Write every day! January 2020 - Day 4

[zwei_hexen]

Tally:
Welcome Post

Day 1: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, mergatrude, mtassarin, nafs, ofmonstrouswords, sanguinity, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadora, umadoshi, yasaman, ysilme (21/21)

Day 2: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, badly_knitted, bookherd, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, mtassarin, nafs, sanguinity, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, trobadora, umadoshi, yasaman, ysilme (19/22)

Day 3: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, badly_knitted, bookherd china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, mergatrude, mtassarin, nafs, sakana17, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadora, yasaman, ysilme (19/23)

Day 4: china_shop, mergatrude

Let us know if we missed you or if you didn't check in for a while, so we can add you. Of course joining the fun is possible at any point.

~ ~ ~

ysilme here: I wrote some 300 new words yesterday after all, and about 420 today. Might become a bit more yet, we'll see. My cough is much better and I slept a few hours, but am still too tired to really concentrate, so I might rather call it an early night.

sylvanwitch here: I'm supposed to be working on original stuff, but I didn't have much time today, and the work I need to do there is more involved, so instead I began another fanfic for my bingo card, this one a new-to-me fandom, the Magnum PI reboot. It's not a show I especially like, but I can work with the characters, so I'm trying it. I *don't* want this fic to take two weeks, so I'm going to keep it light and porny. 580 words on that.

Comments

[alexseanchai]

twenty words on this, two hundred words on that, nothing on the thing I set myself a deadline on

[sylvanwitch]

Oh, dear. Well, go you for making words, and good luck on making your deadline too. :-)

[trobadora]

Glad your cough is better, ysilme! Congrats on writing that much when you're not well.

I poked at my Sundial Exchange assignment a bit, but it was really just an alibi sentence again.

(I don't know, I think I hit some kind of breakthrough with my Yuletide fic, and now Guardian suddenly doesn't seem quite so daunting to write, but I just have zero ability to focus right now.)

[sylvanwitch]

I think that sometimes happens, and I'm not sure what the best way is around that sort of aimlessness. Keeping your hand in with alibi sentences is good, though, and I hope you find that the routine eventually leads you back to writing more words.

[nafs]

I'm curious, how does one write for source material you don't especially like? Also, yay sleeping!

292 words so far. I might write more later - I'm watching the ATP Cup and I wrote the first bit between match 1 and match 2. If I decide to stay up for the doubles match I will probably try and write more after the second match. For the first time in a while I accidentally wrote a scene in the present tense so I had to rewrite it as I typed it up.

[sylvanwitch]

So, the writing on Magnum P.I. is spotty at best; a lot of it is cursory, formulaic, or outright clunky, though I noticed it's gotten better in the last few episodes, which I think have been produced/show-run by someone new? Anyway, while Jay Hernandez (Magnum) is pretty (and has amazing eyes, which feature prominently in the fanfiction I'm writing), he's not a developed enough actor to make the bad writing work. The supporting cast, however, particularly Tim Kang (Det. Katsumoto) and Perdita Weeks (Higgins), as well as Amy Hill (Kumu), are compelling enough that I keep coming back, hoping the writing will get better. There are *elements* of a great story--the Magnum character has infinite possibilities--but the writing keeps getting in the way. I suppose that's why I'm writing this fanfic?

Phew! Sorry for the ramble! Obviously, I had Things To Say (that I didn't realize were in my head until you asked). Sorry! Also, thank you for asking! :-)

Yay for words! I hope you found more of them between matches. And I can definitely relate to the tense thing. Sometimes I write in present tense deliberately, especially for action-centric fiction, but that's not my default either, though I will catch myself doing it accidentally now and again in the middle of a past tense work. Anyway, I wish you all the words in whatever tense. :-)

[alexcat]

I am doing an Iron man Big Bang and about 75% done with it though it doesn't have to post until May. I got in 486 words on it today and worked on the list of other fics I have to write and did a little brainstorming on those. So a good writing day.

I want to get my assignments done - I will need a hysterectomy in a few weeks and I don't yet know if it will be a simple surgery or if the doctor will insist on a hernia surgery that might be quite extensive. I also won't know if the surgery is the end if it until after it's done and the pathology comes back. I had a D&C in November and after assurances that it wasn't cancer, it was - endometrial cancer but they only found one tiny bit on a polyp that they removed and said it is a slow growing cancer. I want to get most of my assignments done as soon as possible.

[badly_knitted]

Good luck, I hope the surgery will be all that you have to go through!

[sylvanwitch]

Good luck with your surgery. I hope it's as non-invasive as possible and that you don't need any follow-up treatments. I wish you energy and healing and a swift passage through this challenge in your life.

Also, I'm glad you have writing to focus on as goals on the other side of the surgery. For me, that would be a sanity saver. I hope it's working that way for you as well.

Yay for words! :-)

[sierranovembr]

Alibi sentence. Something just sapped all my energy today. Not sure what's going on with that.

[sylvanwitch]

Oh, dear... I know that sometimes the state of the world in general can drain me. Sometimes, too, I just have a day when I'm not feeling it; the generative energy is just not accessible to me. Those days, I do as you have done, and because I've done this for a while now, I have faith that I'll find the energy again. I am sending YOU the energy, my friend. I hope it reaches you. :-)

[cornerofmadness]

Was gone again and for some reason Come Undone doesn't want to finish. Oh I KNOW why. I don't want to say goodbye but I have to because I absolutely need to get moving on something else.

594 words on a Buffyverse ficlet + 267 on the now reluctant Come Undone

[sylvanwitch]

Oh, I've had the same experience with the ending of a beloved story, 'verse, what have you. I applaud you getting ANY words on it in that state, and I hope you're able to reconcile yourself to its ending so that you can move on because I know that you need to. Good luck!

[cornerofmadness]

so far not good because a) Christmas repacking b) finding other things to write to avoid it because I'm bad

[umadoshi]

244 words today!

I'm glad you're starting to feel better, ysilme.

[sylvanwitch]

Yay for words! Yay! :-)

[ysilme]

Thanks!

[bookherd]

Thanks to a virtual write-in with friends on the other side of the continent, I got 1608 words and some research time in today! That's more than I've managed in quite a while. \o/

[sylvanwitch]

Yay! That's fantastic! Wooo-hooo! *\o/*

[yasaman]

Day 4: 736 words on the WIP with a deadline, plus some canon review and pulling notes together, and 157 words on the WIP that doesn't have a deadline. Also I beat Breath of the Wild, so lol that's not gonna be an excuse for not writing/reward for writing any more.

[sylvanwitch]

Oh, no! Lol! I often use games as a reward for finishing X amount of Y work (chores, grading, writing, whatever), and I know I always have this sinking feeling of let-down when I get to the end of a beloved game. I hope you find a replacement soon because there is NOTHING wrong with the carrot approach to working. :-)

Also, YAY for words--and so many of them! That's great!

[lferion]

Day 4 - 300 words on a piece that will be for fan flashworks, inspired by the event I was at today.

[sylvanwitch]

Yay for words and for inspiration from wheresoever it comes! :-)

[badly_knitted]

Day 4 - 1k words exactly, for a challenge with a 1000 word limit. Usually my submissions for it come in under the limit, if only by a few words, but this one needed every single one of those words and the ending was still awfully rushed. It's going to need a fair bit of work before posting to my journal, I might well have started yet another Torchwood fix-it 'verse and I already have two or three of those going, plus half a dozen one-shot fix-its >.< I can't stop...

[sylvanwitch]

Lol! I know the feeling, re: fix-it fics. I admire the 1000 words exactly because that is ALWAYS a challenge for me. Like you, I usually want to say more, and I HATE it when I feel an ending is rushed. Still, you deserve all the kudos for finishing it on time and per requirements. That's a kind of exercise or practice that I think only strengthens one's writing. :-)

[badly_knitted]

Fix-its are what fanfic was made for *grins*

Thank you! When I started writing, I didn't think it would get anywhere near the 1k, and then it took off, which happens to me a lot, I must admit. Once I hit my stride and a story starts to flow, all I can do is hang on tight and ride it to the end of the road. I've lost count of how many times I've started a 100-word drabble only to end up with a much longer fic.

I had to do a bit of editing for this one to get rid of a few extra words, but they weren't necessary ones so that was okay. I'll expand the fic when I'm ready, maybe make it a 2-parter, I don't know yet. I really should work on a few genuinely unfinished fics first, rather than the ones that are basically complete but I'd like to do something more with. I just need to be in the right mood because a couple of them have unexpectedly taken a turn for the smutty... My characters have minds of their own *sigh*

[sanguinity]

Had a virtual writing date with bookherd, during which I poked at a WIP that's been stuck for years. I think I figured out why it's stuck, but I haven't quite worked my way around to unsticking it. Added a few sentences, though.

[sylvanwitch]

Yay! That's great news! For me, I find that FINDING the momentum to confront a tricky story that's been stuck for a while is far harder than figuring out where to go once I've finally confronted it and made some decisions. I hope that's the same for you and that the words flow more easily in the coming days!

[auroracloud]

I did some free-writing, and then some worldbuilding stuff for the ambush project. Later I worked a bit on the hopepunk story (I'm not sure that's an accurate description, but I'm too lazy to come up with a better handle for the purpose of checking in, so it'll do), writing about 100 words of new text.

[sylvanwitch]

Yay for all that work, which is ALL work towards a final product, even if it's not words going directly into the text. :-) Yay!

[silveradept]

I did end up sticking a few more sentences on to the outstanding assignment. Most of my time is being eaten by not-writing, though.

[sylvanwitch]

Ah, time is so slippery. I wish we could hang in to more of it for the creative stuff. *sighs* Anyway, yay for words toward a final goal! :-)

[mergatrude]

Day 5 - I wrote two more pages on my flashfic (the ending of which keeps retreating into the distance /o\) before being interrupted by youngest kid, who insisted on showing me all their stories. *g*

[sylvanwitch]

That is a GOOD interruption, for sure! Yay! Yay for your writing and yay for youngest kid's! :-)

[mtassarin]

Reporting for both Day 4 and Day 5 here (I'm in one of those future time zones), because the unintentional symmetry of the word counts I got is amusing and they should be in one place:
- Day 4: 656;
- Day 5: 565.
:)

[sylvanwitch]

Those are lovely word counts, both in and of themselves and also because of the noted symmetry! Bravo! :-)