May WIP challenge - go go! Check in here!

[littlebutfierce]

First day of check-ins for the month of May. How's it going?

Before we start talking about this month, does anyone from the April WIP challenge want to drop a line about how the challenge finished for you? Did you meet your goals? (& a reminder, we have a collection on AO3 for fics completed through the challenge -- if you need an AO3 invite let me know.)

Poll #6839 May 1 check-in poll!

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 12

View Respondents

What did you do today, fic-wise?

View Answers

Wrote
9 (75.0%)

Edited
3 (25.0%)

Sent fic to beta
1 (8.3%)

Researched
0 (0.0%)

Took a break
4 (33.3%)

Something else I will describe in comments
1 (8.3%)

And how are you feeling about your fic?

View Answers

AWESOME
4 (36.4%)

Awesome
0 (0.0%)

Pretty good
4 (36.4%)

Oh shut up with the optimism, it's pretty crappy right now
2 (18.2%)

DON'T ASK
1 (9.1%)

If you wrote any words today, how many did you write?

View Answers

0-250
2 (20.0%)

251-499
2 (20.0%)

500-749
1 (10.0%)

750-999
1 (10.0%)

More than 1000
4 (40.0%)

In three words or less, how are you feeling about the fic right now?

View Answers

And not in the form of ticky boxes or small text boxes: what's next for your fic? What hurdle do you have to overcome next? And is there anything we can help you with to get past it? Maybe someone knows that obscure bit of info or wants to beta or... ? Or maybe some sympathy/encouragement from some of the rest of us will do the trick!

ETA: & the list of fic activities for 3W4DW continues to grow! Go forth & write! \o/

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

For the April WIP challenge: I finished 1 fic & a drabble. That was all right, I guess--I am super happy w/the one fic, but I need to get a move on for May.

Today I opened up my malingering poetry_fiction fic & it is further along than I pessimistically remembered! I even have a vague ending (what's been stymieing me for months). So maybe if I get really stuck into editing it this month I can finish it.

I feel a bit more pessimistic about my remaining help_japan fic. If anyone who's in K-On! fandom would be open to tossing around ideas over PM or e-mail, please let me know!

Today I did finish off another drabble for the drabblefest in my journal, which was pretty satisfying, though. I wish more people would leave prompts in fandoms I knew (I can't really answer my own prompts!), alas.

[laceblade]

I'd be willing to talk K-On! in e-mail. I've now seen through episode 16 of K-On!! and continue to keep going!

[littlebutfierce]

Thanks for the suggestion over Twitter! At some point I will totes e-mail you (maybe tomorrow morning from work if it's slow). Thanks!!

[glitteryv]

Yays for finishing the drabble! Any new fic (regardless of the length) is a good thing. :)

[littlebutfierce]

Thank you! Yeah, it's pretty satisfying. :) I only wish there were more prompts there I could fill that weren't mine, heh.

[anehan]

Alas, I was too busy today to write. That means I'm already 1613 words behind in my manowrimo fic. Ouch.

[littlebutfierce]

Awwwwww! Are you someone who tends to write in huge chunks anyway? If so, that might not be a problem? & if not, it will be a chance to develop marathon-writing skills? One day being behind doesn't have to induce flailing yet, anyway, so I hope today goes better for you!

[anehan]

Yeah, I guess I do write in bigger chunks, but not so big that I can afford slacking off for many days.

[littlebutfierce]

Good luck getting started--hopefully today/tomorrow will lend itself to productivity!!

[chibifukurou]

Sorry for my disappearing act last week and my late sign-up for this month. Between allergies and birthdays I've been pretty out of it for the last week. But I'm back and ready for some heavy duty writing.

Today I wrote and posted my first Queer_Fest story (Talk about procrastination) If anyone likes Godchild and Gender-queer stories let me know and I'll give you the link.

I'm a bit stressed about the variety of stories I need to get written(Why oh Why did I sign up for an 11th big bang???) But I can't seem to decide which story I want to drop since I love them all.

[littlebutfierce]

Allergies, ugh. It's that time of year for me too. I love seeing flowers blooming & trees coming into leaf, but yes... achoo! I hear you! (& was it your birthday? Hope it was happy if so!)

& yay for posting the first queer_fest story!!

& wow, I was amazed when I heard in the writing session that you'd signed up for 10 big bangs. Number 11??? I am even more impressed, especially because you love them all so you don't want to drop any. Go go go! That's awesome.

[lacerta]

I sent in the big bang rough draft today and now I'm just soooo happy and relieved and excited! I'll have lots to do wrt re-writing scenes and editing this month, but that feels a lot less overwhelming than writing the whole thing from scratch.

[insertcode11]

^___________________________________________________________^

YAY FOR YOU, BABE!!! I'M SO PROUD!! :D

Take a break! You deserve it!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* *\o/* ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

[lacerta]

Heee thank you and thanks so much for all the cheerleading! Your comment looks exactly how I feel ♥

[littlebutfierce]

WOOHOOOOOOO!!! You made it! That's awesome. That's fantastic! & now you have something to edit, which is yaaaaay! Congratulations!!

[lacerta]

THANK YOU! I still can't wrap my head around the fact I've written something so. very. long. But it feels good :D

[littlebutfierce]

I know, that's totally awesome!! You definitely deserve some pats on the back! (& hee, that icon is adorable.)

[littlebutfierce]

Yeah, & you also just moved, which to me would put a wrench in writing plans in a major way (I haaaaate moving). So good for you for getting so much done last month, particularly the one that was the top priority.

& yay for such a good start to this month: 1000 words plus ficlet!

[jagnikjen]

Overall a very productive weekend RL-wise. Writing was fine...good even.

I finished a drabble (for me, 100 wds) that has been waiting to be finished for weeks now and posted it to FFN and my DW with a cross-post to my LJ.

I revised another fic and sent it off to my beta.

I piddled with several other random fics.

I'm struggling with the ability to write sex scenes. Grr...

[littlebutfierce]

Wow, that does sound like a really good writing weekend!

Ahahahaha, sex scenes. Yes, I have difficulty w/them too. Vocabulary (how many times can I use the same word for a body part?), describing motion (or figuring out if certain positions are possible, ha!), just wondering if it all sounds tacky. And then if I have sex scenes that seem okay, I get paranoid that they're just like other sex scenes I've written (how come everyone in my fics likes to do x & y in this particular way?).

(I appreciate it can be a delicate subject, but do feel free to put up a new post if you want to ask for specific suggestions or just have a general gripe about it! I'm sure lots of other people can commiserate.)

[jagnikjen]

(I appreciate it can be a delicate subject, but do feel free to put up a new post if you want to ask for specific suggestions or just have a general gripe about it! I'm sure lots of other people can commiserate.)

Really? I might just do that at some point. Thanks.

[littlebutfierce]

Oh, of course! That could be a really good discussion. :) I'd just put the explicit bits behind a cut, in case people are reading at work or whatever.

[glitteryv]

I got busy betaing the last 3 pending fics for some friends so that kinda ate my writing time.

That said, I *did* added new words to my Big Bang and, for the first time in months, feel like I got the gist of what the story's going to be. FWIW, I do write a loose outline whenever I'm working on long fic, but this one was rather tricky.

Right now, all I'm focusing on is finishing that first damn draft and then on finding a couple of good betas. *facepalms*

[littlebutfierce]

Aw, but I think beta-ing is good practice--it helps you notice what's good & what needs work in writing, which can only help your own, y'know? Plus... if nothing else, you've racked up beta credit w/your friends for when you need it. ;)

But a big YAY for getting to that moment where you know what the gist of your story is going to be! I was really floundering w/one of my fics last month, where I didn't get to that click! moment when I knew I was taking the story down the right path. It was so hard until I got there, so yay for you!!

[laceblade]

I had planned to write in the evening, after being at my parents' house, driving home, and hanging out with Boyfriend, but then I got home and the bin Laden news hit, so that plan went to shit.

I did think about my fic today! And started to be active in this comm, and found a new resource (Inception wiki, :D).

[littlebutfierce]

As I said on Twitter, I am so glad I don't have TV & don't go on FB, so I can minimize how much of the failyness I'm exposed to. :/ I hope for your sake (not just your fic's sake!) you're able to block it out soon, cuz yeah...

But yay for thinking about fic & posting here & finding a new resource!! (ARE YOU SAVING THAT STUFF IN SCRIVENER Y/Y -- ahahaha, I say that & yet I haven't opened up Scrivener myself in months. I totally should, though...)

[laceblade]

I haven't put new Inception-world notes into Scrivener yet! Instead I just keep saving fanart from Tumblr so that I can look at the pretty pictures while I'm writing, :O

[littlebutfierce]

That sounds like a good use of it to me! HMMMM maybe I should do that. I started a Tumblr just to show Phredd cute/funny things w/o sending him 10 zillion e-mails, but maybe I should save all the fanart from it in Scrivener instead.

[bay_alexison]

Like laceblade, I did have plans to write a bit of one of my help_japan fics, but the Osama Bin Laden news is pretty distracting. >.<; There's still some time for me tonight, so I might either get to writing that help_japan fic or outline another help_japan fic. I'm tempted to go write/outline a third fic that I didn't plan for this challenge, though. D:

[littlebutfierce]

Yeah, the plotlines that don't have a deadline (or even a tentative deadline--like I don't want to leave my help_japan fic for too much longer, even though there's no set date for it to be done) always seem to be the most alluring for me. ^^;;

Good luck getting back into your two charity fics!!

[soc_puppet]

No progress from me yet today, but I'm hoping to bang out at least a few sentences before I go to bed. Most likely on the kinkmeme fill, since the inspiration is still fresh for that. For the chapter fic, I'm probably going to have to pick a day or three to devote solely to it; I'm only a couple hundred words from finishing the chapter I'm working on, I'm pretty sure, I just need to sit down and get it done.

I'm really expecting Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday to be my big writing days, since they've got built-in "I have nothing to do!" time without the internet to distract me. I'll probably be trying to add something for Mondays and Fridays at least, but Wednesdays and Sundays are currently a little too busy for me to work much out. Still, I guess I'll see what I can do.

You can do it, self!

[littlebutfierce]

Yeah, I find writing/editing time throughout the week to be a little uneven for me too--for the past few months, I just never got anything done on Thursdays since I had a class, but now that's ended. So in theory I could be writing every day of the week. Hmmmm, we'll see how that goes.

It might be good for your brain to have a few days to rest from actively writing/editing, though--maybe as you're going around doing stuff, your brain will be subconsciously processing ideas & you'll get back to the page w/some new inspiration. :D

Good luck w/finishing the next chapter! Sounds like you are very close indeed.

[lola_mento]

Did some more work on my queer_fest fic #1, currently at 3600 words and not even halfway done. I didn't expect it to get so long! Note to self: never sign up for a big bang.

Things I want to do now:
-Finish one of the other stories I've started and post it
-Start another queer_fest story so if it snowballs on me, it won't happen two days before the posting date

[littlebutfierce]

Go you for getting on w/the queer_fest fic! I find myself oddly pleased when my fics get longer than expected--I am very much NOT a longfic writer (if I signed up for a big bang I would just cry), but I think in fandom there's still this bias in favor of longfic in terms of what people see as most important/worthy. So if I write longer I think subconsciously I think it must be better somehow. >_< (even though I prefer to read shorter fics as well as write them, heh.)

Good luck w/the other stories as well!!

[snowynight]

I wrote 8 fics in April, finished three challenge, and have 6K each on my bang. Now if I get the energy to work on the bang...

[littlebutfierce]

!!!!!! As always, I am totally bowled over by how much you write. That is awesome. Best of luck in moving on some more w/the big bang!

[linaewen]

Okay, so I could have made major progress yesterday if I'd stopped goofing off and settled down to writing. But no, I didn't. I called it taking a break, but it's actually more like that thing that happens when you are forced to take a break after much progress and then can't get back on track.

Even so, I'm still feeling good about my writing. I know I have some good stuff done, and I have good solid outlines to write from when I get back on track. I just have to stop procrastinating!

I actually did reach a goal I had for one of my fics in April -- to write at least 5,000 words on my Big Bang fic. That happened, yay!

What's next for me involves several things, as I have my finger in a number of different fic pies. This month I would like to accomplish the following:

- post a couple of chapters for my Major fic that are sitting there written just waiting to be posted.
- make significant progress on my Big Bang story. Another 7,000 words at least to keep me on track for the deadline, but more would be better.
- I have a plot bunny/prompt for a new story from scratch with is due in June, so I must make significant progress on writing that. I have done good research, so now I need that all important opening paragraph to get started -- that's usually one of the hardest parts for me, opening the story.
- making sure I don't neglect my poor epic WIPs that have been gathering dust. One new chapter on each of them would make me feel very good about myself, lol!

Sometimes I think I'm crazy that I have gotten involved in so many writing projects, and then take on more -- but it seems to be helping me think about writing more often, somehow. So, while it's stressful when other non-writing duties takes over more and I have trouble managing my time, I'm still better off than I was when I was just ignoring my writing and pretending I was working on it. ;-)

[littlebutfierce]

I called it taking a break, but it's actually more like that thing that happens when you are forced to take a break after much progress and then can't get back on track.

I know that feeling! Sometimes having a really good writing session makes it harder for me to start again b/c I feel like I have to get as many words down/as much plot figured out/as much editing as I did the last time.

Congratulations on meeting one of your goals for April!

& I will eagerly await the next chapters of your Major fic whenever you post them!

it seems to be helping me think about writing more often, somehow. So, while it's stressful when other non-writing duties takes over more and I have trouble managing my time, I'm still better off than I was when I was just ignoring my writing and pretending I was working on it. ;-)

This makes a lot of sense to me! I've heard other people here say similar things too. & for me, yeah, even if I don't meet my goals for the month, at least I've had fic on the brain, which counts as progress in my book!

[eien_herrison]

Okay, I decided to sign up today after writing a couple of sentences for one of my stories (a Max Steel fic involving someone with retrograde amnesia, should be interesting).

My other story that I've put as a priority (Max Steel again, a re-write of the whole series), after six months of fighting with the current and upcoming chapter, I decided to put aside from the time being and continue on with the other chapters. To be honest, the main sticking point was that I couldn't find a way to really add on to the episode (and all the characters I added were effectively background decorations). Next chapter is an original story, and I've got a couple of sentences (better than nothing).

Work starts up again for me tomorrow, so I may stall until the weekend when I can put some time aside to really write.

[littlebutfierce]

Welcome to the challenge!

I hate when I have work weeks where I don't have enough energy to come home & write or edit or anything. Maybe you'll be able to find a moment or two to think about your fic during work, at least? I became oddly grateful for a boring weekly meeting when it occurred to me that, instead of doodling, I could be brainstorming fic, heh.

[eien_herrison]

Thanks for the welcome :) Hopefully posting here and getting encouragement/comiseration throughout the year will mean I get more written than just during November :P

Thankfully I work from home, so I don't have to deal with any travel times or stress; we do have a brand new project starting for the next few months (and as a deputy team leader I'm running one of the sub-divisions, so it's a little nerve-wracking). I might be able to spend some time thinking about it during work -- depends how busy and stressful it is!