Wednesday, September 4, 2013

The Insecure Writer's Support Group September 2013

Today it's the two year anniversary of a wonderful project, The Insecure Writer's Support Group, started by Alex J. Cavanaugh, a group designed for writers to support and encourage each other.


In today's post, Alex had surprised everybody, announcing the creation of The Insecure Writer's Support Group website. Looking forward to seeing the result, Alex!

My insecurities this month concern my ability to accomplish everything on my To Do List for September, which is very long. In August I've written 3 outlines beginning to end, worlds, characters, everything that goes in the story is already established. Crazy, I know, right? I've been struggling with this, and suddely in August I've done it. Not once, not twice, but three times!

And that made me bold. So, for September I've designed a crazy writing schedule that will be amazingly difficult to follow. I've figured since I know everything in the story, I could write about 5000 words a day, every day. Yup, 5000 words. 

For now, I'm faithful to my Spartan schedule, doing 5000+ words. But I can't write that much on a single story daily - outlining has removed the joy, the excitement, in discovering what happens next so, I lose interest after about 3000 words. So, I alternate between 2 stories.
It seems to be working, for now and I hope by the end of the month to have the 150 K I wanted. But I fear I'll lose interest because of outlining. 

I see the pros of this technique, I actually worked on a story for a week without giving up the project, but knowing what happens next makes the writing less... exciting. But if I get the work done, I'll keep up this way. I just hope outlining won't turn my writing flat. 
One of the projects still gives me the spark of excitement, so I'm confident about it, but the other one is slower, less attractive, but I'm not giving up. By the end of the month I'll have 150 K words done and raedy for re-writing.

As usual, no names yet for my projects. 
I hope everybody has a great, productive September.

16 comments:

  1. Just stopping by from the IWSG :)

    Wow, thats really brave! I find if my To Do List has too much on it nothing gets done.

    Good luck honey!

    xx

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  2. Best thing to do is just plug away, the to do list will always be there, as something always crops up.

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  3. You can do it! Don't let the excitement elude you.

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  4. Be kind to yourself if you don't meet the deadline every single day, Adriana. There's nothing wrong with reaching high. Hope you succeed. I'm guest hosting today, so just here to give you my support. Yay, Adriana!

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  5. Very ambitious! Wow. Good luck with the 5000 words. I stick to 1000 a day but always do more. That way I'm not upset as long as I've done the 1000. Good luck!

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  6. Good luck with your ambitious goals and remember that outlines don't need to be comprehensive. Give yourself a general idea so you stay on task, but allow your story to shift if need be. More than once I've had my plans hijacked by one of my characters deciding he was going to behave differently than I planned. :-)

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  7. Good luck getting your 5000 words done, I tend to find that if I have a schedule I stick to it and get more written than if I don't have one.

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  8. If you've set your mind to it there's no reason you can't do it. I hope you reach all of your goals this month. You've inspired me!

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  9. That's a smart idea. In a couple months, you'll have three complete stories.
    Five thousand words a day? You must be a really fast writer.

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  10. This sounds so ambitious! I hope you meet all of your goals.

    www.modernworld4.blogspot.com

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  11. Good luck with your goals! I usually don't have names for my projects until they're done too. Titles are tricky for me.

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  12. I"ve heard about that Outline thing. Must try it sometime. Ha Ha. Just kidding. I am by nature a Pantser, but have been convincing myself that I must outline from now on. But I think a lot of pantsing will still go on. That's where the excitement is! And if you're not excited, neither will your readers by. (That's my theory anyhow!)

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  13. Holy cow--5000 words a day?! That's quite a goal. I hope you make it! :)

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  14. Wow! Three full outlines is impressive! And I'm lucky if I can do 5000 words in a week, let alone a day.

    Good luck, I hope you achieve your goals.

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  15. Wow, seriously ambitious goal there, 5000 words a day! How are you doing with it? Alternating between two stories each day sounds like a good idea. I think I should try that in the future ... I also need to try the outlining thing. I've always anted to be able to do that (although I never considered it might take the excitement out of writing...)

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  16. Perseverance always pays. The goings been good so far, you should be able to meet your to-do goals :)

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