Writerly Ways First one of 2012

[cornerofmadness]

And for the beginning of the year I'll talk about endings. Finishing. And the motivation TO finish. For those of us who don't get to the flist daily like those of us with no life *cough* I did finish my novel this week. It's the first long piece I've finished since evil_little_dog and I finished Ties that Bind and I was still living with her so that is over SEVEN years ago(okay I suppose finishing my FMA novel Sorrow's Dark Array should count too).

Needless to say my follow through has sucked. Doing the short story anthologies has really helped. Yes, they have taken away from my writing of the novel but so has fanfic and I've enjoyed both of them. Writing short has at least improved my skills in finding more concise ways of conveying my ideas.

However, I need to stop getting distracted by the shiny things. Every new idea rips at my attention span and I put one thing down and never get back to it. This is the year that I am going to attempt very seriously to change that. I have to change it.

One thing that does help me is competition. It's why I joined findyourwords & gsd_rtfn. Also writing for an audience helps me immensely. It's a strange form of peer pressure for me. I adore my writers group Link for that reason, even when some of us forget the word count limits or offer up lame 'this isn't my genre and I can't understand it' excuses. Overall, knowing that every 6 weeks someone is going to be reading my next chapter keeps me going. That is THE reason I finished Splinters of Silver and Cold Iron this week (and thanks for those offering to read it).

I'm overjoyed when people on the original fiction filter stop in to comment, even if it's just to say I liked this (or even if they didn't so long as we point out why). I'm still very much interested in reviving nanomowhinging and I did get a few people sign up and then I faltered. My apologies. Last year sucked. However I AM going to put off reviving this for a little while longer at least until I get my tenure stuff done and enough class lectures finished so I'm not having to take leaves of absence the moment we begin.

So I will be working. I will finish things. I will be looking to my friends to kick my butt and support me when I need it (thanks in advance on that front!)

Yearly word count -

1139 / 75000 words. 2% done!

FMA big bang (and DAMMIT one whole scene is suddenly missing!!)

12024 / 15000 words. 80% done!

Until the Ice Breaks - edited ch 2, have yet to look at finishing this

Machiavelli Moon - no new edits

Splinters of Silver & Cold Iron - FINISHED. will have ch 1 edited by the end of today

Geek love - update next week, Ditto Steampunk Scars

Comments

[scribesds.livejournal.com]

I can’t remember if I’ve ever asked you this, but I wondered if you would like to make some posts at writers_toybox? Just general writing bits and pieces, like you would normally do, but only when you have the time? Jo is doing some grammar-type posts, and I do a lot of prompts, so we don’t need those, but we could really do with some other interesting or informative content. I seem to remember you saying you wanted to talk more about the craft, share links and stuff?

Would you be interested? It doesn’t matter if you don’t fancy it…

[spiderling.livejournal.com]

It is great to finish ANYTHING. I'm pleased to have finished a number of things last year and I hope to maintain it this year.

I wouldn't mind taking a look at the YA you wrote but I don't know if I'll have time to comment. :( I feel crappy about that.

I also desperately need to get back to Tea Time Three which is just sitting there like a dead monkey on my shoulders...

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

good luck to you

Don't worry about it. I have plenty of people looking at this one.

i have plenty of dead monkeys on my shoulder

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I might be interested but probably not until mid-Feb or something or even later. We can talk about what you might like to see

[scribesds.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Dana, Let me know when you’re able to discuss, and how you wish to do so. (Eamil, LJ PM, etc)

[caffeinified.livejournal.com]

You and I have discussed endings before. It's the hardest part for me. Always. And a lot of the time I'll just let a story sit there and fizzle out rather than write an ending for it. Bad me. I need to get over that hump.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

trust me I know that feeling. It's like saying goodbye to a friend and no I do not like that at all.

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

A chapter every six weeks sounds nice. My writers' group expects a new chapter to critique _every week_. It's been great motivation to finish that final draft of Fox and Shadow, though, I must say.

Are you pledging to finish manuscripts _and_ market them this year, or just finish them?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

there's way too many of us to do this once a week. Then again I don't know the size of your group. We have about 10 and we have a 5,000 word limit. that would be a lot to read in a week let alone find time to write.

mostly just finish and edit them. None of them are really in marketable shape at least not until the end of the year.

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

There's from three to five of us at any given meeting, and we sit there and critique on the spot. I'm thinking of suggesting capping membership at five, since three of the other four are kind of long-winded. More than five under those circumstances could be very time-consuming.

Speaking of long-winded, with ten members I'm surprised your group's word limit isn't more like 3,000 words. 5,000 times 10 is a lot of reading.

Editing is a big enough job for one year, truly.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

ah, I see. My group way back when I lived in NY did it that format (I'm wondering if the in person one in Jackson does the same)

yeah I know but most chapter seem longer than that 4,000 would have been better and we very often have double the limit being offered.t hank god it's 6 weeks

yes editing is

[hierath.livejournal.com]

Well done for finishing it! That's one you can tick off the list, at least!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

you betcha. I'm so happy