Welcome to 2016!

[lexicalcrow]

Yes, we're a week behind, but I hope you'll forgive your new mods for the slight delay while we organise ourselves.

Anyway, hello! Welcome to onedeadplotbunny for 2016. I'm one of your shiny new mods, lexicalcrow , or Sasha for short, and we're here to encourage you to slay those bunnies and get them off your WIP list.

For anyone new to the bunnycomm this year, welcome. There's a brief FAQ in the profile, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask them here. Your other shiny mods for the year are aurordark , misslucyjane , and jordannamorgan , and they should be around soon to introduce themselves.

This community is all about motivation and support, and there's no pressure to finish absolutely everything you set out to achieve this year. Anything you can knock off and finish is a win. Anything you write another chapter on is a win. Even if you only write another 1000 words on a WIP you started 6 years ago, that's a win. So bring your bunnies to the table, and let's see how much we can achieve this year. :D

Throughout the year, we'll be having challenges and prompts and motivational posts to help spur you along, and we'll be having weekly check-ins to help you share your progress, or lack thereof. Check-ins, at this stage, will probably be on Wednesdays as they have been in the past, but we'll make a post confirming that once we've all sorted out our schedules. (...Like I said, we're a week behind. How is it February already idek.)

So, welcome to the new year, whether you've done this before, or you're brand new to the community. Feel free to introduce yourself, if you like, and whether you've already got your bunny plan sorted for the year. Let's kick this year off, and get cracking on those bunnies!

Comments

testing,testing

[dialecticdreamer]

One thing I'm trying, since my reaction to bingo cards was to generate NEW PLOT BUNNIES (NOO!), is to create a folder for the current month of writing with the header "WANT TO FINISH" in order to have a bunny hutch JUST for things I'm currently interested in, think are short and worth finishing, et cetera.

This is my first month of testing. If the hutch residency numbers go down by one, that's an improvement, because in the meantime I'm still writing to nEW prompts. Still writing to new card prompts, and writing personals stuff along with blog posts.

Must Write Faster (MWF!) is my favorite sig right now. I suppose it is now OBVIOUS why?

Re: testing,testing

[lexicalcrow]

That sounds like a sound strategy to keep you focused enough to get things finished. I hope the testing goes well.

I know I can really only handle a few projects at a time, otherwise I never get anything finished. It is particularly hard when you're continuing to start new things, though. I mean, someone else might just say, then don't start new things, but where's the fun in that, right? :D

Re: testing,testing

[dialecticdreamer]

Don't start new things? Right... I breathe, and after something changes in that, wow, IDEA!

Honestly, it's MUCH better than the alternative, but sometimes I still COMPLAIN.

[gehayi]

At the moment, I'm trying not to feel overwhelmed, because I just finished editing one manuscript last week; I'm working on another (I'm currently on page 455 of 521, so 66 pages to go); I've just received two MORE manuscripts to edit; I have three paper forms to fill out (I have the worst anxiety about forms ever, so the forms are giving me a very literal tension headache); and I'm wondering if I will ever be able to get any of my own writing done. I know that other editors manage to write and edit. I wish I knew how.

[lexicalcrow]

You certainly sound like you've got a bit of work to do. Good luck getting it all done, and take some time to breathe. I'm sure you'll be fine. You might be able to find some time for writing once the workload reduces a little.

[gehayi]

I've finished the huge manuscript (it ended at 529 pages) and one of the other two manuscripts. I am now working on the three evil forms. I am also trying to think of how to diplomatically explain to the writer of the huge manuscript what is wrong with the story and how at least some of the problems might be fixed. (It's the diplomatic part that's baffling me.)

[gehayi]

I've finished writing up the diplomatic letter (see the 2/12 comment about that) about all the problems with the huge manuscript and how some might be fixed. It ended up being 12,918 words long--22 pages in Word. And I sent it and the manuscript back to the author. No word from her yet.

I also finished and mailed off the third manuscript. So now my edits are done and I can go do some writing. WOOT!

P.S. I haven't seen any check-in posts for about three weeks. Is something wrong? *worries about mods*

[the_rck]

I've added six or seven new plot bunnies to my list in the last three weeks. I've even started writing three of them. I was making good progress on one when I got sick last weekend and ended up in brain fog all week.

I've got to stop doing accumulating new plot bunnies because that I'm not actually finishing anything.

[lexicalcrow]

Oh dear, yes, I know what that's like. Too many bunnies, and not enough time to finish any of them. I've got a couple I started late last year that were totally great ideas, and I totally started them, but have I finished them? No. I may have to see if I can finish them this year, just so they don't hang around collecting dust on my harddrive.

[silailo]

I finished posting a long fanfiction recently. I want to focus more on some original fic but suddenly I've become interested in rewriting an old fanfiction. As much as I want to rewrite it, though, it's scaring me because I've never done it before and I don't know where to begin. @_@ Reading about rewriting just makes my head spin.

[lexicalcrow]

I've rewritten long fanfiction before. It can be the worst thing ever, just because of the scale of it, but I found it was totally worth the effort, because the fic is so much better now. The characters are much more fleshed out, and the story feels much more complete, and complex, in a way it didn't before.

I found the best way to approach it was to just start again from scratch, and let the story evolve as it wants to evolve. Don't force it to be something it doesn't want to be, and if there's things you wanted to fix specifically, you can do those this time round, and fill in gaps, and generally do a better job of it than the first version.

[silailo]

Right now I'm just rereading it to see where I'd like to make changes. I'm stuck between rewriting from scratch (with my first plot outline to follow), and making basic edits to make it easier--and less annoying--to read. So...many...adverbs. x_x

[jordannamorgan]

Oh, I had that problem before. It was pointed out to me long, long ago that I was using too many adverbs. After that, I adopted a general rule of using no more than one or two per paragraph. That definitely improved my writing--and needing to describe things more creatively boosted my word count, too. :)

[lexicalcrow]

Awesome work! That's a great effort! Deadlines are great like that, sometimes. At least you've got a bit of time now to let yourself rest and get better without fic deadlines hanging over you.

[lassarina]

Hurrah! Congrats to the new mods!

A lot of my bunny list is going to involve editing (I have one novel draft that's 80% done, three done that need heavy edits and one half-done that needs finishing and then editing), which of course means I got smacked in the face by two new (massive) bunnies.

So, we'll see, I guess.

(It's like how every year I tell myself I'm gonna beat more games than I buy, and then Steam sales happen.)

[lexicalcrow]

Woohoo! It's good to have a chance to keep this place going. :D

I've got two big novels I'm in the process of editing, so I feel you there. I'm sure new bunnies will keep turning up as I go when I need to take a break from editing. Sometimes, you need to give your mind a break.

(Oh, yes, Steam sales. I have resisted them, for now, but sometimes, I am tempted. I am also not great at finishing games before buying new ones. My backlog of stuff to play is not insignificant.)

[leidmotief]

Yay, a new start! My plan this year is to let go of all loose ends, so I have started to revise my fics, including those I never got to publish and those I did. Currently, I'm rewriting the first (unpublished) fic I wrote for my current OTP, and although I see that I used some of its ideas elsewhere, there's something I still like about it. So here I am, trying to give it a new spin and see where it goes. Luckily, it's a one-shot, so I hope it doesn't take me too long.

[lexicalcrow]

It's always good to give yourself a chance to start afresh. I'm doing some rewriting as well this year, though most of mine are novels or longfic, because I am terrible at writing short things. Good luck with your one-shot. Here's hoping it doesn't turn into an epic.

[leidmotief]

Thank you! Good luck with your fics as well. :)

[kalloway]

I don't think I'll be able to finish all the treats I'd wanted to write for Chocolate Box, since my main assignment has gotten away from me and going to be about five times longer than anticipated. *facepalms* But I had the good luck of getting assigned one of my favorite pairings for someone I know, so it feels good to be writing all of this.

Aside from that, the last week has been busy with real life: eye exam, haircut, work, school (week four of sixteen, so first wave of tests), helping Mom with errands... the next week will probably a little calmer, maybe?

Writing this last month has been pretty much non-existent, and I've not made any plans for the year.

[kalloway]

(I won't sign up for shipswap for Reasons, but I am looking forward to requests being visible so I can maybe write a treat or two.)

[ofmonstrouswords]

I totally didn't see this post until the end of the February and then just spent the past few days trying to find the energy/brain to make an intro post...whoops.

I'm Katje, and I am a bunny addict. Wait, that sounds weird. (Though I do love chocolate bunnies.) I'm Katje and I have a herd of plot bunnies. That's better.

My big plan this year is to kill dead my two novel WiP bunnies. Both require some worldbuilding and plotting work done (I'm a half-pantser, half-planner, half-whatamIdoing-er) before I can dive in again, so the goal for March is working on some preliminary stuff so I can work on one or both of them for my April Camp Nano.

I also have a bunch of bits of short fiction lying around that I want to try to finish up, so I'll likely work on those this month too.