Daily Goals Progress (Accountability and Encouragement!)

Posted by: @mulch

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@gideonpsmith Thanks for the check in! It's defintiely helpful. Last month, I thought I set my word count goal 2,000 words fewer than I did, and I only made it by dumb luck and (what I thought) was over achieving. Looking at goals at least once after making them is helpful. Who knew?

 

glad its a helpful idea

Posted by: @mulch

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For this month, I'm a couple hundered words behind pace for my word count goal, but I should make that up today. Hopefully the holidays don't throw off my pace too much. If I stick to that word count, I'll definitely finish a draft of another story (as long as another pesky idea doesn't distract me), so that's going well. I submitted my Q1 story today, and I've been overachieving on my reading and submitting goals. So far so good!

Sounds like you are right on track 👍 

Posted by: @doctorjest

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Well, I'm done with my major edits, and I'm into scalpel revisions now. There's almost certainly more room to improve this, but I'm getting to the stage where I feel happy that the story is mostly solid, and doesn't have any major issues left to address. I just need to make sure I don't pull the trigger prematurely, so I'm going to hold the story until near the deadline, to make sure I don't get caught out by something I think of in the next fortnight.

"fortnight"

I wonder if you did that deliberately given the above 😆 

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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"fortnight"

I wonder if you did that deliberately given the above 😆

I did not, but after I wrote it, I did think about that discussion! It's just natural to me to think that way. A fortnight's a fortnight, ain't it?

@gideonpsmith Hahahaha. Seriously, every time I say two weeks, I follow it up with a garbled tWo WeEks.

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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check ins or report ins on daily weekly or whatever frequency just to help people stay on track so they don't get to the end of the month and think "Where did all the time go?"

Given that I often fail to make it here monthly, I expect my participation here will be slightly less that daily/weekly, and slightly more 'sporadic.'

I'm three scenes away from THE END and I'm very excited. Unfortunately, of the existing thirty scenes only three are comprehensible to any human other than me. I also have some serious fleshing out to do. The goal was 45k-50k, and I'm currently sitting at 30k with only 3-5k left to write. Given that this has the plot of a whole novel, I think I may have skimped on the details/descriptions!

So while I translate my dictated hibberdy-jibberdy, I'm also painting in the scenery. 2000 words purified is my goal for Dec 31st.

I Intended to do 1k words a day if at all possible. Unfortunately a chest infection had other ideas (probably a present from my eldest grandson who shall henceforth be known as The Snot Monster). 

I have managed around 5k though and am feeling a little better. I did manage 1k today. 

@gideonpsmith Honestly, I am stressed and anxious and kind of hate everything I write at the moment. (Would be nice to know if others get these seasons too?)

Switched from re-writing the newest story (it's so much work I don't think I can finish it by NYE) to re-writing the first scene of a rejected story that I personally very much like and have since realized all the problems in the opening. I know what I need to establish in that scene, but I am really struggling to get it together.

Posted by: @tiinag

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I am stressed and anxious and kind of hate everything I write at the moment. (Would be nice to know if others get these seasons too?)

I call that season my life. It’s a feeling rumored to be conditional for professional growth, so 🤞 hang in there

I haven't gotten any writing done the last couple days. Home is a sick bay, not an ideal environment for creativity

Posted by: @tiinag

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@gideonpsmith Honestly, I am stressed and anxious and kind of hate everything I write at the moment.

Switched from re-writing the newest story (it's so much work I don't think I can finish it by NYE) to re-writing the first scene of a rejected story that I personally very much like and have since realized all the problems in the opening. I know what I need to establish in that scene, but I am really struggling to get it together.

I'm with you on the losing drive on my recent stories. We have to encourage each other at times. 

My Q1 I lost motivation and can't think of an exciting middle that compliments my opening and ending. Not too much work for NYE, but I'm not 'feeling' it. I switched to an emotional story I never intended for WotF, but have been told it 'could' fit so send it. I'm in the final edit phase. I have three other stories started, but get frustrated with finding that perfect heart's desire and character arc to make them work.  Augh.

Well, a writer, writes, so I best get back to it. Lots of deadlines for end of Jan.

Good luck with your stories and keep at it. 

@marius Thank you, I will! Helps to air out the gunk inside my head.

Hope everyone in your household gets better soon, it is such a season for all the bugs as much as festivities. 

Posted by: @toddjones

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My Q1 I lost motivation and can't think of an exciting middle that compliments my opening and ending. Not too much work for NYE, but I'm not 'feeling' it. I switched to an emotional story I never intended for WotF, but have been told it 'could' fit so send it. I'm in the final edit phase. I have three other stories started, but get frustrated with finding that perfect heart's desire and character arc to make them work.  Augh.

I know this feeling so well, hope you'll push to the other side of it soon! Why is writing so damn hard?

Thank you for the encouragement, it helps sometimes just to know we're not the only ones struggling with our craft. Like you said, better get back at it

Posted by: @tiinag

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@gideonpsmith Honestly, I am stressed and anxious and kind of hate everything I write at the moment. (Would be nice to know if others get these seasons too?)

 

Absoiutely. I would be surprised if anyone completely escapes this feeling. Imposter syndrome feeds it as well. What we are writing actually might be half decent, but sometimes we just need space from it. Other times it isn't our best. But who can deliver their best 100% of times 100% of the time? No one. Don't be hard on yourself!

Posted by: @marius

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I haven't gotten any writing done the last couple days. Home is a sick bay, not an ideal environment for creativity

 

For the crops to grow, sometimes the fields need to lie fallow! Sometimes my best writing comes after such periods. Just keep turning up when you can

Posted by: @toddjones

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My Q1 I lost motivation and can't think of an exciting middle that compliments my opening and ending.

 

THIS. This so much for so many of my stories. People struggle with beginnings and endings as do I, but nothing can beach me completely quicker than a middle.

Posted by: @toddjones

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I'm with you on the losing drive on my recent stories. We have to encourage each other at times. 

 

 

 

And thus this thread! 

"I love it when a plan comes together." I'm having an The A-Team moment

@gideonpsmith 

This thread resonates a bunch with me. I mean, I've been MIA for a whole year and in that time, I found it really hard to write. I sit here and think to myself, "I used to be so good at this. What happened?" And then I'd dwell about it for a few days and nothing I wrote was exciting or fun anymore and so I just quit. It's like today too, when I picked up my iPad pro and started drawing. I looked at it and realized I couldn't render digital art. And I'm just thinking to myself, "where's the girl whose artwork used to be stolen from class because she was so good at it? What happened?" Eight hours later, I've got some half-finished piece that I don't like at all, and I end up giving up for the day.

Sometimes, things we're really good at seems impossible and I don't know why.

My Q1 is the shortest it's ever been. It literally consists of: beginning, middle, and end. That's because I don't know what to write. I can play the story out in my head and see it like a movie, but to write it down, I'm just at a lost for words. So, poor Jody is not getting the best story I could've written, but literally the best story I can write right now. And it's so defeating...

So, thanks for your thread and letting me just spam it for the moment. I hope that even if we can't do what we think is our best, we can still give our best right now to others.

@gideonpsmith thanks for the check-in. It's not been the most productive at my end because [insert excuses].

In terms of my goals...yeesh :

December goals

• Write 10,000 words on my novel - if I'm generous, I'll round it up to 3,000, so some way to go and Christmas looms.
• Submit three short stories - none submitted, though I know where to send one when it opens in January. I have two / three(ish) ready to go, so I need to find suitable active markets.

There's still a fortnight to salvage my goals...

A story I submitted that was with a magazine that usually responds within 15 days came back after near 60, with what appears to be a form(ish) response but from the editors, except added it included "we enjoyed reading it..." compared to what I previously received, so I feel like that could be a personal(ish) rejection? A rejection all the same but I am scrabbling around in the mud for anything that sparkles this month.

Posted by: @joel-c-scoberg

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@gideonpsmith thanks for the check-in. It's not been the most productive at my end because [insert excuses].

In terms of my goals...yeesh :

December goals

• Write 10,000 words on my novel - if I'm generous, I'll round it up to 3,000, so some way to go and Christmas looms.
• Submit three short stories - none submitted, though I know where to send one when it opens in January. I have two / three(ish) ready to go, so I need to find suitable active markets.

There's still a fortnight to salvage my goals...

A story I submitted that was with a magazine that usually responds within 15 days came back after near 60, with what appears to be a form(ish) response but from the editors, except added it included "we enjoyed reading it..." compared to what I previously received, so I feel like that could be a personal(ish) rejection? A rejection all the same but I am scrabbling around in the mud for anything that sparkles this month.

First: "fortnight" -  

Second: theres a wiki for rejection letters from magazines as even form letters are sometimes tiered and you can look them up - I first came across this when I got a different rejection wording that still seemed form from Fantasy Magazine, but they have a lot of the spec fic ones listed:

https://www.rejectionwiki.com/index.php?title=Literary_Journals_and_Rejections

Posted by: @annax

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I've been MIA for a whole year and in that time, I found it really hard to write. I sit here and think to myself, "I used to be so good at this. What happened?" And then I'd dwell about it for a few days and nothing I wrote was exciting or fun anymore and so I just quit. It's like today too, when I picked up my iPad pro and started drawing. I looked at it and realized I couldn't render digital art. And I'm just thinking to myself, "where's the girl whose artwork used to be stolen from class because she was so good at it? What happened?" Eight hours later, I've got some half-finished piece that I don't like at all, and I end up giving up for the day.

 

So I think this is where this forum (and this thread) is aimed - at community. It is *so* hard to just sit and write when every action you do is in a vacuum. But if you have other authors cheering you on, you see them making progress, you can chat about your own progress etc, I think (hope) we all benefit from that. I know I do, which is why I started this thread to try and give that to eachother on a more frequent basis than our monthly checkins where its easy (at least for me) to forget my goals, let writing habits slip, and a day, and then a week go by and before you know it... it's a year, or a decade. 

This thread is intended as social glue for your habits and it only works by participation so thank you for adding to it!

Thought I would give another update - though I am in for Q1 my writing life doesn't freeze and die because thats off my plate - feel free to update us on where you are with Q1 but also what else you are working on!

I finished up a flash and submitted it out to a market. I'm now back to square one, staring at a blank page (not a bad place to be) and wondering which of the 30,000 ideas that come to me I should commit to for the next month or so of my life

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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Wondering which of the 30,000 ideas that come to me I should commit to for the next month or so of my life

That one there, second from the left. The one in the sparkly suit,  jumping up and down and screaming at you.

Are those antennae? Can you really get sausages that big? 

Posted by: @pdblake

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Can you really get sausages that big? 

 

😳

I'm from Scotland. It's a haggis

spent this morning working on two blog post reviews I do every year - neither yet posted.

 

The first is all my small achievements of the year, so I can remember all the things I did that did not result in tangible outcomes as I usually find that inspirational to do as I get to still feel good that I'm making progress. Things like cons and networking I did, etc

 

And then one on all the craft books I read and a line or two about whether I liked them and why/key take aways

 

After doing the latter, turns out I read half as many craft books this year (11) as last year (19)

I guess I'm slipping  

 

Daily goals:

Write! Write! Write!

I'll be back tomorrow. Going to start on my Q2 entry after I post this.

Happy New Year!

Happy Hogmanay!

Gonna try for 1k a day (Real life allowing and only counting words in the current novel, anything else such as plotting and editing other things will be deemed extra).

1042 today, so just managed it.

Posted by: @pdblake

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Gonna try for 1k a day (Real life allowing and only counting words in the current novel, anything else such as plotting and editing other things will be deemed extra).

1042 today, so just managed it.

wow 1k/day is ambitious! good luck with that

Also, I didn't realize till today you were a Brit from Yorkshire. I used to live in Wortley, Leeds.

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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Posted by: @pdblake

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Gonna try for 1k a day (Real life allowing and only counting words in the current novel, anything else such as plotting and editing other things will be deemed extra).

1042 today, so just managed it.

 

wow 1k/day is ambitious! good luck with that

 

Also, I didn't realize till today you were a Brit from Yorkshire. I used to live in Wortley, Leeds.

 

I managed it in November so hopefully can again. 

I'm in East Yorkshire.

not the most productive of days for me, but I sketched some thoughts for a new flash and finished up my blog post of a review of 2024 achievements. Will likely post it to my webpage tomorrow

Posted by: @tiinag

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@gideonpsmith Honestly, I am stressed and anxious and kind of hate everything I write at the moment. (Would be nice to know if others get these seasons too?)

Everything I have ever written has simulataneously been the best thing I could possibly write, and the worst shit 'written' by any idiot ever. Even while I was at the WotF workshop, JLN had to give me a talking-to about being negative about my piece in V40.

Posted by: @pdblake

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Gonna try for 1k a day (Real life allowing and only counting words in the current novel, anything else such as plotting and editing other things will be deemed extra).

1042 today, so just managed it.

Twinsies! Oh wait, there's a k there. I'm aiming for at least 1 word a day, myself. We're basically the same though...