Nov 10, 2024
This morning I published my first short story of the challenge: Sisterhood. I am just waiting for it to go through the Amazon approval process and then I will share the link here.
It took me 230 minutes to get the editing and publishing process done. The first draft was 8,855 words long, so that means it took me 1.5 seconds per word to publish it. I’m not sure that’s a particularly helpful statistic.
Tomorrow I will add it to the website and then, if there is time, move onto editing The Last Outpost.
The writing is still going well, although it feels a bit like I’m struggling to reach a turning point but can’t quite find my was there. It’s not near the end yet, but it’s moving forwards.
I’m enjoying the reading challenge. I have a pretty good collection of short stories I’m working my way through but I want to mix in some more modern essays and poems, so I found some to download. I think this element of the challenge is going to be very interesting.
And that’s the end of the weekend.
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Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 26
Production
Words written today: 1,049
Words written total: 45,381
Plus / Minus target: +3,381
Currently writing: The Lottery
Post-Production
Minutes today: 22
Minutes total: 230
Plus / Minus target: +30
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
Reading
Short story: Dip in the Pool – Roald Dahl
Essay: My County Right or Left – George Orwell
Poem: I Saw a Man Pursuing the Horizon – Stephen Crane
Nov 9, 2024
I decided to go for it on the Bradbury Reading challenge. At the bottom of this post I’ve added a section so you can see what I’ve read. It seemed appropriate to go with a Bradbury short story for day one.
Although I have an Enlish degree, I’ve never really gotten into poetry for pleasure. I’m not sure if that’s going to change during the course of this challenge or not, but I think I get something from reading it.
The way I was taught to read a poem is to read it at least five times. Once in your head, followed by three times out loud, then a final time in your head again.
This is not all the reading I will do in a day. I am also listening to the audiobooks of the Expanse series, and reading Unruly by David Mitchell. I don’t expect to read them any less because of this. This reading is extra, the time it takes will come from time I was otherwise spending online.
The writing is still going well. My current story is going to be the longest one so far, but that’s not a problem. On the editing side, I am just working on the product description fo Sisterhood, and will hopefully have that up for order next week.
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Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 25
Production
Words written today: 1,056
Words written total: 44,332
Plus / Minus target: +3,332
Currently writing: The Lottery
Post-Production
Minutes today: 22
Minutes total: 208
Plus / Minus target: +28
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
Reading
Short story: All Summer in a Day – Ray Bradbury
Essay: Dentists Without Borders – David Sedaris
Poem: Dirge in Woods – George Meredith
Nov 8, 2024
I’m getting into the groove of writing now, but there’s still one piece missing: reading. It’s an important part of the writing process. If you don’t read, you can’t write.
I am reading every day, of course, but not as much as I would like. So, with the ongoing success of this writing challenge, I am thinking of adding a reading challenge.
It could be as simple as setting a daily amount of time for reading, but that doesn’t feel like the way I want to go. What I am currently drawn towards is what I’ll call the Bradbury Challenge.
Every day read one short story, one poem and one essay.
That seems like exactly the kind of challenge that would fit in with my writing challenge. It has the added benefit of being something I can do on a computer or on my phone that would prevent me using the internet so much.
I tried the Bradbury challenge once before and really enjoyed it. It was while I wasn’t working though, so my concern is whether I can find the time to do it now that I have a job. I should be able to. I could certainly stand to take some more time away from Reddit and doomscrolling the news.
I will give it some thought over the next few days and decide whether or not to commit.
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Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 24
Production
Words written today: 1,013
Words written total: 43,276
Plus / Minus target: +3,276
Currently writing: The Lottery
Post-Production
Minutes today: 24
Minutes total: 186
Plus / Minus target: +26
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
Nov 7, 2024
I finished formatting my first short story this evening so it’s getting closer to the finish line. Tomorrow I will be making the cover. Its been a while since I’ve done one, so I am probably a bit rusty, but looking forward to flexing that muscle again.
One of the things I am having to think about now is how I brand these short stories and whether I do that around the challenge itself, or something else. I wrote a short piece about the challenge to go in the back of the books, but do I want the covers to reflect the challenge as well?
I don’t know is the answer, but will try and figure it out tomorrow. The good thing with stuff like this is that I can always change my mind later. If the other books I’ve published are anything to go by, there will probably be multiple covers over the years and, of course, they will get added to collections as well.
The writing is going well. I haven’t hit the point of feeling like I want to quit yet, which either means the story is a lot longer than I think, or I am getting out of this one without it. That would be the ideal scenario, but I can’t rely on it happening. Even if it does happen this time, each story is its own thing so it will probably happen again.
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Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 23
Production
Words written today: 1,048
Words written total: 42,263
Plus / Minus target: +3,263
Currently writing: The Lottery
Post-Production
Minutes today: 22
Minutes total: 162
Plus / Minus target: +22
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
Nov 6, 2024
But none of them worth sharing right now. Like a lot of people I’m not sure how it happened again and am trying to remind myself I’m not American and had no control over this.
I am sure that Britain will roll out the red carpet, we’re already seeing it. What I wonder is where we draw the line? At what point do we say this has gone too far? I understand that there is politics involved, but presumably there is a line he could cross where our politicians will say ‘enough.’ Or maybe there isn’t and we will just go along with whatever he wants. Unfortunately that seems the more likely scenario.
The writing happened in between frantically checking the news. Let’s all hope the next four years aren’t as bad as we fear.
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Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 22
Production
Words written today: 1,045
Words written total: 41,215
Plus / Minus target: +3,215
Currently writing: The Lottery
Post-Production
Minutes today: 22
Minutes total: 140
Plus / Minus target: +20
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
Nov 5, 2024
Tuesdays are usually the busiest day of the week for me, but I have managed to get everything I wanted done, on top of all the other stuff, so I am pretty pleased about that. Hopefully that can continue for the other 51 Tuesdays I will be running this challenge.
I’m not actually feeling great this evening, I’ve got a headache and generally not well so this isn’t going to be a long post. Hopefully I will be feeling up to writing more tomorrow.
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Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 21
Production
Words written today: 1,054
Words written total: 40,170
Plus / Minus target: +3,170
Currently writing: The Lottery
Post-Production
Minutes today: 21
Minutes total: 118
Plus / Minus target: +18
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
Nov 4, 2024
One of the reasons that aiming for a small amount of work each day is effective for me, is that it’s hard to say I can’t find the time. A single story idea, a thousand words, twenty-minutes of editing, a short blog post. None of it seems like a lot, but doing it every day adds up.
Today I had Oscar’s friend over from school and if I’d had a lot of editing to do, I might not have done any. The excuse that I couldn’t make the time would be right there. But twenty-minutes isn’t much time, so I did it.
In a single day, twenty-minutes doesn’t look like much, because it isn’t. But that’s ten hours a month, 120 hours a year. That’s more than I think I would manage if I was aiming for 40 minutes a day or something.
I think the key is that it’s easy to do, and difficult to make excuses not to do. If I can’t find 20 minutes to do some editing then I would have to question how committed I am to all this.
The writing is continuing to go well. I haven’t hit the pit of frustration yet, so I’m probably still quite early in the story, but I’ll get there. This is story number four and I’m beginning to see patterns in things.
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Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 20
Production
Words written today: 1,040
Words written total: 39,116
Plus / Minus target: +3,116
Currently writing: The Lottery
Post-Production
Minutes today: 24
Minutes total: 97
Plus / Minus target: +17
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
Nov 3, 2024
It’s not the end of the process, but this morning I finished my first read through of Sisterhood. Tomorrow I will move onto a pass using Pro Writing Aid.
The writing on The Lottery is going well, although I think it is going to be another long one. Possibly the longest so far, based on the number of words I’ve already written, and where I am in the story. I’m enjoying it though.
We were out for most of today, at my nephews birthday party. They played laser tag and we sang karaoke. It was a fun day.
Tomorrow Oscar goes back to school, and Tamzin goes back to work, so I’m going to lose some time in the mornings. I think I will still be able to manage everything though.
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Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 19
Production
Words written today: 1,066
Words written total: 38,076
Plus / Minus target: +3,076
Currently writing: The Lottery
Post-Production
Minutes today: 23
Minutes total: 73
Plus / Minus target: +13
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
Nov 2, 2024
A good morning of work. I managed to get myself three days ahead on the writing side, and am half a day ahead on editing already. I think that’s a pretty good way to start the weekend.
It’s going to be interesting to find out if I can actually edit every day next week. Tuesdays are the busiest day of the week for me and I have got it into my head that I can’t even find twenty-minutes to do a bit of work. Logically, that’s probably not true, but it might mean that I have to edit on my phone, or grab some time first thing in the morning after I’ve done my writing.
Twenty-minutes doesn’t sound like a lot, but over the course of a year, it’s going to add up to over 120 hours, which is a much better figure. And if I find that I can easily edit this amount, there’s nothing to stop me doing more.
I have to accept that editing is the thing most likely to be disrupted by Christmas and other things. So far I haven’t had to use any of the lead I’ve built up but it’s only a matter of time before that changes. I went into this knowing it would happen, but I think it will still feel a bit like a failure when it does.
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Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 18
Production
Words written today: 1,019
Words written total: 37,010
Plus / Minus target: +3,010
Currently writing: The Lottery
Post-Production
Minutes today: 24
Minutes total: 50
Plus / Minus target: +10
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
Nov 1, 2024
Today has been a bit rushed, but I managed to find the time to sit down and do some editing. Maybe not as much as I would have liked, but I hit my target and got six minutes ahead.
I have never really loved the process of editing a story. I love planning stories and I love writing the first draft, but going back over it to look for spelling mistakes and things has always been a bit of a struggle. That’s why I have so many stories that only exist as a first draft. But I need to do it before I can start publishing them.
As you can see below, there is a new section to my daily roundup of work done. I am aiming to average 20 minutes of editing every day. I got a decent chunk done on Sisterhood, but don’t know how long it will take before that is actually published. Once the editing is done I still need to make a cover, format the book, and put it up for sale.
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Pre-Production
Stories planned (total): 17
Production
Words written today: 1,049
Words written total: 35,991
Plus / Minus target: +2,991
Currently writing: The Lottery
Post-Production
Minutes today: 26
Minutes total: 26
Plus / Minus target: +6
Currently publishing: Sisterhood
