Author Topic: Accountability, author's timecard, word count written, feeling lonely out there?  (Read 51256 times)

Offline Starbeam

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I hate being right.  This scene's been fighting me since I picked up my pen.
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." Ray Bradbury

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline Enjorous

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The assassination game Neuro. WJM was shooting me because I was the target.
Kentucky Fried Shuriken - Finger Lickin' Death.
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Nah, women are just batshit crazy ALL the time!  :D
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Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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The assassination game Neuro. WJM was shooting me because I was the target.

Ah, OK. I didn't realise that had spread into this bit of the forum.
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline Enjorous

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It's reach goes as far as the target goes.
Kentucky Fried Shuriken - Finger Lickin' Death.
Quote from: horsehearted
Nah, women are just batshit crazy ALL the time!  :D
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Offline Kali

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Sadly, yes it does reach even here.  *sigh*

Oh well.

I have realized today that if I can write 2k/day, every day for the rest of this month, I can finish a first draft of Book 2 in October, thus freeing me to write something else for NaNo.  I have the perfect project for it, something I've been tossing around in my head but haven't yet found the proper angle for.  It's something that could benefit strongly from the pressure of NaNo, I think.  But I want to have Book 2 as close to roughed out as possible before I turn my attention to another project.

I work better with deadlines.  I keep telling myself that...
We don't get just one life.  We get as many as we can cram into one lifetime.

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Offline meg_evonne

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Incredibly productive weekend.  Some Nebraska SCWBI people got together at a friend's cabin.  We laughed, gabbed, walked, ate, then ate some more, then more...but we all were under one roof and we wrote like crazy.

I completed my print corrections to e-copy, came home, printed the next one, reading through yet again to make some additional corrections.  Then I'm printing off hard copies for beta's.  Interested?  ;-)

Before a conference Oct 15th I have to perfect that blasted synopsis and craft a pitch session.  Yeah, not my favorite thing to do either.  Although I am now sparking along with the new concept and my mind can't wait to be let loose on it!
"Calypso was offerin' Odysseus immortality, darlin'. Penelope offered him endurin' love. I myself just wanted some company." John Henry (Doc) Holliday from "Doc" by Mary Dorla Russell
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Offline Enjorous

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1,022 words today during lunch. Clearly I need to start stepping it up if I want to make good from NaNoWriMo.
Kentucky Fried Shuriken - Finger Lickin' Death.
Quote from: horsehearted
Nah, women are just batshit crazy ALL the time!  :D
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Offline meg_evonne

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Quote from: Enjorous link=topic=19041.msg937317#msg937317 date=128:6234080
1,022 words today during lunch. Clearly I need to start stepping it up if I want to make good from NaNoWriMo.
whoo hook.  Go for it!
"Calypso was offerin' Odysseus immortality, darlin'. Penelope offered him endurin' love. I myself just wanted some company." John Henry (Doc) Holliday from "Doc" by Mary Dorla Russell
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Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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4453 words of vol 2.  On  a weekday because I have Stuff Happening on Friday and am not happy about it at all.
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline Kali

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All the comments are back from my first outside-my-own-eyes reader of Book 1. 

The good news:  Some really nice compliments, especially on some bits that were tricky for me in specific places where I wanted to convey things precisely, and an overall review of "marketable".  The Q&A session was good for me, because I was able to direct attention where I really wanted it.  "Did you find that [plot point] was too contrived?"  "No, given the earlier explanation and what came after, it made sense.  I did go "huh" at the time, but then I realized where it was coming from."  That kinda thing.

The bad news:  That's as good as it got.  But hey, I'll take "I'd pay to read this" and not quibble. 

Though this was someone I know, it's also someone who never has a problem with honesty.  There was no gushing, but that's fair 'cause this book isn't going to change the face of publishing.  It's a fun tale that I liked writing, and since it's outside his usual genre, that he liked it is a good sign.

There are some edits to make, some rough patches to smooth over, and an early scene that needs an overhaul (which I kinda knew), so I'll be polishing that today and then back to Book 2.
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Offline meg_evonne

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It sounds like you found a good match for reading your manuscript Kali--a valuable asset.  Treat them with kindness!

As to my work that I thought was more or less ready to go.  Chapter 15 is 100% a show or tell monstrosity.  Argh...  Will fix and proceed with trepidation, hoping that it was a momentary glitch in my reading and in my author's ear.

Good news?  At least I recognized the problem...
"Calypso was offerin' Odysseus immortality, darlin'. Penelope offered him endurin' love. I myself just wanted some company." John Henry (Doc) Holliday from "Doc" by Mary Dorla Russell
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Offline Kali

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The good news is that you can fix it. ;D  I had a scene I knew was wrong but could not seem to fix.  It was like the tar baby from that old Uncle Remus story. The more I punched it, the more I got tangled up in it until I was completely snared and then someone killed me or however that story ends.  Anyway, the good news is you can fix it.
We don't get just one life.  We get as many as we can cram into one lifetime.

Visit my page! JessaLynch.com

Offline Enjorous

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Okay, so the really nasty and very much hated 10,000 word slump has hit me yet again. I don't know what it is but the first 10k come fairly quickly and then I suppose the newness of the project wears off and I'm nowhere near a climax or resolution. I feel between now and then is like the biggest uphill battle.
Kentucky Fried Shuriken - Finger Lickin' Death.
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Nah, women are just batshit crazy ALL the time!  :D
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Offline prophet224

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That is a very common problem. Many people drown in it - 10-20k words here, another 10-20k words somewhere else. Then they have a bunch of half-written projects around.

So do you know where the climax is or how it will happen? Is that scene in your head anywhere? Or are there other scenes floating around in your head?

Write them. Write it out. Keep the fire burning by writing the parts you keep thinking about. If you don't have parts that you keep thinking about, maybe it really isn't the right project, at least for now.

Another thing that comes to mind is something Neil Gaiman said in one of the many forewards/afterwards of "Good Omens". He was talking about Terry Pratchett and said this:
Quote
Then again, Terry is that rarity, the kind of author who likes writing, not having written, or Being a Writer, but the actual sitting there and making things up in front of a screen.
http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff/Essays/Essays_By_Neil/Terry_Pratchett:_An_Appreciation

I guess all I'm saying is that we all (or at least most) feel like that at some point.
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