Welcome to the official log for the Couch to 1.667K adventure!
I didn’t want to spam the blog with daily updates, so I’m making this thread to keep track of the minutia.
There is no coherent plan for this Camp other than ‘write words’ so there’s bound to be a bunch of different projects in the works. I’d like to try and stay with existing content, or at least existing universes, but we’ll see how it goes…
Note: None of the links to books are affiliate links. I get no money out of this, I just wanted to mention what I’ve been reading! 🙂
Day 1 – 56 words, 102 words
I started the day off well, picking a project and reviewing it during breaks at work. The universe is Songs of the Summer God and the project is the short story currently titled Inheritance. I already had it imported into Scrivener because I worked on it last week and the current word count before working was 2,350. I was adding words to a scene that had been semi-outlined but had little to no useable prose.
That said, I got sidetracked by other things and really didn’t work on this for more than a few minutes. But I got 102 words, so small victories away!
Inheritance : 102 words
Day 2 – 112 words, 1,299 words
Ah, weekends! 😀 I needed to get some Saturday Story Prompts written as well as old ones transcribed, edited, and split into blog posts. I also spent almost all day working on these, so I’m not sure what the words-per-hour would work out to.
Saturday Story Prompts: 1,299 words
Day 3 – 168 words, 507 words
Time to get back to work on Inheritance! Only, I’m a bit stuck for how to write the remaining scenes, so it’s off for a bit of Musefic to work out the kinks.
The Deadly Middles : 507 words
Day 4 – 224 words, 410 words
I had grand plans for today, but I ended up getting wrapped up in work and I didn’t outline a single thing! But I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to write because of the Musefic from yesterday.
Inheritance : 102 words
Day 5 – 280 words, 108 words
I don’t remember what I worked on, not sure why… It wasn’t the short story, so my guess would be this was some Saturday Story Prompts.
Day 6 – 336 words, 544 words
Ditto, but with the wordcount I’m pretty sure this was blog posts and not just SSPs.
Day 7 – 392 words, 0 words
I was sick and didn’t get anything done.
Day 8 – 448 words, 0 words
Feeling better, but too worn out to get anything done.
Day 9 – 504 words, 0 words
Sick again because Virginia is evil and Spring is a LIE.
Day 10 – 560 words, 0 words
Still sick.
Day 11 – 616 words, 56 words (approx)
In order to get back into the swing of things I did a lot of handwriting ideas for Saturday Story Prompts. I did bother to count up the words on these, but I did at least fifty-six words.
I read Take Off Your Pants!: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing by Libbie Hawker on my Kindle to help get my Muses going again. I did a couple of the exercises in the book for Inheritance and changed how I was approaching the scenes I was having problems with.
Saturday Story Prompts : 56 words
Day 12 – 672 words, 56 words (approx)
Ditto for yesterday.
I read 5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter by Chris Fox to keep the planning Muses on a roll. I did a lot of thinking about Inheritance and how I wanted to work on it, in terms of how he was suggesting improving writing skills.
I’d forgotten how much reading writing books makes me want to write! (And doodle, I ended up doodling a rough outline of the story timeline and it helped resolve some of the plotting issues.)
Saturday Story Prompts : 56 words
Day 13 – 728 words, 698 words
I went out to Panera’s for a mini-write-in with a NaNo buddy and a got a lot done! I’d forgotten how much getting out of the house really helps me focus in on what I’m supposed to be doing.
Saturday Story Prompts : 373 words
Inheritance : 325 words
Day 14 – 104 words, 438 words
Letting a Story Simmer : 438 words. (The blog post in which I reviewed the results of the sprints from yesterday’s writing.)
I did go back at this point and revise my overall goal down to 10,000 words. Starting up again at such a high daily goal is not beneficial when it currently takes me too much time to hit it.
Day 15 – 160 words, 0 words
My Dad came down to visit and although I did sit down and mean to write, my brain just wasn’t cooperating.
So I read Lifelong Writing Habit: The Secret to Writing Every Day by Chris Fox instead. I think I’m getting addicted to eBooks about writing…
Day 16 – 216 words, 0 words
Dad is down visiting, so I’m taking the weekend off! 🙂
Day 17 – 272 words, 1218 words
I got in another custom Saturday Story Prompt eBook so I took a break from hanging out with Dad to get that done. This is counting only the new words and the changes that I made to the prompts that I took out of the stockpile.
Day 18 – 328 words, 0 words
Once again I am sick (darn you crazy Virginia weather!) so I sat about and thought about all the stories I have that I haven’t finished. My Muse then attempted to convince me to abandon the current short story and work on random things.
Day 19 – 384 words, 760 words
I worked on a blog post about how to make ground poles and cavaletti for Stablemate scale model horses. I need to do some additional artwork (and then photos) before it will be complete, but it’s coming along nicely.
Day 20 – 440 words, 233 words
I managed to get a few Saturday Story Prompts done, but couldn’t get my writing brain to engage so I ditzed about with some new blog ideas that didn’t get very far. At least I have plenty of ideas for when I’m back on track! :p
Day 21 – 496 words, 581 words
I did some work on a blog post about how I come up with the Saturday Story Prompts. It’s half about how I come up with the ideas and half about how I go back and use the ideas later. Still a rough draft, but I’m hoping to finish it up sometime next week.
How to Dream Up New Story Ideas : 581 words
Day 22 – 552 words, 0 words
I went out and was sociable with friends instead of writing, so… win? Eh, Dad came down that night anyways and handing out with him trumps hobbies anyday! 😀
Day 23 – 608 words, 0 words
Dad is down to visit this weekend, so I’m giving myself the day off! 🙂
Day 24 – 664 words, 193 words
I did a metric ton of yardwork and hung out with Dad some more. I did write a blog post, but nothing fiction-y. I have one week left, so I’m planning on doubling-down and seeing if I can’t pull out a work week of win!
A Druid By Any Other Form…: 193 words
Day 25 – 720 words, 117 words
Just a few Saturday Story Prompts… I meant to get more done, but I got sidetracked by the internets. I spend way too much time just goofing around! (Of course by the time I’ve noticed I’ve spent too much time goofing around it’s too late. :p)
Day 26 – 776 words, 240 words
I am annoyed at my lack of being able to work on the project I specifically wanted to finish this month (Inheritance), so I started copying over a metric ton of the old fan fiction and then roughed out a blog post about learning how to plot. I’m counting some of the descriptions I wrote for the fandom pages and then all of the words from the rough draft. I really hope next month goes better!
Pantsing my way to Plotting : 179 words
Day 27 – 832 words, 0 words
This was a very grumpy day in which nothing was accomplished. I did more formatting on the fan fiction, but I refuse to count that… it was basically just procrastination.
I did read a lot of fan fic though, so that’s something I guess.
Day 28 – 888 words, 782 words
I’m just not feeling the short story, so I took a random side trip into one of my old fan fiction AU’s (Alternate Universes). A lot of that was just summarizing what I already had and poking at ideas for how to unwind it from the Stargate Atlantis canon… but it’s still writing related, so it counts! 🙂
De-Fandoming Hushed and White With Snow: 782 words
Day 29 – 944 words, 1152 words
I finally finished up my crafting post, just need a few more pictures and this is done! It’s not really creative writing, but it’s writing and I did get it done whilst at the writing desk… I feel like I’m starting to cheat a little when I could these, but non-fiction writing is still writing. Also did some Saturday Story Prompts and chewed a bit more on some new blog ideas (that might end up in the bin).
Day 30 – 1000 words, 0 words
Alas, I ended up being sick on the last day of the month and didn’t get any new words on paper. But looking back, it’s been a heck of a ride and I look forward to seeing what I can accomplish next month! 😀