I'm pleased it's Friday because it's one day closer to the weekend when I can just give myself over to my story and my writing, become totally immersed and lose myself with my characters.
I've been setting a cracking pace so far but have slumped off the last few nights and days (daytime because I've been working the real job) - and nights because I've passed the fabulous sex and hit the heartache and that's confronting!
There are other fabulous writers in our group who have been sprinting hard, juggling housework, kidlets and jobs and still produced amazing word counts. If you're not one of these writers, then don't despair - the challenge is not yet over, and any word count is better than sitting on your butt and watching Australia's Got Talent.
I won't admit to juggling housework - with the man away, I've been ignoring all but the necessities (sometimes I even ignored the fact that I had to eat), which means that this weekend I will have to alternate between word sprints and housework because he's back on Monday night.
Now that we're almost halfway through the month, I want you to reward yourself for getting this far, no matter what your word count is. One of the reasons I haven't written tonight is that I did just that: my reward was an iTunes card (Big W are selling $50 cards for $30) and a shopping spree on iTunes. So I got myself 3 albums plus a few individual songs: a grand total of 47 songs. Ian Moss is serenading me right now.
I also bought a new Cyndi Lauper song called Same Old Story (although when she sings it, it has an extra adjective in there). I really hope that I'm not writing the same old story with my 50k effort but actually I don't believe I am. Instead of drawing events from my life in isolation and sticking them in a story, I've stolen the whole story and plot line from my life. The names and places have been changed to protect the guilty and I've added some extra characters. In a couple of days, I've going to blog about Helga (who appears as a character in my novel called The Harriet Chariot). Helga was my first car, a powder blue 1966 Volkswagon beetle, and she and I had lots of pizza delivery adventures together. That post will appear on Write on Track some time after the weekend, right after I've scanned her picture out of my 1986 diary. (Yeah, I loved my car - she was my ticket to independence)
So fellow writers, tell me how you are going to reward yourself for getting this far in 50ks and don't forget to post your total word count by 8pm on Sunday night so I can update your word meters.
45 comments:
WEll... I'm definately not posting till Sunday as my word count for the week has been dismal... but hopefully I can change that over the weekend. Big wohoo for those who've steamed ahead though...
Rewarding myself??? Hmm... I going to wait and reward myself by getting the damn thing published lol lol..
My long term goal of rewards...
Suz:)
Huge week for me. Not so much blogging, more writing. I am at 41,008 (and I think that a lot of those words will be staying on after the edit). My first car was a Holden Torana called Tammy. It was racing red, 4 cylinder and came complete with fluffy dice and a Torana sticker across the windscreen. I was just too hot to handle,all dressed up in my stretch denims, my flicked hair and those pumps (attire it turned out that was not entirely practical for pushing car when aforementioned hunk magnet broke down). Fond memories though. Cheers, Felicity
Whoah... I think we may have our pin-up gal for next week???
Wow, Felicity! Marvellous effort!
I won't be posting my total until Sunday either. It's not very impressive but, at this stage, I'll take any forward progress.
As for a reward? Hmm? Might go to Rendevzous Bookstore and buy some romance novels on the weekend.
Far out, Felicity. That's a hu-uge total.
Unlike mine, which is a very dismal 1680.
Better than nothing though....
Next week will be better. I promise.
Cathryn
Wow Felicity! I'll come back on Sunday and post my word counts too. I've been working on writing but not the prosy word count part of it. Might get some actual words done tomorrow.
I took today off and went to the movies with hubby to see Iron Man, and it was really good. I'm not into comics at all, but that one was a great adaptation to screen of Stan Lees creation.
I'm not putting my word total up until Sunday either, my writing this week has been sporadic due to kidlets and housework.... arghh. but things are looking up. I decided to start at the end and work my way back and I find I actually write better this way... who knew I can write in reverse. now if I could only reverse park this well I'd have it made!
Felicity as our pin-up girl! What a great idea! Your word count is awesome, Felicity. But I want the pinup to be of you in front of the Torana. It's a great image.
Nat, when you say you're writing in reverse, i have memories of the Red Dwarf episode 'Backwards'.
Happy writing over the weekend everyone, may the word fairy bless us!
that was a great one diane, I loved that show, actually one that I really like at the moment is The IT Crowd... it's just sooo hilarious, well I get the humour, it's soo the IT department at uni...
I'll have to catch up with Felicity, 41,000 that's great.
okay, just incase i get caught up here it is... i havent written in two days now but i have a good excuse. hehe. we just ordered a new motorbike. having to organise finance and what not, since i didnt win my 58mil on powerball last week.
13,206. but it will, should, hopefully increase by tomorrow and i'll try to remember to log in.
happy writing
kez
I'm at 25 000 words.
Far too few of those words are for the novel that I have a deadline for.
Kathleen Curtis total so far 24327.
Didn't do as many words as I'd hoped ... my book cover distracted me today ... hehehe Plus I've had some dready lurgy since thurs - spent more time on the toilet than in front of the comp (and I'm sure you all wanted to know that!).
My reward will be ... a good night's sleep
Kathleen
41,000 words, that's amazing Felicity.
My total so far is 22,563. My 3rd round edits came in from my editor so that slowed me a bit and I had a bit of trouble with a love scene, but it worked out ok, just took a bit of time. So ready to roll for week 3 and looking forward to it.
Gail
Oh my goodness Felicity - what a fantastic job- yay you!! Definitely the pin up girl for this week :)
As for me, i'm at 14 282. I had a couple of days I didn't write at all but I did write today. So hopefully will keep the momentum going.
Ladies I think you are all wonderful. Hasn't it been a fantastic challenge so far?
Amanda I think it is great that you are hanging in there , good for you that is what this is about, personally I think you should be able to keep the words you lost, okay so they are not on paper or page anymore, but you did write them. Not sure if it's how this works though. Any way I bow to you and your determination to continue.
Felicity great going on the word count, hope you get to your goal by Tuesday before you have to return to work.
I’ll be back tomorrow with my word count because I’m hoping to be able to get a few hours in tomorrow… err… later today.
Hugs
Sandie
I'm posting my total this morning because I won't be able to access the internet for the rest of the day. My total is 19,608 words and hopefully I'll be able to grab some time during the day to do a few more.
I cannot believe I have written so much-
My total so far is 18,760. Got to get back to the WIP - coming up to the first kiss scene.
Rewards? The writing is the reward. I'm happier than I've been in a long time. Mind you, might not feel like that when I go back and read what I've written and realise that it's complete garbage.
Cris Hickey.
Sussan total = 10,000 words. Lock it in Diane (thank you!).
I'm so excited about my story I can't write anymore. I'm about to go out for the day - hopefully I will have calmed down a bit by then and will be able to write some more tonight.
Good word hunting everyone.
Well at the moment I'm at 39,465 words all up, both my current WIP and a couple of short stories I've done this week... I'll see if I can break the 41,000 barrier by tonight.. if not that'll do for now...
Feel a bit embarrassed creeping in one such a low total when I kinda instigated this whole month... but I only managed an extra couple of thousand this week bringing my grand total to: 18303.
This was always gonna be a low week as I was away from home for much of it but I'm hoping to do a little more tonight and this week. Although saying that... I'm feeling really, really tired at the moment and my first priority is growing eyebrows!!
Am happy with what I wrote though... it was all a new story and I like where this one is going.
Sorry this was a big ramble.... thanks for updating DIANE!!
Hi everyone,
I am plugging away slowly on Historical work in progress 14,000 words only so far but that's 14,000 more than I would have done without this mad challenge. Must resist Silent witness and Spooks next Friday (or at least tape them). Well done to anyone who has written anything this week and thanks Diane for putting up our graphs.
Lynn
woo, hoo, up to 10,000 now, which means I only have 10K to go before I meet my deadline :D
Put me down as my 25.000 mark.. I am having the weekends off. I need a life. lol.... so I didn't write today or yesterday..
Thanks,
Suz:)
Congrats to Felicity and all the other super prolific challengers - but equally to those who made any forward progress at all. I'm thrilled with my 10,008 words - a personal best in time frame.
I've written 9,387 so far this challenge. I was hoping for a nice round figure but, alas, it was not to be. Thanks, Diane, for updating the word meters.
Don't know if I'll be writing any more this month. I'm trying to decide whether to just go back and start the rewriting now instead of finishing the first draft.
Er, Rach - 'growing eyebrows'? And what do you mean, you 'only' wrote 18303? Geez, that's almost double to what I've written and I'm not even pregnant! :)
Well done everyone on your fantastic word counts!
Well seeing as I'm going to my mum's soon and I missed check in last week because I keep forgetting that 8pm close off time is 6pm my time!
Anyway I'm at 25,201. I'm hoping that when I get home tonight I can add a few more words to that count.
Just a reminder to everyone - 2 hours until word count check in closes and the word meters are updated.
Great work everybody!
Hi All fellow 50/30'ers
OK - I'm reporting in this Sunday night. My total is now 11 523. Which while not stunning is still OK, and 50k is still an achievable goal - I think.
I'm not stressing - yet.
Bye 4 now
Tina
http://www.tinamclark.com
http://www.cyaconference.com
Grand Total = 20197
Haven't written for the last couple of days, haven't been feeling the best. Was going to catch up on some words today but had some visitors. Not going to write tonight, think i'll have an early night. 5am start tomorrow.
Will come back and read all comments... so on a time frame here - can't linger longer than the post!!! Hope everyone is doing well and BACKING UP!!!
Can I just say, I am really quite amazed at myself in general... I didn't really think I would get even this far... it is amazing when you desperately want something, what lengths you can go to to achieve it!
Well, I have managed to claw my way back to 10 332 - 5 000 words yesterday (wow) although I had written most of them once already - I think that helps with the speed...!!
I have still had tears all week about it, but Kez, you made me think on the positive... I haven't lost a whole MS!!!
My son's third birthday party today (family only - still such a hoo har)... and working tomorrow/tues so will be spending all day (well - between 10 and 4 = drop off/pick up kids!) on Wednesday and Thursday... so I am planning 5 000 for each day... then will also have some good time on Sunday next week - I am aiming to have 30 000 by the end of this week... or I am never going to get there in time!
Good luck everyone - hope it is all going as planned...!
Amanda
Hi Ladies,
I'm on 45,892 for the challenge and that is where I'll be staying for a few days until I get to see my chiropractor on Tuesday.
Well done everyone, pat yourselves on the back for the progress you have made this week.
Hugs
Sandie
Okay just read Amanda post and all can say is WOOOOOHOOOOO Amanda. You are an inspiration to us all on not giving up when things don't go to plan.
Hugs
Sandie
Wow! You are all doing really well.
I have dragged my feet a little this week. Life got in the way!
My grand total to date ~ 13500.
Hoping to catch up a bit this week.
Have a great week 3 everyone.
Lisa Roderick
I'm at 19,536
Not as good as I wanted but hoping for a lot better result and less interruptions next week,
Sue Webb
Thanks Sandie for your words of encouragement... hope you're well in body soon!
Amanda xx
Hi guyz
Hopefully I'm submitting my word count on time. 8.30pm on the dot. Been in a workshop all day! Phew - knackered. My total word count for the week hasn't been as good as I would've liked but it's something. 6,435 words for this week, bringing total so far to 10,553.
Everyone is doing so well and I love reading how everyone is doing. Well done!
Michele
Fantastic word counts, ladies.
What a great job!
I'm not switching off the computer yet, so if you have missed the deadline, please let me know your word count anyway - Felicity - I know that you're much further along than your original comment of 41k.
Cathryn, can you confirm your total word count for me - you've commented 1680 - is that words written this week or your total. We have you down as last week for more than 5k or am I confusing you with someone else?
Rhian Cahill - 56,478
Just got back from a wonderful weekend away and thought I better add my count before deadline except I think deadline has been and gone. Oh well, off to check emails. God help me I know there's gonna be hundreds!
RC
22000.
I had a couple of days when I didn't get much done. But I might squeeze in another thousand tonight.
Oops, I've missed the deadline. Sorry! I've managed 25,015 words and am stoked I reached the half way point.
Great totals everyone!!
LOL - I'm with you Christina, was busy thinking about WA time 8pm. Oops, sorry if I stuff up the admin.
25,432 after a 10,000 word sprint yesterday and today. Life just got in the way.
Am treating myself by NOT WRITING tonight. Reading (Steph Meyer) instead.
*Nikki*
Hannah Wride
Total for me so far is 30578.
Written with stunned awe because I had estimated way less than that.
Yay.
Hi all,
I had a major slow-down last week, since I came to the end of one novel and started another. It usually takes me quite a bit of 'figuring' to get a new one on the road, but I have to say that the 50k challenge forced me to get my butt into gear fast.
Plot and character-wise, I'm not too unhappy about the result. Hopefully the words will flow a bit better this week.
Grand total for the week just gone: 6077, which brings me to a total of 14377.
Keep up the good work, everyone.
Ligia Pelosi
Hi, I'm late logging on this week - sorry!
my total is 8,363. hmm.
where is that writing fairy?
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