Current writing challenges/exchanges stuff!

[auroracloud]

Good luck to anyone starting NaNoWriMo today! I'm not doing it, but I signed up for mini_wrimo to write at least 100 words each day during November. (You can set the word count you want to sign up for; 100 words is the minimum. The sign-ups are on until November 10 if you're interested.) I've lately been able to break through my post-CampNaNo slump with my novel by writing at least 100 words of it every day, no matter what else I write. I decided to use the community to help me stick to this practice for all of November. 100 words is such a low word count that it's not much pressure to at least do that, and that seems to be the key for me - and most of the time it turns into more, anyway.

I'm working on my Yuletide sign-up. The sign-ups still go on for a few more days, check yuletide_admin for the schedule and other info. I'm contemplating whether I'm going to do all my requests in 2010s awesome diverse scifi books fandoms, or if I'll include a historical/old book fandom or two. But this is the first year I could do all of the sign-up in 2010s awesome diverse scifi books, because I've actually read and finished enough series I super much want to read fic for. The ones I'm thinking of requesting are The Imperial Radch series, This Is How You Lose the Time War, the Machineries of Empire series and my old staple, the Wayfarers series (where I have so much trouble narrowing down which characters!). There's also other great stuff in the tag set, like A Memory Called Empire, the Murderbot novellas, and my currently-reading book Empress of Forever. And that's just the 2010s awesome diverse scifi I know! Let's not even get into the other books, the podcasts, the historical RPF (I could request Mary Anning!! I kind of want to, but I have to think about how many requests I want to have).

Also, Write Every Day is hosted by silveradept in November!

Okay, I'm too tired to continue, so that's all for tonight!

Comments

[fucktheg0ds]

Thanks for sharing the mini_wrimo challenge! Every year I go, "Maybe this year I can do NaNoWrimo," and every year I come up with a reason not to do it. But a less intimidating challenge could work for me!

[auroracloud]

You're welcome! Hope you find it useful. :-) I think I originally found it via my circle, so I figured I should spread the joy. :-) It's the same for me, it feels like a less intimidating challenge that is easier to commit to! NaNoWriMo is extra hard for me if I'm working on my original stuff, which I usually write in Finnish, because of the whole thing with Finnish using a lot fewer words for saying the same thing. (We don't have articles, we often use suffixes rather than prepositions, etc.) So basically 50,000 words in Finnish is worth something over 70,000 words in English, and that's a lot to commit for!

[fucktheg0ds]

Wow, that would make a huge difference! I didn't know that about Finnish. (Actually, I know nothing about Finnish except for there being no word for "please" and the vowels are the same as te reo Maori. lol.)

Writing 50,000 words in a month is pretty crazy, although I used to follow a blogger who wrote a whole novel in a week or something insane like that. So I guess it's doable if you really really want and are able to prioritise writing over other life things. It's probably something to work up to though.

[auroracloud]

Yeah, it is quite a difference! Most people don't know that about Finnish, I'm sure - it's a small language, and most people in the Western cultural sphere are only familiar with Indo-European languages, and at least all the ones I know are more like English in terms of word count and structure.

And yeah, it's true we've no word for 'please' which must feel strange to, well, a lot of people! As a result we struggle to remember to use it when speaking other languages (whatever the corresponding word is in each language). I understand Finns can come across as blunt that way, and I guess also because we tend to say things very straightforwardly. Though we do have other ways of being polite!

[ysilme]

I can only recommend trying it out! Some years back this or a similar non-NaNo-challenge encouraged me to try this as well. I hadn't written regularly before at all, and also never a single story longer than 4k. The challenge worked so well for me I dared myself to try something like NaNo but on my own, and started in January with the goal of 50k in three months. I ended up with 100k, dared to sign up for NaNo that year, and have every year since (and won, too). I'd say it's amazing what you can do when you find the right tools for you personally. For me, it's been forcing myself to write first regularly (not necessarily fic or content I keep, just write something remotely creative), and, later, daily.
I'm not saying this would work for everyone or even should, we're all different, of course! But it's definitely worth a try in my opinion.

[auroracloud]

I'm glad that such a challenge has worked so well for you, too! My regular writing started with Julia Cameron's creativity books and morning pages, then I did some fiction writing, then I did and won NaNoWriMo and discovered I could write lots of words in a short time. But after that first NaNoWriMo, doing the full NaNo hasn't been that useful for me - it was good to learn that I could do it, and learn the habit of daily writing, but after that, it's better for me to write at a slightly lower rate. (Especially because of the word count issue which means that 50K is a lot more writing for me than it is for folks using Indo-European languages.) I know I can write at that speed, but I also know that I like my writing more when the word count target is lower. But a mini-challenge like this is good for me. :-)

But many professional authors use NaNo, and there have been many novels written/started during it, even award-winning ones, so obviously it works for many people.

[ysilme]

I'm happy to hear that your 100-word-rule works so well for you! :o) Joining that challenge to help you with this sounds like a good idea to me. I'm also going to do something similar to stick to major projects from now on - I'm usually allowing me to write other things if I'm stuck with the major project or have energy or other issues, but lately, that has brought me off the major project far too often.

[auroracloud]

I had such promising experiences with it this week that I'm very happy with that approach. It fits with what I'm starting to learn about how I operate, anyway. Better to have small, easy goals that don't make it too difficult to start.

I'm usually allowing me to write other things if I'm stuck with the major project or have energy or other issues, but lately, that has brought me off the major project far too often.

Yeah, that's kinda what's been happening for me. I've been having a harder time with the novel after I passed the 30K mark and the well-outlined part of it, so I find it too easy and tempting to switch to new projects. But this way, I don't have to abandon the new projects, while I still make sure I focus on this one. :-)

[thisbluespirit]

Good luck with it!

Also with narrowing down your requests. I had a bit of dithering myself this year - there were a lot of shiny options in the tagset. Sometimes if I'm undecided I start writing out the prompts/requests for each and that helps bring up if I actually want one more or less than another.

[auroracloud]

Thank you!

I signed up for Yuletide, sort of, but I know I'm going to add at least one more fandom, once I decide what to request. But I had the details least roughly drafted for three, and knew pretty much what to offer, so now at least I've signed up and don't have to stress as much about missing the deadline if I dither for too long. Yeah, writing out the sign-up seems to help - I noticed I need to request one of the fandoms, for example, when it was so easy and exciting to write my sign-up.

There are also a bunch of fandoms I'll keep an eye out for to check out the requests though I'm not offering. But I might want to write a treat if there's an enticing request. :-)

[romanajo123]

Wow!!!

Also doing mini_wrimo :D

[auroracloud]

Yay! Hope it's helpful for us both. :-)