Accountability, author's timecard, word count written, feeling lonely out there?

[Enjorous]

added another 2,000 new words. And another five hundred in minor edits and tweaks that had to be made.

[meg_evonne]

Playing the head game away from the keys. Some great stuff perculating.  Some excel sheets generated. Both on new and old...  love the buzz.

[DeaSis]

I joined here a while ago... didn't post much and lost track of the site.  Recently found it again.  I was happy lurking and catching up with the other posts, then I found this section.   

I have a few stories published online and recently finished my first novel.  It's 520 pages (over 100,000 words) long and desperately needs to be edited.  I feel whelmed because it needs so much work.  Does anyone know any tricks for motivating yourself?  I've been procrastinating.  :-(

[Enjorous]

Cattle prod to the thigh?

[DeaSis]

LOL

[Enjorous]

If it works let me know and I'll try it

[KevinEvans]

Yeah I have been stalling too.

I have three rewrites from editors redline kickbacks, a story cycle-tie in figure game to finish (Thirty years war, with airships and rockets added in, Grin) two new short stories, an anthology submission proposal to write (the pitch is in two weeks), and two novels to nurse through the first edit.....

The primary drag on my time, is my day (well mid shift) job, where we are upgrading a large number of systems, ranging from power generation to new computer systems. All of which has to integrated on a national level. None the less my day job still provides over 88% of my income, I can't just dump it, and thus the writing takes second place.

On the positive side my wife and I have obtained our active SFWA memberships, and have a pair of novels in the submission merry go round.

Regards,
Kevin

[DeaSis]

It sounds to me like you have your priorities in the right spot. 

You are much further along the road than I am.  I haven't had enough sales to make the SFWA , but I know the current secretary (Mary Robinette Kowal)  I met her a friends writing workshop. 

This is my first novel, and it's got enough flaws that it really needs a total rewrite.  I'm just having a hard time getting motivated.

[KevinEvans]

Tonight I plan on the re write of the game rules. Some times it is like doing the laundry, just gotta do it. Sigh

Regards,
Kevin

[DeaSis]

I keep my writing desk in the kitchen (next to the big sliding door so I have lots of light) and above my desk is a grease board where my family keeps track of messages, basic schedules (Who's home for dinner tonight?) and our yearly goals.  My goal this year is to edit Echo.  When I am super sick of rewriting, I will start a different story and put in as many words as I can into that project.  In this way, when I am procrastinating on one thing, I can make progress on the other. 

I think you are right though, it's like laundry or the dishes, ya just gotta do it.  So no more whining.  Thanks for the company.

[meg_evonne]

Hello all.  I'm keeping to about an hour of writing a day, but i am also including some heavy outline work on a new piece.  I can't decide if it will have legs or not.  Best writing to all!

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Picked apart and totally redid chapter 1, through pass on the rest of it, and I need to redo chapter 8 though hopefully that will not be so gruelling as what I did to chapter 1.  It's probably a good thing that I am seeing the need for this now rather than a year after finishing it, but it sure does make getting a first draft slower, I am about two-thirds of where I'd expect to be in wordcount for this span of time with this project.

Also, I think this bunch of people do actually have this culture's standard fusion reactors after all, so the cool liquid-salt deep-burn fission reactors wait until the next volume.  Damn it. (Which are in context the equivalent of, say, not having got the internal combustion engine when we did and instead having immensely advanced, sleek, efficient steam engines running everything.)

[DeaSis]

Picked apart and totally redid chapter 1, through pass on the rest of it, and I need to redo chapter 8 though hopefully that will not be so gruelling as what I did to chapter 1.  It's probably a good thing that I am seeing the need for this now rather than a year after finishing it, but it sure does make getting a first draft slower, I am about two-thirds of where I'd expect to be in wordcount for this span of time with this project.

Also, I think this bunch of people do actually have this culture's standard fusion reactors after all, so the cool liquid-salt deep-burn fission reactors wait until the next volume.  Damn it. (Which are in context the equivalent of, say, not having got the internal combustion engine when we did and instead having immensely advanced, sleek, efficient steam engines running everything.)

*stands and cheers*  Good for you!  Now I need to put my butt in the chair and spend time on my edits today!  Thanks for sharing your progress, I'm shamed/inspired to work on mine after reading it. 

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I've figured out one thing I did seriously wrong in book #1 now, at the point of a third of the way through writing #2.

I grow ever more amazed at how people manage to write long series where earlier volumes are in print and immutable while later ones are still to be written.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

*stands and cheers*  Good for you!  Now I need to put my butt in the chair and spend time on my edits today!  Thanks for sharing your progress, I'm shamed/inspired to work on mine after reading it. 

Glad to be of service.