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Writing goals

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  • Writing goals

    I have 30,000 words now. I'm shooting for something like 80,000 words, which means that if I write 4,000 a week I should have a draft done by November 1st. I don't really like daily or weekly goals, so I'm going to try a date instead--I just did the 4,000 a week to get a reasonable date. On November 1st, my plan is to write The End on the first complete draft.

    So let it be typed, so let it be done.
    I DENOUNCE DONALD J. TRUMP AND ALL HIS IMMORAL ACTS.

  • #2
    I've found Habitica to be a helpful productivity app, that has got me a lot more productive than before, and makes goal setting and achieving a lot more fun. If anyone already has it, let me know and I can start a guild.
    --------------------------------------------------------

    Nakonec pravda vitezi (In the end the truth wins)

    Nobility Among Us and Beyond the Mist are now on sale worldwide, as is my first poetry collection, Selected Verse - Faith and Family and my second, Selected Verse - Heroes and Wonders

    Explore the Cinematic Superverse

    A Hope That Burns

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    • #3
      Looking forward to your draft Zym!
      That's what
      - She

      Without a clear-cut definition of sin, morality becomes a mere argument over the best way to train animals
      - Manya the Holy Szin (The Quintara Marathon)

      I may not be as old as dirt, but me and dirt are starting to have an awful lot in common
      - Stephen R. Donaldson

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      • #4
        Now at 40,000 words, and excitement remains high.

        I'm not good at asking people to read my stuff, but if anyone legitimately has any interest in reading any of this, I'll be glad to share it with you (well, most anyone ). Any positive feedback would be very encouraging to me, and any critical feedback will not be ignored.
        I DENOUNCE DONALD J. TRUMP AND ALL HIS IMMORAL ACTS.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Zymologist View Post
          Now at 40,000 words, and excitement remains high.

          I'm not good at asking people to read my stuff, but if anyone legitimately has any interest in reading any of this, I'll be glad to share it with you (well, most anyone ). Any positive feedback would be very encouraging to me, and any critical feedback will not be ignored.
          I'm pushing 49,000 words now, so I'm keeping good pace with my goal. I feel like a couple of these recent chapters are flagging a bit, but I'm not too worried about that. Given that this will be my first complete novel, I think that sort of thing is probably expected. I'm still generally pretty happy with the direction and tone of the thing.

          I'm keeping a spreadsheet of word counts per chapter, and I've noticed a couple interesting trends: my average word count per chapter seems to be going down, slightly, although this is skewed by the fact that my first and third chapters are (incidentally) significantly longer than the others.

          The other trend is that my second of two POV characters has universally shorter chapters than the first. This might be because the character naturally lends himself toward shorter chapters; might also be because I don't understand this character as well as I do the first one.

          These trends could mean nothing, could mean that I need to do some expanding, or could be indicative of other problems. Hard to say.
          I DENOUNCE DONALD J. TRUMP AND ALL HIS IMMORAL ACTS.

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          • #6
            I am enjoying it.



            Securely anchored to the Rock amid every storm of trial, testing or tribulation.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Zymologist View Post
              I'm pushing 49,000 words now, so I'm keeping good pace with my goal. I feel like a couple of these recent chapters are flagging a bit, but I'm not too worried about that. Given that this will be my first complete novel, I think that sort of thing is probably expected. I'm still generally pretty happy with the direction and tone of the thing.
              Just like the second installment of a trilogy, it's fairly normal for the middle of a book to stall a little. It's the part where the goal is established, initial conflicts are over, the final conflict is still to come, but the character(s) have a lot of a work yet to do if they want to win.


              Originally posted by Zymologist View Post
              These trends could mean nothing, could mean that I need to do some expanding, or could be indicative of other problems. Hard to say.
              I'm gonna go with "doesn't mean anything".

              You might come back and expand them, but it might just be that the character is vital but not as prominent.
              I'm not here anymore.

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              • #8
                Progress has been slow lately--I got to the end of the middle third of the novel, and found starting the final third to be pretty tough. But I think I've made some progress today, and I'm hopeful that I'm out of my rut. I'm at 54,000 words now, and still pretty happy with what I've written.
                I DENOUNCE DONALD J. TRUMP AND ALL HIS IMMORAL ACTS.

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                • #9
                  I've been wondering how you've been doing.



                  Securely anchored to the Rock amid every storm of trial, testing or tribulation.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Zymologist View Post
                    Progress has been slow lately--I got to the end of the middle third of the novel, and found starting the final third to be pretty tough. But I think I've made some progress today, and I'm hopeful that I'm out of my rut. I'm at 54,000 words now, and still pretty happy with what I've written.
                    I'm not here anymore.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I was writing this most recent chapter, and, because it seemed to fit, I did the whole mid-chapter "the characters found something" cliffhanger...only I didn't know what they found.

                      But then something occurred to me, and it in turn helped me to tie up a loose end from the beginning, as well as further served to answer one of the most glaring questions in my own mind. This question happens to be the thing that my few alpha readers have proven most curious about. So writing a cliffhanger for myself really worked, in this case.
                      Last edited by Zymologist; 09-20-2016, 10:50 AM.
                      I DENOUNCE DONALD J. TRUMP AND ALL HIS IMMORAL ACTS.

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                      • #12
                        I'm at a little over 57,000 words now. I'm posting this here mostly because I like seeing the progress I've posted, and knowing that I actually have gotten somewhere.

                        I've almost doubled my word count in the <2 months since I started this thread, and I've never been more excited about it than now.

                        If I continue with my current word count and page count averages, I'll have a ~78,000 word manuscript with about 252 pages.
                        Last edited by Zymologist; 09-21-2016, 03:11 PM.
                        I DENOUNCE DONALD J. TRUMP AND ALL HIS IMMORAL ACTS.

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                        • #13
                          Not quite 60,000 words now, and I think I'm on track. I also think I've figured out how to end my current chapter, which is going to be a pretty significant one. It'll begin the process of explaining some of the mysteries I've set up for myself, which is going to be tough. I'm excited to start tackling it.

                          I'm more or less writing a novel-length, character-driven cosmic horror. AFAICT, that's almost never actually done (novel-length cosmic horror is rare enough--character-driven? seems to be virtually unheard of), and I'm beginning to see some of the reason for that. Hopefully I haven't painted myself into a great big cosmic corner with this whole thing.
                          I DENOUNCE DONALD J. TRUMP AND ALL HIS IMMORAL ACTS.

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                          • #14
                            Zym, I got your latest. Will get to it later today. I have been horribly busy the last couple of days, but wanted you to know I will be reading as soon as I can.



                            Securely anchored to the Rock amid every storm of trial, testing or tribulation.

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                            • #15
                              I'm at about 73,000 words with roughly 14 chapters done. This leaves me one week and almost exactly 7,000 words to reach my goal of 80k.

                              I'm starting to suspect that I might exceed that, which is ok with me. Actually it might be better to go over, because then I'd have more to work with/cut.

                              I'm pretty excited about my chapter title gimmick, even though I know it's just a gimmick. It really shouldn't be such a big deal to me, but oh well.
                              I DENOUNCE DONALD J. TRUMP AND ALL HIS IMMORAL ACTS.

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