What’s Up Wednesday #10
What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk. The goal of this hop is to help connect writers on their writing journey. You can find out more about the blog hop here.
What I’m Reading
I finished a bunch of horror books, including “Orphans of Wonderland” by Greg F. Gifune, “The Lurking Season” by Kristopher Rufty and “The Pendle Curse” by Catherine Cavendish. At the moment, I’m reading “Dead of Winter” by Brian Moreland and “The Haunting of Sunshine Girl” by Paige McKenzie. I started the year in a horror reading mood.
What I’m Writing
I’ve been quite productive this year, even if I say so myself, heh. I got some inspiration for my seemingly-perpetual WIP, Ghostslayer, and added 6k to the manuscript. So now I’m at 40k words, and with about 30k to go. I also wrote an outline for the rest of the book, so this time I know where I’m headed and don’t have to wait months for inspiration again. I hope to finish the first draft of this one by the end of January.
I also signed up for the #AStoryAWeek challenge, and so far, it’s been a strange experience. I don’t usually write short stories, and for my first one, I wanted to stay true to my preferred genre – dark fiction. But I had trouble finding a suitable plot. So after spending entirely way too much time on creepypasta and not getting inspired in the slightest, I was ready to give up. Then the next day, I opened up MS Word with just one sentence in mind. “Bobby didn’t see it coming”.
Without an hour, I’d written 4k. The story isn’t finished yet (I estimate it’ll need about 2k words more) but I know how it’ll end, and I’m feeling so inspired about it. What an amazing feeling.
What Works For Me
Apparently, short stories do. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in a story or novel and the plot gets so complicated. Writing a short story can be so liberating then. Setting myself five writing goals per day works too – it helps keep me motivated to write every day, it means progress for all my projects, and it’s not overwhelming. I mostly stick to shorter goals, like write 1k words in a specific story, for one of the goals, and then mix it up with filling in interviews, working on the website, and so on, until I have five writing-related goals per day.
What Else is New
I’m still working on client edits, and one of my publishers got back to me with the edits for a manuscript, so I’ll be working on that soon as well. I hope to finish the client edits first, but else I’ll have to combine the two (but I prefer to work on one project at a time, in terms of editing, so that’ll be hectic).
I wish you a great writing week, nad an amazing 2015!
Happy New Year! Good luck with the WiP. Ghostslayer is an awesome title 😀
Thank you! I’ve had some doubts about the title, so I’m glad someone thinks it’s cool too 🙂
I love your idea of setting five writing goals per day. I think I might have to borrow that! I often find myself sitting down and writing with no real direction, which is kind of useless. Thanks for the tip!
You’re welcome. I’m always glad when I can help out fellow authors. 🙂 Let me know if the five goals per day thing works out for you.
Five small writing goals a day is such a great idea! I’d probably have to do more like two writing goals a day, lol. But it would be a start! How fun that you’ve discovered a new love in writing short stories. Have a great week!
It doesn’t matter how many goals you set yourself a day, as long as you stick to it. Two would be a great start! Good luck.
Best of luck with your writing goals this week, Majanka, as well as completing client edits. Hope you have a great one!
Thank you!
I haven’t written a short story in years. I’m not great at them b/c I’m insanely wordy 🙂
Have a great week and happy writing!
Thanks! Happy writing to you too! I’m wordy too, and I always tend to expand on ideas, start with a short and then suddenly write a novella or something; but this time around, I’m forcing myself to stay below 10k.
A short story a week sounds challenging. good luck.
Thank you! It’s been interesting so far.
5 writing goals per day. I think my brain would melt down. I’m so impressed. Have an awesome week!
Heh. 🙂 I try to keep them basic, like 1k words in a particular manuscript, or writing a blog post, or editing 1k words, and so on. Else I think my brain would explode as well!
Finally knowing where you are going with a book is such a relief! I hope the words continue to flow 🙂
Thanks!
Wow! I’m dreadful at short stories, but I’ve never tried just starting with a sentence – that seems like a great idea.
I hope the inspiration keeps coming!
Thank you! Yeah, I’m not great at short stories either, since I always want to make them longer, but now I put my mind to it, it’s not as challenging as I thought.
Good luck with all your writing goals this week! I love your 5 goals a day thing.
And I’m with you, sometimes short snippets of fiction are just the thing. 🙂