Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related An Invitation to join NaFinWipsMo

Some of you might have heard of NaNoWriMo . Well, some of us who talked about possibly joining in felt put off by the fact that we have hard drives full of unfinished WIPs and the thought of starting yet another piece of work - fanfic, novel, whatever - only to grind to a halt with that one too left us wanting to tear our hair.

So a suggestion has been made - and I credit Pam with the title - of organising a NaFinWipsMo. In other words, National Finishing WIPs Month. This is your chance to dust off one of those unfinished documents on your hard drive and make a serious effort to complete it.

Want to join in? Post below. Feel free to update from time to time. And feel enthused by the fact that lots of us are trying to do it at the same time.

Now, I have at least half a dozen long WIPs I'd love to finish. I'll have to save the rest for another time, but for this month here is my commitment:

Unfinished WIP: 24 Hours. Currently standing at around 41,000 words and 109 full pages. I think I'm around halfway through it, which could mean anything from another 30,000 words to another 50,000.

One way or another, I intend to have it finished by the end of November. And there's another advantage to that - I can get it to the Archive before the December cut-off point.

And I hereby commit to the above.


Wendy

Oh, yes! Come on and join us, guys! It'll be fun

My effort: Hearts United (the sequel to Hearts Divided, yes), which as of tonight stood at 25,550 words. I don't think it'll take me more than 25,000 more -- but then you know how stories grow in the telling. It took me over a year to get the first 25,000 -- I want to see if I can't get the next 25,000 within a month.

All encouragement and fed-ex deliveries of chocolate will be much appreciated

PJ

I do hereby, despite all the voices screaming in my head, commit myself to the termination of Trick or Treat: A Halloween Dilemna.

In as much as said fic deals with a holiday already passed, this endeavour is both necessary and insane.

Signed,

I'm in, too!!

I'm determined to finish this fic by the end of the year. Not sure I can finish it all this month, but I'm going to try like heck!

Away From the Sun status: 51,119 words

I'd say it's about 2/3rds finished... maybe... could be half... In other words, I have no clue how long it's going to be. Could be 25 parts. Could be 53.

Sara (who wishes she didn't have so much homework...)

Wendy, I'm glad you posted this invitation. I was interested in the NaNoWriMo, but I have a fanfic I've committed to completing by Nov. 30, and it didn't make any sense to start something new. I'm about 1/4 the way through my fundraiser fic--just under 7000 words--and it'll probably be around 30,000 words when it's done, so I've got about 23,000 words to go. Wow, that's almost half of the NaNoWriMo goal!

Okay, that works out to about 770 words per day, or a little less than two pages. So I'm committing to finishing this WIP by the end of November.

(/me chants, "I can do this. I can do this," and tries not to think of the grading piling up.)

Hmm... does polishing a completed fic (possibly including major rewriting of some scenes) count?

See ya,
AnnaBtG.

The way this month is shaping up there's just no way But good luck to all of you who are working!

Kaylle
(if by some miracle I finish a fundraiser story, it will be a short one )

Congratulations to everyone who's signed up so far! We can do this. We can do this...

Day One: 2208 words. Five and a half pages. It's progress.


Wendy

Does an outline count?

'Cause I've spend several almost full days, usually the odd lazy Saturday or Sunday, in the last month working on the outline for Haven. I am determined to finish it in the next few months and I was seriously considering doing a "book in a week" once I got the outline where I wanted it.

Anything counts, as long as it's progress towards getting an incomplete story finished! And that goes for you too, Anna.

So sign up - the more the merrier! We can all nag each other.


Wendy

Well, I'll throw my hat in the ring. I've started two stories (Uncovering Utopia, and You're Looking evil: ).

I will write everyday... :
I will write everyday...
I will write everyday...

gerry

*deep breath*

Okay, I'll bite. I'm committing to finish the sequal to an Alt-Clark story that's currently in the BRing stage. I've got the entire outline and about 5 pages of the first part, but I haven't written anything in about three months. With the holidays coming up I should have some time off from work and school to get serious about finishing.

Feel free to nag me any time.

~Anna

NagNag NagNag NagNag NagNag NagNag NagNag NagNag...


Wendy (getting nagged a lot on IRC and getting a lot of writing done as a result. )

I had a bit of a slow start: 270 words the first day and 500 words the second, so at the end of two days, I've met my first day's writing goal of 770 words. <sigh> That's okay. The fact that I actually wrote the equivalent of 1 manuscript page on the 1st and 2 manuscript pages on the 2nd is tons more writing than I've been doing. I'm building up a head of steam--working my way up to the goal of 3 manuscript pages per day. Hopefully, I'll reach that today. I just need to get my grading done so I can get going on the writing.

There are only three unfinished manuscripts on my hard drive right now, and I'm hard at work on one right now -- that's the one for the fundraiser. Maybe I should join this afterwards, or not. Not sure what to do here. <g>

Nan

Well, since the aim is to finish any unfinished manuscript, Nan, I don't see why you can't join in now: the fundraiser fic is a good place to start! And if you think it'll be finished too soon, just say that you aim to finish two.

And, Sheila, the fact that you're making progress at all is good. Especially as it's more than you've been doing recently - you deserve a pat on the back for that!


Wendy (who did really well the first couple of days but has yet to start today)

Actually, if it's finished too soon that will be all to the good. I hate deadlines ...

Nan

Okay... /me takes a deep breath... So:

The Walls Between Us: A finished, BRed, posted story I'm not happy with. I commit myself to having it ready by the end of this month. (November is one of the worst months for high-school students, but anyway... I could use the nagging. I've been procrastinating on this for too long.)

First step will be... umm... joining all the parts I have in one file. /me ducks tomatoes. Hey, it's a start, right? Besides, if you saw my TWBU folder, you'd agree it's a complete mess.

/me sighs "I can do this" and is off to study Advanced Physics.

See ya,
AnnaBtG.

You can do this, Anna! And way to go, Sheila! It may not seem impressive but it's a huge improvement on nothing <g>

Today, I wrote 1263 words. Yay, me!

PJ

I must be crazy....

but I think writing is what I need right now...

I devote myself to "untitled fic" so far it's 11,622 words and I don't know how much more it will be till I am finished....

However, I will finally finish it!

:mumbles: peer presure :mumbles:

~Lois Lane Wanna Be

All right. I'll bite.

I want to finish a story for the fundraiser, finish a certain ASU rewrite by the end of November and have at least the first scene of a certain other story done.

Dave

Keep it, you guys.

c

Congratulations and welcome to everyone else who's signed up! And don't forget to keep us informed of progress.

Thanks for the encouragement, Carol - nags are very definitely welcome here!


Wendy

Progress... Oh, yeah.

All right, keep in mind I've got *gads* of homework I'm doing at the same time...

Away From the Sun Progress:

Tuesday: 20 words
Wednesday: 14 words
Thursday: 1010 words

Sara (who stayed up way too late last night, but owes her muse *lots* of chocolate )

Oh! And PS - NAG NAG NAG to the rest of ya!

Accountability is the name of this game. When I've participated in BIAW (Book in a Week) contests, we had to log on and give our page count (we were all typing manuscript pages, so it was easy to track) each day to stay in the program. Having to log on and admit that I didn't write shames me into writing each day, even if I don't reach my goal.

Thursday, I only wrote about 30 words, but last night I got my 770 done in one sitting. Okay, it was still only about one day's writing in two days, but I did one day's worth in a single day. Now I know I can put in a full day at work and still write three pages at home. But the other thing I learned is that I can't do it at my laptop, which is in the living room with my husband, the TV, and the Internet connection. I'm too easily distracted.

So I'm off to finish my grading and class preps for this coming week. When I'm done, I'll get started on my WIP. Since it's the weekend, maybe I can write more than my daily quota.

Good luck, Sheila!!!

Wendy, Dave, LLWB, Pam, AnnaBtG, Nan, Bananna, Gerry, Beverly, Capes... )

ROFL! Oh, this is so much fun - in another word, it's actually feel-free-to-nag-every-single-author-you-adore-month, and *not* feel guilty about it. Is this Christmas? Wohoo!!

Good luck to you all!!

Pelican

Congratulations, Sheila! And everyone else too!

Me: nothing today, because I've been out all day. But in the time since NaFinWipsMo started, my progress is as follows:

00:00 hours 1 November:
41,000 words approximately and 109 pages.

22:56 5 November:
49,849 words and 133 pages.

I do have some editing to do next - thank you, Jill, my amazing medical expert! - but once that's done I'll be making good progress again.

Keep up the good work, everyone! And, Pel, the nags are greatly appreciated.


Wendy

I haven't written anything today because I've been running around taking care of everything I haven't been able to do all week. However, I hope to make up for that tomorrow.

Nan

Yay, there'll be a lot more fics to read.

Tricia

Oh, all right. I'll sign up for this. <Gibber, gibber, what on earth am I thinking of? Am I out of my little mind?>

I'm trying to write my fundraiser story, but I have a very low word count at present. This wouldn't be a bad thing, except the story won't let me know how long it wants to be. It was supposed to be reasonable short, but new scenes keep demanding to be written, and not in any useful kind of order, either.

So, as much to give you a laugh as anything else, here are my word counts as of the end of each day:

1 Nov: 1595
2 Nov: 2253
3 Nov: 2830
4 Nov: 2830 (I was out all day -- work stuff)
5 Nov: 2911 (Again, I was out -- fun stuff, this time. Huge amounts of fun, in fact, with two seperate events on one day. All day meeting relating to non Lois and Clark activities, followed by bonfire night shenanigans down by the loch. Now I know what a Big Event looks like in a very small town. )

Actually, the current state of affairs may not be quite so dire as this suggests. I do have some hand-written prose just waiting to be typed up, so that might nudge me over the 3000 word mark.

I might have some spare time today, though next week is shaping up to be busy.

Chris

P.S. In case anyone is interested, the story is called Life In Sepia.

Chris is writing something for the FR too?

Okay, that's it.

I'm making a donation *NOW*.

Dave (who actually has to get his hands on a credit card first, but considers that a minor setback).

Edit: Thought I should throw in an update...

As of November 1st, An Affair To Remember sat at 6 366 words.

After deleting 814 words and rewriting the last scene, it stands at 6 555, with about 800 words I can recycle later on. <g>

Haven't started the certain other story and the FR story still looks dismal, but... I *am* in the middle of my exam period.

Hopefully it'll pick up once my exams end.

Well, I've got to get my fundraiser story written as well, and so seeing as it's currently only about halfway complete, this very well may be just the thing I need. Finished WIP by the end of the month, that's the goal, right?

All right, guys, the file's open... I'm going back to work! Good luck to all those who are participating, and thanks, Wendy, for extending the invite!

Tracey (feeling motivated! <g>)

Congratulations to everyone else who's signed up lately! I hope we all get our WIPs finished.

Well, I got nothing at all written over the weekend. We were out both days and busy otherwise. Today, though, was better. Even though I had to do some editing - Jill corrected some of the medical stuff - the plot's been advanced to an important point and I think I can say I'm about 2/3 finished now.

Words written today: 2596
Pages written today: 6 or so, though hard to say given I added in stuff earlier
Total word count now: 52446

Total written since NaFinWipsMo started: around 11000 words. I can't be exact since that 41000 I cited at the start wasn't precise as I was allowing for notes - but 11000 in a week sounds pretty darned good to me! Thanks to everyone who joined in with this - knowing there are lots of us doing it is really helping. A special thanks to Pam - our 'writing duels' on IRC have done a lot to keep me focused when part of me would be very happy surfing the net or playing stupid games instead of writing.


Well done everyone else, too - keep it up!


Wendy

Forgot to log in before bed last night...

I'm taking Sundays off.

Monday's word count: 977 (two words over my goal, woo-hoo! )
Total new words for the month: 7,172
Total words: 32,722

I've got eleven parts out of, I dunno, fifteen? Hard to predict but I'm getting the big plot problem resolved Real Soon Now, so then it's just wrap-up. It's just that there's a lot to wrap up... I'm starting to think about posting this story.

And I snagged a beta-reader, which is pretty good -- seems all my usual betas are off writing novels or some such thing

Wendy, you're welcome; it's definitely been motivating for me, too. And the whole story is, well, not exactly inspired *by* you, but inspired by a conversation *with* you, in Annette's kitchen, so I figure I owe you one.

Anybody who wants should join us on #loisclark in the evenings -- all word counts are applauded; even if you only manage 12 for the day, it's 12 more than nothing!

PJ

I may have to bow out. I managed to write about 2,000 words (approx.) and get ahead on my fic, but then RL kicked me square in the face and the muse just left the building.

I don't know when I'll get back to my story.

gerry

Sorry to hear that, Gerry! We were thinking of trying this again in the spring, though (April?), so you may yet get your chance.

PJ

This thing doesn't seem to work for me. I've only managed to go over parts 1-4 so far I think I'm inwardly procrastinating because I don't really know what I want to do with this story. I've been considering abandoning it, Archiving it as it is, re-writing it, deleting all the parts that are giving me a hard time, splitting it in two seperate stories... and I still can't make up my mind about it. Argh.

On the bright side... I'm done polishing the first 18 pages!

See ya,
AnnaBtG.

I ended up writing a short waffy story instead of finish my other one

This one will be on the boards the day after Thanksgiving (25th) so keep your eyes open!

~Lois Lane Wanna Be

Anna, progress is progress, even if it's not as much as you'd hoped for! So well done, you! (And I know what you mean; massive edits are very discouraging -- I've tried it several times and almost always end up by giving up) (Oops, I'm supposed to be *encouraging* here. Sorry! )

And while this may technically be a month for finishing WIPs, believe me, we won't object to new WAFFy stories

PJ

Anna, is there someone you can send the story to and ask for their thoughts? Sometimes, a fresh eye can work wonders. I've finally settled on two short stories from my WIPs for the Fundraiser, after giving up on trying to decide what to do and running them both past one of my betas.

On the second, I had two scenes I'd written to start off with ages ago, but no idea where to go next. My beta came up with the most wonderful ending I'd never have considered, which instantly brought the whole story to life for me, had the Muse sitting bolt upright, ears twitching, with a "Aha!" , and I now have very good hopes of finishing it.

It's worth a try - see if it works for you, too. If not, you've not lost anything.

LabRat

Thanks for the idea, Labby I might do that, after I finish polishing the 'good' part of the story.

Also, while I'm here -- what I love about this thread is that we can all discuss our writing progress, complain about lack of time or writer's block... Fanfic is a big part of my life, and I like sharing how I'm doing with it with my fellow fanfic writers - and listening to them sharing how they're doing So thanks, Wendy and whoever else is behind this idea!

See ya,
AnnaBtG.

This will teach me not to count my chickens before they hatch (or my words before they appear on the screen ). On Saturday, I only got 300 words written, Sunday was a pitiful 100, Monday was 280, and Tuesday was 180--for a total of 860 words, or just over one day's target. Writer's block is not a pretty thing. :p

OTOH, I wrote 776 words last night, and I only have a few more pages to go before I'm done with the first act. I just need to use my time better--grab those 10 minute bits and write during them instead of waiting for a one hour stretch. And next time I stall out on a scene, I'll just write detailed notes about what has to happen, so the pressure to make the dialog right doesn't increase the writer's block.

I'm glad to see so many other people writing. Maybe we'll all have completed stories to show by the end of the month.

Congratulations, Sheila! See, you're making progress.

We all have good days and bad days - I've been reporting some counts of 2000 words and above, but yesterday I didn't even make it to 1000. I know that Pam and Sara have been fluctuating just as much. As Anna said, all the cheerleading, nagging and general sharing of experiences here really does help - as does the nagging and duelling on IRC.

Gerry, I'm sorry that RL is giving you problems and hope it's nothing too serious. As Pam said, we'll definitely do this again some time - and you don't have to wait for her or me to start it. Anyone who wants nagging and support to finish a WIP can start a FinWipsMo any time you like, and there'll always be people eager to jump on the bandwagon.

Keep up the good work, everyone who's still in, and let us know how you're doing!

And... three cheers for all of us!


Wendy

Well, two days ago, I got 1387 words written, well above my target of 975. Yesterday, I had a grand total of 244 words. Today, so far, I'm up to 497, so I hope to get to my target before bedtime... but we'll see.

Hey, did y'all know, in Word you can put a word counter on a tool bar? I just discovered it today and think it's really really cool Plus it's easier than clicking on File/Properties/Statistics all the time

PJ
(why yes, I am a geek -- why do you ask?)

So funny you mention that, Pam. I was just thinking about doing that last night... and didn't get around to it. :rolleyes: Good to know I can now.

Geek? Naah. A geek would be someone who creates Word macros just for the easy conversion of archive stories to normal Word format. Or, perhaps, creating a Word template for the sole purpose of feedbacking (three pages full of [ quote] [ /quote] ). Not that I know anyone like that...

Anyway, I'm here to update my daily counts:

Nov 1: 20
Nov 2: 14
Nov 3: 1010
Nov 4: 1388
Nov 5: 263
Nov 6: 201
Nov 7: 736
Nov 8: 221
Nov 9: 617

Total: 4535 or 4470 or... dang... this is why I'm majoring in English, not math.

I did some editing in there... maybe I forgot to count those. Anyway, I'm up from 51,119 to 55,654 total words.

Keep up the great work, everyone!!!!

Whew!

Err, well, I do have one of those... it's on my toolbar, for easy access

lol, really? I haven't done that, but maybe I should!

No, a geek is someone who creates an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of her scene order, and gets all excited over little comment boxes attached to individual cells, and has a page devoted to analyzing word counts... not that I know anyone like that

PJ

LOL! That sounds a bit more like geek material.

Sara (who managed to find some time to tweak things today, which added 31 words )

Well, although I'm still not officially signed up to this - because I have a high expectation of failure - I just want to record that I've just gotten out of bed to get down two whole new pages of my story, which hit me just as I was drifting off to sleep.

I've no idea how many words that is, but it's a dang sight more than I've written in a while.

What's more - heavens to Betsy - I actually like them.

LabRat (who hates her Muse for not coming up with these things at a reasonable hour. :rolleyes: )

My muse tends to "bother" me when I'm in the shower.

One of these days I'm tempted to buy a dry-erase board and put it up in there.

Catching up here... on Thursday I had a very productive day, and for the first time wrote over 2,000 words! Okay, it was only 26 words over 2,000, but still

Yesterday, not so much. I ended up with 652; mostly I was working on one kinda tricky bad-guy scene. When I get back to L&K, I'll do better. I hope

Wish me luck, btw; my kids go to year-round school and as of yesterday they're on break. They don't go back to school until the first Monday in December, so they'll be underfoot, interrupting my concentration, wanting to take over my computer... although there have been times, in the past, when I've actually written more when they're home, so I'm keeping my hopes up.

Overall, I've written 11,481 words in November, with a daily average of 1,004, so I'm still ahead of my goal

PJ

I struggled for two days to write three paragraphs, and then this morning I had a breakthrough and wrote six pages! Finally, I'm on the home stretch for my fundraiser story.

Nan

I just wanted to say that although I'm not participating in this challenge, I am writing. And I am very much enjoying following everyone else's progress. Keep up the good work.

ML

Um, Pam?

Tools, Word Count...

Unless you've got a different version of Word to me (Word 2000) and Microsoft have shifted it somewhere else - which is quite likely.

Yvonne

Well, as soon as I hear from my beta-readers, it goes to LabRat for editing. I'm *done*!

This masterpiece comes in at 215K, so I think I made pretty good time in spite of a small case of writer's block right in the middle of it.

Nan

Yay, Nan!!!!

Everyone else keep up the great work!!

I'll try to come back later and post my latest progress.

Sara

Although I haven't signed up for this challenge either, I've written six pages between two fics and posted a section for the first time in *ahem* months on Friday.

When I finally found my word counter, I was able to write 211 words in about an hour. So starting Monday, I'll be keeping track of my word count. I think even if you're not participating offically in the challenge, it helps to push writers along!!

Missy

Great job guys!

Way to go everyone!

Congrats to our early finishers. <g>

Okay, update on AATR:

Previously - 6555 words.

Currently - 7105 words.

And, I still have my 800 I can recycle.

I'd hoped to get more written after my exams, but I've actually been busier since I finished. Definately not complaining. <g>

Dave

I'm late, but I sign up too. I try to finish my second fanfic. I came with the idea some weeks ago, but I just began to write it ten days ago. And after ten days making no progress at all, I have finished today my first part.

I am at 1566 words.

I will try my best to write half of my story before the end of the month. That means I'll try for 6 whole parts (since my story will count 13 parts)

And then, I'll chase down all the tipoes and grammar problems I can see before starting to post it.

I will tell you my progress regularly. I hope that will help me to progress quicker.

It was raining off and on and I had nothing else to do for most of today, so...

Previous word count: 7105

Current word count: 8108

Which means I wrote 1003 words today. My record.

Dave

Congratulations, Nan! Well done!

David, Missy and everyone else who's joined us recently - welcome and successful writing!

I'm doing pretty well still. Apart from one or two days when I don't get a chance to write, I've been managing about 2000 words a day. That's about five or six pages, depending on density of text.

And the success of NaFinWipsMo is this:
When I started, I had about 41,000 words and something like 100 pages. Now I have:

Total words in file: 65792

Total pages written: 178

Total words for November: around 25000

Story remaining to write: I'm in the final stretches and think it won't be much more than 20-30 pages.

So thank you, everyone, for the group effort and the nagging - it really does work.


Wendy

Yep, this has been very helpful to me! I've consistently written less than Wendy per day... but hey, there's nothing new about that!

I started this with just over 25,000 words. I now have nearly 39,000! I'm pretty impressed with myself, considering this thing was started *last* September and sat untouched for months at a time...

Keep on writing, everybody! You may or may not meet your goal, but you've made progress! 40 words is better than 0

PJ
who's written a grand total of 93 words so far today... but with any luck will do better later...

Yeah, I keep telling myself that any writing is better than none. I don't know what's been happening to my weekends, but this is the second one that was a total wash:
Friday--16 words
Saturday--100 words
Sunday--568 words
Monday--640 words.

I was sort of disappointed that I was only hitting about 600 words each of the past 2 days instead of 770, but maintaining that rate would still be better than what I've been doing any other time this month. Besides, I finally finished Act 1, which puts me about 1/3 the way through ... and halfway through the month. Well, I'll keep trying. Without the push of NaFinWipsMo, I wouldn't be this close.

I started the month with 5768 words that had taken me the entire month of October to write, and in the two weeks since November 1, I've written another 4563 words, so this is working much, much better. I've got to get in the habit of leaving a little note that says [fix this later] instead of struggling with individual scenes, conversations, etc.

/me chants: Get the story down, get the story down. Edit later!

previous word count: 1566

actual word count: 2130

so I wrote 564 words today.

Here's the good news. I'm about to make all you guys look really, really good.

Here's the bad news. My word count hasn't gone up in days. Okay, so I have some handwritten notes that will help up the number of words when I can find the time to put them on the computer, but... Here's what my last week looked like:

Tuesday: work during the day. Evening spent travelling. Night in a hotel that, quite frankly, verged on being sleazy. The owners had nailed down everything that they possibly could, no free biscuits with the complimentary tea / coffee, a choice of films that raised the eyebrows... Don't get me started on the bedspreads...! And this was the fairly expensive hotel my employers had arranged for me to stay in! At least there was a sturdy chain on the bedroom door.

Wednesday: up very early. More travel. Day long meeting, which was both useful and interesting. Wednesday afternoon / evening. More travel. Meeting with friends.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday: Great fun with said friends. We did a lot. Had a lot of fun. But writing wasn't very high on my agenda.

Sunday: Travel. Made notes for the story on a train. Then two and three-quarter hours on the bus. I can't write on buses. I can barely *read* on buses! That's okay, though, because the scenery is too beautiful to ignore, anyway. Got home, by which time it was almost dark. (Not that that means a lot. It gets dark pretty early here.) Had to cram my weekend chores into one evening.

Monday: Work. Then useful stuff that had to be done in the evening.

Tuesday: Work. Unscheduled nap in the evening. Now off to bed.

What makes matters worse is that I'm likely to be on holiday later this month, so I'm not sure how practical it will be to write anything then.

Oh, well. Now everyone else looks really good. Maybe that's my role in this -- to 'come last' and make everyone else shine in comparison!

Chris

You're still looking better than me, Chris. And I don't even have the excuse of a hectic social life or job.

Am determined to have it done by the weekend though. Am bolstered by the fact that since it's such a simple story, it should NOT be that difficult to write.

Course, that's never stopped Lois and Clark dashing off at a tangent and producing a whole new A plot or sudden bad guys before without asking permission, so....

:rolleyes:

LabRat

I know all about that. A story that was meant to go one way suddenly assumed a life of its own, but fortunately, my original character, Mortie, was able to solve several problems for me at once. Of course, the new universe I created for the story may come into play in the future. You never know.

Nan

Since when are simple stories easy to write? /me looks at hard drive full of half-written vignettes. My muse must have missed that memo

Kaylle

LOL, Kaylle. Should be. Because it's mostly of the simple 'X did A, B and C' variety. Considering how long I've been writing, this should not present much difficulty.

However, as you point out, from past experience, it's more than likely those are the very bits I'll get stuck on and find impossible to put down just so. ( /me remembers the ridiculous amount of hours it took her once to write 'he walked across the room'. :rolleyes: )

Wrote another page last night though, after posting here.

LabRat

previous word count: 2130
actual word count: 2280

So today I wrote only 150 words. I'm ashamed.

Hey, 150 words is better than no words, Poussin. Which is my total for today.

LabRat

Hi everyone,

I'm busily working on my Fundraiser story, which happens to be a short story I'm basing off of notes I found from a long time ago!

This thread got me inspired to keep a word count!

On 11/12 I wrote: 316 words.

Today I wrote: 361 words.

Total: 677

Previous word count: 2280
Actual word count: 2684

So today, I wrote 404 words.

That's less that I hoped since I won't have much time to write this week end but that's still better than yesterday.

Way to go, LL! You inspired me to go count the words in my fundraiser story... it's 3,112 words, lock, stock and author's notes... Yours may not even end up being that long -- lots of my stories seem to be very short Anyway, steady progress is good.

Poussin, you did more than twice the amount than the day before! That's excellent! Keep it up.

PJ

Thanks.

This is a really great thing to get me motivated because I have many stories going, but I've only completed one and uploaded it to the archive and that was a long time ago. Now, I'll finally have two stories done!

I wrote a little bit today (11/17/05) and that was 247 words.

Just a quick note before I'm off to work:
Tuesday 113 words
Wednesday 118 words
Thursday 322 words.

I'm kind of stalling because I'm doing some transition scenes before I get into the next important one. When I start on that one, I think I'll be writing a little faster. Hopefully I can get some writing done this weekend in between the grading and housework. (You probably didn't know that was the subtitle of one of the L&C eps. "Neverending Battle: marking and grading compositions" )

Well, I would do it, except I'm doing NaNoWriMo instead. Maybe I'll use December to finish up the other stories I have laying around on my hard drive.

Well. Yesterday wasn't brilliant in terms of writing - going to see the new Harry Potter film took quite a lot of my usual writing time away. Not that I'm complaining - it's a fantastic film. But I only got around 500 written.

So, for this report, I'm going to report yesterday's and today's combined.

Words written: 2339
Pages added - 7 or so, I think
Total words in file including notes: 74568
Total words in file with notes deleted: 73178.


Page count for completed story: 203.
Word count for completed story: 73178.
Words added since NaFinWipsMo started: about 33000.

Yes, I'm finished!!!!

Wow, Wendy! Congratulations! You wouldn't have any trouble making the 50,000 words in the NaNoWriMo.

I only got 158 words on Friday and 235 words today. However, I made it to the scene I've been waiting for, so I'll get started on it tomorrow when I can keep my eyes open.

Well, the Muse ambushed me again in the wee hours of the morning - just about to drift into sleep and she starts scrolling out tons of really interesting dialogue. Had to get up finally, fire up the pc, and tap away furiously at the file for half an hour to shut her up.

So...wrote another three pages. I've gone from 8 pages a few days back to 14 now. Even better, at least some of what I'm getting down on screen is intriguing me into wanting to write more. Been a long time since that happened. So I'm getting pretty confident I might actually finish this.

Yay, me! <G>

LabRat

Three pages in half an hour, LabRat? You definitely have a muse.

I wrote 347 words yesterday, mostly a set-up scene I hadn't realized I needed before the one I had been looking forward to. I have the entire story plotted out, so I know what's going to happen, but I don't know how, and it takes me forever to figure it out. Since I'm obviously such a tortoise rather than a hare when it comes to writing, I'd better keep up my steady plodding.

Yeah, I tend to be the opposite in recent years. There was a time, once way back, when I would religiously write a certain amount on my current WIP each evening. Then I'd spend my lunch hour at work the following day, editing, tweaking what I'd written the night before. I felt enormously guilty if I took a night off.

These days though, I tend to work in rapid bursts. Go for four days writing zilch, then do as I did last night - get a sudden burst of dialogue or solutions to plot problems I've identified just popping into my head (usually just as I drift off to sleep) and then I have to type, type, type to keep up, before I forget it all (which I'm quite capable of doing in a split second.) Luckily, I'm a pretty fast typist. <g> So when the Muse gets on one of her rolls, I can usually pretty much keep up with her.

I think I'd much prefer steady as she goes, mind you. But at least the rapid bursts get me further ahead in leaps and bounds. So I guess whatever works I shouldn't complain too much about.

I'm just really enjoying the fact that this is happening again. It's been a long time since I've had to keep a notepad and pen beside the bed for those early morning Muse attacks. So I'm having waaaaaaaaaay too much fun in the last two weeks.


LabRat

Congratulations Wendy!

That's really good news, LabRat.

For my part, I'm most slow. Like I said, I didn't have time to write these last 3 days (really busy week-end), and today, I write a little.

Actual word count: 3147
Previous word count: 2684

So today I wrote 463 words. But part 2 is finished. I hope to be faster on part 3.

Well, let's see... I think I got some written on Friday... the weekend was a total loss. Partially a plot problem -- just not sure where I'm going next -- and partially a time problem. My kids are out of school, so we've got things to do and they can disrupt my chain of thought at any particular moment. To make up for that, I'd been staying up late, but then I'm short on sleep, so I'm too tired to write... it's nuts.

I got some written today, haven't typed it in yet so I haven't got a word count. I should probably be typing that instead of chatting here, huh?

PJ

Just to let you know, my word count has gone up a little. However, progress continues to be painfully slow. I might have something written by the end of the month, but it is far more likely that I won't. Who knew that November could be so busy and exciting?

Chris (who is off to sample life in a Big City for a few days...)

Actual word count: 4688
Previous word count: 3147

So today I wrote 1541 words. I am so glad! It's not often that I write that much. My muses were in overdrive. I hope to keep it that way in the next days.

If I keep it that way, I should be able to write the 6 firsts parts of my story before the end of the month like I was hoping to do. And if I'm very lucky, and that my muses stay in overdrive like today, maybe I'll be able to write the 7th part as well.

Right now, the 3 first parts are written.

Checking in before I crash:

211 words Monday and
436 words today (Tuesday).

At one point, I thought I'd be halfway done at 30 pages. I'm on pg. 29, and halfway is probably 10 pages away. This story keeps growing, which is good for my story but bad for my deadline.

Keep it up, everybody... Poussin, that's terrific!

I had several off days, but yesterday, somehow, I got up to 1600 words which brings my daily average back up where it needs to be.

PJ

I started typing out my story and so far I've done 379 words.

Ooh! Great job, Alexis!! Keep it up! Poussin and Sheila and Chris and Pam and Wendy and Lab and everyone else!!

I haven't updated in a while, so I'll just give my total word count for November.

12,993 words and I'm just stunned that I've written that much! Motivation really helps.

Sara

I'm in that really rotten situation of desperately wanting to open the file and get more done, but not having the time to really sit down at the pc and concentrate right now.

We're looking after our friend's dog till Saturday, which doesn't help. So, hopefully, once Buffy is back home I'll get the chance to do more!

LabRat

I didn't have time to write yesterday, or the day before that. That's too bad since my muses are really prolific right now. But today, I had a little time, and I make up for it.

Actual word count: 6151
Previous word count: 4688

So today I wrote 1463 words. And I've finished the part 4. Yeah, me!

I will have time to write tomorrow, but not sunday. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to keep the rythm tomorrow. I'm so glad. The beginning was difficult, but now, it works well.

That's fantastic, Poussin! And Sara, you're really doing well.

Chris, Sheila, Alexis, Missy, Dave, everyone else who's still working away: keep it up, keep telling us how you're doing and remember, every little helps! It's all progress, all words that wouldn't have been on the screen if you hadn't written them. So well done!

I'm still writing - currently shifting between two short stories, one of them co-authored, so I'm still around on IRC to word-count-duel with anyone who wants to be motivated. Sara actually beat me at least once lately!

Congratulations to everyone for making it this far! Keep up the good work and carry on dropping in to tell us how you're doing - and, hey, the rest of you FoLCs out there, how about some more cheerleading?

All together now...

We WILL finish these WIPS...


Wendy

Checking in... when I posted that I was joining this challenge, I had 3,654 words on my story. As of today, the word count is 7,021. So it is progress! Small, but progress nonetheless!

Tracey (chanting "I will finish this story!")