Wednesday, March 21, 2012

March Madness--Day 21

Back on February 29th, I stated that my March Madness goal was to revise the humorous MG I drafted during March Madness 2010. With all your encouraging words and cheers, I reached that goal on Monday. Yay!  So yesterday I set a new goal: to revise 10 pages per day in my YA historical.

Today is for reevaluating and revising our goals. We're three weeks in with 10 days left. If you're struggling, don't be discouraged. We're here to help. Life happens. Do you need to readjust your goals? Go ahead!

And if you're right on target, give yourself a pat on the back. Then give a (((cyber hug))) to someone who could use one. Please feel free to reply to each others comments. ^_^

Either way, please celebrate what you've done so far and tell us something you're proud of. And don't forget to stop by and check- in with Anne Hale tomorrow.

51 comments:

  1. {{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}}} To all the most awesome auspicious alloicious wipsters. Big juicy writer love.

    Anyway, I'm on track. I did a spreadsheet (that was a learning curve) for my book mapping and am to page 33 as of this a.m. I'm also getting blog posts pre-done for this cool A-Z challenge that Linda Jackson turned me on to. (just google A-Z challenge, Denise). The premise, pick a theme, or not, for the month of April and do a blog post for each letter. My theme is Appalachia and I'm already having fun with it.

    Movie day at school today. We're watching Who the Bleep is Jackson Pollock. It's about this crusty truck driving woman who finds a Pollock at a yard sale for $5 and the fight that ensues in the art world about its provenance.

    Great writing you all!

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    1. On track in a big way! Have fun with that A-Z challenge. I 'll look forward to your Appalachian posts. And remind me to email you my family's Jackson Pollock story.

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  2. Congrats on meeting your goal!!!

    I might not reach my 20,000 words for the month, but I've finally found my groove with this WIP, which makes me happy. I love those, "I am a writing genius" highs so much more than the "everything I write is crap" lows :)

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    1. Love those highs, Jennifer. Happy you're in the groove!

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  3. Awesome! So great you made your goal and could add a new one.

    I'm keeping up with all my writing goals. I'm going to take the coming week (after today) off from writing to let my post-beta novel revisions sit and stew, and then I'll be doing my pre-subbing pass at the end of the month. Exciting! And scary!

    In the meantime, I must catch up on my reading goals. I read all the betas and partials I had for this month, but I am very behind on my book stack. I've only read 4 out of my goal of 8, and I have soooo many good books to read!!

    Enjoy the madness!

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    1. Happy reading! What are the four titles?

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    2. So far I read:
      Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley (Printz winner)
      Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (Newberry winner)
      Fracture by Megan Miranda (YA thriller, and sooooo suspenseful!)
      Various Positions by Martha Schabas (contemporary ballet novel)

      I'd have to say Fracture was my favorite so far. I could not put it down. Just started Maureen Johnson's The Name of the Star--excited to get into it!

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  4. Morning Angelina :) Thrilled and doing a crazy cheerleader split move (not sure how this early in the morning) for you on finishing up a big goal of yours! RAH RAH RAH *ow* lol.

    So far my March goals have been doable. I'm most proud of waking early to write. It seems to be a good creative time for me. Before life has a chance to fling its unexpectedness my way. It's also wonderfully quiet in the morning :)

    This month has moved quickly, but it has been more productive than most - so I can't ask for more than that.

    Cheering on your 10 pages a day! You can do it :)

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    1. Thanks for the crazy visual this morning. ^_^ Yay for productivity!

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  5. Way to go all you Wipsters! Keep that fire burning!

    I am so close to my goal, and I believe I will meet the first part, maybe even today! That is to finish my WIP. The second part—the revision—might not make it before the bell. But that is okay. I have an agent and a beta reader chomping at the bit, so that will keep me encouraged and inspired to get it right after I've got it written.

    Thanks to all you fabulous people for hosting the check-ins and for inspiring me (and all of us) to make the magic all month long.

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    1. We'll be waiting for the announcement!

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    2. Okay...so I DID IT! Now for the revision. And I just got a big nudge from my agent, so here I go...

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  6. Yay and congrats again for finishing your revisions! Hope it goea as well for your YA novel.

    I've said elsewhere that I've made some major plot breakthroughs, partly due to that painful feedback I received last week. Well, here I am, awake and ready to tackle the WIP with the changes the story needs. Yesterday I had a much-needed day off (well, from writing, anyway, as I did get a bit more reading done). Last night I returned to sword class, and I was rewarded with the teacher telling me that I'd improved greatly over the last few months. :) Which was a great way to start things off, as I have four more classes to make up between now and next Thursday. Tonight, I'll have some time to get cracking on the WIP, or at least I will after dinner. I feel good. Slightly exhausted, but I'm starting to catch my second wind.

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    1. May that second wind blow steady and strong!

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  7. With the "mulling and planning" phase of this revision taking the first half of the month, I'm not as far along as I'd hoped to be by now. But I think I can still do it! It's definitely going to be Madness, but Mad's where it's at, folks. ;)

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    1. Nothing like revising madly. ^_^ You can do it!

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    2. Yay, you! Congrats on meeting your goal! I hope to hit this revision big time today and tomorrow. Husband isn't working from home so that makes it easier for me to get some work done!

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    3. Hope you have two days of super productivity! Nothing like alone time. ^_^

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    4. Thanks! Was able to go through one and a half revision chapters. Lots of cutting but it needs to be done!

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  8. Man, I wish I was revising. But I'm not, I'm still drafting, and this feels much longer and harder than Nano for some reason. Sigh. But I got some momentum going yesterday, and I'm attempting to keep it rolling today. Wrote 1000 words this morning, and I'm going to try to get 3k in total today. I think that's been one of my problems actually--I haven't focused enough on word count this month. When I'm bashing out words to make a count (like during Nano), often my subconscious comes up with the coolest things. I think because I've been taking things slower and not pushing through as much as I could have, my creative side is being lax as well.

    Just thinking on paper here. I could have a whole new thought structure by tomorrow...

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    1. Author, know thyself! ^_^ I'll check up on you later to see how that 3K is coming along.

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    2. My revision is turning out to be more of a rewrite. Lots of deleting, adding words, deleting yet more.

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  9. Congrats, Angelina! I can't wait for that humorous MG to hit the market. That's one of my favorite reads.

    I did reach "The end" of my wip yesterday, but the fireworks I expected didn't go off. I actually felt a little down because I kept thinking, "Did I really finish? Or did I just rush to the end."

    Then I heard Harlan Coben say, in an interview this morning, that when he knows he's nearing the end of a manuscript, he sprints--sometimes writing 30 pages in one day.

    So I feel better about it this morning, knowing that "The End" of a first draft is really only "The Beginning" of turning it into an actual novel.

    :)

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    1. I know that feeling well. And now I'll be revising that "rushed" ending. ^_^ Congratulations!!!

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  10. Congrats on finishing your revisions. I love revisions.

    Another 2380 words today. I'm overshooting my goal of 40k by a lot. I'm on pace for 48k for the month.

    Congrats, all, for sticking with it!

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    1. What a great way to overshoot! My reward for drafting is the opportunity to revise.

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  11. (((((( HUGS All Around )))))) I'm a firm believer in cyber hugs. And yes, congratulations Angi!! That's fabulous work. I'm most excited to read your YA historical. I've been hoping you'd pick it up again. And for those of us struggling with the stupid word count, an extra hug and maybe some cocoa? I think I'm gunna start working on word sprints again... see how much I can throw down in 30 minute increments.

    Brandon, you are Blowing it Up!! Great job!
    Denise, glad you hear you change your mind as often as I do. =)
    Ghost Girl, you're almost there!!!!
    Shari, I'm with you... major mental revisions earlier this month, but here goes nuthin.

    And a fabulous job to all the Madness crew!!

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    1. Thanks, m'dea! I'm loving this story more and more with each pass through. Enjoy the sprints. ^_^

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  12. I think I'm on pace - my goal was query ready by April 1, and my final critique just came in this morning. There's some great input, and it's not just minor fixes, either. So I'm not going to rush through the revisions - if I need more than ten days to do justice to them, well, I may not make my goal. But I actually think I can do it. And I'm ready with query and agent research, etc.

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    1. Yes. Quality trumps everything. ^_^ Yay for keeping on pace.

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  13. Woot, woot listen to you wipsters go!!! I'm on track with my goals and lovin my revision progress. Congrats on all the completion going on. :-)

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    1. On track and lovin' sounds great. Carry on!

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  14. I'm proud of finishing my revision. My other goals were to write a query, synopsis and several short stories, and I'll have to work really, really hard to get those done by the end of the month.

    The first reader to finish reading my novel had really positive things to say about it, which I'm happy about, too.

    Oh, and for those that asked, puppy pictures are up on my blog: http://bethanysmith.net/blog/

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    1. Congrats on finishing the revision and best wishes with those other goals. Now I must go look at puppy pics. ^_^

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  15. Made 2,711 words today on the MS. Coming along after the rocky start Monday. Still mulling things over, but feel a little better. Wrote a scene today that brought a tear to my eye. Hoping it'll get the readers as well. >:) 84,857 on the WIP and 10 more days to go. Not sure it'll be done at 100k, but it looks like I may pretty durn close to that by the end of the month. I'll be taking the 28th off though for my birthday.

    Congrats to all on keeping up with it!

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    1. Sounds like you're making great progress! Love it when my stories make me cry. ^_^

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  16. Things are going well, my goal was to write revision notes up to page 70 of my manuscript, about three a day from when I started. So far I'm almost at 60 with almost a week to go. I can definitely make my goal and even go over it! Can't wait for late May when I aim to be done this stage.

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  17. Ah, well, it's not going so well from here. It's been a tough month with only just over 7K so far. My goal was 20K. I think I'm going to keep the goal and see if I can't push myself some more over the last 10 days. I'll be getting up early each one of them to see if I can't do it. I still have one more blog post to write, but I've read lots of books - so it's really just the WIP that's suffering...and this is wipmadess! Sigh. I guess I'm feeling down and discouraged right now. I usually have writing group on Wednesday nights, but we had to cancel so I didn't get my weekly fix of excitement and brainstorming and fixing holes and what ifs that make you want to come home and put it all on paper...plus I didn't even get to write much today. The kids were crazy and didn't go to sleep on time and...yeah. Well, I should go to bed so I can get up early and have a whole new perspective. :) Great job everyone on meeting and surpassing your goals! I'm so proud of every one of you! Keep it up! :)

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    1. (((((((HUGS)))))))) I love the lots of reading part. That's what I do when I'm discouraged and eventually I'm able to get back to work on my WIP. Rejoice in the 7K and see what happens. We're cheering for you!

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    2. Hang in there Lissajean! It can be discouraging to read of others' achievements when our own don't feel impressive, but you *have* made progress even if it isn't as much as you intended. I'm trying to see these last ten days as "one-third of a month"; it sounds easier to handle than "the last ten days". It makes me think there's still time for us to produce lots of new words.

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  18. Yay! Reaching goals and going beyond is such an exhilarating thing!

    I'm not an official part of the March Madness, but I did start a new MG this month.

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    1. We'll adopt you as an honorary member. ^_^ Yay for a new MG!

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  19. I've done the reevaluating but have decided against revising my goals. I'm not where I'd like to be, but I need the push to reach beyond my comfort zone and try harder. This has been a week with more than the usual number of appointments and meetings so I have to find a way to compensate. I think I might be resorting to more late night writing to get caught up. I'll check in with Anne later today. You never know, I may get something written this afternoon, although I'm off soon for an appointment to get our income tax done. Sigh. It's always something.

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    1. There is always something, isn't there? Pushing beyond my comfort zone during the last few years of March Madness taught me that I could write anytime, anyplace. I used to think I could only be productive in the early morning hours. Hope the tax man was kind to you. ^_^

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  20. I'm a late joiner to this party, but today, I reached 10k with my (first) WIP! I'm thrilled and can't wait to continue this story.
    Thanks for being one of the gracious hosts, and I look forward to celebrating with everyone as we wind down the month! :)

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  21. I've been doing a dreadful job of checking in, but I've been busting my butt writing! My goal was 10,000 words, but I ended up doing lots of slashing, too. Kinda lost track of where I was when I started, but I'm now about 85% done with this bad boy, so I'm definitely feeling happy. Will be back on Twitter soon for wipmadness check-ins!

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    1. The butt busting writing is the whole point of March Madness. Good for you, Lisa! Happy to see you and know that you've been working hard. ^_^

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