WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 15 - Saturday

[the_rck]

I've got a full day ahead of me, so I'm posting a bit early (It's 7:26 a.m. here at the moment). I probably won't see any responses to this until this evening. I sent my Yuletide story to beta yesterday. I'm waiting to hear back on that, so today, the writing won't, most likely, go anywhere.

What did you do today?
Write?
Edit?
Send to beta?
Research?
Post?
Take a break?
Something else?

How do you feel about your writing today? Is it going great? Would you rather not talk about it?

It's Saturday. Time to share snippets, ask for help (a beta, a cheerleader, someone to brainstorm with) or generally discuss the parts of writing that have you stuck.

While I wait on the beta reader, I'm trying to start a new story. I've got prompts to work from, but I don't have the shape of a story to go with any of them. I need to decide what I'm doing with them (or at least with one of them). Ah, well, I'll think about it while I'm out and about today.

Comments

[crowdog66]

I haven't done any writing today yet, but I hope to finish another chapter of "Possession" (DS9, Garak/Bashir) and possibly another chapter of "Heart, Are You Great Enough" (Knight Rider, Michael/KITT).

Snippet time! From "Heart, Are You Great Enough"...

*****************************************************************

He was walking stealthily but the soles of his boots still struck sharp clicks from the chilly floor. When he saw the edge of a door frame around the curve ahead he came to a halt, crouching low and darting a quick peek round the bend: the tunnel had reached its end in a large opening as tall and as wide as the passageway, opening up into a shadowy space beyond. Silently Michael drew the gun holstered under his jacket, a Glock 9mm, and advanced round the curve with his firearm at the ready. He hadn't carried a gun in years, was opposed to them on principle in fact — when he was working with KITT. In a situation where KITT might be in lethal danger he had quite the opposite opinion, and he found himself more than prepared to put a bullet into whoever might decide that threatening his partner was a good idea.

But nobody challenged him as he approached the huge doorway and passed through it into the darkened room. Pausing ten feet into the space, scanning on all sides to where impenetrable shadows dwelt, he saw computer work stations, ergonomic chairs, and some banks of large stationary equipment —

— and, about fifty feet straight ahead, a flicker of familiar red light. His heart leaped into his throat as the scanner flashed to full activation and began tracking from right to left, its scrutiny almost palpable on his sensitized skin. In the shadows, the robotic car's engine turned over and idled.

Relief surged through him, lighting up his face in a wide grin. "KITT!" he exclaimed, and holstered the gun, taking an eager step forward. "Are you okay? What —?"

The car began to advance over the tiled floor, the purr of its engine rising to a roar as it picked up speed in one smooth spurt.

"Michael, no!"

The frantic cry from his left — almost a shriek — startled him deeply, but before he could turn toward it his attention was distracted anew by KITT, who was still coming toward him at a horrific rate of acceleration. Too fast for a friendly approach. Too fast to intend to do anything but run him down, but his brain stalled at that conclusion because it was too insane to —

He was still staring at the onrushing car when something slammed into him on his left side, slim arms thrown around his waist and a soft grunt of effort against his shoulder, forcing him out of the path of the Knight Industries Two Thousand. No, not something: someone. A confused impression — male, shorter than himself by a good five inches, a shock of blond hair — was mingled with the awareness that his assailant had been just in time: they'd cleared the car's path with less than five feet to spare, and a quarter of a second later KITT had blown through the spot where they'd been and roared into the tunnel with a screech of tires, the vibration of his engine vanishing rapidly up the incline.

As for Michael, he slammed into a bank of heavy equipment and tumbled to the floor, still entangled with the man who'd just saved his life. They rolled to a halt side by side against a small rolling cart, the impact bringing a rain of disassembled circuit boards down on their upper bodies; the stranger yelled again, this time inarticulately, and flinched as if the sensation of being struck frightened him. But his eyes remained wide open, fixed on Michael with unblinking intensity and an undefinable quality of need that penetrated even the blaze of adrenaline currently singing through Michael's system.

[lullabymoon]

Woo for getting it to beta!! :D

I managed 500 words of my yuletide fic today. It's not as much as I would have liked given it's a fic_rush weekend and my day off, but I did finish my canon refreshing and picked up on lots of little details to add to improve the fic when it actually gets written.

I think I'm at the BEARSBEARSBEARS stage, the thing is I know what I want to write, I just can't seem to focus myself long enough to actually get some words out. It's problem with everything just now though so I'm just going to have to keep at it with the timer and forcing myself.

[the_rck]

I know that crazy stage of Yuletide. I've been there in years past.

Have you thought about trying the Yuletide chat room? You can usually find people willing to do words wars/write or die. Some people find doing timed writing with other people motivating.

[lullabymoon]

I think the thing is, by the time I've gone and sat down, timers out and paper in front of me, I'm fine. It's the actual sitting down in the first place that seems to be the problem - I get to the end of the day and realised that I just haven't done any. I've blocked out specific times today so hopefully that doesn't happen again.

[barbayat]

Wrote a tiny little bit, but it seems I hit a creative low.

I am still looking for a beta for various pieces, I am actually convinced that it is no use to look for one. I am going to post hte stories and put a note at the beginning that it is not beta read anyone might feel free to offer help but any one making stupid general comments like your grammar is a bit dodgy will be virtually punched in the face. Can anyone tell I am frustrated?

[the_rck]

Finding a beta reader really is harder than many people make it sound. I know I've posted a few things with author's notes saying that I'm looking for a beta reader. I felt really embarrassed when I did that with a Harry Potter fic. I mean, that fandom is so big that I ought to have been able to find someone, but I couldn't. I had a friend who didn't know the fandom look it over for SPAG, but I needed Brit picking and a canon beta.

What fandom are you looking for a beta in? I'd offer, but I suck as a beta reader. I don't spot errors and can't really say why a story does or doesn't work.