Writing Update - December

Melissa:
And, I'm late with the post once again. I'm telling you, CRAZY TIME!!

This is a crazy time of year with holiday...stuff. I'll say "stuff" as it includes everything from shopping to cooking to visiting. I started a new story idea that I had dictated into my phone and ipod for a few weeks in November. This story has a completely new aspect for me in how I've handled it. See I was doing NaNoWriMo and couldn't stop that project so I did something different...

I dictated into my phone and ipod recorders to remember what I was thinking. Then when done with NaNoWriMo I started writing out note cards of all these notes. It almost felt as I had written the story already. Well, the details of the days weren't there but the main bones of what was to happen were. It took me about a week of evenings to write up the note cards. Then I started writing the story.

It actually came easier for me this way. But then the holiday's happened. I was pulled away from anything and everything that was not Christmas. So for the month of December I clocked out with only 7,351 words in the new story.

But, now that January is here, I signed on to keep going with writing. I am part of a group of authors on Facebook where we help and support each other. RaToNoWriMo. We are doing our own goals for January and supporting each other with a group word count page. I signed on for 25k. I think with life and reading and blogging, I can do 25k in one month. That will bring me heavily into the current story as well. Heck, maybe even after I get back into writing daily I'll even surpass that count. (don't tell anyone but that's what I'm hoping for)

Jackie:
Coming into December, I had big plans to get writing done, knowing that I'd have a lengthy break from school over the holidays. I think we started out well, both Melissa and I, as she transcribed her dictations onto note cards (an idea I will totally be stealing!) and I continued to work on what I had started towards the end of my NaNo efforts.

Sadly, the holidays came up faster than expected, as they always seem to do, so while the first week or two went swimmingly, that's where it totally fizzled for me. But, I did manage to get some writing done and I do have in mind a chunk of what will come next in my story, so that had to count for something. I haven't actually made my note cards yet, so here's hoping that I'm not struck down with a case of short term memory loss (possibly caused by banging my head repeatedly on the desk as a result of writer's block) in the mean time and I get those thoughts typed out and ready to move on...which is the plan for the upcoming month, anyway :)

I have a short story due next week for my Creative Writing course, which has been my big focus, mentally anyway, over the last week or two. Funny thing about the NaNo format versus writing a short story with a set parameter for word count etc., is that it feels that much harder to accomplish, I think. My ideas seem to stretch into something that will surpass my quota, which in this case, is a bad thing. I haven't written much in the line of short stories, so this will be a good exercise for me in 1) writing in a concise, limited length, and 2) editing the work to the point that I can share it with people, like my professor and ALL of my classmates. Wish me luck!

At least both Melissa and I are working on our projects, so hopefully updates will have much better word count results moving forward into the year. As we try to make writing a daily, or routinely scheduled habit, it should help us both become more diligent workers...and better writers ;)