Oneiric October - 500 words a day, all genres welcome!

Thank you for the thread, osg - I was starting to get withdrawal symptoms.

Last month: Revised a lot. Wrote almost eff-all on the WIP. Revised some more. Cried and gnashed my teeth. I can't say, really, that the month went well or badly. It went, and here we are, in OCTOBER.

This month: Mostly I will try not to panic or despair. I'm really, really hoping I can get the MS revised to the point of acceptability this month. At this rate, I'll never be producing a book a year.

So my explicit goal is to do SOMETHING every night. If I don't have revisions, I will work on the WIP. If I do have revisions, I will do something other than weeping under the table.

I need a vacation. Does anybody else need a vacation?

Onward to October!

Where the heck did October come from?

I just completed the final complete rewrite and major revision of a novel last night. Got a friend looking over it now before the publisher get it. Deadline to get it to the publisher is October 30 so I feel comfortable I am going to hit it.

Now to finish outlining my next project.

I have no idea how it's October but it's the first of my three favourite months of the year so I am not complaining

No set word goals for this month but I'm aiming (and really need to) get my outline and planning/research done and dusted ahead of NaNo next month. Also want to write a few scenes (that won't be in the NaNo WIP) with my two central characters to help develop their back-story in my mind.

In theory these goals should be attainable but I've got assignments for uni this month to factor in too...the joys!

Hope this month is a productive one for y'all!

Received some amazing fabulous feedback tonight, and SENT THE @#$%!! REVISION ON ITS WAY.

It's probably horrible. But if it is, I'll hear about it.

Yay for October, and goals!

Thanks, onesecond! I totally whiffed on this month!

(I no longer have any writing goals, only surviving-the-day goals. )

hj, I'm not even entirely certain what this thread is for other than to announce a new month. Solidarity!

Finally getting my butt into gear for the last quarter here. Got totally stuck on revisions for a particular story and instead of moving on, I let it stall me out for an embarrassingly long period of time. But no more! I have put that story aside until I'm ready for it.

My goal now is to finish the first draft of my new project, a thriller, by the end of the year. It's going to be tough, no doubt. I did some math and I'll need to average at least 3 chapters a week to pull it off and end up with a novel in the 65-75k range.

On the bright side, that means anything I get done this week is essentially a bonus, because my math didn't account for the half week. On the other hand, I still need to be hitting a high daily average, doubly so if I want to take any days off from writing.

Anyway, I wrote ~900 words today. Definitely a good start on top of the ~500 I already had from last week. Hopefully I'm not too tired to finish the chapter tomorrow after work.

onesecondglance said:

About 120 words this morning. It's the weekend now, right? Please tell me it's the weekend...

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It is here, so I'm guessing unless someone has been messing with the space-time continuum, it is there as well.

DragonHeart said:

Anyway, I wrote ~900 words today. Definitely a good start on top of the ~500 I already had from last week. Hopefully I'm not too tired to finish the chapter tomorrow after work.

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Excellent start to the month!

Well, I didn't write any new words today, although I did have a read-through of my WIP. Bits of it are not bad. But there is one early chapter on which I am Just Plain Stuck. I think I need to chuck it and rewrite it, because there have been too many nights where I've used its problematicness* as an excuse.

*Totally a word.

This month I am starting my Book-Or-Die project, aka Finish a *&^*% Book. I have 2,066 words so far and it's going appallingly. But the point of the project is to actually get some stuff down and see if anything is salvageable at the end so I shall soldier on.

I'm 18k into the sequel to The Sad Girl. Started last month around the 5th. The odd thing is that about 15k of that has been longhand, as in handwritten. I've become amazingly productive doing it that way for some reason.

I'm averaging about 1k words/day on my writing days, so I'm hoping for about 20k for the month.

Good luck to everyone!

And I really need to start participating in more of the writerly type threads...

768 today. I am actually really proud of myself for that; didn't think I would do any writing at all after a horrendous day at work. =/ But I pulled myself together. Didn't finish the chapter as I had hoped, but I am very close to it. Just can't stay focused anymore. I'd rather stop here and start fresh again tomorrow.

Sorry about the horrendous day at work, DragonHeart. And yes, sometimes it's better to give yourself some time to regroup.

cmhbob, I find which tool I use to write depends on what kind of thinking I'm doing. Longhand sounds marvelous.

Go, Zelenka! Remember, every book is appalling at some point. It's part of how it grows.

1,159 tonight, speaking of appalling. It's still awful, but it's less awful than it was, and I think it has more of the tone I need to be able to move on.

:cheers all progress:
:hugs those in need of hugs:
: offers adult beverages to those who need them:

Um...it's October? Well. Let's see...I wrote about 16k on the WIP when I'd been aiming for 30k. Too much camping and physical therapy! I'm either not in the right headspace for it or I'm exhausted.

I WANT TO FINISH THIS DAMN BOOK THIS DAMN MONTH.

Missed most of September, too busy looking for another day job. No luck, so applied for the dreaded "unemployment". Hate doing it, but tough times call for it. Still selling books, but not enough to live on.

Anyway, back to the WIP and added a whopping 347 to finish the scene I was working on, and it works. Now on to the next. Also figured out my killers background, as far as his family anyway. Still won't let me all the way into his head so that I can nail down what makes him tick. But then, that may be a good thing, considering how twisted he is.

Good to see everyone is making progress, and to HJ.

Good luck and good writing!

lizmonster said:

cmhbob, I find which tool I use to write depends on what kind of thinking I'm doing. Longhand sounds marvelous.

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Started that way due to a hard-drive issue. I've found that I can get into the flow more quickly, and stay focused more easily. Plus, when I'm writing in public (waiting for soccer practice, for example), people tend to leave me alone more so than when I've got the laptop going. There seems to be much less "Whatcha doin?"

Well, not a lot, but managed to get another chapter, from Cal's POV, thank goodness, and added another 473 words to the WIP. Now I have to crawl back into the sick and twisted mind of the serial killer.



ETA: Started the next chapter and added 94 more words, which takes me over 10K!

Also started plotting a new idea I had, which was actually in a dream I had this morning. Odd, I usually don't remember my dreams, but this one stuck with me. It's set in 1975, and my MC is an Army vet who served in the 1st Infantry Division on a LRRP. Pronounced LURP, or Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol. After his exit from the Army, he has trouble fitting in and can't hold a job. I know, sounds like Rambo, but it's not. A friend sends him a Soldier of Fortune magazine with an ad for mercenaries circled and so he joins and goes to Angola during their civil war. That's about all I have right now, but I think it's going to work into a good story. Tentative title is Mercenary Road - Angola Dawn

Go Ken!!

Been plugging away at the WIP this weekend and managed around 500ish words. Not great but words are words and I'll take them all, especially as I'm essentially playing about with these characters at the moment

Any progress is good progress, no matter how much.

I lazed around a lot more than I should have today. Meh. Still, got through the end of chapter two and a good portion of three, adding 1,198 words in total.

928 tonight. It's a big floppy mess of a book, but first drafts and all. Ugh.

Anyway. Well done, team! You are awesome.

Ken Hoss said:

A friend sends him a Soldier of Fortune magazine with an ad for mercenaries circled and so he joins and goes to Angola during their civil war. That's about all I have right now, but I think it's going to work into a good story. Tentative title is Mercenary Road - Angola Dawn

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Check out the blog bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com. He's got some semi-relevant military experience that he occasionally talks about. South African-born. Now lives in the US.

cmhbob said:

Check out the blog bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com. He's got some semi-relevant military experience that he occasionally talks about. South African-born. Now lives in the US.

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Thanks, I'll check it out. Not a lot of real info on the civil war, just what happened and things like that.