Check-in time?

[wordstitch]

How's everyone doing with their writing this week, now that we've passed the half-way point?  Have you been working on your WIPs?  Made any progress?  Run into any trouble?  Let's talk about it!  


(not sure if I'm supposed to post this, but since nothing was posted yesterday I thought I'd go ahead!)  

 
 

Comments

as for me...

[wordstitch]

This month I signed up for the 750words February challenge, and for the past four days have been hitting the mark consistently. Yesterday was a close call, though, because I got into a miff with my husband and almost couldn't muster up the energy to write. I'm working on a rather heavy, emotionally draining story at the moment so I feel like today might be the day to take a break from that and jump to something a little happier.

Re: as for me...

[retsuko]

Good for you for writing despite emotional upheaval! *high-fives you*

What is the 750 words challenge?

Re: as for me...

[crookedspoon]

Good luck with the challenge! February seems like a good month to start.

[retsuko]

I've gotten about 2,000 words on my WIP done this week. Feeling really good about that. AND I've signed up to attend the first writer's group meetup that I signed up for later this month. :)

[wordstitch]

What a coincidence! I also have a first meeting of a writer's group meetup to attend, which I'm going to tomorrow. =D Are you excited for yours? How many people are attending?

Well done on the 2,000 words! That's a lot in a week. What kind of thing are you writing? =)

[crookedspoon]

Go you! 2k is impressive :D

[crookedspoon]

After fic_promptly's Contest Week (that coincided with the last mad rush of femslash100's drabbletag), I find myself in a bit of a writing slump. It's not surprising, but I still don't like it. I have an abundance of ideas that need whittling down.

As for deadlines, I have one fic to edit ASAP, and another to write until the 14th. That one I haven't started yet. Overcoming that hurdle is difficult sometimes, especially when I have other things to occupy myself with.

ETA: Forgot to mention I do so love your username! :D

[wordstitch]

Oh no, writing slumps. My longest one lasted for a whole year. I wrote a couple of fics last year but I never really cared all that much about them (they were gift fics for friends), so basically I wrote nothing worth being proud of in 2014. A whole year of crappy writing, ahaha. Basically, I know how you feel~ Don't despair!!

I hate starting new things on a deadline. I always have to ask for extensions, I'm so bad o.o You should start today! Maybe just the first scene, or the last paragraph so you have something to work towards! Or maybe just the dialogue bits of a scene you have in your mind already? If you tackle just one small thing, even if it's only a sentence or a paragraph, at least you can say you've started, and that feeling of accomplishment and a sense of purpose will pull you through all the crappy plotting out of the story bits XD


(Also, thank you! I like it too. Usually I use the same username everywhere so this one is a nice change =D)

[retsuko]

I hate writing slumps so much. :( The only way to beat them (at least for me) is the same way of beating the hiccups: not thinking about it and doing something else. Hope things get better ASAP and a good prompt/idea gets the creative energy flowing again!

[alasse_irena]

I...have not been productive, although I *thought* about my bingo card. Oops.

[wordstitch]

Thinking counts! But you should write! Start today? On dialogue bits or something? Just 100 words!

What kind of bingo are you doing? I have a kink bingo card from three years ago which I still keep in my Evernote account XD

[chordatesrock]

I finished a first draft of something on my list!

[wordstitch]

Oooh, you rockstar! 8D Congrats~ One dead plot bunny revived already!!

[dhampyresa]

I made good progress, I think. This evening I got home, fired up the word processor and wrote 725 words in 45mn which was an experiment that seems to have worked out awesomely. Shall repeat and get more data.

[chordatesrock]

Excellent, that's a good pace!

[menage]

I haven't made any progress since Sunday. *keels over*
For the past few days I've been questioning my work, even though it's unwritten! I've been wondering if the characters would even be in character, or if the au i'm writing is too far from canon, and generally I've been asking myself other negative and discouraging questions. Wah, a first draft is just a first draft so I know I shouldn't overthink it. It has to be written before it can be edited and judged, right? So why can't I make my inner editor understand? So all week I've been staring at my outline, thinking about the next scene, and then my thoughts wander to negative things like, "this is complete and utter trash and no one will want to read it."

[wordstitch]

That is so dangerous, and happens to every single one of us, I'm sure! I'm so often afraid that someone will read my writing and go, "This characterization sounds like someone else!" In original stuff it's less clear-cut, but I feel like fanfic writers get a lot of grief for not being "in-character," as though a single group of people can really decide what "in-character" actually means. I find that it all depends on the reader, and on what works for you as a writer too.

But basically, you shouldn't worry about it! If you write it the way you think will work and you do your best during the editing process (which you will!) your fic will work for you, even if it doesn't work for someone else. And even if it doesn't work for them, that doesn't mean no one will read it or not one will enjoy it! This month I read a couple of fic which I thought had really solid story-telling and which were recced all over my flist, but which I didn't think had quite the right characterizations for the main character. Characterization is only part of the equation, and a very subjective one. You can write exemplary fic even if your idea and someone else's don't quite jive.

XD Anyway, the tldr version of this comment: You should do it! If you already have an outline you owe it to your plot bunny and to the effort that you've already put into this thing to at least write a scene or two, even if it's just a little bit of dialogue. Why don't you try picking a scene at random somewhere in the middle, so it's not too overwhelming, and at least write the first paragraph? Better yet, show me the first paragraph so I can tell you you're doing awesome =D

[wordstitch]

Oh no D= I'm sorry things broke themselves. Hope everything turned out all right?

Wow, 940 words in one day is a lot! Go you! =D Rarepairs are fun sometimes!

[misslucyjane]

My project for this week is finishing the script for a TV pilot to submit for a fellowship with the Sundance Institute. If I get selected I will learn how to be a showrunner for a week. (Do I want to even be a showrunner? Not sure about that...)

I finished a script, so yay for that. Now I've been trying to polish the first five pages, which is what we submit for the first round, and "polishing" has been more like "rewriting entirely" and I have no idea what's going to work anymore.

Writing is hard.

The whole first round submission package is due Wednesday. I need to figure this out before then, and I feel like it'll be ten minutes to midnight before I know how to make this work.

[wordstitch]

Wow, that's really awesome!! And it's great that you've already finished and are in the editing stages, even if it does mean a lot of rewriting! Just remember to breathe, and you'll surely get it done! Do you have someone you trust who can beta-read (or the script equivalent to that...)? I find it always helps with I'm re-writing something to have someone read through and tell me if it flows, or if I can do something super simple like moving a paragraph somewhere else to make it all work.

Writing is super hard T_T

ETA: GOOD LUCK with the Wednesday deadline! You can do it‼ \o/

[ldybastet]

I've finished one fic and just got it back from beta, so that feels pretty good. :) I did my bunny list and now looking at it to see which of these want to go first. ;)

[wordstitch]

Getting stuff back from beta is the best! Good job! I find the bunny list really helpful for keeping my priorities straight, actually!

By the way, were you ever in HP fandom? Your screen name looks super familiar! Or possibly PoT fandom?

[kay_brooke]

I have done nothing this entire month! /o\

[ravengown]

Hey I was just here like, yesterday— are you stuck on what project you want to work on or is life just too busy?

[ravengown]

Well, this week has been a little bit on the hilariously bad side writing wise-- I've been really sleep deprived and basically doing everything on my to-do list EXCEPT for writing. Mercifully yesterday I finally got unstuck and wrote about 1K for a WIP that I started in June of last year or something. It's still very much in the draft phase but maybe I'll be able to get a complete first draft of it done by Saturday without the slightly insane burnout writing I've been doing (weekly goals are helpful, but writing every day is the real goal here.)

Anyways, plot bunnies will probably all be put on the shelf since I want to contribute a few things to the Rare Pair Battle that's being run in a challenge comm for KnB that I help mod... I want to do at least a couple of things, but my personal standard of 1000 words minimum for a single piece might make that rough. Sigh.

[wordstitch]

Good luck with your Sunday goal! 1k on a WIP is great, well done!

Rare Pair Battle sounds like a fun project! I'm always envious of KnB fandomers; it's nice to be in a fandom that has new canon, and one of my flisters who's a great writer is in that fandom so I'm always seeing stuff on my tumblr dash =)

[mixtapestar]

It was a pretty slow week - too busy. But last night I caught up and wrote another 1k. I'm so close to finishing this particular WiP!

[wordstitch]

Ooh, good job! Yay for being close to the finish line~

[silailo]

I finished a prologue to an original story a while back, but a few of my characters were lacking motivation, so I can't get into the story yet. Oh, that and I may need to do some more world building. I think I may have figured out a remedy for the character motivation problem, though!

[wordstitch]

Worldbuilding and character motivation are so tricky in original fic. I'm going through the same problems right now with my original fic projects. Good luck!! Glad you have a remedy for it~

[gehayi]

I finished editing two manuscripts. I haven't done any writing yet, but I'm planning on starting tomorrow. Well...later today.

[wordstitch]

Yay! Twe whole manuscripts done with editing sounds awesome =D

[kalloway]

Most of the week, I've been far too busy with work (and work-related exhaustion - I do large machinery repair, fabrication, etc), school, and start-up/mod-stuff for the community to tackle writing. ^^;;

Hopefully I can work on some stuff this weekend~

[wordstitch]

Wow, machinery repair and fabrication sounds really complicated!

Good luck this weekend! You can do it!! \o/

[no_apologies]

Today, I've finished reading over the first two chapters of one of two awesome fanfics that have been done, and fixed some minor errors. Finally, after 2 years of hiatus I'm getting back to at least one for right now!

I'm going to start writing the third chapter of my darkest and most intense story I've ever started--tomorrow! After doing some much needed trimming and proofreading on those previous chapters, I was reminded why I feel tempted to write more of what I'm positive is a challenge, to become more challenging to write as the fic progresses. I remember why it's so good, and I believe my plot bunnies for this have come back. Overall, this is very exciting. :D