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21 minutes ago, Sarah B said:

Is anyone doing nanowrimo this year? 

I signed up and am outlining my project now. I like the push to get a bunch of words on the page, succeed or fail. 

Considering it, but it will depend on how quickly I can get some other projects done...

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10 hours ago, Sarah B said:

Is anyone doing nanowrimo this year? 

You know, I was seriously thinking about it before I got hired as a teacher.

Now...I'll be happy if I just continue to submit a chapter or two a week and stay on top of critiques. 

I wish you luck on your endeavor! If you need encouragement or a reminding kick in the rear, I would be happy to supply both. 

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11 hours ago, Sarah B said:

Is anyone doing nanowrimo this year? 

I signed up and am outlining my project now. I like the push to get a bunch of words on the page, succeed or fail. 

Probably. I did it in '18, missed '19 due to an overworked schedule, then did a makeup session (which was the work you did an alpha read for). I'm also outlining about now, but it will mainly depend on how much time I have.

33 minutes ago, Snakenaps said:

You know, I was seriously thinking about it before I got hired as a teacher.

Now...I'll be happy if I just continue to submit a chapter or two a week and stay on top of critiques. 

I wish you luck on your endeavor! If you need encouragement or a reminding kick in the rear, I would be happy to supply both. 

Nice job on the art tutorials. 

Edited by Turin Turambar
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On 08/10/2020 at 3:20 PM, Sarah B said:

Is anyone doing nanowrimo this year? 

Nope. I finally kicked the habit last year, after I think seven years in a row? Having said that, it's a great resource for forming the writing habit, I think. Good luck!

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On 10/8/2020 at 10:20 AM, Sarah B said:

Is anyone doing nanowrimo this year? 

I had never heard of this before. I think I might give it a shot. It sounds a bit daunting, but it should give me a little bit of motivation to get stuck into my other projects.

I have been playing around with a couple characters, but they don't really fit in the project I first came up with them for. This could be a great outlet for it.

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18 hours ago, sniperfrog said:

I had never heard of this before. I think I might give it a shot. It sounds a bit daunting, but it should give me a little bit of motivation to get stuck into my other projects.

I have been playing around with a couple characters, but they don't really fit in the project I first came up with them for. This could be a great outlet for it.

I tried it last year for the first time. I didn't 'win' but it did get me a great start on a book I had been trying to write for a long time. 

You don't have to try for the whole 50,000 if that feels like too much, resetting the goal for a different amount is pretty easy. 

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On 10/8/2020 at 10:20 AM, Sarah B said:

Is anyone doing nanowrimo this year? 

I signed up and am outlining my project now. I like the push to get a bunch of words on the page, succeed or fail. 

Me!! Probably. I actually outlined something a while back, that I'm planning to write. 

I'm a still alive even though I haven't been around much. 

Brain has been misbehaving. Online teaching takes over.  I write, and then it's time to sleep and I never get to the crits. I'll be back eventually. 

I'm shatteredsmooth on NaNoWriMo.

 

Edited by shatteredsmooth
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I'm not really sure how to start this off, so I'll just get into it. I've had a real issue writing for the last few years. A couple of years back I was really active for several months, really into wanting to write and get to a point where I have a finished product, even a poorly written one. This year and most of 2019 were really pretty rough for me, I really struggled with nihilism, self-hate, a feeling of being trapped and standing still while life rushes past me. It all felt like an extremely heavy weight on my chest, a really oppressing feeling. Finally, I listened to my wife(she's way smarter than me, so I shouldn't have been so stubborn lol) and started seeing a therapist this year.

Long story short, I want to create content but I lack discipline, I always have and I'm hyper-aware of it. I struggle with ADHD and I expect that I can't complete something before I even get started on it, so I want to find a way to set myself up for success. I'm not sure of the best way to handle submissions this time. Before I had an issue with moving past chapters. This time I really don't' know where to start. Do I write 10 chapters and then start submitting? Do write most of a book and then start submitting so I have a better idea of where my story and characters are going? Do I just do small writing exercises that I can complete and submit them as shorts to get feedback?

Right now I feel trapped in life. I want out. I have a great job with amazing bosses that I have no right to complain about, but I feel miserable at the thought of being here for 20 more years. I want to create content and take some agency back in my own life. I have a wife and kids, so writing really stands out to me as something that takes far less financial risk compared to other types of professions and I enjoy writing and creating new worlds and characters. It's something I know I enjoy when I'm really in it, but right now I'm not because I'm unsure of how to start, so like usual for me, I just don't.

I guess I'm looking for advice.

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@TKWade:

Glad things are starting to go better. As to writing, I'm fond of Howard Tayler's BICHOK: Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard. You might try setting a timer for 10 minutes and not letting yourself stop typing until it goes off. Or you could try NaNoWriMo this year, but if the wordcount is daunting, do a lower wordcount every day.

You'll notice I haven't said anything about what to write! The main thing is to get in the habit. You could even write out what happened that day. But if you're trying to write a story, don't worry about where it's going or whether the plot works. Just write every day and see how it comes out. Then if you get a bunch of chapters and want to submit something, you can take a look back over what you wrote and see if it makes sense or where you need to tweak it.

Personally, I have at least 60% of a book done before I submit anything here. That lets me figure out from early comments if it's going in the right direction, because I have more story to compare against.

Don't know if this helps or not, but it helps me out.

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5 hours ago, TKWade said:

Long story short, I want to create content but I lack discipline, I always have and I'm hyper-aware of it. I struggle with ADHD and I expect that I can't complete something before I even get started on it, so I want to find a way to set myself up for success.

I find success with "If, then."

If I write 250 words today, then I get a few chocolate chips. Repeat for more chocolate. 

If I write 10,000 words, then I get to buy myself a new book. 

If I write 1,000 words today, then I get to play the PS4 for the rest of my evening. 

So on and so forth. 

I find it keeps me motivated by conditioning something I love with writing. Like...if I write, I get chocolate? 

I also like Written Kitten! For every set amount of words you write, you get a photo of a cute kitten (or puppy, or rabbit). 

There's also the Pompordo Technique, where you write for a set amount of time, get a set amount of time break, rinse, repeat. 

My sister and my BFF both have ADHD, and they just cycle through projects. For instance, my sister usually has roughly three going at a time, and once she loses interest in one, she hops to the other. All three eventually get done. My bearded bestie switches between his passion for video games and his love of making wooden swords. 

4 hours ago, Mandamon said:

You'll notice I haven't said anything about what to write! The main thing is to get in the habit.

There are a TON of prompts out there in case you ever find yourself staring at your computer blankly. Writing Excuses alone has several hundred at this point. I know there was a sub on Reddit dedicated to nothing but these, and I'm sure there are prompts on Twitter and Instagram as well. 

 Good luck!!! Happy writing!

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6 hours ago, Turin Turambar said:

Is that 10k in one day, or every 10k?

Every 10k. 

My record was 7k on one Saturday. Sometimes I can push 5k regularly on the weekend. I typically aimed for 7k a week, since some days I had more days to write and other days I could only write a little. I know Sanderson can write 13k in a day when he puts his mind to it, but that man is crazy. 

Of course, right now I'm barely finding the time to revise and I'm looking back at last fall with envy. How did I manage to write 120,000 words in five months??? 

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4 hours ago, TKWade said:

@Mandamon & @Snakenaps

Thank you both for the kind words! I'll definitely try some of these approaches this week and try to tease out what works best for me. I like knowing things like that you don't consider submitting a book until your 60% done, that gives me a good baseline to work towards. :)

I mean, it depends what kind of feedback you're looking for, or how strong an idea of plot and character arc you have. For example, over the years, we've seen a lot of people submit a handful of chapters and then go away and address feedback before coming back with more. What ever feels comfortable and useful to you, we'll read it, within reason of course :D 

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2 minutes ago, Snakenaps said:

My record was 7k on one Saturday. Sometimes I can push 5k regularly on the weekend. I typically aimed for 7k a week, since some days I had more days to write and other days I could only write a little. I know Sanderson can write 13k in a day when he puts his mind to it, but that man is crazy. 

Yeah, that's a lot. I once wrote 7,500 one day during Nanowrimo, near the end of my story, when it was really pouring out. Was also a Saturday, interestingly. probably not a coincidence!!

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1 hour ago, Snakenaps said:

Every 10k. 

I need to do that. (I bought myself a set of WoT for the rough draft of my last novel, but that was a goal.)

1 hour ago, Snakenaps said:

My record was 7k on one Saturday. Sometimes I can push 5k regularly on the weekend. I typically aimed for 7k a week, since some days I had more days to write and other days I could only write a little. I know Sanderson can write 13k in a day when he puts his mind to it, but that man is crazy. 

I write whatever I can, but right now I have the time to write a chapter a day, roughly 3k. With one day off, it amounts to 20k a week for a couple of weeks? That averages out for the rest of the time, when I'm lucky to get that much a week.

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1 hour ago, Turin Turambar said:

I write whatever I can, but right now I have the time to write a chapter a day, roughly 3k. With one day off, it amounts to 20k a week for a couple of weeks? That averages out for the rest of the time, when I'm lucky to get that much a week.

That's a really good regime to have, even if it doesn't work out every day, and it's a good pace too.

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