WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 15 -- Sunday

[lacygrey]

Hi, I hope the week-end is going well for all writing-wise.

I'm Lacy and I'll be posting the check-ins for this week.

Poll #9107

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10

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So, today, did you...

View Answers

Write?
4 (40.0%)

Edit?
2 (20.0%)

Post?
0 (0.0%)

Do something else?
4 (40.0%)

Today is the month's midpoint so I'd like to propose a discussion on how its been going for the first half of January and how you see it going for the rest. Has your writing experience changed your goals at all?

Comments

[jagnikjen]

Well, I don't know if what I've been doing is completely edits. I've added to the word count as well, so...

I read an article that defined edits as spelling, grammar, punctuation and the like, whereas revisions are a little more detailed, like when you're adding layers of emotion or internal narrative, etc.

So I guess for me, I do more revisions than edits--edits for me are few, minor and easy.

As for my goal for January...only minor progress on my Narcissa fic. I may or may not start posting before the end of the month. If I start posting that means I have to keep posting...not sure if I'm ready for that yet.

On a side note, I have achieved another writing goal, which I didn't state in this comm, but with my RL CPs--and that was to reach the 7500 word mark on my original WIP (by writing 1348 new words, not copy/pasted words from other versions). :)

Back to writing/revising!

[lacygrey]

whereas revisions are a little more detailed, like when you're adding layers of emotion or internal narrative, etc.

Good for you for the edits revisions. I find they take a lot of work and that the word count change often doesn't represent this - I guess I should stop thinking in terms of word count.

Do you find that starting to post an unfinished WIP gives you an incentive to finish?

[jagnikjen]

I've only posted a WIP once. It did prod me to work on it because I didn't want to be *that author* that started posting a fic and then left it hanging. :)

I still don't want to be that author, but I don't know that I'm quite ready to take that leap of faith. Not at least until I have a bit more written. I just don't know how much more will be enough.

[ty_writes]

Amazingly, I wrote 10 pages. I'm trying to keep my inner editor tied and gagged in the closet because she frustrates me into giving up.

[lacygrey]

Well done. Sometimes the inner editor just needs to shut up if she don't know how to be gentle and contructive.

BTW, your icon is kinda scary^^

[xpaperplanex]

My neighbours were partying until 4AM last night, so since I wasn't sleeping anyways, I managed to finish off a oneshot I've been working on. (I am not grateful.) Today I'm drinking lots of coffee and working on some editing, as writing when you're exhausted tends to result in strange conjugation and tense shifting.

I've made my month's word count goal of 15k words, so now I'm trying to decide if I should up it or leave it as it is and call anything else I write for this month a bonus.

[lacygrey]

I hope your neighbours are quieter tonight - might it have been because it was Saturday?

Your word count is awesome already. Are you aiming for 180K in the year then?

[xpaperplanex]

I think it was just because it was Saturday. They're fairly new, so I went up and spoke to them--apparently they didn't realize that people live below them and apologized a lot.

Thank you! I haven't set a goal for the year, but I was hoping to make 15K a month, so yeah, I guess so. That sounds really big with the math all worked out...

[littlebutfierce]

Wrote & did a bit of editing. The editing was for eastasianfandomgiftbag & I am feeling a bit more confident that I'll be able to pull off my last fic for that comm. The writing was just to get my 750 words done for the day -- but I ended up writing some really sappy fluffy OT3 stuff, so now I feel all squishy. :D

The writing's been going all right overall, I think -- I've been having some real difficulty editing, & a big crisis in confidence, but hopefully I am moving past that a little? & despite that I've managed to make some okay progress. I still don't think I'll get my poetry_fiction fic done this month, partly b/c my prompt stumps me so much I'm considering asking for a new one, & partly... b/c the amnesty period is so long, so I know I can focus on other things right now. >_< (*cough* the same thing I did w/that comm last year, sob.)

[lacygrey]

I've been having some real difficulty editing
Me too. I find it requires a completely different state of mind from writing, and a lot more time (often for doing and then undoing the same thing, which is frustrating).

I hope you are making some 'nice discoveries' as you are going through your writing, to make up for all the hard work.

[linaewen]

I've written about 370 words on a challenge tale that's due in the queue sometime this evening. However, football is about to interrupt me so I don't know how much more I'll get done at this point. ;-) But I have started the tale, anyway, so I'm pleased.

The first half of January has gone poorly for me as far as writing goes. I'm not sure it will go any better for the rest of the month, but I hope it will! I try not to let my experience change my goals, because I figure a goal is good to have in front of me, even if I don't actually attain it. If I miss the mark this month, I'll extend the goal into next month!

[lacygrey]

Excuse my ignorance but what is due in the queue? Does this mean that a mod screens the fic before it gets posted to the community?

Good luck with the goals, January is far from finished.

[linaewen]

Yes, that's exactly what it means. It's a community which has monthly writing challenges, and the stories are collected in a queue and revealed all at once.

[lacygrey]

Ive done roughly one week of writing and one of editing so far this month. The writing is more satisfying on a superficial level as I see the word count moving up. The editing takes more time and is harder (change one detail of a ficlet and it seems to change the whole shape of the story). I found unexpected writing time this weekend as everyone else went out to the sales. Still no posted fic though - and thats still the goal, to post.

[crowdog66]

A health emergency sent me to the Urgent Care ward today, and I have to go back tomorrow for an ultrasound and some more clot-busting drugs. So, no writing today, but I'll try to fit some in tomorrow.

I've done more than my targeted single chapter on one fic (and racked up a word count I'm extremely happy with), but still have chapters to do for the other two. So, tomorrow I'll likely concentrate on one of the orphaned works and try to get a chapter knocked together on it. We'll have to see how it goes.

[lacygrey]

That sounds very frightening, I hope all is okay again now.

Are the orphaned works your own other fic or something you are adopting?

[crowdog66]

I'll know later today if I have clots in my legs or not. If not, it's all hunky-dory and life goes on as before. If I do, things are going to get interesting. (Remember the old Chinese curse?) :)

And apologies for the terminology confusion. By "orphaned works" I mean two of my own stories that I pledged to work on this month and haven't gotten around to writing chapters for yet. I'd indicated that I wanted to write a chapter each on "Solstice and Equinox", "Ovum", and "When the Farsei Blooms", but so far all I've written for is "S&E".

[bay_alexison]

Got a bit more editing done on my help_japan fic. I was about to plan to edit some of my Big Bang too, but was away longer than expected and I decided to watch a movie on TV instead (Ray and it ran three hours including commercials, LOL). Going to edit my Big Bang tomorrow instead.

I think I'm changing my goal a bit this month. Instead of trying to finish the story, going to edit what I have so far and let my beta check it out to see if she'll give me ideas on where to take the story next. I have a couple scene ideas, otherwise I'm stuck on what events I want to happen.

[lacygrey]

Instead of trying to finish the story, going to edit what I have so far and let my beta check it out to see if she'll give me ideas on where to take the story next.

That is a great way of getting around a sticking point - consolidate and ask for a second opinion. And new ideas do tend to crop up while editing/re-reading. Accumulating a lot of text 'to be edited sometime' can also be stressful. Thats one of the reasons I'm glad I managed to switch to revising for a while: its harder than just writing, but it is getting the prose closer to the finishing line.