 Day Two, and Off to a Great Start!Posted by Elisa Beatty Jan 12 2012, 1:25 am Woo-hoo!! We had a fabulous, busy, inspiring first day of the Festival yesterday, and hopefully everybody’s getting into a groove for doing serious work. I loved hearing all the stories about people joining the very first writing sprint at 9 a.m. yesterday, and writing as many as 2100 words right off the bat! It’s the magic of the Festival! Remember, the Brag Blog is here every day of the Festival so you can share your progress and your challenges–both highs and lows are welcome! We’re here to celebrate your successes and to give encouragement and inspiration when you need a little BOOST! On the regular Ruby blog, we’ll do goal check-ins only once a week, on Wednesdays. But feel free to check in with the Brag Blog daily to report your progress and keep yourself on track. We’ll cheer you on and try to keep the muse’s fire lit for you for all 50 days of the RSSWWF! So how did you do yesterday, and how’s it going today?? 28 Responses to “Day Two, and Off to a Great Start!”Leave a Reply |
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My goal is to write or rewrite 11 missing/incomplete scenes of a ms I’d lost impetus on, and I’ve broken that down to a scene a day. So I’ve been getting up early, putting on the coffee, throwing food at the cats, not going anywhere near my internet computer, and writing until the scene is done. I’ve met the goals both days and I’m remembering why I loved this ms in the first place
I know some days the scenes will be quick, others it may take all day, but thanks so much for having the festival. Happy writing, everyone!!
That’s a great approach, Gabrielle! I need to do something very similar with a messy manuscript of mine!
My goal was to writi 50 words and I wrote 75. This is going to be a busy time, but this Festival is going to be a help to wirte everyday.
That’s great, Emily!! Keep it going! It’s amazing how it adds up.
I’m pretty pleased I met my goal of a chapter a day yesterday. But the real challenge will be once school starts! That’s when the juggling begins.
I hear you on the difficulty of juggling writing and school…though I’m on the other side of the desk teaching. Man, I wish I had an extra couple hours a day.
Ain’t that the truth? Can’t we just invent like, say, four extra hours into each day, for the important things such as writing haha.
Had a great morning sprint. There were 12 of us. Over 5000 words written many pages edited along with some brainstorming. I’d say a very productive morning. Congrats to all who participated.
I’ll be hosting another sprint tomorrow morning from 9 to 11 if anybody wants to join in
Yesterday was tough. But I managed to eek out my goal. Today seems to be even tougher. I got a super late start, and my boys have a half day so I’ll be leaving in a few minutes to pick them up. And I’ve barely started on today’s words. Hopefully this afternoon I’ll be able to settle in and knock ‘em out.
Yesterday was a rare awesome day for me–2500 words. I did both a #1k1hr early in the day then joined the Ruby Sprint with the late crew. So by my point system, I got double for yesterday which will give me a little padding going into a busy weekend here. This morning I just finished up another #1k1hr with 1052 words, so I’ve got my point for the day. Hoping to get more “padding” later today as the momentum is kicking. Got to take it while it lasts! Good luck everyone!
Hurray, Annabeth!! Two good days in a row! Let the momentum roll!
Goal 2 hours/day working on current WIP. Two hours turned into a snowy six!! You know the writing is going well when you finally look at the clock and realize it’s two in the afternoon and you’ve completely forgotten to eat lunch! Thanks for reminding me how much I love this book!!!!!
great feeling huh?
Yesterday (Wed) was easy – exceeded goals – today, not so much. Hoping to just squeak past 10 pgs editing by time Kindergarten ends. I had to add a brief new scene from bad guy’s POV and that was really slow.
Switching POV’s can take you out of a groove…but sounds like you’re persevering!
I had a wonderful start yesterday, I doubled my words/day and managed to revise a few pages. My goal for today, is to revise the first 25 pages of my WIP from November, I have to fit something besides dialogue into this. Why oh why can I write pages and pages of dialogue but it’s the other stuff that I can picture clearly but have trouble wording right in writing it?
Okay, now that the stupid question of the day is out there, I’m off. You see, I force myself to revise by hand, after all if I can make the page bleed red ink, I feel better, when the next time, there’s less red.
Tiana are you asking for advice on writing narrative or just venting?
A little of both Rita…
I am frustrated with myself thus the venting, but at the same time I am more than open to any advice anyone feels like sharing.
The WIP I chose to work on for the WWF, started out with a great premise, but I realized looking at it now that it is 90% dialogue. Now I understand conversation and interaction are necessary but I think that’s overkill, yet the dialogue always flows freely faster than anything in between.
Does anyone have any suggestion/advice on how to balance the dialogue with everything else?
Thank You!
There are different ways to approach this. I’m sure many people have very good suggestions but I’ll tell you two things I did. Remember you want to put the reader in the middle of what’s going on. You want to make them feel like they are a part of the scene. When I started I would think of the scenes like I was explaining it to someone I was speaking to on the phone. Say you’re standing on the North rim of the Grand Canyon explain what you see. The sky, the canyon colors, the depth, people on the trail. Now tell them what you hear. The wind, an eagle, one of the canyon mules braying, small things skittering in the dry underbrush. What do you smell, how does the wind feel, what does the trail food tastes like? Of course all this is sprinkled in lightly in and around the dialogue. You don’t hammer the reader over the head with it all at once.
If you have a favorite author I suggest you review one of their books and see how they handle narrative. This helped me a great deal.
Some people insist that all five senses need to be on every page. That’s a stretch for me. I don’t know what you write but narrative and dialogue combos can be different in different genres. I write romantic suspense and it always needs to be at a quick pace. I can’t stop in the middle of a fight scene to describe the wallpaper.
Hope this helps
That helps a lot Rita.
Currently I am working on a Paranormal/Comedy/ Suspense so I can understand that completely, sometimes it’s difficult to describe what’s going on around the characters when you have several characters yelling and/or fighting, or growling, shifting, and clawing as the case might be.
And because adding this line made me laugh, I wanted to share…
“How can you say that? Seriously? It’s not alright, it might never be alright again! I’m a Witch, a certifiable, touched by a banshee, over-powered under-skilled Witch, who drives Werewolves nuts!” She ran a hand through her hair, “And as if that isn’t enough, My cousin’s half-brother wants me dead, probably wants her dead, and I’m fairly certain that lighting his fuzzy behind on fire didn’t help my case!”
I managed to hit my goal of 1000 a day by hitting about 1200. In 40 minutes of sprinting, I got the 1000 in and then did another 200 afterward.
I don’t have time to write anything until my seven-month-old is in bed at 8, so I try to get as much in from then until 11. I hope to join the 10-midnight sprint tonight.
Woot! Great work, Dara!
(And did you get my email???)
I did fairly well in revising two chapters. Would have done more but I had to rewrite one in a different POV. BUT I love it lots more now. It switched to a secondary character’s POV – first time I’ve written one of those. Nothing like writing from a 17 year old boy’s POV!
I’ll give myself a point!
I adore secondary character POVs in Supers. Several on my keeper shelf.
I hit my goal of 500 last night doing sprints and had a blast doing it too. Some really great gals in there. Planning to join in on tonight’s to meet today’s goals. I homeschool my kids, and I find it hard to write when they’re awake, so I have to wait until late night to get mine done.
Glad you found the sprints! They really are lifesavers!!
Made my goal for today, revised 40 pages and turned my book in!! Tomorrow I get to write brand new words. So excited!
Just did my first sprint with Addison and the gang in the chat room and it was great. Lots of words, lots of fun. I’m working on the last of my copy edits for my Avon Impulse release in February and I’m thrilled to say I got through my entire manuscript 1 1/2 times. Granted, this is easy stuff — accept or reject — but there are a few minor, minor word fixes so I’m happy. the manuscript is due to tomorrow (Friday) so this was an amazing way to keep me in the chair tonight!