I know, I know. I haven’t participated in WIPMarathon in a while. Like, more than a year. I’ve really missed doing it, it’s just that my last year of college was kind of a crazy mess and I stopped participating. But I’m glad to be back and I’m hoping this will motivate me to finally finish my first draft of I Chose the Monster. I think I only have a few chapters left and this draft is getting MASSIVELY long, so I need to just make the final push and get to the end.
Last WC/CC:
Uhh I don’t think I’ve reported my WC/CC since February 2014 (yikes, was it really THAT long ago?!) but at that point my word count was 90,211 and my chapter count was at 31.
Current WC/CC:
WC: 113,944 (lol kill meeee)
CC: 40
WIP Issues This Month:
I tried to do Camp NaNoWriMo this month with a goal of 20,000 words. Let’s just say … I did not reach that goal. Although at least I wrote about 8k words during the month of July, and that’s more than I’ve written in a long time. So I’m trying to feel good about myself even if I didn’t make my goal.
I’m still fighting my low self-esteem and trying not to beat myself up if I don’t write every day, or if my writing isn’t perfect. It’s an uphill battle, but I think it’s getting a little easier.
What I learned this month in writing:
I shouldn’t depend so heavily on my outlines. I have a bad tendency to get too attached to my plans, and then I get stuck because I don’t leave enough room for surprises. At the beginning of July I was feeling a little overwhelmed by all the chapters I’d planned out––but as I got back into writing I Chose the Monster (after a very, very long break … like, I hadn’t touched it in more than a year I think) I realized I didn’t have to stick to what I planned.
Instead, I’ve allowed myself to stray a bit from my outline and to make some more spontaneous decisions about the story. I’ve thrown in a few wrenches here and there if I felt like the story was starting to drag. In other words, I’ve found that my enjoyment of the story is the most important thing right now. If I’m not having fun with the first draft, it’s not going to be fun to read or edit down the line––so I might as well go a little crazy.
What distracted me this month while writing:
Life is hectic right now because I graduated college not too long ago, and now I have to figure out the rest of my life. *Laughs and cries* I don’t really have a job yet, although I’ve been doing some odd-jobs here and there (i.e. working at my mom’s office, working at a summer camp, doing some freelance writing/research, etc.) so that’s all a bit distracting. I don’t really have an excuse because I still have a lot of free time, but … I keep feeling guilty about writing instead of looking for a job since I feel like the latter is more important. But I also don’t want to ignore my writing, so …. *screams into a pillow*
Goal for next month:
I hope to hit 120k by the end of August. It might be optimistic of me to hope that it’ll FINALLY be the end of this freakishly long draft but honestly I don’t know if I’ll even get to the end yet. But, I’ll keep my fingers crossed. (Just kidding, I’ll keep them typing.)
Last 200 Words:
“What happened? Is she hurt?” Gavin demands, kneeling next to me.
I shake my head, trying to pull my flustered thoughts together. “It’s an attack. She just had another one a few minutes ago. A bad one. But she said she was okay …”
“We have to get out of here,” Audrey says.
I glare up at her. “And what? Leave Juliet behind?”
“We’re all going to get killed if we don’t do something now.”
I’m shaking. “If you leave her here, you leave me.”
“No,” Gavin cuts in. “We’re not leaving anyone behind.”
“Then what the hell are we supposed to do?” Audrey is shouting now, waving her gun in the air in a way that makes me cringe. “Make up your goddamn minds!”
I look at Gavin, and he’s looking down at Juliet, and she’s still lying there totally lifeless.
“We bring her inside,” Gavin finally says. “When they attack, we hold them off.”
“But that’s suicide!”
“So is trying to escape.” Gavin looks up, looks around at all of us. “And if we’re going down, I don’t want a single one of us to go down alone.”
Hope you all had a productive writing month! Did you make any exciting accomplishments? Do you have any writing goals for August?
WordFare 