December Update; goals for January and 2013

[owlmoose]

Days written: 18/31
Words written: 19,055
Words of fic written: 17,989
Stories worked on: Three, and some ficbits
Stories posted: One plus the ficbits
Words written in 2012: 221,500
Fic words written in 2012: 173,353
Fic words posted in 2012: 107,224








Once again, I could almost have made the GYWO goal with fic alone. I did a little more journaling this year than last, although most of it was on Tumblr. The "Other" writing was almost entirely my Sereda Aeducan character development interview, plus a little bit for work.

Goals for the month and the year:

December

1. Write every day while not traveling, and while traveling if possible. Oh geez, not even close. There was just too much going on. One huge factor is that T took a bunch of days off work, which made it harder to find writing time.

2. Finish rough draft of DABB. I did this, and a day early even. The draft is really rough in places but it's a good start.

3. Write something for the ff_exchange Chocobo Races. Started something, didn't finish it. At first because I was a bit burned out from the rush to finish my DABB, then because I had to finish my dragonageholidaycheer project, and finally my time was eaten by the aforementioned busyness. I hope I can finish it this week.

2012

1. Finish "Wardens of Ivalice". In the end, I barely even worked on it and had to declare it on hiatus for a bit. I would like to get back to this, although not until a couple of other projects are finished.

2. Make my wordcount goal for getyourwordsout. Done, and easily.

3. Review every book I read, even if it's just a star rating on GoodReads, and write a substantial review if I can. Unfortunately, I never really got into the habit of this, although I did better than in previous years.

4. Work on at least one Final Fantasy fic per month (not counting "Wardens of Ivalice"), ideally to completion and posting. I'd say I managed this about half the time.

5. Go through my WIP files and unwritten fic prompts, organize them, and determine which will be finished and which should go into cold storage. Success! It was a useful project, too. Got a lot of things reposted to AO3 and the rest rearranged. It'll be much easier to see what's going on in that folder now.

Overall, I would say this was a very good fic writing year for me, and I got back into meta some, but I'd like to do more. I'll have more to say about the fic, specifically, when I do my fic year in review post, probably later today.

Goals for 2013 and January:

January

1. Write at least 6 days per week.

2. Finish my story for the Chocobo Races. By Thursday. When I don't even have a complete draft yet. Sure, that'll be easy.

3. Complete final draft for my DABB, due on January 31st.

4. Time permitting, clean up "Right Hand Woman" for posting on AO3.

2013

1. Make progress on "Wardens of Ivalice", for real this time.

2. Do at least two major meta projects.

3. Write at least one non-Dragon Age fic every month.

4. At least three posts or cross-posts in my journal every week, and cross-post fic from Tumblr ot least once a month.

5. Hit my getyourwordsout goal -- I've signed up at the 200k goal again, because why mess with success -- and participate in wrisomifu.

Comments

[sarasa_cat]

Fist pump for "Wardens of Ivalice" *and* for two major meta projects!!

What kind of non-DA fic are you thinking about?

I'm also planning on making cross-posts starting today, for many reasons.

I'm always impressed with your word count graphs. I need to figure out a way to track my progress and, as I've learned in prior years, raw word count doesn't work for me (mostly because, for me, writing is rewriting and, for fic, I spend far more time editing than drafting). I might track words posted though. That and keeping tabs on the running total word count(s) in my DA scrivener file.

[owlmoose]

:) "Wardens of Ivalice" was always going to be on this list, but putting meta here as a goal is largely inspired by your Ask from last night. Doing my "fic year in review" also prompted me to add something about cross-posting more fic, because I feel like *a lot* of my shortfic is being lost to the Tumblr ether, and I want to do something about that.

Non-DA fic: I don't have things in mind, specifically, although I would like to write more Cinders and I discovered today that I didn't write a single FFXII story last year, which makes me sad.

[sarasa_cat]

I honestly have no idea how many words of fic I posted in 2012 because most of it went into the Tumblr ether or onto the anonymous dakinkmeme. Recently, I've started using some of Scivener's features to mark internal copies of what I have posted, but I need to do some serious librarianship if I want to (re)capture what writing I accomplished in 2012... :/

Looking forward to you writing more Cinders and FFXII. Any projects in mind?

I have a couple of Cinders WIPs that I've neglected, and it would be nice to get them to a postable state. There are so many things I like about Cinders canon, especially the sisters' relationships. Seems a shame to let that drop. As you might guess, I have an ocean of FFXII wips that are all sleeping atm. A few could be easily finished and I probably should.

[owlmoose]

When I post fic to Tumblr or wherever, I add its wordcount to my tracking spreadsheet -- otherwise I'd have no way of tracking everything down later! My spreadsheets make me very happy.

I don't have specific projects in mind for either, no. After I clean up "Right Hand Woman", I want to get back into playing Cinders -- there are so many outcomes I haven't seen yet! And I hope that will inspire me to more ideas. Especially, yes, about the relationships with the sisters; Sophia and Gloria were not as much a part of "Right Hand Woman" as I would have liked, and I really want more opportunity to poke at them.

[sarasa_cat]

I'm going back to using a spreadsheet but I haven't decided the format yet, given that I need to capture rewriting.

Have only done 1.5 play throughs of Cinders. I keep thinking about a series of semi-connected double-drabbles and 500-word flash fics for that fandom. I love writing short, fixed length (200 or 500 word) stories, mostly as a style exercise or as a warm up when I know that my writing time will mostly be plot/structure/research and not actual story text. Cinders feels like a perfect fit for that.

[violacea]

You did so well this year! Both writing and tracking - I gave up on tracking ridiculously early. But this looks awesome - yay! :D

[owlmoose]

I've found that the tracking keeps me writing. Would I have added that paragraph to the story I've been wrestling with yesterday night if I hadn't known the blank spreadsheet cell was there, waiting for me? Probably not. And it's not the best paragraph I've ever written, but at least I wrote it instead of letting the story slide another day. I know it doesn't work that way for everyone, but it does for me, since I started tracking in 2010.

[lassarina]

I decided today that I was definitely writing something for Chocobo Races for the December theme, so you're...uh...ahead of me??

[owlmoose]

Tonight and tomorrow! We can do it!

Ugh, why is this story giving me so much trouble. I've changed my mind about how it's going to end at least three times now. At least I think this last one really is the right one.

[lassarina]

I have at least elected to write a certain sky pirate, so yay easy words?

oh no mid-story changes! Those are the hardest, especially when you have to go back and re-write the lead-up.

[owlmoose]

Yay, certain sky pirates!

I shouldn't have to change anything from the beginning, but it does mean that I've had to discard a bunch from the ending. This story was supposed to be a nice easy write for the end of December and it has turned out decidedly not that. :P But I think it'll come out all right.

[lassarina]

It's always the ones you think are going to be easy! *shakes fist at them*

I have been busily ticking things off a list and I am almost to the point where I can words! Hurrah!