WIP challenge: day 3 check-in!

[littlebutfierce]

3 days into the challenge: how's it going? Has your weekend been productive so far?

Poll #9751

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

View Respondents

What have you done on your fic today?

View Answers

Taken a break (planned)
0 (0.0%)

Taken a break (unplanned)
4 (28.6%)

Wrote
11 (78.6%)

Edited
3 (21.4%)

Posted
2 (14.3%)

Sent to beta
0 (0.0%)

Researched
2 (14.3%)

& how do you feel about that?

View Answers
Mean: 5.23 Median: 5 Std. Dev 2.12

Crappy 1		1 (7.7%)
2		0 (0.0%)
3		1 (7.7%)
4		4 (30.8%)
5		1 (7.7%)
6		2 (15.4%)
7		2 (15.4%)
8		1 (7.7%)
9		1 (7.7%)
Fantastic! 10		0 (0.0%)

And five words or less about your current WIP?

View Answers

For discussion: It seems like a fair number of people are starting off the month with a pretty good spring in their step. How do you keep the momentum going? Is it a daily writing practice? A weekly wordcount goal? A reward system? Or is there some other way you just keep going once you've started?

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

Wrote some snippets today that might be useable -- I like them better than I thought I might, but we'll see. Editing editing editing. We'll see where I get to.

I am a creature of habit, so once I establish a daily writing practice, there's a comfort to keeping it going. Knock on wood, if all goes well, next month I'll have a 2-year streak on 750 Words. No, not all of that has been fic (though a lot of it has been!), but for me it's been invaluable to write something every day. Of course, sometimes I struggle w/then going through what I've written & making it something that can be posted -- but I can't edit words if they're not there.

[sylvaine]

Wow, two years of 750words! That's really impressive. I sort of... stopped after only a month or so.

I find the editing part incredibly difficult too, sometimes. Still, as you say, having words, no matter how unpostable, is much preferable to having nothing at all!

[insignia]

That makes for a lot of words in two years, and a lot of writing practice even if you don't publish it all :D

[riceishere]

2 years? Woah. The longest streak I did was a month and a half and that's only because I keep blackmailing myself to do it.

I find that when I plan writing time into my daily schedule I end up finding ways to avoid doing it so I just write whenever I have 5-10 minutes of free time.

[terabient]

Wow, that's awesome! Writing even a little once a day is pretty challenging for me (and a lot of other people, I gather XD ) so to go for 2 years writing 3 pages is really impressive. :)

[graychalk]

Hope your editing went well. :)

Whoa, that's a whole lot of words, every single day for 2 years. That's just simply amazing. The site looks interesting too - I may give it a go just to see how it is. I can't imagine myself being able to keep it up the way you did though. :p

[sylvaine]

I didn't do anything at all today, which is not entirely unexpected, as Saturday always ends up being a day when I just flop on the bed and waste time online.

I think a routine definitely helps me. Having a set goal of writing *something* every day, even if it's only a sentence. This only works as long as I'm still relatively inspired though - February was awful for that. Still, I'm getting back to that goal this month. Also, I find what helps is recognizing what times and what situations are best for writing and maximizing those. For me, that would be being away from my room, for one, which ends up being mostly during lectures, and just writing at night. The former, I find, is best for getting little bits and pieces of WIPS out and petting plotbunnies. The latter is great for getting a lot of writing done in one go, but the writing is usually for some entirely new fic that gets written in one session, not for any of my WIPs. Still, writing is writing. I have no intention of complaining. :D

[littlebutfierce]

Everyone should have a day of doing v. little in their week! (At least one ^^;;;) & yeah, like you say, if it's routine, then you don't have to feel guilty for not doing anything. I know on Friday nights my brain will be gone, so I don't even try to write fic then.

Oooh, that's really good stuff to know about yourself -- a friend of mine mentioned she'd just read this book & found it helpful, partly b/c it does talk about finding out about the barriers that keep you from writing (is your writing space too cold/too hot/otherwise uncomfortable/etc.). I'd like to read it but haven't been able to (ahem) procure it.

& yes, writing is writing! & I am sure at least some lectures are far better spent writing than listening!

[lea_hazel]

I binge wrote because I am terrible with deadlines. I also started working on a resolution to be less terrible with deadlines and thus produce post-beta fic that's actually as good as it can be.

[littlebutfierce]

I think a lot of people do that, so you're definitely not alone! Good luck working on a way to approach deadlines differently!

[roane]

Well, the power's been out at my house for about the last 16 hours thanks to a windstorm. I'm currently at the library recharging my laptop and phone. I actually am getting a little more done today than I thought because, well, no internet at home, nothing else to do really. Also, I'm TERRIBLY sleep deprived at the moment (two poor nights of sleep in a row), so the words are just kind of coming out without any thought. Which could be very good or very bad. :) Got attacked by a plot bunny last night, so I spent some time writing up a few notes about it. This could be a very large fic (40-50K+?), and it is most definitely an AU. I'm just not sure yet if it's super derivative, particularly of a very popular long AU fic in the fandom.

So far, the stories have been keeping me motivated. Even if I don't feel like writing, that push is in the back of my head. Also, getting feedback is great too. I had no idea it would be such a driving force, but honestly. I've been lucky so far.

[littlebutfierce]

Yikes! You're just not having a break lately, are you? Also, I am amazed that you can write when you're sleep-deprived -- someone else here mentioned that once, & I'm a bit jealous... when I'm that tired I actually fall asleep at the keyboard (& keep typing for a few words too) &... nothing good comes out of it. ;)

It's fantastic when the stories make you write them, isn't it? (Also, yes, OMG feedback, heh.)

[crowdog66]

A paying freelance project exploded in my face last night: I have to paint twenty-five pages of comic book in four days, which means that I won't be getting much writing done, if any at all, before Wednesday. *sigh* I love my profession, but sometimes the deadlines are very challenging!

In answer to the discussion questions: Daily writing practice, basically.

[roane]

Paying projects, hooray! :)

[littlebutfierce]

Yikes! Good luck w/that -- sounds very intense!

[graychalk]

Wow, painting pages of a comic book - that sounds incredible!

RL getting in the way is inevitable, but the main thing is always coming back to write whenever you can. Best of luck with the painting project! :)

[insignia]

Sounds like you have some busy days ahead of you--but yay for paying projects!

[enemytosleep]

Yuujinchou Exchange (due Mar 17): First draft complete. I got the first batch of notes back, the other will hopefully come soon. For the moment I'm letting it sit as I'd like to edit it only once with both sets of notes side-by-side. Current word count: 9,306

Yuujinchou Exchange Bonus Treat #2 (due Mar 24): No new words. I think i have finally found the plot that will both fit the prompter's likes and won't be crazy long and complicated. Did some research and am working on a new outline. Current word count: 0

Help_Japan (due 18 years ago - 750 word min): No new words. I promise to give this love after the Yuujinchou exchange stops eating my brain. O.o Current word count: 3,666

This won't seem genuine given how much I've been writing recently, but I usually don't write very much at all, so I don't have a system in place. This is my first honest attempt to get words written on a regular basis like this. T_T I joined the group to polish off my Help_Japan fic, and it's helped me make some headway on that and also to complete some other projects I've picked up. So I guess my plan is to keep checking in here until I manage to get these fics complete. ^_^

[roane]

Oh yeah! I completely forgot about this comm too. It helps immensely. :)

[dhae_knight_1]

Well... I think I need to figure out where to actually *go* with my impromptu WIP. A single scene does not fic make...

[littlebutfierce]

Maybe switching gears back to one of your other WIPs will let your brain think about it for a while & then the solution will present itself? :D

[lacygrey]

I just promised myself that I will do something on writing/editing every day. Today it was re-reading and brainstorming, I didn't have much time but at least I moved forward.

[littlebutfierce]

Yay for doing something, especially when you didn't have much time for it!!

[insignia]

The Lohengrin Revolver - I continued developing my lead from yesterday, added some backstory and new vague character ideas, and inspired myself by googling laudanum abuse. Fun times!

Pieces - 1100 words of first-chapter draft!! They'll need major editing later, but at least I have some idea how that first confrontation goes down. I keep hesitating to write this (as opposed to planning), because I feel bad about giving Bakura trouble instead of the big hug I know he's gonna need ._. I'm such a wuss. But if I don't write it, no one will.

One of a Hundred - No direct progress, but I've dismissed some plot ideas as unnecessary, which at least narrows down what I need to work on :D

As for today's topic, it actually helps a lot to know that I'll have to tell people if I get lazy :D This month I have three specific fics to work on, and I try to do something with each of them every day. Even if it's just looking over my notes and deciding what not to use :D

[graychalk]

Sounds like you had quite a productive day! Yay, for things coming along. :D

[graychalk]

After years of on-and-off editing for my Monstrous WIP of Doom, I finally decided that enough was enough and posted the first revised chapter (part of my goal for this month) online. I originally wanted to revise most of it before I begin to re-post them, but I've come to realize that it's not very conductive for curing my ongoing struggle to control my editing urges. I will never be able to stop myself from fiddling, so I've taken 5,262 words off my hands. There's something about posting that makes it final - for now, at least - so that I may move on and work on editing a different chapter. I'm still nervous, but I'm also relieved. And that, I believe, is a relief in itself!

As for how I keep my momentum going, I'm still trying to work this out actually. I've noticed in the past that it helps a great deal when I have someone to talk to about my fic. It gets me motivated like none other. However, I very rarely have anyone to talk fic with, so it's not exactly something I should be relying on.

That said, I'm just currently trying my best to do something (anything) fic-related every day. From my previous experience, I've found that if I stop, it's easy for that "break" to become an extended one - and time is a scary scary thing that moves without me noticing!

[insignia]

Sometimes it's best to accept a work as 'good enough' and stop worrying about whether it's perfect. Congrats on finally moving on! ♥

[snowynight]

Finish wip#1. Now get on to the reverse bigbang, which I still have to flesh out the plot.

I find a daily writing ritual help. Everyday I try to write some thing fic-related, and it helps keeping the momentum.

[littlebutfierce]

Congrats on finishing your first WIP for the month!! \o/ Good luck w/the reverse big bang next!

[terabient]

I managed to start and finish the climatic scene in the first bingo fic I've been chipping away at, so yay~ Assuming everything goes well I should finish it tomorrow, and I can start editing. Edits usually take me a few days because my first drafts are so rough (and also on paper) but I find it a little easier than the initial writing. Putting words to paper is by far the hardest part for me.

I like to write in my room, in silence. I've tried working with music or something else in the background but I'm easily distracted so it's not too useful for me, lol. I think that's one reason I tend to stick with pen and paper on first drafts, as well - it takes away the lure of the internet.

[littlebutfierce]

Oooh, that's great about finishing that important scene! Good luck w/finishing the draft & editing.

Yeah, the siren song of the internet is sometimes really hard for me to resist... ^^;;;

[riceishere]

I don't have much of a daily writing practice but keeping the fic ideas percolating in my head does help -- it's like I'm already writing the words up there and whenever I have free time in between chores and work I just have to sit down and type them all up.

Forcing myself to stick to a writing schedule often ends up with me tearing my hair out because the words won't come. So I often resort to tricking myself that I'm not really writing, yes, you're just sitting down and typing words, no pressure, and I usually get going that way :)

[lea_hazel]

That's a neat idea, I think I'll try that with my WIP.