Challenge Spring Word Race! Survey up!

I had a productive evening - up to 4060.

Chyntuck - for 1 - yes, I am working on my longfic which I'm updating around once a week, as I desperately want to finish at least the first draft. Hopefully that's done in the next few days, and then I'll move on to other bits and pieces I want to write (I still owe an awards fic to ThreadSketch).

2 - I do have an outline but it's very, very vague. I find I got stuck trying to plan everything so just started writing and somehow the ideas got flowing. I wish I was the type of writer that could plan everything to a tee before starting - most of the time I'm making it up as I go - knowing where it will end and basically what will happen along the way, but working out the details and kinks chapter by chapter.

 

1. My tactic is to write, post, then count the words. I did not know we could count words that finished the day offline.

2. I am doing two projects. On the Star Wars side, Mitch and Baille Harte, exploring an AU line where she did not get topped on her first mission, but at this stage, there is an element of retread of what happened in the original RP, before I can start doing new stuff.

Second project, on the NSWFF, is also being posted, but it is pretty off the cuff. I have the character, and I am creating background data for her from a book series' environment.

Yesterday's effort was a one-to-one monthly meeting with a staff manageress that I created on the spot.

 

I managed to sneak in 106 words after I finished an epic research marathon for my paper proposal. It brings my total up to 4500. I'm hoping I can sneak in a 100 words every few nights to keep my muse going.

As for Chyn's questions

1. I would be very close to being able to start posing this fic (I usually like a 4-5 chapter 'buffer' so I can post every week or 2 weeks and not run out of chapters to post before I finish), but with my crazy class, I don't see that happening. Plus I have yet to THINK UP A FREAKING STUPID TITLE. I may cry if I have to use my really dumb working title.

2. I have a vague outline in my head. I think I'm going to do 3(ish) parts with 5-10 chapters in each. I know where I'm going and what's going to happen all the way to the end. But for my diary I do have an idea for most entries written down to get me to the end of the year (but there are some blank spots - I'm not one to write stuff out of order, but I may have to for this diary - though since there are some epic time leaps, it doesn't really matter). I've worked with both VERY DETAILED written outlines and no direction whatsoever - I don't really have a preference, though I'm usually somewhere in between.

 

Rewrote a chapter and counted the difference in words before and after, which brings my current score to 5535. Love Chyn's questions, gonna think about them.

Also, Briannakin - sorry that I missed what you said on Saturday. Basically, it's the monthly things and how odd they can get for us with BS issues. One day it's dizziness, the next day it's migraine with nausea, and then it's days of indigestion. As an insulin-resistant person I probably sound like a chicken to somebody with diabetes type 1, but yeah, I think you can understand this stuff better than the rest of the gang. And thank you.

 

What a cool idea, especially for someone like me returning (or really trying to return, lol) to writing.

I’m in and my word count for this month so far is: 1079

I’m using the word counting tool on the internet since my new updated version of word does not count anymore or if it does I don’t know how to find it. LOL

 

A fit of creativity on the AU, and now my count is 2036.

 

I'm up to 5112.

 

1,127 with today's effort. Mitch and Baille's long-winded hangar escape.

3,271 running total.

 

Due to wrist cramps from Extreme Gardening, I only did 119 words today, but I feel like they're really good words. I worked on the story I didn't get to do for the last OC challenge because Darth Real Life kicked me in the teeth. I also got some research done, and I feel like I'm getting some new insights into Doran's character.

New count: 2155

 

I haven't had a chance to write for a few days, and probably won't for another week at least. *sigh* But keep on keepin' on, everyone!!

To answer @Chyntuck's questions, however...

The words I've already accounted for will be posted sooner rather than later, as they make up part of a short piece that's in progress. Any future words are part of a long!fic that I won't post until I have finished the first draft. Of course, I've said this many, many times in the past and I'm still not done with draft 1 thanks to general life craziness. Someday...

For the aforementioned long!fic, I have a fairly extensive outline at the moment. While I normally just write on the fly, since I've been significantly stuck with a severe case of writer's block since...oh, last year sometime?...creating a "very detailed outline" has helped me keep the goal in sight. For everything that comes after these chapters, I have ideas in my head but nothing laid out just yet, though I imagine I'll do an outline once I get there.

 

Both of the above. My top priority, until I feel like I have it plotted out to the point of being able to actually finish the story, is Notes. I doubt I'll have it done within the year, but I'd like to have it done someday. Kibble was one that I always expected to drag on long (wanted it to -- epics are fun in a different way from shorts) but Notes I had expected to fit into its assigned space neatly. Hahahahahahahhahahah. Umm. Not so much. But I'm being stubborn and will see where stubborn gets me.

However, I've got loads of plot bunnies for shorter chaptered fics, and there are at least three or four of those that I'm motivated to scribble on lately. No idea when they'll be ready for posting, though. There's also a longer and more ambitious story that I'd like to get some outlining work done on, but again we'll see about that.

Sometimes I do a lot of outlining, sometimes very little outside my own head. Generally, I use a lot less than I used to because I've come to realize that the ideas I have by the time I've been working on something a while (whether for hours, weeks, or years) are way better than what I started with. On the other hand, if I don't write down plot points and nifty things, I tend to lose them. So I have some very disorderly files that are basically full of plot scraps. They tend to be called "stuff" or "miscellaneous" or "plot", and I tend to lose track of where they are...

 

I quit homework a bit early (this may bite me in the butt later this weekend) and got in a solid 337 words, bringing my total to 4837. I'm so close to my goal! I wish I had more time to write. I'm just hoping my muse doesn't go away once this class and the word-race is over.

 

I wrote a 2201 words outline for my next fic, so 7489 here, before today.

1. Are you working on stuff that you plan to post immediately (i.e. at some point this month) or on stuff that you'll post in the future? I'm asking because the chapters of my longfic that I'm posting this month are mostly stuff that I wrote in the previous word race but this time, I'm doing a little bit of both.

A little bit of everything - I count stuff for my Round Robin entries, any random vignettes (none of which have been written so far), my current longfic that is close to the showdown, the story that is just about to take off, the continuation of the earlier and...ummm, that odd post I made earlier in the thread should help.

2. How much of an outline do you have for whatever you're writing?
Hmmm.

I used to write things from beginning to the end and if there was no idea on what happens at the exact moment, I would stop. Once, thirteen years ago, I wrote a strange novel and two chapters ended up missing, because as a 19-year-old with no knowledge of tropes, literaly devices and so on - heck, I had a D in Literary Theory - I dared to skip what was most important and write the aftermath.

My current longfic, more than twelve years later, started out like that, too. The upcoming chapter, aka the one to hopefully be posted at the end of this weekend, was the one I wrote first, followed by the last, then the first three. Once I realised that I had the plot but no villains, I vowed to change my ways and have a basic outline for every next thing I am writing.

 

My hotel's internet provider has not been "fit for purpose" today or 48 hours ago, so I am missing entire days of this challenge.

[Bleep]y annoying, and frankly, soul destroying, sitting in the luxuriously appointed lobby for hours, trying in vain to pick up the wifi signal, while two hundred metres away, efficient looking Reception folk know that I am ******* in the wind.

 

Sith-I-5, hope they get that sorted out! Sorry to hear you're having technical difficulties.

 

I'm at 9075. I'm so close to finishing my longfic I can taste it, but there's only so much I can do in one day.

I think I'll take a bit of a break once done.

 

Okay, the list should be up to date.

I managed a grand total of 28 words today, bringing my total up to 4865. I just can't focus (it's been a looong day). Which is a shame because I finished my proposal early, so I was hoping to get a good evening of fanfic writing in

 

I got a lot of work done on the Raissa/Doran sequel. I'm actually starting to feel better about it.
Total 2734

 

Yay! I finally got something written! A 1,912-word post for my RPG that advances two major plotlines. And it's already posted in the RPF.

I want to do some pure fanfic next. I think I'll try to do some plotting on a longer fic tomorrow. I'm stealing a plot bunny from the old index thread.

 

I, er, totally forgot about that. I'll have to dig that up.

 

I got work done today on my diaries and my poetry challenge multipost fic and are now at 3887 words