Wednesday, March 2, 2011

March Madness Day Two

Welcome everyone!

I am so encouraged by all of the participation and excitement that's been generated for this challenge. I began the month by arriving home after six weeks away and am I ever ready to jump back into my writing routine.

Despite coming home with the stomach flu, I was somehow able to reach my writing goal yesterday. How about you? What challenges have you had to overcome early on? Sure seems like there's a lot of sickness out there.

Looking forward to hearing from all of you. Have a fabulous day and don't forget to check in with Shari Green tomorrow!

41 comments:

  1. After a frustrating day yesterday, with the computer freezing each time I asked it to save a chapter I was trying to edit, I finally got that done this morning. (This is a chapter by another author for a multi-authored book I'm editing; and I have just finished going over the chapter with the other author by phone.)

    I've also managed a daily blog post (http://windowviewblog.blogspot.com) - yesterday's on rules for writing and today's on medicine. Not sure I'll get any more of my own writing done today because I have to finish reviewing 70 grant applications to Maine's Libra Foundation by tomorrow.

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  2. Pardon my checking in on the wrong day. :$ Progressing, albeit slowly, toward my goals for the month. I will echo here that I hope today goes well for all who have decided to join the March Madness Writing Challenge.

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  3. Aw, sorry you have the flu, Angelina! Hope you feel better soon!!

    I have made great progress so far - finished a first draft of my synopsis, and a second draft, and sent it off to a crit partner. I also got up this morning and jumped right in to what is becoming my daily routine of writing first.

    Looking forward to hearing how everyone else is doing!

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  4. Computer problems are such a bother. Way to fight through, Penny. And any progress is still progess, Jenn.

    Denise you're on fire! If the room would stop spinning, I might be able to get to work this morning.

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  5. I got up with my alarm AGAIN this morning (yay!) and plan to work on more editing this evening after work (trying to finish it by this weekend). I've done some agent research and have one name tucked away.

    Feel better soon, Angelina!

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  6. Isabella Louise AndersonMarch 2, 2011 at 10:11 AM

    I wrote 3,300 words of my 5,000. (When I signed up, I meant to put 3,000 a day, but typed 5,000...I guess that's a Freudian slip). :-) I plan on working toward my other goal, finishing my book before the 18th, my 30th birthday!

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  7. I get to work later in the day when hubby takes over with the kiddos, but I am all fired up that I got over 40 pages edited yesterday! Hoping to make similar progress today! Thanks for setting up this challenge; I have been feeling alone in my writing and this is really nice.

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  8. Things didn't go as planned yesterday, I got home from work about 2 hours later than I anticipated so I didn't get my writing done. But I have 4 more times this week to get 1,000 words each sitting. Glad I made a flexible goal! :-) I hope you feel better.

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  9. 5000 words a day? I want to touch Isabella for luck!

    This is my first check in, and I don't have much to report. I've been hard at work on a synopsis for my WIP, Children of Peace. Yesterday I flailed. My most significant accomplishment was a blog post on why I DON'T WANNA finish my synopsis. See: http://bit.ly/dP4qZr

    Today I finished my synopsis.

    Which puts me exactly no further along toward 20,000 words by March 31.

    But the day isn't over yet!

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  10. I totally understand the sickness deal. It seems like its just not going away this year. There are whole days when I barely do anything other than go to work and go home to sleep, getting nothing else done because I am just so stuffy and drained. Im pretty sure the weather jumps are a major cause here.

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  11. Tylenol and orange juice in hand, I'm here to say yesterday's accomplishment was minimal. I did read. I did not write. I slept lots. But today is a new day and I'm getting started on the revision, although I'm already a little defeated reading about Isabella's 3500 words!

    Denise, you're sounding very well disciplined! You and Jennifer make getting up early sound attractive, but I'm not fooled. I'm definitely not a morning person. Sorry you're sick, Angelina. Hopefully whatever it is will be shortlived. Joy, you're never alone with the fabulous online writing community. We're all watching and cheering you on.

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  13. I'm impressed by everyone's effort so far. It's hard being motivated through sickness and computer problems. And I am totally impressed that anyone could write 5,000 words in a day. Or 3,000. WOW.

    My writing time is at night after the kids are in bed, so here's hoping I can check in again this evening with progress of my own. Go Marchers Go!

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  14. It looks like most of us have great starts. I'm doing very well on my historical novel and completely behind with the chick fic... Hoping to catch up at the weekend :)

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  15. Yay for everyone! I spent the morning reading and sleeping and now I'm motivated to crack open the historical WIP and put down some words. Keep it up everyone. Just being here is an encouragement, even if it is with orange juice and tissues. Back later...

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  16. I revised 23 pages yesterday. My usual goal at this stage is 20 pages, so the extra three must be some of that March madness. Stayed off the net for four hours except for a few peeks at email. But I did it via my phone so I couldn't compose replies or surf (too slow).

    Jeanne

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  17. Plotting my next wip was great yesterday, but today it's just blah... I'm trying hard... On the bright side, reading my two books is going great. The "Iron Witch" and "Water Wars".
    Some participants are doing awesome. Congrats to them and to everyone not quite there like me, I say keep on. Don't quit. :)

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  18. It's time for me to head home and call the writing day done-ish. I've got 7,800 words in total -- about 800 new today. Does that put me on track for 20,000 this month? I'm afraid to even calculate....

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  19. The room stopped spinning, so I was able to meet my goal for the day. HOORAY! Great job,everyone. And BTW, erinbow, if you do 800, at least five days a week, you'll make your 20,000!

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  20. Ooooh! Another 1K words today! It's a little odd that I'm working on something that I hadn't planned to work on this month, but now that I'm in it, I can't imagine working on something else. So thank you, March Madness!

    Thanks for the breakdown, Angelina - 800 *5, eh? Good to know! *files calculation away for later*

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  21. Angelina, sorry you're sick! I'm glad the room has had the decency to stop spinning for you -- yay you for meeting your goal despite the challenges!

    I'm making decent progress on my outline. I hope to finish it tomorrow so I can dive into the writing!

    Congrats everyone on your progress. So awesome and inspiring to be in this with you! :D

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  22. Sorry that you aren't feeling well, Angelina. And yay for making your goal for the day!

    I have 8 goals for this month, and made some progress getting my MG closer to being ready for beta readers and made a huge dent in my synopsis (yay, because I find writing a synopsis so much more difficult than writing or revising a novel).

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  23. Yay for everyone's awesome progress! (and Isabella - seriously - where can I get whatever you're on??)

    I feel a little under-accomplished this evening, but the truth is, I did work hard today. This one chapter was just a bigger feat than I anticipated. Onward...

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  24. GOALS:
    1. Rewrite Z's story, which is half the novel since it's a multiple POV.
    2. Net 10,000 words a week. (Mon-Sunday)

    So far today I have 1,400 words, which would be okay if I'd kept any of my words from yesterday, but those all got deleted. Still, I think the writing workouts I did yesterday helped with my first chapter, which I've written and re-written at least five times during this draft alone. Hopefully this beginning, which is sort of a rehash of the VERY FIRST BEGINNING that I had, will stick. I think one of my problems is that I gave the first 4 chapters of my last draft to a crit partner who had some very different opinions from what I was thinking and that's really impacting what I think I "should" be writing this time around. I've deleted a lot of stuff I actually like because of what she had to say -- sometimes it's really hard to tell what's you should/shouldn't listen to in regards to what others think of your writing.

    I'm supposed to be writing for another hour, but I have laundry, cleaning, and schoolwork to do also so I think I'll call it quits for today and come back tomorrow.

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  25. Yesterday didn't go as planned, but I'm ready to get going today!

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  26. Wow, what perseverance! People are working away despite computer snags and stomach bugs.

    I had to push myself today as well, but my obstacles where my busy day and the demands of marking papers and getting midterm reports together. I have done some editing on a letter I need to write for school, as well as doing my slice of life story. I got the idea of what I wanted to write about and the words flowed. It felt so good!

    Keep plugging away, everyone!

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  27. Well, I wrote. It wasn't quite an hour, but I'm still recuperating from the Cold of the Century.

    It's progress, so I'm not complaining!

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  28. I managed to get some revising done again today, but it wasn't a complete chapter like I'd hoped. I'll try again tomorrow. =)

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  29. I managed another 1100 words today, which sounds absolutely puny when I read what some of you are doing, but it's what I can do and is more than I have done lately, so Yay! I'm pleased.

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  30. You guys are really pushing on. That's so awesome. I've had a discouraging week, due to a number of uncontrollable events (I know, excuses) and the fact that my stupid body requires sleep, but I'm hoping I can get some serious work done before I have to come clean and be accountable on Friday. Wish me luck.

    Denise, don't feel down. Not every day can be perfect, and beating yourself up over it is only anti-productive, despite what the The Brotherhood of the Flagellants will tell you.

    Hope you feel better, Angelina. Almost everyone around me has had stomach problems these last two weeks. I think The Man is putting something in the water...

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  31. Despite feeling exhausted and totally unmotivated after a long day, I just finished working on my WIP. Again, not a huge word count but I'm still happy with what I've done.

    Yay to everyone who's managed to be productive today -- even if it's less than you had hoped. Something is always better than nothing!

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  32. I got in 650 words today on top of everything. I'm pretty excited about it, myself!

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  33. Drafted a review of an iPad book. Didn't much like the book, so that was a bit of a trial.

    Made a few pages written progress on the graphic novel. I think the words need to steep before I can put them into thumbnails.

    Almost slipped into life as usual this evening, but checking in meant I had to do something first! Challenges work!

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  34. Good night and best wishes to all you night writers. Congratulations to all of you, whatever you were able to accomplish today. See you tomorrow at Shari's!

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  35. * Congrats to everybody for making some headway with your goals. Well, I totally fizzled out today, due to a personal glitch. But, although I couldn't write, I reviewed my work from yesterday. Very disappointed for my lack of productivity but I'm rearing to make up for it tomorrow.

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  36. This morning I discussed adverbs and their distinct usage in fiction with one of my favorite writers at Magical Words.

    This evening I finished a scene that furthered to the tension (we're ramping up to the climax) and gave me a clue of exactly how we're going to get there. I wasn't expecting the bad guy to get drunk, but him doing just that means that his morose apology tomorrow will further solidify the illusion that he's a good guy.

    I feel good. I know even more about how this ending—which although plotted with a distinct Point B remains somewhat nebulous—is going to unfold.

    I also wrote a letter to a family member, balancing family secrets and truths with the desire to maintain a positive tone.

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  37. I hope you're feeling better soon!

    My goal is to write daily, and I did write new words, though not quite as many as on Monday. But they are still new words that move the story forward, and for that, I'm excited.

    Cheering for you!

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  38. (sigh) I did not get as much done as I would have liked, but 250 words and some kick-butt theme development isn't all bad. :) I have a lot of student writing to review over the next week (while they are on spring break...tell me about it!), but I will not let that dampen my progress.

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  39. Hey! I hope you are feeling better. I am late checking in with progress--but achieved my blogging and reading goals the day before last. Thanks for doing this and happy March Madness!

    AND--way to go on achieving your goal!!

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  40. Helloooo, I'm backtracking a little because I forgot where to check-in for Wednesdays. Silly me. So, here's what I accomplished on Wed: I assessed where I was in my current portfolio and found some of my older images--I'm in the gathering stage you might say. Also, I decided on which PB ms to tackle first (as I have 3 in mind) and I'm planning on doing a first draft of that PB to begin workshopping at the Temescal writing class. Baby steps, indeed, but I'm on my way...
    Good luck w/ your goals everyone!

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  41. BTW, Thanks so much, Angelina, for hosting Wednesdays. I will check-in here next Wednesday for sure! :-)

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