Keep That Song On Repeat

I did it!

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman Inc

I surpassed my word-count goal this past week! Not by much, and the over-all weekly goal is kind of small by "writing standards," but it was a lot for me, and not only did I meet it, but I surpassed it. That's big for me. That spring-time writing slump is completely behind me now!

I still can't seem to write at least five times a week, at least, not if you exclude writing my blog or anything for work. I did write four out of seven days, though, more frequently if you do count non-narrative writings.

My grand total for the week was 6055 words out of my 5000 word aim. Like I said, I didn't surpass by that much in the grand scheme of things, but it did also catch me up a little bit. I'm now only about 1400 words behind where I should be this far into the challenge. I have the rest of the week to write the last 5400 words needed to hit my challenge goal of 22,000 words. That does mean I have more than my intended weekly goal of 5000 words, but I think I can make it.

I know this because I actually wrote yesterday! Yeah! So much for Mondays being a complete wash for me. I can't even recall the last time I wrote on a Monday, but I made time for it last night. Wrote 1400+ words too. If I write about 1500 words per day for four more days, I'll not only hit my five-days-a-week goal, but I'll also hit my overall word goal for the challenge.

My only possible snafu is that Quarthix's wedding is this weekend, so I probably won't get any writing done on Sunday, unless it's late-night writing after coming home from the wedding. At least Game of Thrones is over for the season, so I won't have that distraction. I also probably won't have much writing time on Saturday, unless I sneak some time in while at work. Once I clock out I'll be zipping over for the rehearsal and setting the venue up for the wedding the next day. Friday I have the day off, but it will also be a "spa day" for the bridal party, as well as last-minute wedding prep. We'll see if I can get writing done before we all meet up in the afternoon.

So, that leaves today - which is already pretty jam packed, which is why this post is a bit late - as well as tomorrow and Thursday, which I'll be working the full day. Maybe I'll write something at work, or right after work on Thursday. Hubby and a few of our friends are going to be doing a game-night, but maybe I'll stay home. We'll see how good I'm doing with the challenge by then.

I was doing really well with Jolene. I managed to crank out a few more chapters. Her over-all story is now over 56,000 words. By the time I'm done, it will probably be closer to 80,000, at the rate I'm writing. I'll have a lot of editing and cutting to do!

Shadow seems a bit overwhelmed at the massiveness of Jolene's "back story" but might possibly be interested in reading it still. Even if he isn't, I now have Cyhyr enthusiastically flailing her arms to signal me as a potential beta-reader. I don't know if she comprehends what she's getting herself into. hehe. I appreciate the enthusiasm, though, especially since this story is completely NOT ChibiSunnie-friendly, so I know she won't be able to beta.

Here's hoping Cy clears out her calendar next year, because it will take me a while to finish, and a while for her to read through it. I'm already envisioning all the red ink! As Omnibladestrike would put it: "looks like a chicken was sacraficed on it."

OOOOH! Speaking of Omni! He's written something new! He even shared it! Go check it out and give him both love and pointers! Yay, Omni!!!!!

*Ahem*

Anyway, so I've really been cranking out the writing, thanks to Jolene. It's not 10,000 words a day, like some writers. It's not even 4000 words a day, which seems to be the average goal. However, somewhere between 1200 and 2200 words per session seems impressive enough for me. I'll eventually get to those thousands-a-day points.

I hit a wall the other day, though. I'm at the point in Jolene's past where one of her johns nearly kills her as a means of avoiding paying her. I just haven't been in the proper head-space for a chapter that dark quite yet. With all the hate and violence going on in the US lately, I wanted to sort of retreat from that for now.

I still needed to write, however, so I caved. I started writing Miraculous fanfiction. I recently stumbled upon a song off of a copyright-free site, and it's been my "get pumped" music the past week. Being royalty-free, I was able to download it, which proved super helpful when our internet went down yesterday. I could still pop the song on repeat, and just write.

I don't know what it is about this song, but I just pictured Chat Noir spying on Marinette, but not in a sensual manner, more a protective or curious one. I just wrote from Adrien's POV. I ended up rambling a bit during my stream-of-consciousness writing. I saved the 600 words I wrote, then grabbed a paragraph or two that seemed to have an actual plot embedded in them, and started over. I got about 1000 words in that time before I did the same: save in case I want to use the material for something later, salvage what I could, and start again in an attempt to keep a coherent plot.

I'm now 3300 words into the story, and I feel it's going to have another scrap-job coming up. All-in-all, I think these practices are doing exactly what they should: sharpening my skills and letting me really feel out my character. Or, in this case, feel out someone else's character to make sure I understand him well enough.

When all is said and done, I probably won't actually share what I've been working on the past two days. I'll probably end up chopping it up, slowing it down a bit, and using it for my "Identities Revealed" fanfic I want to write. It's a shame that it means yet again I won't have something for you guys to read, but it may also mean the end-result will be worth the wait.

In the meantime, I have something to talk about at group tonight: the WIPs I have going on, and my progress with them, as well as my progress with the writing challenges. I also have something to read still. Since I missed last writing group due to organizing my apartment, coupled with a flash flood that probably kept most of the other members away anyway, I still have my Icarus falling into Varekai short to read.

Speaking of reading, I'm still chugging along with Atlas Shrugged. After reading it for at least a half-hour nearly every day for the better part of 6 weeks, I'm still only about 15% of the way through the book. I have to make a decision: keep going and ignore the rest of the 2017 reading challenge I have been doing, or put the book down and try it again in 2018.

I honestly don't know which I'd prefer. I'm now determined to finish this book, especially since my Father-in-Law loves it so much. Plus, it does have an intriguing plot, as well as character dynamics that make me squeal a bit. The problem is that the book is nearly 1100 PAGES long, I've barely made a dent in it after a month, and it takes FOREVER to unbury the interesting plot. I think I need to watch the movie instead; it should weed out most of the extra stuff that bogs the plot down for me.

Now, the flipside is the fact that when I go a day or two without reading the book I forget what ends up being key characters or plot elements, characters and elements that seemed minor when I first read them, so I didn't really retain them. Then they become kind of key for the plot, and I have to flip back through the story to try to refind and reread the parts where the element is introduced. If I stop and try again next year instead of taking on a challenge, I might have to re-read the 200 pages I've already read. For a lot of more modern stories, that's close to an entire novel in and of itself, and I might have to go through them a second time if I put this book down.

I'll have to figure out what I'm doing before the end of the month, though, because I'm now two months behind on the challenge, and I'll have to kick into overdrive if I decide to finish the challenge.

I'll let you guys know next week what I decide, as well as how I finished the last leg of this writing challenge. Catch you guys next Tuesday.