JDDAlton

Had a rough final few days. Struggled with feeling mired down in my plot, unable to settle on a direction, erased as much, or more, than I wrote, and didn’t have enough time to myself to make up for lost words. But I got through the block by reading, which I always find to be a great source of inspiration, especially in reconnecting me to my love of words and storytelling. And though my word count be significantly lower than hoped, I accomplished my main goal for the month, which was to just freaking start getting the story out on the page already, instead of keeping it locked up in my head, so I feel really good about this challenge. Thank you all for the opportunity, and the support! Onward to my own personal Don’t Stop Writing December!

Definitely won’t be meeting my word count goal this month, but writing something is still better than writing nothing, and at least now I know to set a realistically lower goal for myself next month.

Spent far more time on research than on writing today, but managed to answer many of the questions that were holding me up.

Spent yesterday and today doing some revising and revisiting, especially of those transitions I needed to go back and work on; too bad the word count doesn’t reflect the words we write and then erase! But I guess that would be more of a work count than a word count, and the work count is always much, much higher than the word count anyway.

Had to take a bit of time out of my writing session to do research, just to make sure the scene could actually work as my imagination wanted it to, but it’s coming along. Slowly but surely, the tortoise plods towards the finish line.

Forgot to post updates the past couple of days, but have been working on some mild restructuring as well as writing. Definitely reaching that point in the process where I have to make more ‘come back to this transition and fix it later’ notes, but better that than killing my momentum, right?

Got a bit farther along in my latest chapter, as well as some major edits done in earlier chapters, where I had to change details to reflect the characters as they continue to reveal themselves to me. They do like to surprise me with sudden twists!

Too ill to do much today; just spent time working on previous chapters instead of putting my brain to work writing new stuff.

Tried to do more of a timed sprint today, and it really did seem to help kickstart my brain into finding better words. Still spent far too much time staring off into the middle distance, trying to think of names for minor characters, though.

Life got in the way of writing yesterday, and I struggled to get back into the zone today. But at least I got to a good spot to start tomorrow’s session. I will take my small victories where and when I find them.

Not only getting the words out, but getting better words out as the challenge progresses. Finding that the word goal matters less to me than reaching a satisfying place in the story to finish up for the day, however many words that takes.

Definitely smoother sailing today. Also, realised I’d screwed up my daily word counting somewhere along the way, but should be on track now (I think? Much better with words than numbers!)

Feeling a bit slow and stupid today, found it excruciatingly difficult to think and get words out. But out they are! And out they stay!

Keep forgetting to track my time, lol. Oh well. There’s always tomorrow!

Not a lot of time for writing today, but realised while trying to fall asleep last night that the story actually should begin slightly earlier than I had already written, so I shifted the other chapters over and started a new first chapter. Wild how much of the shape of a story can shift as you write it, even if you thought you had it all plotted out!

Spent more time struggling with technical difficulties than actually writing, but got some good work done on the detective story. Better names now, at any rate, lol.

Started writing a new modern detective series that’s been percolating in the back of my mind for ages. Realising I don’t like several of the character names, now that I’m having to actually *look* at them. Time for research!