JaNoWriMo: The Final Reckoning

[owlmoose]

Days written: 31/31 (!)
Words written: 10,606
Stories worked on: 7, plus the character sketch project
Stories posted: 5 (includes the two character sketches)





Progress on specific goals:

1. Write every day in January. Done!

1.5 Post at least once a week. Yes and no. If you count each of the character sketches as an individual story, I did post one story per week on average, but my intention was to actually post once during each week, and I missed two weeks.

2. Finish prompts for "Out of the Comfort Zone" meme and my "fic exchange" with muggy_mountain. I did finish one story from the Comfort Zone meme, but there's still one prompt unfilled, and I never did make any more progress on the story for Mugs. I need to take a step back and rethink my idea.

3. Draft Chapter 4 of Aftermath. I worked on it for two days in the middle of the month and then not again, but it remains on the mental back burner.

4. Wrap up at least one outstanding WIP. As I mentioned in my mid-month progress post, I completed and posted the Paine/sword story, which was a very long-standing WIP. After I finished the Lucil/Elma, I turned my attention to Crimson Squad in Space and made very good progress. If I keep going at this rate, I think I'll be done by the end of next month (February).

5. Work on 30_fantasies claim. Nothing after Paine/sword, not even an idea yet. I have at least one WIP that I may resurrect soon. After that, I'm not sure what happens with this claim.

Overall thoughts:

Even though I only hit about half of my goals (and two of them were fulfilled by the same story!), I'm still pretty pleased with what I did this month. The most important of the goals -- writing every day -- I succeeded in, even if some of those days I felt like I really had to shoehorn a few minutes in right before bedtime. But I've reminded myself that I can make writing a priority, if I want to. And also that I do want to. So I will continue making the attempt to find time to write or edit every day, and we'll see how long I stick with it. Another thing that I learned is that it's helpful for me to have specific and realistic short-term goals. So sometime tommorrow, I will sit down with myself and sketch out a new set of goals for February, and then post them here. Telling the world that I will do something is an excellent way to make sure I do it. (And having a spreadsheet that I'm required to update with my progress doesn't hurt, either.)

Comments

[lassarina]

I think we wrote about the same amount! You got more posted than I did, though, I think :)

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

I saw your own progress post! 10k words is nothing to sneeze at, even if it was a little off your monthly goal. :) And it seems like you had a lot of other things going on this month, too. Yay for writing progress!

The thing about posting, and the reason I want to goad myself into doing it more often, is that I'm far too willing to get frustrated with a WIP and set it aside for months or even years. And then when I come back to it, I can't remember what I wanted to do with it anymore. That's exactly what happened with the Paine/sword story, and setting myself a goal to post things not only made me work on it, it made me *finish* it. For me, that was useful.

I really like having a project that keeps me accountable, both to myself and to the other people watching. I thought about signing up for getyourwordsout, but I knew I'd be setting myself up for failure on the word count goal. I wonder if there's any similar but less ambitious community out there?

[lassarina]

Well, if it ever gets off the ground, there's 12in2009 - the 2008 version was basically "you sign up to write 12 stories of x length," with x being determined by the participant. I signed up for 12x2000, but kind of failed at that because I had too many 1500-1700 word stories :( And then NaNo ate me.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Hooray for you! (I am working on a post of my own right now!) I'm still impressed that you managed to write every day. That is clearly awesome!

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :D And seriously, I would never have done this without you getting the idea started. So thank YOU. Really, really.

[not-cynical.livejournal.com]

Hooooooooooly.... I am awed and intimidated, seriously, because this is AMAZING! Yay for LOTS OF WORDS and SPREADSHEETS and ACHIEVING WRITING GOALS!

... I may take a leaf out of your book, if I may, and start making monthly goals. Um.

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

I recommend monthly goals! Well, they worked for one month anyway. We'll see how they stick over time. ;)

[not-cynical.livejournal.com]

I know they work when it comes to STOPPING me doing something - it's how I managed to cut off my addiction to pocky. I never thought of trying them for writing though, so I'll give it a try! :D