So! It's our third International Creative Writing May check in, which means we've all technically been beavering away for two weeks now. How is it going in your notebook/laptop/papyrus scroll over there? Did you have an awesome seven days, a terrible seven days, or a so-so seven days? Did you hit your target, miss it, adjust it? Let's hear all about it in the comments, and remember - talk to each other as well as to me! We're all friends in our wordliness here.
My progress this past week has been thus:
Thursday and Friday I got my six new pages in as planned - in fact, I wrote slightly more than that on both days, and found myself on Friday (12th of May) with a total count of sixty-five and a half handwritten pages. My target was fifty-four. I also handed in my edits on The Night Itself and was well-satisfied with my week's efforts.
I had Saturday off and went to see Avengers Assemble. Which, by the way, made me feel as if I'd sat in a darkened cinema for over two hours having someone repeatedly poke my eyes with explosions. AND IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT. Seriously, Tom Hiddleston alone was worth it. Go see it! This is such a great year for geeky films so far.
Then on Sunday something didn't feel quite right. I was a bit achy and headachey and couldn't focus no matter how much caffeine I ingested. So instead of writing new pages I wrote up some notes, but not half as many as I wanted to.
Monday I felt worse. All my joints had gone painful and stiff and I kept hurting myself - I accidentally punched a bookcase, stabbed myself in the finger with a needle, gouged my arm with a planting stake and poured boiling water on my foot *just in the morning*. I'm reluctant to say I had a bug, because I think every time I blog about being ill more germs are attracted to me, but let's say I wasn't exactly in a writing mood. I tried! St Jude knows I tried. But no matter how long I stared at the computer and notebook, no words came out.
Tuesday felt slightly better, but for some reason my notebook looked a bit intimidating to me. I wrote some new stuff directly into my computer instead (about three pages, which is roughly equivalent of six notebook pages) and then typed up some more notes.
Wednesday was briefly, if gloriously sunny. I snatched every spare minute to sit in the sun and, as normally happens when I can sit in the sun, I hit my six pages easily.
So my full week's progress has brought me to 47,800 words typed up - which, if Katana #2 turns out the same length as The Night Itself in first draft, would mean I was about 65% of the way through. We'll say no more about that. I don't want to jinx myself and end up writing another 130,000 word long first draft. I also have seventeen and a half pages of notes still to type up, which means, counting the three pages I typed straight onto the computer as six notebook pages, my current InCreWriMa total is:
Eighty-three notebook pages. My target for this date was seventy-eight pages. VICTORY!
In other news: think I'm going to need a new notebook.
21 comments:
Well done Zoë, that's great!! :)
This week has been pretty terrible for me, I've only written half a page. I had a complete panic attack on Monday and have felt awful ever since, and then exams just about finished me off -.- But half a page is STILL better than nothing and I refuse to give up!
Amy: I still can't believe my own bad timing, picking the month when EVERYONE has exams. No wonder you had a panic attack. But good for you; you still managed to get a little bit down, and a little bit is 100 times better than nothing.
My notebook target is going well; I'm managing to write in it every day (the next morning counts sshh). It's my actual writing on my current WIP that's the problem, mostly because in order to write that I have to actually sit in front of a computer and have some free time, which is not going well. I can barely write anything at the weekends for a start. I've actually only written once this week, and even though I wrote a sizeable chunk I'm still disappointed with myself. I thought I could write bits of my WIP in my notebook and type them up when I've got the time, but apparently my notebook doesn't want to be for slogging, it's a 'sparks of inspiration only' space.
Today I am making a chocolate cake for the first time EVER because it's my brother's birthday and I don't have college. Wish me luck! And hopefully I'll get some writing done this afternoon!
Congrats Zoe, that's great! :)
This week I did so much better than I thought I was going to do :D
Originally I started off with a goal of 16 pages a week.
Then I reduced it to 12 pages.
And this week I managed to write 31 pages *happy dance, happy dance.*
Your.Meeting. Cassandra Clare? *SDFKJHDSKJHSLADA!!!* OHMYGOODNESS! LUCKY! I think i would actually DIE if i met her.. Good job with getting your goal! I, on theother hand, didn't quite make it. I got 2 chapters outlined instead of 4, so it was a slow week. Oh well! I'm still happy with what i achieved :)
Yay, good job Zoe! You've made a lot of progress. This week was all right for me - on Friday I wasn't able to write because I was on a retreat with my grade, but Monday and Wednesday I also didn't, and the days I did I wrote very little (although I think it's better to squeeze in a few sentences than nothing at all). I don't think my progress was amazing, but hopefully next week will be better.
Hey Zoe! Congrats on beating your target :) Unfortunatly my week hasnt been so productive, got 1000 words out over the weekend - Monday and Tuesday were dominated by uni (which I am now offically finished with! yay!) and since then I've been working my way through Supernatural and have written/done nothing! lol. Hopefully this next week I'll get more done though. Good luck to the rest of you :)
Rachel: Good luck! Well done for plugging away at it, even when it was hard.
Rebecca: Oh, excellent. You defeated that target in single combat, and now it is crying and rocking in the corner :)
Ruby: I KNOW, right?! Go on and ask some questions about Jace and Clary on the post if you want. Everyone is welcome.
Isabel: Well, you're keeping your writing muscle flexed. Hopefully when that spark of life and excitement comes along you'll be poised to grab it and run with it.
Whispering: Yay for end of uni! Congratulations. Sometimes I get like that when I've just finished something (like a book draft). Last year I spent about three or four weeks watching CASTLE and reading every romance novel I could get my hands on. Your brain just needs food sometimes, and sometimes the food it needs is of the cake and icecream variety. Good luck for next week.
Hey there, Zoe.
Well, this week was so atrociously bad for me that in a very pathetic way, I'm actually laughing at it. A little bit. Sort of >.>
I wrote nothing. Literally. Zero.
It's actually really, really awful but I feel like the more I neaten up my school work, the less time I get for anything else.
*headdesk*
I'm going to go die now.
-.-
Let's see, continuing with my non-creative writing I did not meet my goal this week. I think I got a total of three entries typed up but not the five I was aiming for, boo. I know that I'll have to make up for that soon, since I need to create a few for a buffer in a couple of weeks, maybe I'll get to some later today....
Great going in difficult conditions!
I had another poor week thanks to having to revise and sit my end of year exam. But it was a better week than last week 'cos my plan is now complete :) This week I can get bashing words out, I have a couple of people primed to shout at me if I'm not writing so I hope I'll get plenty of words this week.
A surprisingly good week for me: having gone from a Big Fat Zero last week, I managed not only to block out the difficult chapter, but (thanks to an intervening bout of insomnia)write 4,385 words.
I've still some work to do on a section at the end of this chapter, which refuses come at the moment, but I have also checked back on preceeding chapters and the completed following ones for consistency, rewritten some of my earlier descritions in the light of Zoe's advice to me earlier in the week and bought a new notebook.
Next week's target will be to tackle the recalcintrant final section and put ithe whole chapter away for a week to mature, before bringing it out again to re-read and revise.
While it's maturing I intend to go and lie on a hillside in Shropshire for a day, to (a) soak up a bit of atmosphere (b) persuade myself that a day in the sun counts as research.
Aimen: No, no! Come back! Schoolwork = v. v. important! There's nothing wrong with dropping your writing to concentrate on that for a bit. I certainly did it often enough :)
Helen: That's still more than 50% of what you wanted though. It's nothing to sneeze at!
Elyndra: Quite understandable! Whatever was wrong with me came back with a vengeance today and I got nothing done again. Sometimes you just have to admit defeat and give yourself time to get better.
Jenni: Well done! And Good Luck for next week too :)
Rhia: Soaking up atmosphere is absolutely research. And enjoy your new notebook, too!
I got a fairly good chunk written, including a couple of bits that have been hanging around in my head for a while and now have made it onto the page. I think I'm going to have to adjust my goal from finishing, revising, and typing up the story, to just finishing it and maybe starting the revision. This thing just keeps getting longer on me...
Due to a family emergency, I only wrote 700 words this week, but it was a very nice scene! I'm trying to keep thinking about my story from time to time, in the midst of other stuff going on, to remind myself that I will be getting back to it soon.
I've been writing away, though not all of it will be going into my draft. Still, I've come up with some great ideas during freewriting that will definitely go in and fill some holes in the plot.
Phoenix: I know that feeling. I'm in massive denial about Katana #2 doing it to me right now. Keep up the good work!
Terri: Good strategy. I hope your family emergency eases soon :)
Connie: Excellent. Well done, and good luck with next week.
I had some exciting computer issues this week, which meant I wasn't able to keep track of my progress on a daily basis. Tallying it all together now, though (laptop is working again, for the most part, hallelujah), I've done better than last week. Though still not achieved the full total I'd been aiming for. I got 2970 words out of a hoped-for 3500. Och well, not too bad!
It's inspiring to see other people working away at their goals even when life gets in the way. Go go go, everybody! We can do it! Or at least part of it!
Emily: Eugh, you have my sympathy. Computer problems suck the life out of you, don't they? Well done for getting on so well anyway, though!
Woohoo at the victory, Zoe - GO YOU! :)
I haven't managed to get any new chapters down but I have been going over what I wrote 4 months ago and adding/taking away/freaking over the badness of them.., you know, as you do ;)
Alex: yes, as I do all the time! Keep up the good work :)
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