind my computer.
 

lizmonster

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(Oops - posted in July!)

Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone! :e2flowers I am old now. But it sure beats the alternative.

I too celebrated last night, a little too much. :e2drunk: Didn't get up until 10 this morning. :sleepy:

And a well-deserved celebration it was. :)

More edits today. The list is down to four changes. Unfortunately, I can't always tell how long a change is going to take. Sometimes the little stuff is the hairiest.

BTW, my favorite editing note so far:

Modify Greg's description of Ancher, since Ancher has pants on now.

See, he had pants on before, but...well, okay, it's more fun without the explanation. :D
 

Ken Hoss

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Love it, Liz. :roll:

Got 4 chapters edited this morning, only 9 more to go on the first pass. Cutting and adding. :e2chain:

ETA: 5 more chapters edited, 4 to go. :D
 
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lindz

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August goals: first draft done!

That might be asking a bit much, but I'm going to try. I think I'm more on track for the first draft to be 80k words.

1533 words for me this morning. A fun scene started.
 

Saoirse

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LOL, Liz.

Awesome progress everyone!

Last night was a bust due to having no brainz. Shopping after working all day wears me out.

Today I wrote a whopping 1,726 words. That's the most I've written in awhile.
 

Ken Hoss

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Last night was a bust due to having no brainz. Shopping after working all day wears me out.


zombieslovegirlswithbrains_zps1c6ea6fc.jpg


Brainz!!!! :D
 

lizmonster

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Curiously, I have been playing an epic amount of Plants vs. Zombies lately. Yes, when I am supposed to be editing.

I did get through all the edits tonight, including redoing one from last night (I hadn't really understood what the note meant until I was crawling into bed). Tomorrow I'll re-read what I've changed. If it all works, I'll go ahead and bounce it back to my agent.

Well done on the words, Saorise and lindz! And Ken - wow, you are amazing! Go, team! :e2cheer:
 

tarak

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Great jobs, everyone. I got no actual words - spent the day at the mall with my 11-year-old. I'm still debating which WIP I want to work on. Pretty sure I want to focus on one with different characters. If only to prove I can write in a different world and different characters.
 

vagough

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Had to check back in the July thread to see what exactly my July goals had been and discovered that I'd wisely?/foolishly? failed to put anything down. (Does that mean I met them or that I didn't?!)

But in July I repolished the first half of the WIP and that part is now out with a beta reader for scrutiny. (And my wonderful local crit partners will see a chunk of it this week for our monthly crit lunch.)

Goal in August is to make significant headway on the revisions to the third quarter of the draft, "significant" being defined as revising at least eight of the twelve chapters in that section. (At least I'm being more specific this month!) And I need to keep an eye on the total word count, which just topped 100,000 yesterday afternoon, but I'm kind of figuring the pruning can come later.

Happy August!
 

asroc

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Huh, it's August.

I just did some Scrivener math and I do believe with editing and other things I wrote somewhere around 15k words this July. So overall I did actually manage 500 words a day. Yay me!

Let's see if I can keep this up. (Probably not. It'll be an annoying month.)
 

lindz

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1,581 this morning. Finished a really fun scene an am feeling really pumped!
 

lizmonster

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Sent out the latest draft. I have stopped numbering them. What have numbers ever done for me??

I am going to spend the rest of the evening letting my brain be oatmeal. Write on, everyone!
 

Shara

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Creeping back in to the 500 words a day thread...

July was a bit of a bust writing-wise, but I was rather preoccupied with edits for both of the books I've got coming out this year.

Decided it's now time to focus on one of the three WIPs that are hanging around. I'm going back to the horror novel, that I thought was actually finished. It turns out it's not. It needs one more rewrite.

So I'm going in.
*cracks knuckles*
 

BfloGal

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Finished up the review of my galley. I just have to clean up my notes to my editor a little before I send them back tomorrow. Right on time.

Also managed to do a quick edit of one of the chapters of book 3 today, to get it ready for a critique group tonight. Editing added 328 words, meaning I'm now just 630 words short of my required word count.
 

Ken Hoss

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Nice work, everyone. Finished edits and in process of formatting for Kindle and paperback. Planned release date, 16 August. Watch for future announcements. Note, if you would like an ARC, PM me. I am limiting to 10 copies, with promise of reading and emailing me a review.
 
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