Hello, writers. Many thanks to the indomitable Tara the Antisocial Social Worker for stepping in to host Write On! last week after the abrupt death of my computer.
The poor computer died of stupidity; mine. You know how the motion you make when picking up an empty cup differs from the motion that you make when picking up a full one? Well, it turns out that if the cup is full, the empty-cup motion is perfectly calibrated to splatter hot tea with honey all over the inside guts of a laptop.
So that’s my excuse for not meeting my DaKoWriMo goal, but really, I probably wasn’t going to quite meet it anyway.
Hoping you aren’t the same. And if you are… well, we still have more than we had at the beginning of the month.
Please give us your final results:
BlackSheep1 sorted vignettes and tied them together- 12k words
bonetti 30 targeted revision passes
21 completed as of 1/24/2019
Clio2 80 hours of planning and revising
80 hours, 2 mins completed as of 1/31/19
dconrad make a unified outline and write 20k words
about 40% done on outlines as of 1/24/2019
DoctorCorey finished writing 2 chapters as of 1/24/2019
Leo Orionis do the items on 2019 list
12 of 13 completed, others progressing as of 1/17/19
Mercy Ormont revise Elenora & Harrol
. Revised 20 chapters, added one new as of 1/31/19
mettle fatigue 38 short stories
25 completed; 70,134 words as of 1/31/19
Mnemosyne 25k words
. 6387 words as of 1/10/19
NeverEverAgain revise non-fiction book
second rewrite and ¾ of endnotes/bibliography done as of 1/31/19
NoblePorpentine outine and 15k words
. Ten chapters outlined, 5 chapters rough draft as of 1/24/2019
RiversoftheWest revise novel draft & start illustrations
all 16 chapters revised, plus 3 flashbacks; cut to 86,971 words
sagesource go north in 25k words or less
28,400, plus 4500 of backstory as of 1/31/19
SensibleShoes finish planning novel and write 35k words
planning finished; 23,125 words written 1/31/19
Strawbale write scifi story
finished story and sent out to beta readers as of 1/31/19
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker 31 pages
27 pages done as of 1/24/19
(For some reason this new computer doesn’t show the grey box as a grey box. Weird.)
So, how have you done this month, and what have you learned?
I always find these writing months useful for what I can learn about the writing process. Right now my draft, all 23,125 words of it, seems pedestrian and mostly uninteresting to me. Here’s the last thing I wrote in my writing journal today before closing my files:
Don't worry if this doesn't interest you very much. You're laying down the framework so that you can write what DOES interest you later.
Writing is 94% revision. Sometimes I have to remind myself that that means that a draft is only going to be 6% of what I want it to be. Patience and perseverance are what get us there.
Tonight’s challenge:
Think about something that doesn’t interest you very much when you’re writing. (With me, it’s descriptions. If you can’t think what it is for you, go ahead and use “descriptions”.)
Now think about something that does interest you, either as a writer or a reader. (With me, it’s characters who are not what they seem. If you can’t think what it is for you, go ahead and use “characters who are not what they seem.”)
Write 50 words of the thing that doesn’t interest you.
Now go back and revise, adding in the the thing that does interest you.
Write On! will be a regular Thursday feature (8 pm ET 5 pm PT) until it isn’t. Before signing a contract with any agent or publisher, please be sure to check them out on Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write and/or Writer Beware.