Prose Finally Written, But Not Done: Final Week of Summer Challenges

Well, I'm a ditz. I completely forgot that I was supposed to check out Inkitt.com a bit more and report back to you guys about it last week. I was so fixated on how behind I was with the August challenge over at Struggling Writers Society that I didn't even think about Inkitt.

It's a pretty neat site. There are a few "groups" that you can post in; they run essentially the same as a forum. A place to share and discuss. There's one section for generic writing and editing discussion, one for introducing yourself, another for tech support, one to discuss the current writing contests being held, and a final one for beta-reading.

The "Discover" tab allows you to pick what type of story you want to read, based on genre, Inkitt's staff picks, or whatever fandom's fanfiction you wish to read.

Finally, the part of the site that got me to join in the first place: Contests. They just opened up the fantasy genre one on Monday, and it's open until September 24th, in case anyone else wants to join in. I'm not sure if I'll be able to work on something soon enough for it to be ready by the 24th, but we'll see.

It seems that they rotate out contests, so if there isn't one for the genre you write right now, there might be one opening soon enough.

So, this definitely seems like a win of a find!

But what about my current challenge?

Well, I wasn't able to get the chapter done in time to share with this post, as predicted. However, I have a nice sized chunk taken out of it. Not as much as I would have liked, but I've been spending my non-working hours mostly catching up on cleaning and organizing the house.

Still, I was determined to have SOMETHING accomplished to post when we did our check-ins this past Saturday. I was NOT going to go another week of not doing anything for my writing!

So, I plopped myself down at the dining room table Friday night in order to write anything before going to bed. I could only spare about an hour before I had to go get some sleep for my early morning shift on Saturday, but at least I did it. I had done some writing before the end of the challenge week.

I had managed to write just over two pages - 1313 words - before crashing on Friday, and I also asked the SWS to keep me accountable by making sure I had posted a sample of my work before 10pm on Saturday.

Well, things went a bit awry, and so I didn't post until a bit after 10, but I still managed my deadline. Here's the sample I posted in the group:

“Lia, we fell asleep on the roof. You gotta wake up before anyone notices that we've been out here all night.”

“We fell asleep?” she groggily gargled back. As soon as the words left her mouth her brain figured out what they meant. Jumping on to her knees, she stared wide eyed at Chayse. “We fell asleep?” she yelled.

“Shhh, you're gonna wake everyone!” Chayse grabbed her arm to steady her as he covered her mouth.

She batted his hand away and continued to freak out. Thankfully, it was in a much softer tone this time. “Oh, my god, we fell asleep? We've been out here all night?”

Chayse slowly nodded his head; giving her a moment to finish waking up and comprehend what was going on.

“Crap! My dad is gonna kill me!” Her eyes widened farther – something Chayse didn't realize was possible – and stared him down. “He's gonna kill us. Oh, shit! We gotta get back to our dorms! Quick! Before he finds out. Oh, god! First the thing with the dress and now this? Shit. I'm gonna be in so much trouble. And he's gonna hate you. Geez. He's gonna think you're a bad influence on me or something, and then he won't let us see each other anymore, and since we both live here that means he'll be on patrol twenty-four-seven. And he can do that, ya know!”

“Lia,” Chayse tried to hide his chuckling, but it was just too cute listening to her ramble whenever she was nervous.

“I thought him watching me was bad before. He'll be like my shadow now. And what if he thinks all guys are bad influences because of this? What if you've ruined my chances with any guy? I'm never gonna get married. I'll grow old and alone, but instead of a crazy lady with forty cats, I'm gonna have forty copies of my father.”

“Lia!” He grabbed her shoulders and shook her briefly. “Calm down. They're not going to know, alright? You just need to relax.”

She punched him in the shoulder. “How could you let us fall asleep?”

He made a mental note to not make this girl legitimately angry. Even that playful punch kind of hurt. He guessed she had more strength than she realized; having to walk around with obsidian skin can add some real muscle strain otherwise. He rubbed where she connected and shrugged. “I know, I know. My bad.”

Accountability and disgust with one's self is sometimes a beautiful thing. It gets stuff done!

Apparently I didn't have quite enough disgust, though, because after hiding away for another four hours, I only managed to add another 1463 words. So, in nearly four times the amount of "writing time" I only managed to do a bit more than double my word count. Go me....

I then skipped two days; opting to clean and sleep instead. So, I tried to crank out the last of the chapter Tuesday morning before having to go to work. I still haven't figured out my writing rhythm, though, and don't allot nearly enough time to do the writing I need. So, no time to finish the chapter. Instead, I added yet another 920 words; barely anything in the grand scheme of things.

I then had more cleaning before work, work itself, and then house-invaders, sleep, and work once more before this noon update. Probably another reason why I ran out of time to get the chapter done and published; I had to write this post yesterday in order to get it published on time.

Still, having about seven pages written isn't terribly too bad. I do still have until this upcoming Monday to have the chapter done and published in order to meet my official August goal. I have time. I just need to really crack down on it. So, I'm adding accountability again.

I WILL have the chapter available to share in next week's post. Keep an eye out for that! And if I don't include it, shun me!

Hopefully I'll have another story to share next week as well. Seems Delaroux got bit by the writing bug yet again! She recently shared with the rest of SWS that she just finished a 13-chapter fanfiction about the anime Haikyuu. I told her to drop us the link to the story, but for all I know she hasn't posted it online. If she does get us a link, I'll be sure to pass it on to you folks.

Man, I had something else kind of major that I wanted to share this week, but this post is already getting long, and I'm in a bit of a time crunch. I'll have to hold on to it and share next week along with my chapter and possibly Delaroux's story.

Yay! Lots of stuff for you to look forward to for next week!