June WIP challenge - debrief?

[littlebutfierce]

Hi folks -- I'm going to put up the first check-in post for July's WIP challenge later (after I have a chance to write something myself, heh).

But I thought it'd be good to put up a post to see how the June challenge ended for people! Did you meet your goals? If not, were you satisfied anyway? Are there things you learned about how to kick your butt into gear? Are there things we could be doing more of in this comm (&, crucially, are there people interested in getting more involved in the running of the challenge if so)?

& just a reminder that we have a WIP Challenge collection on AO3; if you've finished fics through the challenge, please do feel free to add them there! If you need an invite let me know.

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

I finished one fic; I was hoping for two, including my second (& final) help_japan fic. But I wrote a ton, & reworked a plotty fic to make the current draft stronger, so I'm pretty happy w/how the month went.

[dragonfly]

As is typical for me, since I had auction fics to work on, I wrote (and completed) something else entirely.

My July resolution is to keep working on the Odyssey 5 fic and begin the Blood Ties one.

[lexicalcrow]

Finished my queer_fest fic! Managed to make 15k of my AU big bang fic, but I'm still nowhere near finished. Trying to see if I can opt out of art and have the rest of July to get my draft done instead. I don't want to give up on it just yet. But we'll see.

I probably would've got more headway with my AU big bang fic if I hadn't had a 48k word fic completely take over my June. I barely had a week to work on my AU BB fic. My muses are fickle bastards. They hate planning too, so I can't even put an outline in as I'm not even confident they'd stick to it anyway.

Oh well. Here's to a less hectic July. And if you're really stretched for people to do check-in posts, I could help out if needed. I'm not doing anything atm so for July, at least, I've got some spare time up my sleeves.

[linaewen]

I am content with how the month went. I achieved one of my goals by finishing a challenge fic and made some progress towards a second goal, so I'm satisfied. Just being able to come here and see that other people are in the same boat as me and succeeding in getting words written is what I need to persevere!

Thanks for the reminder about the AO3 collection. Since I actually finished something this time around, I can add that as a tag to the story!

[terajk]

I finished my queer_fest fic, which was my major goal for the month! I also made some things for kink_bingo, although only one of those is ficcish. (My fic brain is MIA at the moment. Come back, fic brain!)

Next month, I hope to at least plan/make headway on an Azula/Toph fic for my roleplay square.

[in_lighter_ink]

As predicted, I managed to write things that were not the fic that was due this month! Luckily, there is an amnesty period.

But, hey, I wrote things! (A lot of comment fic, mostly, but I also finished a longer fic - I think I'm going to do some revising and things before posting, but I'll certainly put in the AO3 collection once that happens.)

[littlebutfierce]

since I had auction fics to work on, I wrote (and completed) something else entirely.

Ahahahaha, yeah, I know that feeling. But yay for finishing some fic, anyway! Good luck w/July.

[littlebutfierce]

Yay for finishing your queer_fest fic!! & also writing an additional 15k, wow!! I hope you're able to keep going w/your big bang.

Thanks for offering re: check-in posts! Would you be interested in doing, er, next week? (Sunday July 3 through Saturday the 9th) If not, no problem -- I will do them, buuuut if you wanted to, that would be awesome, b/c then I would only have to do 3 posts this month. It's nice to have a break once in a while, heh (plus my life seems to be getting busier? IDEK why). Just let me know either way, & thanks!

[littlebutfierce]

Woohoo! Yay for hitting your first goal & making satisfying progress on your other fic (I feel like this is how I keep ending the challenge lately). & yay, please do add your fic to the collection!

[littlebutfierce]

Congratulations! There was a lot of queer_fest fic being written in this comm last month, which is awesome.

[littlebutfierce]

Heh, I do that too... but yay, congratulations for writing lots of stuff, anyway! I did see your name pop up a lot in fic_promptly during the contest week -- v. impressive!!

[jagnikjen]

I didn't finish my June challenge fic, but almost. And mostly because I need previous chapters that still aren't written in order to get the last part done.

Otherwise, the month went well. :)

[lullabymoon]

I abandoned one fic I had planned to get finished, got my big bang outline mostly done, enough for me to be happy to proceed anyway, and about half the word count I wanted to get done for said big bang.

Despite not meeting my goals, I'm fairly happy. Another fic that I had planned to get finished earlier ate up more of my time than planned but I think my satisfaction with that made me a bit more confident for my big bang.

[lacygrey]

June didn't really happen for fanfic for me, though my overall word counts are higher than ever. And I'm glad for this comm. I'm only sorry I missed some of the jucier discussion topics towards the end of the month.

My June goal was 20K, which I didn't reach. I wonder if I set the bar too high. I wonder also if I need a specific deadlined challenge (like I had Blind Go or Remix in past months) to work for. I had several phases of 'stagefright' about aspects of the fic but it certainly abated once I'd got organised with a plan. I got some encouraging comments on old fics too that helped and someone just posted me an awesome Help Japan fic I sponsored which has kind of indirectly given me a boost (the way I stole your heart (R)Hikago fic from Go_hedgehog here)

Turning off the reading, for once, has helped me to focus better. Practicing writing skills (like dialogue) was also a good thing, though difficult to keep up. 750 words, which I started this month, has saved some paper. It hasn't really changed my habits much though. I tend to scribble notes into it all day. The times Ive hit the 750w on it were nearly all when I did it in one go in the morning. I certainly didn't do this everyday though, as I started to get repetitive on it. Its good you can search on keywords - now I know to invent some and leave them where I need to come back.

So, June = good and bad. I hope July will be better. Im not signed up but will drop by here. All the best with it to everyone on the comm.

[littlebutfierce]

That sounds like good progress, even if you didn't technically meet your goal, so yay!

[littlebutfierce]

I'm glad you're pretty happy w/the progress you've made, even if you abandoned a fic & didn't strictly meet your goals. I keep doing that: not meeting my goals but feeling like I get a lot of writing done anyway. Even if I don't post the fics I want, I usually end up posting some other fics, which is still good!

[littlebutfierce]

I'm sorry you didn't get to write as much as you wanted last month, though yay for high word counts!

Sometimes if I'm repetitive on 750 Words it just means I need to figure out the best way to express whatever themes I'm obviously consumed w/at the time -- like sometimes I'll write a scene one day, like the idea but think it was a bit too rough, & go back the next day & write it again as part of my 750 for the day... it seems to help me, most of the time anyway!

I hope your month goes better for fic this time around!

[lexicalcrow]

Yeah, I just had confirmation that I can do that, so I'll have that extra work to do this month, but oh well. I'll get it over and done with and then badger someone to beta it for me. Then I can work on my other fics for this month. :D

I can't think why I can't do those. When do they go up, time wise? (I'm in Australia, that's all. I don't want to put them up too early/late.) Also, discussion points. Were there any you had in mind? I can come up with some myself, but I wouldn't want to repeat any either.

[glitteryv]

I didn't work on either of my goalfics. /o\

BUT, I did work on the two Big Bangs I've signed up for. Made the first deadline for one and started writing the second one.

OTOH, I kinda slacked with the writing in the latter part of the month. One reason was mod-related (I'm one of the co-mods for one of the big bangs) as in getting all the other writers going and cheering them on and making sure that the artists would get the art they'd claimed, etc. Another reason was, sad to say, RL kicking up the stress level rather high.

If anything, other than the daily check-in posts, what also kept me going and away from feeling like a total loser was 750words. It's slowly, but surely getting me into the habit of writing as well as of making myself get organized about sitting down and, at least, getting a couple of pages down. Not that I adhered as much as I wanted to, but I feel like I've really learned that stories won't get written if you slack off too much.

[littlebutfierce]

Eeeeee, thank you!

I'd say put up the posts whenever they're convenient in your time zone -- I know that most of the people doing them have been either in Europe or the US, so I think it would be nice to have posts timed for people in other parts of the world too!!

Happy for you to do whatever discussion points you like -- even if we've had some before, we'll have different participants & people may give different answers even if it's a second time. If you want to discuss topics via PM, please feel free... & thanks again!!

& good luck w/the big bang work, now that it's confirmed that you can go ahead!!

[lacygrey]

Thanks for your thoughts.

I'm putting June down to being part of the learning process ^_~

750 w is amazing in fact. I just found the part where is analyses your cheerfulness and counts how many times you curse!

[lexicalcrow]

No problem. :D Happy to help out.

Okay. Well, the posts usually go up while I'm asleep, so I could always do them when I get up in the morning. Or possibly before I go to bed at night. One of the two, depending on when I remember. That sound okay?

Okay. I might go back through the comm and see what I can find then. I might PM you with what I want to do anyway, just in case there's any overlap or something for later on.

Thanks. It's been another busy Saturday for me and I've done no writing, but I've got enough time to get it done, assuming I can just sit down and get it written.

[littlebutfierce]

Yes, either way sounds fine -- thank you again so much! Do feel free to get in touch if you end up wanting to talk over topics (but equally, feel free to post w/o feeling like you have to check stuff w/me!!).

I hope you were able to get some writing done today after all!

[msmcknittington]

Um, I don't remember what my goals were. I don't think I set an actual word count, and that my goal was that any work I got done was fantastic. And I got work done! I would have liked to have gotten more done, but picking up a novel-length thing that you really haven't worked on for 12+ months took a lot more effort than I had expected, and I've had a ton of other things going on that demanded time. So. Any progress is good progress!

I did discover several helpful things thanks to this comm -- PageFour, for example -- and picked up again with Storybook, which I had forgotten that I liked so much. Ooh, color-coding.

I don't know that I'll get much more done in July, since the things demanding time are still going on, but at least I'm thinking about writing fiction again. That's half my struggle, since I tend to really chew things over before I start writing any words down. Plan, plan, and plan some more.

[kunenk]

I got most of the way through my bug bang fic, though it still needs more work, and probably some reading by someone else. I'm pretty happy, though.

[littlebutfierce]

The learning process is a good thing! I mean, it's good in & of itself, but... yeah. I like chalking things up to the learning process as well. ;)

Ahahahaha, I'm almost afraid to see how many times I've cursed in 750 Words (that would be on days when I'm not writing fic & am instead letting off steam about my coworkers, I suspect...).

[littlebutfierce]

At least you did some writing, even if it wasn't on your goal fics! One of the things I've found interesting for me for the challenge over the last few months is how much it does focus me on writing... but it seems to be less that I'm writing my goal fics, more just... mindfulness about sitting down & writing in general. Which is kind of a win & kind of a frustration at the same time (I used to be so good at hammering out my goal fics in the early days of the challenge!).

I can totally empathize w/the time commitment required to mod things! Both this comm & the one for my main fandom at the mo (which I mod on DW) have taken up a lot of time last month, & it's good stuff, stuff I like doing. But it does take time. I'm sorry you had RL stress too!

I'm glad 750 Words helped.

[littlebutfierce]

Hee, I almost never remember my goals by the end of the month, & I almost never want to go back to the signup post to look for them -- seems like it might be too painful for me. Yay for getting work done! I especially think, since it's something you hadn't worked on in a while, it's fantastic that you did anything at all for it.

Good luck in July -- as you said, it's good to even be thinking about fiction writing again. I hope you're able to get some good writing time in too.

[littlebutfierce]

Yay for getting so far into your big bang!! That's quite an achievement. Good luck continuing to work on it.

[kunenk]

Thank you!