Post: #101

Let's start it again! I'll be doing 1k today.

Post: #102

I was trying for 2000 words a day, but that might be a little too ambitious day in and day out.

1000 words is a good goal.

Post: #103

Why don't we post pieces of it up here for critique and motivation? I'm writing a blog about my travels through the Middle East, North Africa, and India. Here's a passage, let me know what you think. It's about me crossing by land from Jordan to Israel.

This desert was different from the others.

We had all traveled through the endless brown plains that bounded the city of Amman, hard, parched fields where nothing grew. Some of us had made the journey to Kerak, past wastelands populated only by goats. This desert was devoid even of those. South of Al-Maghtas, where Jesus was baptized, beyond the simmering pan of the Dead Sea, this was the Negev, an expanse without rocks, without trees, its sand bleached to the hue of bones.

The heat, when we stepped outside, hit us like a blow. We’d all felt the summer heat of Jordan, from the cruelty of an Amman morning to the scalding sand of the Dead Sea. But here, in the Negev, the sun bore down on us with a special ferocity. As if to dissuade us from going any further. As if the Israelis had commissioned it to defend its southern border, where, from the Wadi Araba crossing, crowds of Palestinians poured in on a daily basis.

*

The line was less a line than a throng, a seething, pulsating mass of humanity.

I had never seen people like these before. They were nothing like their cousins, the serene Jordanians. They didn’t have the reptilian stares of the Hezbollah fighters I would later encounter in Lebanon. Bedecked in dirty robes, these Palestinians could have come straight out of the Old Testament. The men were built like pit bulls, gnarled, squat, with mouthfuls of black teeth; the women were unilaterally old, regardless of age, their faces crumpled with wrinkles.

Prowling the line were two men. One wore a pink polo and looked like an Abercrombie model. He wouldn’t have looked out of place in any Southern California beach town. The other was short and Slavic. His eyes were pieces of ice, and belted to his jeans was a Sig Sauer the size of my face.
Even then, I found it telling that two Mossad agents were enough to a cow a crowd of Palestinians several hundred strong.

Post: #104

(10-13-2017 06:05 AM)nomadbrah Wrote:  I was trying for 2000 words a day, but that might be a little too ambitious day in and day out.

1000 words is a good goal.

I believe 7K per day is considered pretty damn solid. There have certainly been writers more prolific, and I know when I get into an inspired frenzy I've done a lot more, but a lot of authors seem to feel like they're doing well if they crank out 1000-3000.

I personally believe I should be doing better considering how fast I can write so going to focus on keeping the word counts up in a lot higher at least for now.

EDIT: Sorry, I quoted the wrong guy.

I meant to quote this post here:

(10-13-2017 04:53 AM)yankeetravels Wrote:  Yesterday afternoon and last night I got 3800 words done. Kind of slacking for me considering on my best days, I can get around 7K words in.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #105

(10-13-2017 01:21 PM)Agastya Wrote:  Why don't we post pieces of it up here for critique and motivation? I'm writing a blog about my travels through the Middle East, North Africa, and India. Here's a passage, let me know what you think. It's about me crossing by land from Jordan to Israel.

This desert was different from the others.

We had all traveled through the endless brown plains that bounded the city of Amman, hard, parched fields where nothing grew. Some of us had made the journey to Kerak, past wastelands populated only by goats. This desert was devoid even of those. South of Al-Maghtas, where Jesus was baptized, beyond the simmering pan of the Dead Sea, this was the Negev, an expanse without rocks, without trees, its sand bleached to the hue of bones.

The heat, when we stepped outside, hit us like a blow. We’d all felt the summer heat of Jordan, from the cruelty of an Amman morning to the scalding sand of the Dead Sea. But here, in the Negev, the sun bore down on us with a special ferocity. As if to dissuade us from going any further. As if the Israelis had commissioned it to defend its southern border, where, from the Wadi Araba crossing, crowds of Palestinians poured in on a daily basis.

*

The line was less a line than a throng, a seething, pulsating mass of humanity.

I had never seen people like these before. They were nothing like their cousins, the serene Jordanians. They didn’t have the reptilian stares of the Hezbollah fighters I would later encounter in Lebanon. Bedecked in dirty robes, these Palestinians could have come straight out of the Old Testament. The men were built like pit bulls, gnarled, squat, with mouthfuls of black teeth; the women were unilaterally old, regardless of age, their faces crumpled with wrinkles.

Prowling the line were two men. One wore a pink polo and looked like an Abercrombie model. He wouldn’t have looked out of place in any Southern California beach town. The other was short and Slavic. His eyes were pieces of ice, and belted to his jeans was a Sig Sauer the size of my face.
Even then, I found it telling that two Mossad agents were enough to a cow a crowd of Palestinians several hundred strong.

Well, you can do what you like of course, but there were a couple reasons I discouraged doing so when I first started this thread.

One, writer's groups where people share work with each other tend to be circle jerks and mental masturbation, in my opinion. Very rarely do people speak up if someone's work actually sucks, and on the other hand, even if it's good, people feel like they should say something, anything, thus pulling something out of their asses. Furthermore, the majority of the time people just won't know what they're talking about.

So at least in person I've always found any kind of writer's groups built around feedback from other writers to be a waste of time that would be better spent writing or reading. And I don't think it's a great idea to take writing advice from random guys on a forum. I think you'd be better off a) studying stories that have done well, and b) reading books with advice written by those who have an actual history of results.

The other reason I discouraged it was because this thread would quickly turn into a clusterfuck if every single one of us was posting their work here. I think it'd be better to just link to work if you want feedback. Even better if it's stuff you're actually out there publishing.

Finally, my contention and the reason I started this thread is because I believe the number one thing that holds most wannabe writers with a bit of talent back is lack of focus and an inability to maintain a regular habit of actually writing. If the history of this thread is any indication it certainly seems to be holding true.

I want the focus here to be on the getting it done.

All that being said, you're not the first person to suggest this, and I don't own the forum even if I started the thread. I'm not going to go on and on about it if people want to vote on the subject by simply posting snippets of their work and seeing what kind of feedback they get.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #106

(10-13-2017 05:42 AM)Fortis Wrote:  Let's start it again! I'll be doing 1k today.

Love the enthusiasm! Let's make it happen.

(10-13-2017 06:05 AM)nomadbrah Wrote:  I was trying for 2000 words a day, but that might be a little too ambitious day in and day out.

1000 words is a good goal.

Probably not a bad idea to start out light and manageable, solidify the habit, and then focus on building up to higher word counts.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #107

3400 today. Quite a bit less than yesterday but still happy to be cranking it out again.

I had a bit more self-doubt that slowed me down today - I think it will help to just focus on the parts of my stories that I already know for sure will happen and flesh those out. Sometimes I find not knowing where the plot will go, or how it will manage to follow the path I've got in my outline, slows me down. Or maybe sometimes I'm just unsure about what I have planned and want to keep it open to a possible different storyline.

Mulling over the story in off time certainly has it's value, but often if I just get started writing on the parts I am sure about, no matter how small those parts are, I kind of find my way then. I also need to get comfortable with the idea that sometimes what I write will be a dead end or get changed later and it's not the end of the world if I end up throwing it out.

Going to shoot for at least 5000 tomorrow.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #108

Do you guys publish what you write, or just do it as an exercise?

Post: #109

(10-14-2017 03:37 AM)lookslikeit Wrote:  Do you guys publish what you write, or just do it as an exercise?

I've got some books self-published on Kindle and for me this is a drive to renew that effort and get more out there. I have done a ton of work over the last ten years as a freelance writer, and the pay is fantastic, but there's no glory or long-term asset created when you write for others,, so I'm trying to make a commitment to focus more on producing my own stuff.

I've also got a blog I'm bringing back to life.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #110

If anyone needs some extra motivation, next month is apparently National Novel-Writing Month (I believe the site for it is NaNoWriMo.com). I've never taken part but I guess it's an online challenge to write a 50,000-word book in thirty days.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #111

Great thread.

I just started a blog, journaling my own thoughts on dating and wife searching. As I write under my actual name, I won't be posting any links here. That being said, I do find that writing really helps clarify my thoughts and what I'm searching for in a wife and future mother of my children. I will also be writing 1k+ words per day on some business writing for courses and books I'm working on. Additionally, I really love contributing to this forum. Sometimes I keep my posts short and pithy, but also enjoy the detailed discusses that the nature of this community lends itself to.

Every man should journal daily, in addition to writing for work and pleasure.

Post: #112

Yesterday was 5100+ for me.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #113

Great thread, BB, I'm on board, just woke up a bit ago, starting today let's see how far I can get a streak going.

Post: #114

(10-15-2017 12:24 PM)Spaniard88 Wrote:  Great thread, BB, I'm on board, just woke up a bit ago, starting today let's see how far I can get a streak going.

Hell yeah - welcome and be sure to check back in and let us know how you're progressing.

One of my novels is really starting to flesh itself out. At about 28,000 words now.

I will try my best to devote my 5000 or so words per day to this manuscript so I can get it done in the next week or two and start redrafting while working on another project.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #115

"Return of Kings" would be a great song title. ( hint hint )

Post: #116

Yesterday's count: 7145

I'm having a bit of trouble organizing my novel, and there are some real gaps in the plot that I'd like to iron out to streamline writing the rest so I can keep up these numbers, or perhaps even increase them. I remember these same issues with my first novel, and it created a lot of bottlenecks then too.

So this morning I purchased Scrivener (if I had realized it was only $40, or $32 if you enter the code REDDIT, I would have picked it up ages ago). I've heard more authors than I can recall tout the power of this program for organizing and working with longer documents. Digging in now.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #117

Yesterday was a much lighter day for me with just over 1400 words.

That being said, I allowed myself to write less because I spent a couple hours learning how to use scrivener and then spent a few more hours loading all of my current novel in there dividing it up, and then fleshing out the outline more.

The outline still needs a bit more work, but with the way it's set up now, I should really be able to continue moving along - I now know every scene I need to write and why, though I'm sure some will still change along the way. I can see this software is going to really come in handy in putting together my novels. Should have purchased it a long time ago.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #118

3300

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #119

Still been going at it. Just stopped announcing my word counts here because I found another forum with a thread for that specific purpose and it's a lot more active. Any of you guys who jumped back on the challenge last week still going strong?

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #120

(10-22-2017 08:06 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  Still been going at it. Just stopped announcing my word counts here because I found another forum with a thread for that specific purpose and it's a lot more active. Any of you guys who jumped back on the challenge last week still going strong?

I wrote seven thousand!

Post: #121

I used to journal for a bit but stopped when work got too hectic. I'd like to restart. What do you all write about? Your day? Philosophy? Current events? Fiction?

Post: #122

(10-22-2017 08:29 PM)Spaniard88 Wrote:  

(10-22-2017 08:06 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  Still been going at it. Just stopped announcing my word counts here because I found another forum with a thread for that specific purpose and it's a lot more active. Any of you guys who jumped back on the challenge last week still going strong?

I wrote seven thousand!

Booyah!

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #123

(10-22-2017 08:48 PM)Space Cowboy Wrote:  I used to journal for a bit but stopped when work got too hectic. I'd like to restart. What do you all write about? Your day? Philosophy? Current events? Fiction?

Write about whatever you want as long as it's stuff you're writing for yourself and not for a forum or for clients (as in freelancing).

I'm personally focusing on one of my novels at the moment, but I jump back and forth among projects if that's what I need to do to stay engaged.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #124

(10-22-2017 08:48 PM)Space Cowboy Wrote:  I used to journal for a bit but stopped when work got too hectic. I'd like to restart. What do you all write about? Your day? Philosophy? Current events? Fiction?

Mine's nonfiction and it's my own content, but I'll keep the specifics out of this thread.

This thread is awesome.

Post: #125

(10-22-2017 11:50 PM)Spaniard88 Wrote:  

(10-22-2017 08:48 PM)Space Cowboy Wrote:  I used to journal for a bit but stopped when work got too hectic. I'd like to restart. What do you all write about? Your day? Philosophy? Current events? Fiction?

Mine's nonfiction and it's my own content, but I'll keep the specifics out of this thread.

This thread is awesome.

It sounds like you're crushing it with those numbers - great effort!

I get a day like that sometimes but generally 3000-5000. I'd like to eventually up my game to hit 10,000 on a regular basis.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling