Oct 4, 2024
Last night and this morning I got into the state of mind where everything I have written this week seems stupid and I was trying to think of ways I could quit the story and still continue the challenge.
If I’m honest, I’m surprised it has come so quickly, but this is the point where in the past couple of years I have stopped. Maybe it came sooner because I’m writing something short and the point isn’t related to the amount of time I’ve spent working on the story, but to the percentage of the story I have written?
I was pretty close to stopping, but then I realised that this was the whole point of this challenge: to reach that point over and over again in quick succession and keep going anyway, like I used to. In doing so, I hope to take away the power of that feeling.
It helps that it is a short story because there are only a few days where I have to deal with feeling like I’m wasting my time on a rubbish story. In a couple of days I will be working on something new.
In that sense, I count today as a big success and when I finish the story tomorrow or Sunday I will be very pleased.
I’m 641 words ahead of schedule now. So averaging 134 words extra per day. Tomorrow is Saturday, so time won’t be as tight and I might get some additional words, but we shall see. As long as I get my 1,000 words I’m happy.
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Words written today: 1,103
Words written total: 5,641
Plus / Minus target: +641
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Currently writing: Sisterhood
Currently publishing: n/a
Latest release: n/a
Oct 3, 2024
A crazy day at work today but I got my writing done in the morning so pleased with that. I also have a working title for the first short story.
The interesting thing with titles is that they really help to focus the story. There are a few strands now coming together thanks to the working title, which may very well turn out to be the final title.
Other than that, not a lot to report. I’m now half a day ahead of where I need to be.
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Words written today: 1,106
Words written total: 4,538
Plus / Minus target: +538
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Currently writing: Sisterhood
Currently publishing: n/a
Latest release: n/a
Oct 2, 2024
The story continues. I did my usual routine of waking up, making coffee and getting on with the writing. The words are coming quicker now but it didn’t feel as comfortable as yesterday.
I’m not sure how much difference that makes to the quality though. When I have gone back and read stuff I have never been able to distinguish between the parts that flowed easily and those that were a struggle. The quality of the output doesn’t seem to reflect the difficulty of the input.
Getting a decent amount ahead now and maybe I will build up more than nine days lead between now and the end of the year. Or maybe I will have to cash some in between now and then.
I’m thinking a lot about A.I. generated content at the moment and there may be a longer post on the subject when I’ve got my thoughts in order. But one thing that has stuck with me today is how chat services might influence the way users think.
It is well documented that YouTube and Facebook algorithms lead people to some pretty dark places, and those are relatively easy to detect. You can point at a video and say ‘this is extreme’ but can you do the same with A.I. generated text, images and videos?
Believing that A.I. models have no inherent biases is naieve but I don’t hear anyone talking about the possibilities of these things brainwashing huge segments of society.
I’m still thinking about the matter but this is enough to confirm that bipassing A.I. in my own life is the right choice to make.
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Words written today: 1,206
Words written total: 3,432
Plus / Minus target: +432
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Currently writing: TBC
Currently publishing: n/a
Latest release: n/a
Oct 1, 2024
Tuesdays are the busiest day of the week for me in terms of commitments, and this week is busy in general, but I have organised my time so that even on the busiest days I can still write and blog.
I have a better idea where the story is going now but still not ready to settle on a title. The actual writing was noticeably easier than yesterday as well.
This week I don’t have a story to get published so time is a bit easier. Once I get this story written that will change and I will be writing one story in the morning, then editing and publishing a second story in the afternoon. It will be interesting to see what, if any, changes I need to make to my schedule in order to accommodate that.
As things currently stand I’m on track for this story to be around the 6,000 word mark, which means it should be finished on Saturday. I’m going to start on the next one immediatly. If I still need the daily word count then it will happen the same day.
My word count is below and I’m currently 226 words ahead of schedule. At that rate I will gain an extra day every nine days. Which would put me nine days ahead of schedule by Christmas. And although I don’t intend to stop writing completely during the holiday, it will be nice to have a bit of padding.
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Words written today: 1,135
Words written total: 2,226
Plus / Minus target: +226
Currently writing: TBC
Currently publishing: n/a
Latest release: n/a
Sep 30, 2024
In the last few years, the main way I have written first drafts has been pen and paper, so that might be one reason this morning felt a little awkward.
I got up just before six, which gave me enough time to feed the cats and make a cup of coffee before I got started. Then I sat at my computer and faced the blank page with only the vaguest idea of what I was going to write. But I made a start on what turns out to be a fantasy set in a kind of medieval society. There’s no title for the story as yet. I think I’ll see where it goes first.
I used to write a lot quicker than I managed today. That’s one thing I hope I get back with this year of practice. At the moment, typing doesn’t feel as natural as it should.
A good start though, I got my thousand words, plus 91 in the bank for when I need them.
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Words written today: 1,091
Words written total: 1,091
Plus / Minus target: +91
—
Currently writing: TBC
Currently publishing: n/a
Latest release: n/a
Sep 29, 2024
Another short post. The weekend has been manic and I haven’t had a lot of downtime. I have no idea what I’m going to be writing tomorrow morning, but I’m looking forward to finding out. There are a few ideas that I’m considering.
One thing I am planning to do to make this challenge slightly easier is to write some series stories. They will still be standalone stories but there will be recurring characters. That is a possibility.
Anyway, time to get on with other things now. I will check-in tomorrow with my first daily word count.
Sep 28, 2024
A super busy day so just checking in to keep the streak going. Tomorrow is the last day before the challenge begins and everything is in place.
Sep 27, 2024
All this thinking about my upcoming short story challenge has gotten me thinking about the first challenge I did. This was over ten years ago and my goal was to write 1,000,000 words in the course of a year.
I think my final total was somewhere in the region of 800,000 and a lot of those I didn’t publish, but it was a lot and really kick-started my writing. Before that I was dreaming big, but not writing much at all.
I didn’t make it to the full million words because somewhere along the way, I changed my mind about what I wanted to achieve. If I had only been writing first drafts, I’m sure I would have reached my word count, but I started publishing some of what I was writing and wanted to make more of that.
As things currently stand, I am planning to write 365,000 words over the course of the year. I am focusing on short stories because the main goal of the challenge is to get me finishing things again. Making money or getting reviews doesn’t figure into this (if it did, then I wouldn’t be considering short stories).
Things change though. I might get halfway through this challenge and have an idea for a longer story that I really want to work on. It wouldn’t make sense for me to doggedly stick to the rules of this challenge and force myself to write another 26 short stories before starting on the longer piece.
That may not happen, but I am prepared if it does. And I think I could do it without really breaking the rules I have set for this challenge. As long as I continue to write an average of 1,000 words a day, and finish everything I start, does it really matter if one story is longer than the others?
The aim, above all else, is to finish stories again. The short stories are only a method of achieving that goal.
Sep 26, 2024
My goal for the next twelve months is to write an average of 1,000 words per day. Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but life gets busy from time to time and it might not always be possible to write.
I have done my best to minimise the number of days where I won’t be able to write at all by being flexible about the tools I use, but that might not be enough. A few occasions when I might not write during the next few months:
Christmas Day: I don’t know what we will do, but this is the one day of the year when I’m unlikely to be the first person to wake up. I might snatch a few minutes here and there during the day, but I don’t want to be absent from my family.
New Year’s Day: This is also Tamzin’s birthday, so I’m unlikely to find time to sit down and write anything.
Moving House: We are decorating the house in order to sell it and move early next year. I’ve done enough house moves now to know that it’s going to disrupt my writing.
Holidays: If everything goes according to plan (and it never does) then next year, after we’ve moved, we are planning to go to Disney Land in Paris. As far as writing goes, holidays are as disruptive as moving house, so I doubt I will get to do much, if anything, while I’m away.
There are probably going to be other disruptions as well, but I think it should be okay.
Like I said, I’m aiming for an average of 1,000 words a day to hit 365,000 words over the entire year. That means it doesn’t really matter if I write 2,000 words one day, and then nothing the following day, because I will still average 1,000 words on each of those days.
Although I am going to be aiming for 1,000 words every day, I’m never going to hit exactly that number. Instead, I’m expecting to go somewhere over it most days. And even if it’s only a couple of hundred words a day, that still means that every five days I will have built up my average enough that I can bank a whole day when I won’t be able to write.
As far as reporting that, my plan is to keep a tally in a spreadsheet and each daily blog post will have the current status at the bottom, like this:
Words written today:
Words written total:
Plus / Minus target:
That should show where I am overall and hopefully mean that on those days when my writing is disrupted, I don’t fall far behind and can actually enjoy my time without worrying about it.
Sep 25, 2024
As I have been preparing for my short story challenge, I have been thinking through the process of what tools I am going to use. There may be some changes here and there, but this is what I expect to start off with on Monday:
Goodnotes: I am not sure I will do any planning for these short stories, but if I feel the need, then I will do so on my iPad mini using Goodnotes 5.
Ulysses: The writing itself will be done in Ulysses, which I can access on my Mac, iPhone and iPad. That will give me the flexibility to pick up a few extra words during the day if I don’t quite meet my daily target in the morning. As well as allow me to write and publish these blog posts.
Pro-Writing Aid: Although Ulysses has built in editing tools, I paid for PWA a couple of years ago and like the process there more. Recently it has been adding more A.I. features, which I don’t use, but if they take over everything, then I may have to reconsider my options. I like it mainly for changing my regular English spelling to US English spelling.
Vellum: For formatting the eBooks themselves. This was an expensive purchase a few years ago, but I’m still getting updates and it makes what used to be a painful process very easy.
Acorn: I haven’t used this image editor much, so it is the thing most likely to change. This will be where I make book covers.
That’s about all of it, really. None of those are affiliate links, by the way.
