Becoming the writer I want to be

Thank you very much!

 

702 words today. I didn't have a lot of time so I am surprised I even got that done. I'm still on track to be done before the weekend though.

 

Oh, that's wonderful to hear! I'm so happy for you man!

 

Editing's going well on the chapter. I'm projected to be done with it around Thursday or so.

 

Thank you!

 

I should be done with the first 1/2 of the book in one or two evenings with my wife.

I feel good about what we have gone over together. I might consider it done, or skim it once more, but I feel the book is reaching it's potential. I'm no longer terrified my best work might not have a market.

I am also working on an edit of the 2nd half alone. I'm about 60 pages from the end. I am doing substantial edits and rewrites since this half hasn't been revised as many times as the first half.

I feel like I'm "late" since I missed my goal to have the book complete earlier this month, but it's getting there.

 

Hello Friends. I am back on track after a rather bumpy hiatus. Perhaps I hit a bad case of writers block or perhaps it was the fogs of despair that simply blocked out any joy. But I am doing great now. I had a surgery for some issue that have caused me great distress for quite a long time. Around 7 years if we are counting days. But nonetheless I have been reading again and gaining knowledge. And also this week I have written a little. Nothing serious I just thought I'd try a practice called free writing. Basically in a nut shell you type faster than usual or write faster than usual. The idea being if you type as fast as possible for a short amount of time you block the critical part of the brain and allow for more creative writing. Well it worked I wrote the beginning of a short drama story. And I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I can indeed still write.
Also my moods have drastically improved since surgery I'm pretty certain that was my biggest tormentor and now I am almost healed I see life as taking a better route than it has been.

What do you guys use to type in? I am using WordPad but it doesn't have a word count and I'd prefer something free as being unemployed has played havoc on my bank balance! As it would but I'm pretty sure I will get work pretty soon after all the bits heal up and I am fit and able.
How have you guys been?

 

Congrats on your milestone @AtomicTango Have a little haiku

Heart beats quietly.
Scars remind of trauma gone.
Those too will soon fade.

 

Hello! It's so good to see you back. Glad you seem to be doing better. I look forward to seeing you post again.

I use Google Docs as it is also free. It's not terrible but it has weird grammar checking issues so if you use it, make sure to manually check stuff like apostrophes to make sure it is actually correct. It has a real problem with the proper usage of "its" versus "it's."

I love it! Thank you!

 

Dude that's fucking amazing! I've been stuck at 60k words for a while. Any advice to get over writer's block? How do you maintain your daily writing practise? Especially when life happens. I have assigned a number of hours, some before work and some after work and I'm finding it difficult to stick to it.

 

1620 words today, chapter is done. Going to plan out the last chapter of act 2 tomorrow, read and edit the last two written chapters on Friday, and then take the weekend off. The next chapter I need to write is a long one.

 

I think for me its not about one specific thing. I am very disciplined, bordering on obsessive, but I am able to be because I've been unemployed and have the time to write so much. Dont be hard on yourself if you cant manage the same. It might be a good idea to set aside a single day where you work for a long time, if this is possible, as opposed to setting unrealistic hours you have to squeeze in and around other commitments. Post on this thread for support and accountability. Dont work when you are burnt out, even if you want to.

 

Well, I finished editing a day early. The chapter's at 5,332 words but this may change when I move it into Google Docs and do any final edits on it (which will happen tomorrow). Now that I've completed my revisions and rewrites from the first draft, I'm now free to write new chapters again so I'm gonna spend the next month working on notes and outlines before going at it again in May because I need to set down everything before going forward so that I don't create a bigger mess that I can't get out of.

Also, welcome back @Henryforward! We've missed you here.

 

Great to see you back. I've only seen you post a few times but you were missed.

I used a free open source word clone with security flaws that is no longer available. I paid 150 bucks for the crappiest laptop you have ever seen and wrote the rough draft on that lol.

The spell check and grammer checks never worked, but it helped me get in the flow.

I have an old copy Word 2010 on our family computer and I'm using it for revisions. I am also using a Grammerly Pro subscription for final edits. I'm a fellow soldier in the attempt to not waste money, but Gramerly is awesome. For me, three months with Grammaly is a better use of money then a new word processor. Then you can keep writing on Wordpad and know you can circle back around to Grammarly later.

A Word license on 2010 type stuff is super cheap.

Everyone has a different process but I like how this has turned out. It allows me to write a rough draft with out concern about grammer and detail stuff.

It requires more drafts, but it takes me a few revisions to find my voice anyway.


(Open office.org is what I used. There are newer better open source options now. They would be much better than WordPad. They have word counts etc, and they are free.)

 

I put in some good work this evening and tonight.

I set a new goal to complete the book and start querying in early April.

 

I got a little bit of work done today, planning out chapter 26, which is looking like a rather short one. I likely wont plan more chapters until I actually write up to that point. Chapter 27 is the first chapter of act 3 and I want to work on that as its own thing so to speak once act 2 is completely done.

 

I may finalize my monthly batch of haikus early next week. Not sure yet.

 

Kept at it today. I am adding a scene to set up the conclusion better.

 

Having read through and made minor edits to the last two written chapters, I'm up to 412 pages. Taking the weekend off as previously stated and then straight into another long chapter.

 

Well I fell for the lies swirling round in my mind. When will I learn, leave this all behind.

White, brown, pointy horns.
Bleating, devouring lush fields.
Happy goat and pals.

Searching and scratching.
A peck to the ground, book, book. Worrying chickens.

I am hoping with progress starting to happen in terms of recovery from surgery I can get a little more active. Perhaps not running has not been good for me, but in saying that I was close to three weeks then crumbled.
I have left the house and chilled with the chickens and then fed the goats for a bit, it's good to get outside and clear the mind.

I found a website called reedsy, have anyone heard of it? It has weekly prompts for short story competitions you win 50bucks or something but it just looks like a bit of fun if you want to write short storys and get a few people to read em. I think they have a decent editing software which I think you can try for free. I may give it a go.