Month Five, Day One!

[wintergrey]

Today is my unbirthday and also May Day, so it is one of my favourite days. It's the start of the May challenge, too.

So, how do you go about reaching your goals? Do you plan it out step-by-step, set deadlines, poke at it, do it all as fast as you can, or wait until the last minute? Have you ever wanted to try a different strategy? How are you going to do it this month?

Poll #10344

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

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Today, in fanfic, I...

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wrote.
7 (53.8%)

edited.
3 (23.1%)

researched.
2 (15.4%)

outlined.
2 (15.4%)

plotted.
5 (38.5%)

daydreamed.
7 (53.8%)

read about writing.
0 (0.0%)

wrote about writing.
3 (23.1%)

talked about writing.
2 (15.4%)

did none of the above, and that's okay.
0 (0.0%)

did something I might share with you in comments.
2 (15.4%)

My goals for today...

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Mean: 5.92 Median: 6 Std. Dev 2.56

laughed in my face. 1		0 (0.0%)
2		1 (8.3%)
3		2 (16.7%)
4		1 (8.3%)
5		2 (16.7%)
6		0 (0.0%)
7		3 (25.0%)
8		1 (8.3%)
9		0 (0.0%)
cried for their mommy. 10		2 (16.7%)

Comments

[crowdog66]

Today I did research for, wrote and posted a falconry-based pre-slash piece in the Lethe!verse, "Jesses". Considering I had no particular writing goals for today beyond a bit of plotting, that's not too bad at all.

This month, as in months past, I'm going to tackle my goals by setting aside a couple of hours each morning (minimum) for writing, with the aim of putting out at least 1500 words of something every day. Some days it'll be plotting, other days writing, other days editing/rewrites... I'm not sure how it will all shake out come month's end, but the key for me is to keep up a steady output.

[wintergrey]

Awesome on getting something done and up there! I think that's a great goal, good luck with it. :) Doing something every day can be really good for getting in the groove. I do find that I need breaks, personally, but other people can just keep going. That always amazes me.

[electric_butterfly]

I have been thinking about a Marcello fic called "Always Dilligent", but I haven't gotten past a few lines of the fic.

I'm going to be busy fixing Ebay pics, making incense, and posting stuff today, so writing will be a bit difficult today.

[wintergrey]

Thinking about writing counts! Some people call it "composting", I call it "brewing" or "percolating". The brain needs time to turn things over and decide what to do with them.

[kayjayuu]

Since I just woke up after sleeping in (and working nights), this begins my day. I'll hopefully remember to report back and do the poll before bed. If not, I'll post tomorrow!

The next three days are my weekend, so I have free time. However, Wednesday is my anniversary, so....

At least last night at work, the two main characters in my WIP, Faith, were talking both to me and to each other, so I got some insight and dialogue that excited me. We'll see if I can put that on a page today.

I have no set way of reaching writing goals, my life is a little too... unorchestrated. And my time on work days quite limited. This month I plan to check in here every day and at least leave a trail of how I'm doing. I need to finish this WIP.

Also, may sign up for Not Prime Time. We'll see.

[wintergrey]

Sometimes check-ins work for me because I'll write something just so I can say I did it. *g* I can be suckered with gold stars and smiley faces, too. Good luck with getting some writing time in.

[dhae_knight_1]

God, shoot me now. I just started a fic where Peter Burke (from White Collar) ended up a porn star. A gay porn star! I don't know whether to laugh, cry or just hide...

[wintergrey]

My friend, sometimes you simply have to GO THERE. You have to Star Trek that sucker. It can also be liberating—sometimes writing the WTF is what breaks my writer's block, which is always awesome.

(...says the gay romance writer who is writing het incest fic at the moment.)

[insignia]

I WROTE WORDS. I picked up my neglected pre-manga YGO fic, "One of a hundred", and wrote 209 words of childhood trauma. Yay! Er... >_>; Since my goal for the day was to not despair, I consider actual progress a big success.

[wintergrey]

You made your goal! We do not judge. :)

[lilly_c]

Not done any writing today but it's fine because it has been a day for revising and lots of it, also made some Avengers icons too.

I didn't sign up for this month what with exams, deadlines, work and hopefully moving it seemed a bit daft. I'm just going to stick to my plan/target of 1500-200 words a week and see how it goes given how hectic this month will be. I do have a few things on the go, fic wise, so it is doable.

[lullabymoon]

Jees, I knew in my head that it was the 1st of the month, but it completely went past me that it was a new writing month as well. Ah well. Plotted out a new plot for my sgagenfic, since the other one wasn't going anywhere at all. I'll see how this one gets on tomorrow.

As for reaching my goals, well I would like to be one of those people who plans it step by step and set myself deadline (okay I do that just now, they just tend to go wheeching past and make me feel bad) but I do tend to be more of the last minute type. I am getting better though at not quite so last minute. I'm not sure how I'm doing it this month, I'm up to my eyeballs in tutoring stuff the now, but once the exams are past on the 14th, things will be easier.

[in_lighter_ink]

Happy unbirthday to you!

I am a horrible procrastinator (in the sense that I am very, very good at procrastinating!) who tends to wait until the last minute, and then wish she hadn't. So this month, I'm going to try to be a little more intentional about making sure I sit down to write at least 500 words on something every day, and make sure to check in here every day. At the very least.

[roane]

Today was the best kind of day of all, because today was a posting day! Chapter four of Pull the Stars from the Sky went up today. I'm up to almost 25,000 words, and not quite halfway through yet.

My biggest writing goal is just to do it. Lame, I know. It helps that I have been utterly in love with writing for the past three or four months, so it's not a chore. It also helps that I get SUPER excited about my projects. (I am SO RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED about Pull the Stars that when I'm not writing it, I'm thinking about writing it.)

I keep waiting for this burst of writing energy to fade, but... it hasn't yet!

[linaewen]

My day was too full with RL to expect to get any writing done, but I was pleasantly surprised to be able to do a little plotting. I was listening to a lecture and something that was said gave me an idea for one of the stories I'm working on for this month's challenge. The idea could actually turn out to be the elusive central point I was needing to hang the rest of the plot on, so I was happy! No other writing happened, but I have the idea safely written down for typing up when I get a chance.

For achieving my goals, I suppose I tend to poke at them and then hurry up and do it all at the last minute. ;-) I always have good intentions to be more organized about it, but I am struggling with managing my time and my RL responsibilities, so writing tends to be relegated to the "guess I'll have to do this later" category.