Sorry I've not been around!

Although I've been meaning to update this journal all sorts of things have conspired to prevent me from doing so. For the past week or so I've been so ill I've not moved far from the bed and I've been unable to read,write and use the computer (eeek!). So I've been pretty much silent all over the Internet.

Seventy Days of Sweat has now officially finished and I'm in the process of collecting all my words together to see how many I managed to do this time around. I know it's much more then it has been on the other two but I'll make a big post about all of that later this week.

I'm also now part of a British Writers journal, I've not made a post yet but I'll be putting one up about quintessential British life shortly followed up by an introduction post about me. Have a look at all the other posts up at the moment: British Writers

Now off back to catching up!

Seventy Days of Sweat Update

Well I thought since it had been a while I would update you all on my progress in the Seventy Days of Sweat challenge. It's now only got a week to go and I'm really hoping the organisers continue to run another one, since although it doesn't increase my output it does help to build a sense of community and that's important.

This is the third Seventy Days and in the other two although I fell a good number of words short of 60k I did get the goals I wanted done. This time however I decided that I would write at least 60k as well as getting a number of pieces totally finished. I did a rough count up earlier this week and I was just short by 7k, so the good news is I'll hit 60k this time around!

Once it's all finished I'll give my words and proper count and then I'll post up what I've written over this time.

Oh by the way as for the good news I mentioned a couple of posts ago keep your eyes peeled it will be coming soon!

~*~
Telly: Nothing presently
Music: None at present
Choc/Yummy: None at the moment I've only just got up!
Mood: Productive, with a really bad sore throat
Main Writing: Nothing so far except this journal
Flash Writing: Nothing
Reading: Nothing! I wont until I get at least one thing done

Seventy Days of Sweat Part 3

Today marks the start of the third round of Sven's Seventy Days. I will be hopefully writing as much as I can each day - I would say 1000 words which is what I aim for normally but I plan to write more that that if I can.

I've got some 'deadlines' appearing on the horizon so I would like to have as much written as soon as possible so that they are not all stacking up. This will not only please me and give me more tweaking time (although that isn't always a good thing) but my 'editor' as well since he goes through the work at least once before submitting.

As well as working on my main pieces, I'm also going to be attempting to write a piece of flash (work less than 1000 words) a day as part of FAD, an event set up on one of the writing forums I visit. The idea behind this is so that by the end of the month I'll have 30 pieces of flash that I can submit to places. I'm hoping that I will get a good number of decent pieces out of it but I'm prepared for lots of pieces that need work doing to them.

Right now I need to go and get on with some writing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Telly: None although watching Brother 3 playing on the XBOX

Choc/Yummy: Yummy chocolate and crisps

Mood: Happy, but tired

Main Writing: Nothing so far

Flash Writing: Half a piece done

Reading: Once a Rebel by Angela Ashton

Run down of second round

Although this is a long time coming but since the third round of 70 Days of Sweat begins tomorrow I realised that I had to post up what I ended up doing last round.

Fiction 5+K
Urban Fantasy - still a work in progress

Fiction 1-5k
IoF - submitted
LiS - needing typing up and editing
MP - submitted, accepted and published
DSH - submitted and accepted
IS - WIP
Odd Fantasy - WIP
BDSM Piece - WIP

Fiction less than 1k
BaS - to be edited
TC - submitted
Lost - to be edited

And so it ends...for now

Today was the last day of the second round of Seventy Days of Sweat. I'll be putting up my 'word count' later this week once I've finished counting it. Although I wrote much more this time I didn't do as much as I would have liked. However I have had some success with the pieces I've done and I have written much more varied things then I would have done had I not done the challenge.

Hopefully there will be another one to come but I'll post more information up about when I find out more.

I hope everyone who took part enjoyed themselves and accomplished even the smallest goals.

Writing Goals

To make sure I hit deadlines and submit to markets I would like to get to I have a wall-chart that has all the deadlines marked up on it.

I put the 2008 wall-chart up on the first of January and am now currently filling it up. I've got down to March and I have a very busy few months ahead of me. By the end of the year I want to have written much more then I had last year. If this is going to be the one thing I do full-time I need to get down to it and work hard. At present however every time I sit down to write I hear the remaining mince-pies calling me and the boxes of unopened chocolate begging to be opened.

Yesterday I sat down and worked out some plots for a few short pieces that I want to do so I'll be working on them from today.

When you are given a theme it is always fun to see where that one word will take you. It's always a good idea to brainstorm and go from there. I start this process by getting the definition of the word itself then I write down my first thoughts about the word, before letting my mind wander from that point on. Even if you only use one of the ideas you then have lots of other story ideas to go back to at a later date all of which may work in the right place.

My sudden fiction is going well, this year I've set myself the task to write a new piece and send it out every month. I'm currently on 4 for this year so I'm a little ahead of myself but that's so much better then being behind like I was last year.

Seventy Days of Sweat ends next Tuesday I've been doing ok with it although I've not signed in for a month or so due to various reasons but I have been keeping an eye on what I've been writing and how much. I have enjoyed doing this challenge as it has given me a reason to keep focused which is pretty invaluable. Hopefully they will be doing it again because the support from all the different writers has just been fantastic.

Right now I'm going to start work on a short piece as yet unnamed but with a BDSM taste.

First few days of November and a Sweat update

It's the first few days into November and autumn has got it's grip on the country. We went for a walk today and the trees were all in full autumn colours. I collected some leaves which I'm planning on using for a series of cards and paintings although I'll have to find some time to do that!

The writings been going well I've finished another short story yesterday after being ill for the past week hopefully it will be sent out tomorrow. Since that's done I'm now about to start my next piece and am currently sat with a guide book of Paris in front of me. I've not been so this is the next best thing!

The 70 days of sweat is going well, it's been just under three weeks now and my word count is approximately just over 20,000 words which works out to be just under 100o words a day. I've got a clearer idea in my mind now of the projects I'm wanting to work on for the next month or so and I'm even trying to only work on one at a time something I've not attempted before. I'll let you all know how it goes!

And so it begins.....again

Today is the start of the second 70 Days of Sweat (at least this year I'm unsure if they did it last year). It will carry on until the 15th of January and although that is actually 93 days when you take into account any holidays that are coming up you end up with roughly 70 days of writing time. This time the goal is to complete at least one manuscript and write over 60K.

Last time I wrote a good number of pieces on of which was contracted, another is currently being looked at whilst the rest are on the pile of things to be finished/polished/sent out again/edited. They will be sent out but they are not my main priority at the present moment in time. The way things have worked out it turns out that I have a deadline at the beginning of every month until February not including small little 2k pieces that I like to keep my hand at doing. All the main deadlines are for pieces of around 10k and I've only really begun one of them although I have a few ideas of the others but nothing I'm happy about currently.

By writing at least 1000 words a day I hope to get through all of the deadlines without much of a problem since theoretically I should have the pieces written in 10 days each leaving me plenty of time to expand write other things and continue to work on the other pieces. I enjoy doing the Seventy Days of Sweat because by having to sign in every few days it makes me personally accountable for my writing and after the week I've had I really need the boost that this challenge gives me.

I look forward to meeting and getting to know everyone in the challenge and I wish everyone good luck with their journey.

70 Days of Sweat ends

The 70 Days is now over. I started the time saying that I wanted to write 10k since that was the minimum of what I needed to do. I ended up writing 36611 (approx) words.

It's been a bit of a whirl-wind and I am very happy I took part since it taught me a lot about how I write and also how much I can achieve.

In the end I have written the following:

Fiction 5-10k

RTS -submitted
CF - submitted and contracted
Spy story - a wip currently 5k
Vamp story - a wip currently approx 5k

Fiction 1k-5k
Strength - submitted
Vampire drink - needs editing
Latex Fetish - a wip

Fiction under 1k

Strength - submitted
Train journey - needs editing
Summer House - needs editing
wedding - a wip
Mice - needs editing
The cleansing - needs editing

Now I'm working on some more pieces before the next 70 days begins

Seventy Days of Sweat

Writing can be a lonely business, and sometimes it's hard to keep at it day after day without a little encouragement. So when I found a link to the Seventy Days of Sweat I thought I didn't have anything to lose from signing up. Now I find myself looking forward to writing each day and seeing how other people are doing with the challenge.

The idea is that each person writes a few pages each day (preferably 4-6) and so then by the end of the whole thing (September 20th) everyone should have a large amount of writing done.

I pledged to write 10 thousand words but I'm already on almost 4 thousand so I have no idea what sort of word count I will be on by the end.

I wish good luck to all who are taking part and hope everyone has a successful writing time!