March 30 - Sunday Check-In
Well, the challenge has been running for a month now. How would you assess your first four weeks?
A stunning success? Or disappointing? Are you doing better than at this stage during the last round? Or worse?
Share your sense of achievement with the rest of us… or confess your sins!
[Only kidding… I know life gets in the way sometimes.]
March 30th, 2008 at 3:42 am
My Sven total so far is 32 656. I think I was about 8k further along on the last Sweat…but then it took a serious nose dive after that for about 6 weeks, lol, so I’m not stressing. *grin*
I still have about 18k on Fracture and 8k on Bond to write but they’re both getting there.
Totalling up the words for all my wips is definitely working for me. Sven’s inspired me to keep a tally for the year. I started it New Year’s Eve and so far it’s 81.6k which for me, as a complete slacker normally lol, is fab! *grin*
March 30th, 2008 at 3:49 am
Oh, Kim, I wish I could say I was doing as well as you… but I’m not. I’m flunking this challenge big style.
I think it’s because I’m sort of directionless at the moment. Having finished a commissioned single title, I’ve been doing bits and bobs of writing, but I don’t know what my next big project is yet, and I find it hard to immerse myself in something new until I know.
I’ve done a lot of editing and polishing during the challenge this time, but it doesn’t feel the same as racking up the words.
I’m definitely not doing anywhere near as well as last time…
March 30th, 2008 at 4:36 am
Not doing so well - still working on the same scene; it’s giving me fits. Still working on it, though, so that’s a plus.
March 30th, 2008 at 8:06 am
I have only written a little over 2500 since Wednesday. I’m not counting today’s words, since I haven’t done it before. I am not doing as well as I’d hoped but life has been hectic. I have tried to write most days. I have completed about 20,000 since the start of the challenge and that is better than I’ve done in months. Thanks Sven.
March 30th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Well I guess I’m not the only one not doing so well with this challenge. I had all the good intentions of have my butt in the sit and writing like crazy. It’s just not happening, that pesky Miss P, is still hanging around. Anyone want to take her off my hands? Please!!!
I’ll really have to get back to it this week. Wish me luck. Hope everyone else is doing as well as Kim, what a power house.
Hugs
Sandie
March 30th, 2008 at 8:32 am
I’ve done 29 pages. Yeah! But that’s over two weeks. Oh.
I’m happy, though, because I hate beginnings, and now I’m out of chapter three.
March 30th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Only kidding… I know life gets in the way sometimes.
Did Sven actually say that? Wow… What happened to our tough no-excuses-allowed taskmaster?
Anyway, I would say my first month has gone amazingly well. My word count is still hovering around 11k plus half a notebook full of longhand. I’m reading through my first Precious cover to cover for the first time and seeing some things I can change, but it’s nearly done. And now I must run and scribble more down in that notebook.
Good luck to you all!
March 30th, 2008 at 8:36 am
After a dismal start to the week, I kicked myself in the butt with help from Sven and finished the book (wrote 6K in one day!). So now I can concentrate on the revisions that got dumped on my doorstep on Friday.
I wrote 45K in March. Now I’ll be slow for a bit because I’ll be doing revisions for a week or so.
March 30th, 2008 at 8:50 am
I did okay this week. This month is a tough one for me. I’m looking forward to April.
March 30th, 2008 at 9:11 am
This weeks been bad, maybe about 8k.
But overall I have to say the month is going well. On book number 2 I am sitting at 36k and added to the word count of previous book I’m sitting roughly around 75,000 words.
I’m hoping to hit 40k today which is my halfway point.
March 30th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Did Sven actually say that? Wow… What happened to our tough no-excuses-allowed taskmaster?
LOL… nobody knew that Sven has a fluffy side!
March 30th, 2008 at 10:02 am
A month in and I’m certainly doing better than last time round, since a month in last round had me so deep in writer’s block I didn’t write another word for the remainder of the challege.
I’m making slow, but steady progress. The past couple days have been world building since my story took a sharp left turn mid-week and I’ve had to rethink plot. Actually I think it’s time I sat down and outined a little.
March 30th, 2008 at 10:21 am
The first two weeks were brilliant and the last two weeks were, well not so much. On Monday I went through my WIP and wrote mini outlines for each chapter to see if that would help. Followed that up with a life got in the way week but I was back writing yesterday and I’m making good progress today. Still, I’m way behind on my word count. If Sven catches up with me he’s going to kick my ars, so I’d better run.
March 30th, 2008 at 10:53 am
It’s been going pretty well for me, despite this darned fatigue and my wrist issues. I had the best writing day I’ve had in a long time yesterday where I wrote almost 3k. That’s usually impossible for me, but it was clicking! I’m up to 23,442 for Sven, and I beat and exceeded quota for the month (15k!).
Cheers,
EK
March 30th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I’ve managed to only squeeze a bit of writing in here and there. Somehow I got around 2K this week, but it was in fits and starts and will probably all be re-written when I get to it. My eyes are still crossing from the revisions I’m immersed in. My sweat challenge total (first time) is bobbing at around 30K for now. I’m hoping to pick the pace back up after I get this submission out of my lap.
Portia - I know exactly how you feel. I go through the same thing when I’m in between big projects, trying to figure out where to focus my efforts.
Kim, Jaci, Erin, Karen, Xindu ~ great job - those are terrific numbers!!!
March 30th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I’ve done well with the challenge–I’ve written every day. My total for the month is 32,019 words. I couldn’t be happier with my progress.
Thank you so much, Sven!
March 30th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Im pleased to say I’ve had a much better week this last week. Picked up speed and I’ve made my deadline with a little time to spare, thank goodness. Now, though, I have galleys waiitng in the wings. Sven and the team will have to jog on without me for a while
,
March 30th, 2008 at 11:52 am
I did very well this week I think. I finished my revisions/new chapter one. Cranked out 1500 words in about 1-1/2 hours yesterday to finish it off. Now I wait for the CPs to get back to me, until then, I’ll work on the serial killer, then do any more revisions and chapter one will be off to my agent. Woot! A pretty good week overall.
March 30th, 2008 at 11:59 am
I finally finished all my revisions, which is great! Haven’t written much more since Wednesday, but this week I’ll hopefully be getting a lot of new stuff!
March 30th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I’ve got about 33K done. I wanted to be more like 40K by tomorrow, but I got slammed with this head cold/sinus thing that keeps me from focusing my eyes and my head. Sigh. But this is good progress and close enough to on target that I feel pretty good. And while the nature of the narrative is a little bit different for me, I’m fiarly happy with the way things are going. Crossing my fingers that I can kick it back up into high gear this week. If only I could spoon the crud out of my head . . . .
Di
March 30th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
I’m at 7300/7000 for the week. I’m not sure what my monthly total is. I had grand plans to accomplish so much this weekend, but I just WASN’T ON. I’m into rewriting a stretch I wrote earlier, and I’m having some difficulty with it. We’ll see how next week goes.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
The first four weeks have been great! I’ve logged 43K words total and finished one novella. I’m three chapters into a novel and toying with a new novella idea. Just hope I can keep up the pace and motivation…
March 30th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I’d call the challenge a success for me so far. I chose to take seven days off for my trip to Seattle last week, but I have a total of 23,200 words written for this month, distributed through rough drafts of several stories. I feel like I’m learning a lot from this.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
I’m still in it, though my progress has been conspicuous mostly by its absence. I just struggle with getting started. Once I write the first few words, things go fine–but there are always one million reasons not to get started. Sigh.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
I was hoping to be farther along than I am. My progress has been slow but steady. I have a lot of enthusiasm for what I’m writing, so that’s great. I’ve been writing almost everyday and that’s good, too.
I remain determined to meet my Sven goal, so I’ve gotta pick up the pace for April!
March 30th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I’m so not doing what I need to. No excuses. However, today, I do have 1000 or so and still making progress. My problem is similar to Portia’s - fits and starts.
March 30th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
I have a total of 33, 276 (7 chapters–the 7th almost complete). Not all of this happened this month, but I’d say at least 1/2 did, so I’m pretty happy. This week was good; I may finish ch 7 tonight, if I’m lucky. I am so slow, and the word count has really helped–it shows me that I can really do this! I have to work on the chronology this week, though–one of the subplots is moving too fast for the main plot, and we can’t really have that!
March 30th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I’m not anywhere near the words counts of some of you (30K, whew! not me, yet!) but I am pleased with my progress.
My original thought when I signed on was to get 1000 a day, but I think my average overall is about 500 a day. This is much better than I was doing before signing up, though!
I have been writing every day this week so far, and the last few I’ve done 800-1000 since Wednesday. I’m realizing that on Sundays I had better be happy with around 100 words, since that’s what I end up with.
Total since Wednesday is 2725 words. I just started chapter 12 today and I’m getting to a transition point. Thinking that when I get there I might take a break and work on somthing else.
In other news, I now have some stations set up and the house more playable for my little ones when they come home this week and stop day care. That should also help me be able to write.
Those of you not writing and upset about editing instead of new words, a suggestion: set a goal for number of pages edited. The name of the game here is “Sweat”. Who says it was to be over only new words?
March 30th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Even though I’ve had relatives visiting and been dealing with bunch of stuff, I’m still doing okay. Working on different projects, the total would likely come to 50k in word count from the various projects. I’m slowing down in pace but have ideas for stuff that hopefully will kick into gear soon.
March 30th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I did crappy this week because I had relatives visiting, so I only got 5,619 words. From here on out I HAVE to double that number every week because my deadline for this book got moved up by several months. So my new goal is 10K per week…and I HAVE to get this!
March 30th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
A MONTH??? Wow. I really like my story—will need major tweaking when done, am at a “research,” stage…not fun, and my blog still requires attention; but I must thank you, because I NEVER would have dreamed I could do this. Over 33,000 words. And just plain FUN!
March 30th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
testing
March 30th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
I’m up to 17 835 words so far. I was hoping to be a bit further along but considering I lost nearly 3k due to sloppy saving (duh!), and finding I need my distractions around me to do any actual writing, I’m pretty happy so far
March 30th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I had a funky week, but I took some time off this weekend and recharged. I’m ready to kick it next week! 21,236 so far…
March 30th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
My Sven count is up to 26,847. Not quite where I need to be, but respectable.
March 30th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I’ve written about 2k since Wednesday but I’ve had to take a little break since then. Kids got sick and plus I was just plain tired after finishing my book! So I’ll be back at it today.
Total so far for Sven: 42,719. Much better than I thought I’d do. LOL
March 30th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
So far I’ve written 21K not counting the revisions and edits I did in the last month. I knew I’d have a lower word count than I did last time because of the revisions I’d be receiving in the midst of this early part of the challenge. Despite that, I’m quite happy with my progress!
March 30th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I’m up to 25,000 words. I rewrote my outline this weekend, and have given the whole story a tighter focus. I am very proud of the results.
March 30th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I didn’t do very well this past week. I am a little aimless with this story and the temptation to go back and rewriter is almost overwhelming. I plan to make up any lost page count this week. Forget cleaning the basement!
March 30th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I’m on 35,951 words. My writing time has been chopped down to about 4 times a week so I suppose it’s not too bad. I’m still behind though and am not too happy abut that
My OH says I’m beating myself up too much and it’s the story that counts, not the amount of words written. I have to keep reminding myself that although my output has shrunk this year, I’m much happier with the quality of the work I’m writing 
March 30th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I’m doing very well, but I’m still having to stop and brainstorm and storyboard every little bit because this novel is growing in such interesting and unexpected ways. But as of Sunday, I’m sitting at 46,902 words, so I’m pleased.
March 30th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I’m doing better than last time. Only 8k written new so far, but I’ve been typing up/ revising as I go as well, so collectively it’s going well.
I’ll be starting a new piece in the next couple of days as well, and I’m going to avoid writing longhand as the transcribing is a pain in the rear!
Hopefully, this will mean that the next month will have a greater wordcount. It will be interesting to compare actually, and see whether I’m more productive with a longhand start or a direct to pc.
Congratulations to all those who are where they want to be at the end of this month!
March 30th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
I’m updating late as I managed to lose track of time this last week. On the up side I managed over 2k this last week. With a total of 8,033 I’m not where I wanted to be, but at the same time I’m ahead of where I was when I started. Any progress is good progress in my book, so I’ll call the last four weeks a success.
March 30th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Got a lot accomplished but not a lot of words… Finished the 20k novella with another 1500 words, self-edited, wrote the synopsis, cover letter and submitted it via email yesterday morning. Finished self-edits on a previously completed project, wrote the synopsis and cover letter and submitted it as well.
I updated my “bible” on my Ellora’s Cave series and sent a requested copy to my editor. Then I started book 4 in the series. Read through my previously written outline worked on changes and details. I managed 1200 words yesterday on the actual story.
So I feel good about my progress even though my word count is low. Considering I did a long post on my blog about my Memphis trip with Delilah and spent a good portion of Saturday on a Yahoo group chat, even the low word count isn’t really bad.
March 30th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
I’m still slogging along. I’m at 58,000 words now, almost halfway through the story (this one is running long). I’m feeling kind of discouraged, because the story looks horrible to me right now, but that always happens to me in the middle of the story.
Meanwhile, I’ve got my next project almost entirely plotted out. I just have to go over it some more, and figure out whether or not to get rid of one of the characters, and then I’ll be ready to start an outline.
March 31st, 2008 at 12:46 am
Typed up some edits this weekend and felt pretty good - pages 1-20 (out of 80 on Really Tiny Printing) are all clean now. But I’m kind of discouraged by how much there is still to do…
March 31st, 2008 at 2:14 am
Due to some personal crap the last two weeks I have only wrote around 5,000 on a re-write. My main story however, has suffered and only rec’d a 1,000. *sigh* Now that the crap is over I should be able to jump back on target!
March 31st, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I’m late checking in, again. Sorry! I finished 60 pages this week…moving right along.
March 31st, 2008 at 9:04 pm
About 500 new words since last check in. Way below where I should be, but I’m hanging in.