Monday, August 1, 2011

Day 1

Welcome to Day 1 of our August 40K challenge! We need to write 1300 words a day for the next 31 days to meet the goal.

This challenge is about getting words written - first drafts, not polished finished products. Don't worry about getting it perfect, just get it done, and revise later. You can't revise a blank page!

Since I don't want to spend too much time writing blog posts when I should be writing my manuscript(s), all I'll post each day is "What's your word count?" - and you guys answer in the comments. If you're having problems or need help let us know!

Ready? Set... GO!

16 comments:

  1. I've already hit the word goal today! But that's on the collab, and I plan on using this to get back to my official WIP. We'll see how refreshed I am for it :D

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  2. Great Maddie!

    I've got major revisions to do on my May50K book for an editor. I have to write a lot of new words as part of these revisions, but I won't be able to keep track/count them unfortunately since it will be too distracting.

    So my goal is going to be to edit the whole book by August 15th, and the write a complete 20K novella in the last 15 days.

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  3. Sounds good to me! Editing words always feel like they count more, anyway; even just typing stuff up is a chore, 'cause I already created these darned worlds! I should get to be free now! :)

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  4. Okay, I've edited the first chapter of the book, completely revised it per the editor's notes. That's 4800 words. :)

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  5. I was up at 5:45 this morning to write before the rest of the house woke up. I managed 1100 words. Not much else got done today on my wip. But I'll try for more tomorrow morning!

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  6. Okay, I'm in! Can't figure out why I can't log in and post at work, but at least I'm here. I'm going to use this month to wrap up my revisions on my medieval capture/bondage/forced seduction/menage story. If I get them done by the end of next week, I'll be focusing on wrapping up the first of the 2-book sci-fi series as well to finish off the month.

    I totally lucked out today - first day back from my vacation, and both my bosses are on vacation this week! So I hit 2995 as far as new words today, and managed to edit about 75 pages. I'm back at it again tonight - nothing new, though, just more edits. I'm shooting for another 15-20 pages tonight to be satisfied.

    And it looks like we're all off to a decent start! Love to see that!

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  7. By the way, Shoshanna, I meant to mention what I do to keep track of how much I've added during revisions - since adding and deleting a few to a couple hundred or so words in various places is a bitch to keep up with. I keep a spreadsheet with the date, start word count, end word count, and Excel totals it for me. For the most part, I really only need to add the latest word count at the end of the session, since the end number should be the start number for the next day.

    I work with spreadsheets at the day job all day long, so creating and keeping them for all aspects of writing has now become second nature - actually it's more like I'm now obsessed with having a complete set for every book/series. lol

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  8. No chance of following that last comment and not sounding like a slacker. No time to write at work and got sidetracked by a phone call this evening. Phone literally rang the moment I put my butt in the chair.

    I did manage 737 words and got past a sticking point. Scene turning out much better than expected. I'll shoot for 2K tomorrow to catch up.

    This is my Single Title Contemp I plan to enter in the GH. I was sitting at 20K as of yesterday so goal is to have 60K or better by month end.

    Thanks again for doing this.

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  9. I'm deleting huge chunks, so I may delete 1K and then write 400 new words, so I'll end with a lower word count than I started with even though I wrote new words, LOL. So I'm just going to get the book's revisions finished and then write a new novella.

    Everyone's doing great!

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  10. Going to give this a shot. If I can do this, then I have no more excuses.

    Day 1 = 1380 words. Mostly crud, but words all the same.

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  11. You can revise "crud" later - you can't revise a blank page! Glad you're joining us!

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  12. Just saw this page now, so I'm starting on Day 2. I need a kick in the pants to write the last 3 chapters of a manuscript I'm finishing. It will be around 80k total when I'm done. Good luck to everyone! =D

    Kaitlyn
    Nocturnal Readings

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  13. The words are never as great or as awful as what we think at the time!

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  14. 4987 for me on Day 1

    Congrats on the great job everybody

    @rawiyamikembl on twitter
    Author Sharita L aka Michael M/Rawiya/BL

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  15. I'm a little late posting yesterday's count. Only wrote about 583 new words - need to keep better track. Going to try Gianna's idea. But I went back over the first 10 pages of my WIP - and it's better for it. :-)

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  16. 4827. I always tend to crank at the very end of a book. Book that was due today is done. Now on to the one due Sep. 1.

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