Hello Wipmadness folks!
I'm honored to host Wipmadness this crazy month of November, picking up the torch from L.S. Taylor, last month's lovely host. I joined this network of writers through Angelina's blog back in August and learned that the team has been pounding out words together since its inception in March 2011, spearheaded by Denise Jaden.
As Jaye Robin Brown put it, "This is a tool for networking, encouragement, and accountability." Through this supportive team, I've finished a manuscript and found beta readers. Others have done as much and more, evening polishing their manuscripts and snagging agents.
This month, some of us will be frenetically hammering out new stories or finishing up old ones through NaNoWriMo. I'll be among you. Others will continue piecing together worlds at a more natural pace, researching, revising, creating and beta-ing.
This week, let's lay out our goals and keep each other accountable. Don't forget to use the #wipmadness hashtag when encouraging, ranting, and celebrating on Twitter!
My goals for November:
- 2,200 words a day. Ack! I'm shooting to achieve the NaNoWriMo goal of completing 50K words through the month of November. Week 3-ish, I'll be travelling to LA, Napa, and SF with a friend, so the 2K goal is to try to make for anticipated lost words that week.
- Physical Therapy stretches. I'm on a strict stretching schedule to get back 2-3 inches of mobility in each of my ankles and about 15 degrees in my hips. Who knew that wearing high heels all your life could cripple you? My goal: Stay on schedule with my twice-a-day stretch regimen.
- Log food intake on MyFoodDiary.com, even while on vacation and stay in the green zone.
What are your goals this month? And don't be afraid to shift them week-by-week. We're all here to help each other succeed.
Oh, and by the way, what do you all think about creating a blog badge for Wipmadness participants? Is anyone graphically inclined? I sort of love web badges and think it'd be fun!
Hugs,
Lora
Hugs,
Lora
The early bird is here again...early.
ReplyDeleteFor me, I signed up for a Writer Univ. on-line class on Conflict and Motivation for the month of November. I will be only playing around with a a new idea as the course assignments demand, but it's a contemporary YA idea whose protagonist, bff, and love interest all keep talking to me.
Other than that, I'll be putting the final revision touches on Marks of A Horseman (after I hear back from betas) and mailing it to my agent who hopefully will think it's ready to shop. (bites nails).
I'm beta'ing a manuscript now for a friend.
Other than that, I plan on sleeping a little later than usual, reading a little more than usual, and traveling to Alabama for the holidays.
GOOD LUCK ALL YOU NANO'ERS!!!! YOU CAN DO IT!
Wow, 2200 words/day, I am tired just thinking about it! I'm not doing Nano, but way impressed with those that are.
ReplyDeleteI've got a half torn-up WIP I need to put back together this month. Last weekend, I cut half of it for a major rewrite.
And, like Jaye, I want to read more this month; I've been slacking lately.
Good luck to everyone!
Thanks for hosting this month, Lora!
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to decide exactly what I want to make my writing goal for this month. Prep work and planning is just so hard to quantify, especially when you move at glacial speeds, like I do!
I'd like to be done with the history/background worldbuilding by the end of the month, and move on to the things that will have an actual, direct effect on the plot. That sounds like it's doable.
I love that you're using wipmadness for non-writing goals as well, so I'm going to do the same. Your food-tracking goal is a great one. I've done that off and on, but I'd like to make it part of my daily routine. I usually feel guilty about what I eat and stop doing it, so I hope to avoid that this time.
Good luck with your goals, everyone!
YAY! I love the blog badge idea! And thanks for hosting, Lora!
ReplyDeleteI'm not as ambitious as 2,200 words a day, but I'm hoping at least 1000/day. I am using NaNoWriMo as well as this awesome group to spur me on, so I should get some momentum going.
My goal is to finish the WIP, and get it ready for my agent by Dec. 1st.
Other than that, I'm hitting at least 3 write-ins on Friday nights this month, making a huge Thanksgiving Feast for my family and a few guests, and (hold on to your hats) Christmas shopping.
This Sunday...I'm sleeping in an extra hour—thank you, DST—an maybe celebrating my birthday, which is Thursday, but Ghost Hunk works late on Thursday.
Last goal...I won't ramble like this every day!
Good luck everyone!
Okay you beautiful writers, I am encouraged by your concrete plans. I've been drifting this past month and it's time to get back to some kind of reasonable schedule. I think I'm over my reading binge for now.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm waiting for feedback from my agent and then I'll be revising again, but in the meantime, I'm going to try to move forward drafting the current WIP. I'm at 37K and would like to finish it by the end of the year.
In the spirit of NaNo, my goal is to work on it everyday this month.
Thanks Lora, for hosting, and best wishes everyone for a joyous and fruitful month!
One more goal to tack on. I want to read two books this month -- actual, physical books and not e-books. I miss having real pages and my TBR shelf is out of control!
ReplyDeleteI love the badge idea! In fact, I made one while inspired with free clipart (but please let me know if you were planning on making one).
ReplyDeleteThanks again for hosting this month, Lora. My goals:
1. NaNoWriMo. Which will thankfully be a little more focused than I originally thought, with the sequel to #wipmadness, and a UF in the background when I need a break. It may sound weird, but I just discovered that I *didn't* win the Harlequin contest I entered in, and I am surprisingly relieved. Romance is fun to play around with, but it's not my focus.
2. Pay attention to what I'm eating, still. Again. I like that link you posted and maybe I'll use it. So far, keeping a simple notepad file is about all I can manage without wanting to give up.
3. Exercise and fitness: I need to pay attention to this. I was ill during September and that threw me off the wagon. Sword class is a definite, but I'm paying forty bucks a month for a gym membership so I should start using it. And I should do this during NaNo because I need to.
4. Squeeze in some reading time. NaNo is the focus this month, but I've had some titles recommended to me that I would like to read as soon as possible. Starting with Kristin Cashore's GRACELING, which is probably going to win in the Competing For My Time contest today, as I'm halfway through it and it's very engrossing.
Good luck to everyone with their goals!
Oooh L.S. - Graceling is probably close to my favorite read of the year. I've got Fire sitting in my TBR pile, but I'm going to save it for a snowy day.
ReplyDeleteGoals for this month: Ummm.... =)
ReplyDeleteI simply can't participate in NaNo this month, but my goal is to write four days/week (averaging 750 words/day), read one novel, and hit the gym two or three times/week.
I also need to move my blog. For some reason, this is my big block lately. Hoping for consistent inspiration soon.
Hugs to all my #wipmadness pals!
Jaye, Writer Univ.... You'll have to tell us how it goes! A class on Conclict and Motivation sounds interesting and useful. Good luck with the new story! Don't you love when characters start talking?
ReplyDeleteJennifer, I know. 2K a day is probably more than I can chew, but hey, why not try? And I'm just so impressed by the strength it takes to cut half the WIP. Yikes! Enjoy working those plot threads back together.
Jaime, world building and history it is! That's a smart way to quantify that part of your research. Will look forward to seeing you begin the plotting stage! Oh, and that's exactly why I track what I eat--just to have the beforehand awareness of "Oy, I've gotta log this."
And I know exactly what you mean about *real* books :) Reading is so important, and there's just something about flipping pages...
Mary Ann, 1K words a day is still a very admirable goal! And tough. Just writing every day can be tough, and it sounds like you've got some family fun to plan and enact, so good luck with entering that perfect writerly balance bet/ life and work :) And you can ramble all you want :P
Good luck with a regular work schedule, Angelina. I've been so envious of your break for reading - now you get to slave so more. :D I always love seeing your #amwriting hashtags tweeting about.
L.S., I hope you fly through your sequel during NaNo. I've written one sequel, & it's just so fun having all that world and character arc from book 1 to build on. I have yet to read GRACELING, but it's also in my TBR pile! Enjoy, and let me know how you like it!
Lori - getting that butt in chair 4 days a week is an excellent goal, along with more exercise. That sounds like balance to me. About the blog, yeah, I think that's a struggle for many of us... I'm still trying to figure out a schedule!
Okay, so badges -
ReplyDeleteI have zero talent in this arena. What if we posted badges to our blogs? Anyone thinking of drafting up a Wipmadness badge, post it on your blog at your leisure and send me a link. I'll link to all badges in next week's check-in. Then we can decide together? What do you guys think...?
http://lstaylor.blogspot.com/2011/10/wipmadness-badge.html
ReplyDeleteI'm in too! Sorry I'm so late to catch up, but it's great to see everyone else's goals. Lora, you are the perfect #wipmadness host this month with a 2.2K daily goal. You can do it!!
ReplyDeleteI'm exactly with Mary Ann, aiming for 1K a day, and hopefully a little more, to be able to finish the draft of my new(er) WIP.
This is going to be a great month for all of us--I can feel it!!
Kip
Well, last week I was working to set up some props and such for a friend’s Cthulhu LARP, which turned out awesome! It was a fun time and I can’t wait for next year’s installment. My character died, but it was scripted because he needed some help setting up a prop and someone to control it later Saturday night. So, I got to play a Southern Gentleman, the nasty zombie of the Southern Gentleman, and a tentacled spawn of a Great Old One. Heh! Next year I may just volunteer to play NPCs (non-player characters). Needless to say, I didn’t get any work done on the WIP, but I got a lot of creative work done, if ya know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the new wrinkle I mentioned on Laura’s blog. There’s a contest going on at Avon, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, an anthology thing and you have up to 25k words for the story. The deadline is January 1st. I thought to myself that if, on the off chance, I managed to think of something for it, I’d stop to write it. Well, after a news article the other day, something started scritching at the door in me brainpan. On the ride to Indiana, I mentioned it to my wife and we started hashing out the outline. Well, we both love it and now I want to try to get it done before the deadline. Of course, my big fear is that it’ll end up being another Rogue 5. The back story there is that I was writing a novella for an anthology that turned into a full novel. If it does that, I’ll have to decide whether to stop it temporarily to continue the current WIP, the duology, or finish the new beast.
I guess I’ve made the decision. I’ll be working toward getting this thing finished, at least the first draft, in the next three weeks. With that done, I’ll hit personal revisions, hopefully in the last week on it and then send it to betas, hoping to get final revisions done before the end of December. Gonna be tight, but I tend to work well on tight schedules (even though it drives me crazy ;) ). If it gets too big and I don’t think it’s fixable, I’ll put it aside and finish it after the duology’s done. As much as this new thing is sci-fi romance and something that really appeals to me, I’d rather finish that duology if the sci-fi thing gets too big for its britches.
I’m pretty sure I can do this, as I can clear 2k a day and 10k a week and the limit is 25k. This week will be an issue, alas, as my wife is sick and my daughter has most of the week off from school. I will have to put on the headphones and tune everyone out if I am to get this done.
Last, gonna start that workout I said I wanted to do earlier last month. If there’s one thing the LARP did was to let me know just how out of shape I was.
And yeah, long post...sorry.
I decided not to do NaNo this year, because it's just too soon after finishing my last novel to dive in again. So my goals are: research agents and send out queries; mull over ideas for next wip and decide what's next; catch up on some reading. Guess I'm not really a wipmadnesser this month.... Aw, that makes me a little sad, lol. I'll just be a wipmadness cheerleader, ok? ;)
ReplyDeleteKip, I love your positive attitude! Gotta say, I got great vibes while reading your comment. Good luck with your 1K goal!
ReplyDeleteMichael--Wowo, sounds like you have been busy being in the creative stream, which is so important to keeping the juices alive. So this week, you'll be trying to clear 2K a day? I love that you and your wife hashed out the story outline.... Makes me wish my hubs wasn't an anti-book engineer ;) Well, good for you! Looking forward to seeing whether your novella idea stays short and sweet or whether it marshmallows into something bigger.
Shari, the emotional torture of researching and querying agents is still part of wipmadness in my book! But we'll love to have you around for cheerleading too :) Good luck. We'll keep our fingers, toes, and general appendages crossed.
Lofty goals! Mine? Well, they're mostly for my son, like getting his college apps and essays in on time and trying to find money to pay for college. But I will have the month of December off to write and I am excited. I should get my outline done and be ready to write like a madwoman whenever I find the time. I don't have a problem with writing 2 to 3000 words a day. It's just finding the story that's been work for me.
ReplyDeleteOooo, I wanna be part of the group! Where do I sign up?
ReplyDeleteYou've got some great goals Lora!
Okay, so mine are finish first draft editing by the middle of next week. Edit two more times by November 21st and begin beta reads. My hopes are by the end of the month or early in December I will be query ready.
In other goals, tracking my food on my Weight Watchers app is a must too:)
Nancy, I know what you mean when you say "finding the story." Usually I spend months not writing a thing, toiling over a world and characters, not outlining exactly, but ... thinking. When that's done, the writing comes quickly. I hope you meet those important "this world" deadlines this month, and we'll be looking forward to having you with us for December!
ReplyDeleteRight here! You just signed yourself up, Deana! We check in on Mondays at the host-of-the-month's blog and tweet with the #wipmadness hashtag. Great goals. I love that you've got a deadline for finishing editing. But that's a TON of editing, woman! 3x times total, my goodness. We'll be cheering for you. :)
Nancy, I know what you mean when you say "finding the story." Usually I spend months not writing a thing, toiling over a world and characters, not outlining exactly, but ... thinking. When that's done, the writing comes quickly. I hope you meet those important "this world" deadlines this month, and we'll be looking forward to having you with us for December!
ReplyDeleteRight here! You just signed yourself up, Deana! We check in on Mondays at the host-of-the-month's blog and tweet with the #wipmadness hashtag. Great goals. I love that you've got a deadline for finishing editing. But that's a TON of editing, woman! 3x times total, my goodness. We'll be cheering for you. :)