#no I'm not trying for 50k in april or july

[lemon-bread-slice]

Lemon is sappy hours

So i just reached 50k words posted on AO3 and That Is Insane. My first fic was posted in November 2023 and since then I've posted fifteen of the bastards.

To basically re-hash this post I never in a million years thought I'd end up here - my ass was trying not to fall asleep in English class, slogging through another creative writing assessment, waiting for Maths or Physics or Computing.

And now hundreds, maybe thousands, of people have read a portion of those 50,109 words I have written. Some kudos'd, bookmarked, and a few even commented to say they thought they were good words. Insane. Unfathomable.

Thank you HSBB- the catalyst of it all

I saw a post about the event (Hermitshipping Big Bang) and joined on a whim almost exactly a year ago, and from that server i've made so many fandom friends that I talk to regularly, hype enable me, and are all around cool people <3

Thank you to anyone who has ever read one of my fics, and a special thank you to the consistent readers. It's gotten to the point where there's a good handful of names i can recognise in the kudos and comments

Speaking of comments, i treasure every single one, and whenever i'm feeling demotivated i go back and reread them and they always make me smile. Seeing others so excited over something i've made is an incredible feeling.

As a celebration for reaching 50k, I thought i'd reveal the basic outline of my current project, It's nsfw so i'll put it below the cut, but i just want to say one last thank you to every single person in this fandom. Thank you for being an amazing community <3

Hello there :3

So, the current project is a 8.5k and growing behemoth that has been in the works since April. It's a Gemtho Mafia AU (mostly for flavour) scene, focused around knifeplay and shibari.

(Rough placeholder summary) Etho's messed up big time on a mission and typically Gem isn't the most forgiving Boss, but, for better or worse, she has other plans than a beating for him. When all is said and done he comes out just as bloodied and bruised, though.

So yeah! I've wanted to tackle a rope heavy fic for a while, and i'm determined to do it justice! We're in the home stetch now (< lying), and i'm hoping to have this thing up by the end of July as it's one of my MCYT Co-Create pieces.

Aight that's enough rambling for now, if you're reading this have a wonderful timezone :DDD

[xthelastknownsurvivorx]

2023 Writing Roundup

Thanks @inexplicablymine for the tag! This was a lot of fun to do

January

Satisfied (Never Have Been, Never Will Be) — RWRB, T, 833

Or, a rewrite of the lyrics of "Satisfied" from Hamilton set at the beginning of Philip and Martha's wedding, except Alex is a little flirtier and a little less repressed, told from Henry's pov.

February

Some Element of Mystery — RWRB, M, 4k

Or, five times that Alex thought Henry was a stripper, plus one time Henry corrected him. Written for the informal stripper!Henry fest.

March

Was working on finishing my master's thesis instead of fic for the most part, though I did write a few drabbles and make progress on my reincarnation au (see November)

April

Burn (They're Watching Us/I Hope That They) — RWRB, T, 295

Or, a rewrite of the lyrics of "Burn" from Hamilton, set immediately after the email leak, told from Alex's pov.

May

Graduated/finished my master's 🎉🎉 while also writing more of my reincarnation au (see November), including some major revisions

June

Got sick for part of the month, then spent the rest of it furiously working on my brownstone anniversary exchange fic (see July) doing tons of (probably unnecessary) research about Saturday Night Live and royal weddings.

July

SNL | Season 45 Episode 2 | HRH Prince Henry & FSOTUS Alex Claremont-Diaz — RWRB, M, 9k

Or, the fic in which I said bet and sent firstprince onto Saturday Night Live instead of having Alex go to London for a weekend. Written for the Brownstone Anniversary Fic Exchange.

August

Spent the month trying to make a lot of progress on reincarnation au (see November) and finally got some betas

September

Had a bad case of writer's block for most of the month, then went insane and wrote something for firstprince week (see October) despite promising myself I wasn't going to participate

October

Not a Day I Don't Miss (Those Rude Interruptions) — RWRB, T, 2k

Or, a Henry character study set during the week following Henry running from the lake house, loosely inspired by Taylor Swift's "Last Kiss". Written for firstprince week.

November

Red, White, and Royal Switcheroo — RWRB, T, 6k

Or, a body swap au set during Alex's "make nice" trip to England in which Alex and Henry have to play at being each other, and Alex discovers Henry's role is, in fact, very much not much easier to play. Written for Halloween, Huh?

Every Time My Heart Swings Back to You — RWRB, M, ~90k (ongoing)

Or, a reincarnation au set mostly in the modern era with college students Alex and Henry trying to piece together the story of their past lives as a knight and a prince through a series of non-linear flashbacks.

December

Trying my best to finish reincarnation au while also plotting out a very ambitious fic for a new fandom (mysterious lotus casebook) that I'll be trying to tackle in 2024. Also the month I got super into cdramas/c-ent.

--

Wow, compiling all this made me realize I wrote a whole lot more than I thought: posting 9 stories and writing around 50k new words! I also participated in a lot more fan events than ever before and finally begin sharing the story that's been living in my brain and docs only for almost three years. All in all, a very satisfying year for me while also looking forward to new projects in 2024~

I'm probably one of the last wants to get to this but tagging a few others who I don't think have done this (let me know though if you have) @14carrotghoul @formorewishes @affectionatelyrs @anincompletelist @celaestis1 @celeritas2997 @cricketnationrise, plus open tag because I'd love to see anyone else's writing year in review~

[hischierlovebot]

That’s good to hear! (Maybe this is really dumb but I don’t know what a camp nano is?? 🙈)

I’ve had a lovely day so far, I hope you did too! -🫐

Not a dumb question at all!!

I'm not sure if you're familiar with nanowrimo, but it's essentially a challenge where you attempt to write a novel (50k words) during the month of November. I sign up for it and fail every single time <3

Camp nano follows the same spirit, but it takes place during April and July and you set your own goal. I signed up for it, with a 20k goal and I am currently at 1%! 200 words. Camp nano is clearly going to hunt me for sport, duolingo style, for this, because it's a disaster but that's okay <3

Failing at nano is a rite of passage for me every year and I encourage you to try it if you write yourself (it's not for everyone but it's fun imo!)

My day was lovely too! Spending time at the park with good company is a good way to end the week.

I hope you have a good Monday ahead of you ❤️

[juleskelleybooks]

Year-End Wrap Up 2023

Thank you to literally everyone who has engaged with the work I've managed to put out despite everything. It was all carved out of me at great cost and with great love, and sharing it brings me joy and is why I keep doing it. Below are some numbers and some thoughts just to quantify things, but thanks.

Stats:

Words Published - 92,122 Words Written - Estimated somewhere in the 50k range Works Published - 2 Units Sold - 399 (self published titles only, includes free downloads) Milestones - Got to sign my physical book in a local bookstore and be featured on their social media as a local author; entered my book to be judged as part of the Lambda Literary Awards

Goals for Next Year:

Actually start keeping track of sales per title etc.

Start tracking words written

Thoughts:

This is mostly for myself, because I have a hard time with things like "accomplishments" and "chronological time" and "object permanency", and because I'm always looking ahead at what I want to have done, like I'm climbing uphill, and all progress feels slow. Sometimes it's good to look back at how far you've come.

At the end of last year, I parted professional ways with my agent (lovely person though she is), so this year was already a bit new in a lot of ways.

In April, Night Is For Hunting released. It's the second Moonrise book, and was intended to be the middle in a trilogy, but the final book has since been canceled (at my request) because I realized that the third book is not within timely reach for me. Still kind of feeling the sting of that. I'm also not super happy with parts of NIFH, as I pushed through places in order to hit (an already extended) deadline. I had grand plans for sections of the book that I just didn't have time to wrangle.

That's kind of a theme for this year, is that I'm learning that being disabled does unfortunately mean that I am less able to do things on the schedule or to the intensity or degree that I wish that I could. The whole reason I went fully self-pub without my lovely agent was because I knew I couldn't have both work that at least approaches my standards and also a standardized publishing schedule. Not at this point in my life, anyway.

In July, Stars Still Fall was released. I wrote what I consider the pivotal scene in that story back in 2018, and have been obsessed with it ever since, so finishing it was accomplishing a major goal. I let myself take my time to get really indulgent with the prose in places, which I enjoyed a lot. I keep poking at it to see if there's any places I'm unhappy with, that I want to change, and so far I haven't found any. (This isn't, of course, to say that it's above criticism. I'm sure it isn't all to everyone's taste. But I'm happy.) I may update the cover at some point to change the typography for the title, because I think it could be better and do better justice to the actual art.

Looking Ahead:

Blackthorn (low-tech space western, bi4bi m/f) seems to have pulled ahead out of the primordial soup of WIPs for now and is rattling full steam ahead. I'm not going to set a due date until I'm closer to the end, but with any luck, I might manage to finish it within two years?

Other projects that are starting to solidify are A Touch of Magic (witchy single dad whose daughter casts a love spell to try to save his job), A Time For Us (completely reworked reissue of M Jules Aedin title Windows in Time featuring a modern-day person helping ghosts from the 1940s at the risk of his own happiness), and whatever I end up renaming Late Blooming (gray-ace middle school teacher finds out he's same-sex attracted shortly after his 40th birthday and a lot of things start making sense, but his crush on the uncle of one of his students is not one of those things).

Thank you, and happy new year!

[earlgayteaandtarot]

Part of me just wants to say fuck the consequences and do it you know?

No house will be perfect. There will be something I don't like or wish could be different.

Fuck it!

Because I'm tired of living with my parents after only 6 months. I can't take it! Their constant digs at each other. Both of them trying to get me to take their side. The absolute lack of space or cleanliness. It's all too much

So fuck it. I'll move to a town an hour away that has a beautiful giant house for $50k because there's nothing in the town and the house needs to be updated but it's livable as is.

Like just do it!!!

But part of me wants to take it slow. To follow my timeline of saving up more money for a bigger down payment. To slowly do research to make the best possible choice!

Part of me wants to say, hey chill, it doesn't matter if it takes longer than July to move out. Part of me wants to enjoy living with my parents. And a part of me does enjoy it.

But the louder part of me is screaming get out now. As soon as you can, you're suffocating and you want to build a life! Just jump.

I don't know what I'll end up doing. Either way it has to wait until after this coming week because I'll be too busy. Hopefully.

Ugh.

I keep having to talk myself out of moving my plans forward. It's been a Herculean task since I decided I'd buy a house back in October.

Maybe I congratulate myself on holding off this long. On doing this much research and then diving in. Is moving my timeline forward a month really that big? I couldn't get the ball fully moving until march at this point and my hall moving goal was April. Idk.

Especially now that I have some ideas about how to do it and get the best loan and programmatic help.

I wish this decision wasn't so monumental. But then, what would be the point of doing it if it wasn't?

[mumblemoose]

Right, so... I was just reviewing my writing progress and it's pretty bad.

I wrote the first draft of Book 1, I think, in 2014. I edited it into a decent draft 2 the following year. I wrote the 0 draft of Book 2 that same year. It has been 8 years and I am almost finished with Book 2 Draft 1 (which I started writing Dec 29, 2020).

Hang on, I started rewriting my book like 3 weeks after I told my husband I wanted a divorce? In the middle of a pandemic? You know what I'm not even going to be disappointed in myself that it's taken 2 fucking years to write it. What the hell was I on?

Anyway. It has been nearly 2 years since I started rewriting it. I averaged 114 words per day in October which is, unfortunately, really good for me.

I'm going to try to be understanding about this draft but boy do I need to work harder.

To that end: Goals!

Goal 1: Finish 2.1 by end of year. Be satisfied with that progress. Congratulate myself on being done with it.

Goal 2: Outline 3 by end of January. Preferably by like Jan 7, but I'm not going to make any promises.

Goal 3: Write 3.1 by end of April. Given my current progress this sounds absurd. However, I wrote 1.1 for my first NaNo and won. (I did win, but the file I have with the first draft says it's just over 45k...wierd). I can write 50k in a month (less than because I finished before Thanksgiving) if I push myself, I just don't think that kind of push is healthy for me as a standard. (That is to say, I might try NaNo again someday, but it will not and should not be my normal expectation). Assuming I have most of 4 months to write it, 50k means 12,500 per month or about 500 words a day. Do-able. Incidentally, if I remove all the days I did not actually write in October (most of them) I averaged 504 word per day. So actually it's very doable.

Goal 4: Edit 2.1 by end of July.

Goal 5: Edit 3.1 by end of September.

Goal 6: Outline 4 by end of October.

Goal 7: Seriously consider NaNo-ing 4.1.

These are the goals. If I can make myself stick to them, I could, theoretcially, be ready to look at publishing by say... July 2024. Now that's a dream worth reaching for.

[pepsiwriteswords]

Woo, my camp goal has been met!

Now, it took 4 different projects (wait maybe five) plus two of these projects’ ramble outlines, but

!!!!!

Words got written! Characters I have had for years with nothing to do now have stories!

(Also, thank god for writing discords with people who ask at random points in the day/night if anyone’s up to sprints because my focus was shot today & it took two fifteen minute sprints to get my brain on track XP)

[transmasc-wizard]

could you explain how NaNoWriMo works? I've been thinking about participating next year but I know like nothing about it sooo... help please?

hello! you're like the 3rd person to ask this actually lol, i'll probably put a link in my pinned once nano is over this year.

NaNoWriMo stands for "National Novel Writing Month", and it takes place every November. the goal is to write 50k words of a novel in one month--it takes "quantity not quality, first drafts are for existing" to a whole other level. There's also "Camp NaNo", which happens every April and July. The main difference is that in Camp, you can choose your goal; 5k, 40k, 100k, 36, or whatever else works for you.

You can do it on your own, but tracking that can be hard, so most people make an account on the website, which is here: https://nanowrimo.org/. you announce a project and connect it to the nano event (i believe it walks you through how to do that), and then you just start writing once the event starts! You can just use the site to track your word count and stats, or you can also have buddies, join regional challenges, and join writing groups.

NaNoWriMo obviously isn't for everyone, but I do like to encourage that writers try it at least once. I thought i'd hate it; it's now my favourite way to do first drafts.

if you have any more questions, feel free to ask! I'm always open to help.

[pens-swords-stuff]

Is it cheating if I have go tweak how much I write for nano? I cannot for the life of me forcse myself to write so much, especially if I dont feel like it because im easily stressed and already too stressed as it is.... But.... Is it wrong to say I'm participating in NaNo if I change my goal?

I think the only way you can cheat at Nano is if you say that you have written more words than you actually have — and that only hurts yourself.

I believe that Nano is what you make of it, and if that means you want to set a much lower goal for yourself, that’s perfectly fine. 50k is a lot to write in a month — especially in a busy month like November for a lot of people — and if you can’t do it, that doesn’t mean that you’re a failure or a fraud. 

The goal of Nano is to write a novel in a month, yes. But even more importantly, the goal of Nano is to establish a habit of daily writing, get something down on the page even if you think it’s terrible because it’s still progress, and recognize the power that having a goal to reach towards can give you. It’s an event for you, and you alone. Do what you want with it.

Additionally, if the goal of writing 50k words is stressing you out and the idea of adjusting it seems disingenuous to you, try checking out Camp NaNoWriMo. It’s basically Nano but in April and July, where you can set your own goal instead of the traditional 50k.

I now have an updated FAQ and Ask Guidelines for Writing Advice, please check those out first if you have a question about writing or Writeblr!

Ask Guidelines | FAQ | Advice Masterlist

[yoonia]

Hi I'm a writer too and I just wanted to ask how naniwrimo (I hope I spelled that properly) works? I was looking into trying it out

Hi there. You can go straight to campnanowrimo.org for more info and to register if you are interested to join. 

Basically, Nanowrimo is a huge global wise project for writers where everyone collectively puts on massive goals to reach within a month. The main event happens in November each year, with two writing camp events happening in between (it happens on April and July this year). The main difference would be that on Camp Nano, you can set your own word count goals while on November’s main event the goal is set to 50k words for each writer to reach within a month. Just like summer camps, you can create or join groups (which is referred to as ‘cabins’) where you can converse and write together with other writers while being involved in the camp. Once you register on Nanowrimo, you can submit your project (title, summary, genre, and word count goal) and all you have to do is submit your word count on a daily basis to which the Nanowrimo website can help you keep track on your progress for you. 

I’m not sure if I explained that correctly, but all the basic rules and steps are available on the website for you to follow :)

[mishkakagehishka]

ayy it's march... i was planning on doing this in january but UH. Anyway, around the end of 2020 I decided to keep track of my daily word count throughout 2021, and, basically, I'm just gonna talk ab how that went. Nothing too important under the cut, just me analysing my own writing habits with some anecdotes and shit I remember ab certain days + what I worked on (what i remember anyway)

I'm not making a chart or anything since I'm really just making this post right now to procrastinate. Anyway. Total word count by month is:

January - 2.186

February - 505

March - 419

April - 121

May - 0 (lol)

June - 2.100

July - 1.121

August - 1.792

September - 0 (lol 2)

October - 19.537

November - 2.381

December - 1.503

In the whole year of 2021, I wrote 31.665 words (if my calculator hasn't failed me), which is;;;; it falls short of the 50k count I'm gonna try to get in a single month this year, to say the least. The average for the whole 12 months is (rounded) 2.639 words per month, but if we're only counting the months I actually wrote in (lol 3), it'd be 3.167 words per month. Not bad, I live by 1 word written is better than zero, but... well, I'm a bit disappointed in myself^^

Going month by month, I didn't start off too strong, writing under 500 words and only on 6 days of January (hitting a max with 510 words... oof). I wrote once in February and April, and twice in March and August. Most other months, I seemed to have been writing about 5 days, on average, though I guess they're spaced out enough that I didn't even notice I wasn't writing that often.

Now as for the outliers, first... May and September. LMFAOOOOO okay yeah, this makes sense, though. School was almost ending in May, I had a "I only have a month to fix my grades or I'll fail the year" and four subjects that needed desperate fixing. People who followed me on my old blog might remember my, uh... weird posts at the time. Not the best time of my life! September, on the other hand, was the start of the school year, so also pretty busy. Not as busy mental-wise, but, you know, it makes sense that I didn't pick up any writing during it. The positive outlier was October, though! This was when I was doing Horrortober (I haven't given up on that btw time is an illusion, I can write Horrortober when it's not October, too). Almost 20k words! That was a pretty good time for my ego tbh. There are only 5 days in October when I didn't write, and the average word count of the month was 630 words per day, which is better than my yearly average (87 per day). The lowest count was 137 (sandwiched between two days when I didn't write, so I assume I hit a block at that time), and the best one was 2.713 - I was the most productive in the third week, but dropped the ball in the fourth one it seems.

Now as for what I wrote, I'll have to go off memory since I didn't journal what I wrote, just how much (note to self to do that this time), buuuut- the first three months at least were when I was focused on the Oblivion fixit, which I haven't abandoned either. And, as I said, October was Horrortober month. Asides from that, I only remember that, despite hitting a zero for May, on the very first of June I hit 1.417. Why? Because I wanted to take the chance to get my writing in the school paper, but didn't have anything appropriate so I had to whip something up before the deadline (lol 4). And that's about it? I think most of my writing of 2021 was focused on fanfiction, but I know some of the days are marked with Krasimirovian Conspiracy, because I know I worked on it. Not as extensively, I'm still in the planning period, but I did write a few "pre-plot" shorts. To be honest, I think I started ignoring the Oblivion fic after May, because I do know I regularly hit blocks while working on it, so it'd explain the tiny word counts of the first half of the year, but I can't exactly cross-reference with my posts of the time, considering, so I'm just speculating.

Now, I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't planning on doing a repeat, but, looking at it now... I kinda wanna? I wanna know if I'll have improved, but;;;; It's already March. Maybe I'll start counting my word counts in April, and just shave off the first three months when I'm analysing it next year this time. In any case, I feel like my main enemy in 2021 was that I just wasn't motivated with what I was writing (considering October was a vast improvement), hit too many blocks (looking at the first half, assuming it was Oblivion and knowing I hit too many blocks with it), and schoolwork, which isn't surprising, but a bit demotivating since it's not like I'll have more free time when I start college (quite the opposite, no?), but hey. Sve se može kad se hoće, and other folk wisdom. I'll figure it out. God knows I feel like I'll go insane if I take too lengthy breaks from writing, so I'll need to figure it out (lol 5)... I feel like October is at fault for me developing that since I don't remember feeling it as hard before.

And that's more or less it? See you next year, i guess lmaooo