JDDAlton

Still in my “doing more research than writing” era, but little drops of water, little grains of sand…

Working through a migraine haze; hoping to do some more later tonight, but if not, at least there are words.

Spent most of the day hiking, and then napping after the hike, but managed to get a short sprint in just under the wire. Onwards and upwards!

Didn’t keep note of my time, because it was all research and note-taking today. But words is words! And I wrote them down, and am logging them, every day, which is my bare minimum goal anyway!

Set an alarm for myself this month to remind me to log my word count, so hopefully more consistent updates, not to mention the morale-boosting interactions with the community, cheering one another on and all, will be the proverbial wind beneath my wings. Or the carrot, or the stick, or some other useful metaphor.

Really quick sprint on this project; spent most of my time today in a burst of inspiration, world-building for another project that’s been percolating in my mind, and got the rest of my daily word count in on that, and then some. (Also, spent a bit too much time trying to remember the word “monogram”, which I take as a hint that my brain needs a break.)

Finding my most reliable way to get my word count is multiple sprints, instead of trying to do it all in one go, which usually has me losing momentum and spending too much time trying to think of the *exact* word I want, when that really is something I can do in the editing stage. Feels much more productive this way! Though it’s less productive when I wander off between sprints and forget what I was doing… Oopsie!

Didn’t get much done with the visitors around, but back in the saddle again! This chapter is really coming along well; very pleased with it.

Work flow interrupted by unexpected visitors coming through town, but still got some good words in, though falling a wee bit short of my goals for the day. But unexpected visitors will do that to you, won’t they?

Late start on the writing today owing to previous commitments that took up most of my time and energy. Would have liked to get one last sprint in to get myself over the top of my word goal, but just don’t have it in me after a long day. But really enjoying where the story is going, and always delighted to have a new side character introduce themselves.

Who’s got two thumbs and completely forgot to come back and update their word count on this project since starting it? Yeah… Well, here’s today’s word count, at any rate. And here’s to trying to remember to log my words every day, too!

Picking up a project I had set aside for a while. Probably should have caught up on it yesterday in preparation for today, but oh well, I didn’t. So I spent my time today reading what I’d done already, reminding myself where I was and where I was going, clarifying a few things, and so I didn’t get my word count goal. But there’s always tomorrow, and now I know what to do with it, too.

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.