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princess-of-prose · 3 years

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My Plans for NaNoWriMo!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Pretentious Bastards and Bitches, Greetings!

As all us writers know, NaNoWriMo (short for National Novel Writing Month) is right around the corner! And that's always exciting!

Even more so for me, as this is my first rodeo!

But, if you've read my last post, you will know I have quite a few other things on my hands that aren't writing. So, logically, I cannot commit to 1,667 words a day. And that's entirely fine. Because I'm not working towards the end result of 50k words; I'm working towards writing every day for at least the month of November, if not longer.

What's my daily goal, then?

Well, if you pay attention to my Instagram stories, you know I make slow progress in the sense of word count. After all, I edit as I go (It makes the actual editing run, once the chapter is done, much quicker, but it also slows me down). And then there's dialogue, which I struggle with way too often. So, I've picked myself a goal that I doubt would be a hindrance to my other activities: 15 mins of speedwriting.

After all, I can always spare 15 minutes of my time to turn on some music and jot down a handful of words. When I know where I'm going with it, there's no doubt I might make 200, maybe even 300 words! And when I don't, then 50 words are still better than nothing.

Obviously, these speedwriting sessions will run by different rules than normal: After all, I can't stop to look up a word, or rephrase a half-baked sentence. But that doesn't pose a problem as is: Whenever I stumble across something that just isn't satisfactory, I write that word, phrase or passage in light green! That way, I know to come back later. I also do that with descriptions or dialogue I don't feel like fleshing out at the moment.

As I stand now, the contents of chapter 1 of TVOS are all noted down, though some still in need of polishing. Therefore, the speedwriting will start at the very beginning of chapter 2!

(But don't worry, the remainders of ch1 will be given proper care and attention during my normal writing sessions: Monday & Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., Saturday from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Sunday from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. as well as whenever I have time and energy.)

I, for one, am very excited to finally participate in NaNoWriMo, albeit in my own way, and I hope that you will continue supporting me on the way!

Love,

A.M.S.<3

#writers #writers on tumblr #literature #nanowrimo

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rigelmejo · 3 years

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Tempted to try Skritter app again (to learn Hanzi because it’s an srs so I’d just do it until I learned “enough”) but I don’t remember if last time they even had mnemonics (and honestly that’s the benefit of a premade thing - I don’t have to do that myself lol)... I feel like last time I tried it, it’s setup was not what I wanted, especially for the price... (and yet, I wanna try and see if it works better than I thought lol). Also I am reading actually reading the Alan hoenig chinese characters book now.

Also tempted to try wanikani app for the same reason but Japanese (again I could just... skip it and continue the Nukemarine decks, and read books I own lol).

Anyway moral of the story is I’m great at wanting to distract myself. Instead of just using what I have.

Also I’ve come to terms with the fact I will just HAVE to do some study separately to build output skills that I’m not doing right now. I’ve been doing L R Method primarily FOR listening comprehension improvement - and it shows. If I want to improve speaking? I’ll need to either add shadowing or do it other times (which is more time than I want to spend per chapter right now). If I want to improve character recognition(so reading skills), I need to do separate Hanzi study or slower extensive/intensive reading where I have more time to dedicate to learning the written word. If I do intensive reading during L R Method I either - slow down the time chapters take to get through by adding that extra step, or don’t actually focus on listening which is what I was aiming to improve. L R improves listening FAST and WELL but to do the other skills i need to do more things or separate.

So I’ve realized right now I should probably just focus on L R Method and realize I’m going to need to do more intensive reading(or Hanzi study) later to help reading recognition, and more shadowing later. I am contemplating adding shadowing once my listening comprehension is better.

If I want to do L R Method through a whole book, adding all the extra steps takes longer so I’m doing those later - maybe toward the end of the book once listening comprehension is better. (For me either focus on one thing and improve noticeably and or focus on several and improve slower in each).

Also, I AM in a sweet spot where when I listen to the audiobook as I read in step 2 of L R Method - I can follow the story. So like, if I’d like to finish reading guardian in a reasonable amount of time that’s my best bet - with the benefit of listening practice and hearing pronunciation of all known/unknown words. (At least until my extensive reading speed surpassed speaking speed).

Recent positives:

1. I reminded myself any study is better than no study. (In the end I imagine... a lot of it boils down to just “did you study 2600 hours” or whatever X is needed for competent language skills in the language you studied... so if I’m doing anything it’s better than nothing).

2. In light of that, i read some manga in Japanese today. Went well. Still baffled I’m capable of following the main idea without a dictionary now. Picking up more varied daily speech ways of saying stuff. Also I remembered bilingualmanga.com exists so I’m using that to look up new word meanings. For the first time in years I am?? Interested in manga again?? (Also yes you can TELL I don’t want to do srs flashcards a la Nukemarine’s memrise courses lol anything but that even though I’d probably progress the Fastest if I just buckled down and did them...)

3. I read 1/3 of Japanese in 30 Hours. I plan to finish it this month. I stopped transcribing it - I’ll get reading practice elsewhere tbh. I just wanna make myself read through a grammar guide tbh. It’s going well. I find this book pretty logical (only odd thing is it teaches masu form first like Genki, and not regular form until lesson 40 - but since I’ve read the first third of Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide it’s a nice contrast in a way). It does describe masu as a helper verb.

4. I have the urge lately to read a lot of the books I already own. Is it the most organized way to study? Nope. But it is studying, and the low pressure of “do what I want, read what I want, work THROUGH materials” is motivating. Just read, it’ll help. I don’t have to be perfect. And I will make use of the books I’ve already bought! In that line of thinking, I am finishing Japanese in 30 Hours, I’ve started reading Reading in Japanese (a 500 page beginner book but lots of big print so let’s say ~300 pages equivalent). When I finish that, I wanna read my mnemonics Japanese kanji book. Then maybe Japanese Sentence Patterns, or my more comprehensive Reading Japanese book. Basically - I figure if I read through what I have, I will reinforce a lot, learn a lot, and at least get some use out of it. Also cause if I wasn’t studying on purpose? I’d read this kind of stuff out of interest! So I might as well read!

5. Also in light of that I’m finally buckling down and reading the Alan hoeing Chinese Characters book (I know, who am I?). I’m not going over old chapters - I could, but also not trying to be perfect... just trying to FINISH the book for once. The Word Brain said words take 5 minutes to learn - usually seeing them 5 times in ideal timing to remember (spaced repetition). Well I’m not doing flashcards. But some of these words I’ve seen plenty before. So maybe reading my stuff will finally cement them better. I’m also hoping the advice of mnemonics help, will help make the memories stick better (I AM still making a sound mnemonic for every hanzi). Realistically plenty of these Hanzi will not stick, but having a mnemonic now maybe means next time I see them in reading they’ll start being remembered easier. Plus I have like 2 other Hanzi books - so if I read Alan hoenigs book and they don’t stick, maybe they’ll stick better with the next book reinforcing. Basically - in reading I got some to stick, but want to speed up the process with some mnemonics lol. Also? Again Skritter seems appealing if only because maybe I could do 2000 Hanzi in 2-3 months with srs.... but of course the problem there is: will I DO srs or hate flashcards too much? Whereas reading a book? I can do it, if readings all I need to do.

6. Inspired to read I read 2 more mental health self help books this past week, am reading 2 more that have exercises, and it reminded me when the year started I said to myself any book would count as book read goals if I wanted to read it. So maybe I Can just read my learning books for fun, my fiction books for fun, you know? Maybe I should do that more again. At any rate, the open minded idea to read anything I want without pressure to “do it in a perfect way” made me feel much more free and motivated to do things.

7. I’m back to working out a little, on account of my stomach medicine helping with the pain a bit! Wooh! I saw a video that yeah made me feel gay like everyone else who watched ToT but also the girl had a hella cool ab routine so I am copying it I’d love to be strong like her. And surprisingly, I can actually do a modified version of it (so like stand up bicycle crunches instead of laying down, knee planks instead of regular). So I can do that ovo)/

8. I got a gift card so I bought 2 Chinese novels at about ~2 ease rating (from that rec list I posted). So they should be 小王子 reading level. I’ve tested them both by reading online snippets and I could follow them. So I’m gonna make a goal to read them extensively. (And now that I know Google translate can lookup words in pics I might underline unknown words to look up after finishing each chapter). It would be cool to finish more novels! And the more I read, the easier reading will get! It’s that pages read goal baby lol! One of the novels is 撒野 so I’m excited for that (and hear it’s gonna have a drama). The other is by Ye hua (I think that’s his name), but I didn’t get 活着, I got a different novel he’s written that I was more interested in.

#rant #may #may progress #so what did I learn lol?#that I am barely doing anything I planned to do lol #at least I’m doing something lol

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ambermorant · 3 years

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Achieve Your 2021 Writing Goals

For the current year, my goal is to achieve 2,000 words per day. It has gone a bit slow this year thus far, but I am still working hard at it. Right now, my best day this month was around 1,000 words. So, half of what I wanted to do, but it has been better than nothing. However, there are a few things that I am doing and have done that I will continue to implement throughout my year to see what works. At the end of the year, I will follow up on this and list what worked the best.

Word Sprints

These are probably the best methods that I have used and know my average from them because I do them so well. For a 15-20-minute sprint, I can push around 300-500 words depending on how into the scene I am. Now, these are so much better to do with a group of friends and fellow writers, but you can do these by yourself as well. If I do ones by myself, I have to be mindful of myself and keep track of the time. It’s not always as engaging for me to have one by myself as I can’t compare myself and attempt to beat someone else, but it can work. Here are a few ways you can do word sprints by yourself to reach your writing goal

4TheWords

For those who love video games and having a narrative that drives you forward to write, the website 4TheWords is amazing. Instead of having specific times like 15 minutes, you get a bit more of a buffer, and in that time, you have to write a certain amount of words that can range from under 100 words to 2400 words. Each of these is accompanied by a monster that you are defeating. There are also a few quests and a full storyline you can follow that gives you challenges to defeat a certain amount of creatures. During certain times of the year, 4TheWords also contains events with other quests in them Above all, my favorite thing is I have an avatar in the game which is customized the further you get into the storyline and events.

If you join 4TheWords with my code, you get extra crystals to use toward your subscription CMEJB59943

WordKeeper

This is an iPhone/iPad app that I use as well. When I got it, I was thankful it was a one-time charge, but if you actively use it, it is so worth the monthly subscription. I use it to track my daily writing and goals. So, if I am working on a project and need to write every day, then I know I need to write a specific amount of words that day because of that app. It even celebrates when you hit your daily goal. Right now, I have about four projects on there running and have about 6 others that I have completed through it. The only piece that I don’t use in the app is the timer which I feel I should start using more often. In the app, it can time you either counting down or counting up and when you stop the timer, you input how many words you’ve written or what your total word count is now, and it will put this all into the project for you and then also include how long it took you to write the book. My favorite thing about the app is that it even tells me how many total words I have written and implemented into the app. Seeing that since I have owned the app I wrote 449,000 was amazing and awe inspiring to me because it means I am almost halfway to writing a total of 1,000,000 words which is where so many people state you are perfecting your craft.

Pomodoro

If you are a person who likes to do writing sprints by yourself and wants something with little bells and whistles, think of using a focus based app. Focus To-Do is on iPhone and Windows (I’m unsure of other platforms) and has a big red timer for about 15 minutes on 5 minutes off. You can set these to go for as long as you want. If you want something a bit more based on helping the ecosystem, Forest – stay focused is a great app to use. There is also a chrome extension. Both promote you not to touch your phone or the internet so you are forced to work on something. Through doing this, you can also have a tree grown because of your focus somewhere in the world. Other Methods I will implement

Dictation

This has been something I have worked hard to conquer. It is difficult when I have a bunch of people around me. However, when I am home alone, I turn on Dragon Dictation and start cranking out as many words as I can. I ignore as many grammatical mistakes as I can and keep going. Sometimes it doesn’t work out when a word isn’t recognized, but it also forces me to say a sentence that flows easily. I do not recommend getting their microphone. Instead, get something like a Yeti microphone that is high quality that will help the program catch your words easily, and then if you ever get on a podcast or other live event, you have something that will make you sound clear.

Leaving The House

Alright, I cannot do this right now, but I hope we all will eventually be able to do this again. I used to leave the house often just to get some words written. This was amazing when I was alone with my son. We could run off to McDonald’s or a local indoor playground area like Chuck E. Cheese and he would run around while I pumped out some words because he wouldn’t bother me nearly as much.

So what are your plans to get your own writing goals out?

Achieve Your 2021 Writing Goals was originally published on Amber Morant

#4thewords #dragon dictation #pomodoro #word sprints #wordkeeper #writing goals

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todisturbtheuniverse · 6 years

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2017 Year End Writing Review

While I don't do monthly reviews anymore, I figured it would still be fun to post an annual review; I've been doing that for several years now and it's fun to look back on it.

I did not post very much fic this year. I wrote some. I posted less. I got very into this mindset of really polishing fanfiction, stressing about posting it if it wasn't up to quality, or whatever. So in total, I only posted 13 short-ish fics this year, made no progress posting in my one major WIP, and...you would think that would mean there wasn't a lot of writing.

There was a lot of writing. Slightly more than 500,000 words' worth. But most of it was original fiction, so I'll talk about it under the read more. (Bless you if you make it through this post, because it is lengthy.)

What I Worked On

Yet another draft of my 2013 NaNo novel. Is this thing taking shape yet? Somewhat. It is my whale. My big, dumb whale. My I-planned-a-trilogy-and-bit-off-more-than-I-could-chew story. My testing-everything-I-know-and-can-learn-about-writing story. But I can't give it up, can't leave it alone, always come back to it, think about it daily. Someday it will get there. Someday I will at least think, This will do.

A full draft of a new novella and associated planning/character backstory/tidbits that don't quite fit in-story but were useful to write. A cantankerous witch, her spurned fairy lover, and her plucky apprentice try to solve the my-garden-dies-every-night-and-I-don't-know-why problem. It's a fun bit.

NaNoWriMo 2017: A post-apocalyptic story of friendship, vengeance, and overcoming pride. There are gun fights! There are ominous rocks! There is a lot of sarcasm! I haven't yet reread it, but it's on my to-do list in 2018. The planning for this novel alone nearly constituted the word count of an entire novel. I went all-out. It was really fun.

@hollyand-writes tagged me for the following, so I'll roll that into this post as well:

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favourite works you’ve created this year (fics, art, edits, etc!) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you’ve brought into the world in 2017. Tag as many writers/artists/etc as you want (fan or original!) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works. <3 (Please feel free to consider yourself tagged if you want to do this!)

A Shadow, Passing Through & Before I Embark: A pair of fics where I explored some of that territory in Act 2 of DA2 where Hawke and Leandra might have repaired their relationship a little bit before. You know. I've always felt pretty hostile toward Leandra; she puts a lot of blame and responsibility on her children when it has no business being there. But I also attempted a DA2 replay this year, and found her occasional comments in Act 2...interesting. I saw them in a different light. And a mushy, selfish part of me wanted to see Hawke get some kind of closure--some kind of improvement--with her mother before she died. Anyway, though I did not make it all the way through DA2 (I always, always, always stall before All That Remains, ever since my mom died in 2013, because it makes so. many. complicated. feelings), I liked picking it up again. I missed Hawke, and I missed Isabela.

With My Whole Heart: A little more Cassandra/Josephine fluff, sparked by an anon prompt. When I finally started thinking about it, this little fic just...flowed. I think I wrote it in an hour and a half, non-stop. It helped me remember how writing fanfiction used to feel for me. Just fun and nice and kind of wonderful.

Practicality, Revisited: A Kima/Allura fic. I'd love to explore more of these two. Written for the Critical Role Relationship Week, which I adored the idea of--I got some fun match-ups to write about, but this was by far my favorite.

Flying, Falling: Ryder/Vetra. I wish my enthusiasm for Andromeda had not dropped off so damn abruptly (not the game’s fault, I don’t think; I just lost interest even though I enjoyed it); this, and the other two I wrote for this pairing, were such fun little fics. Maybe someday I'll take another dip into it. Video games in general had a hard time holding onto me this year. But this one is really sweet, and on a reread, I really liked it. The banter, especially. I like a good banter.

Overall Thoughts

This post has no structure and is getting abysmally long, so I'm going to try and wrap up.

I wrote a lot this year. In nine out of twelve months, I wrote more than 30K words. Of the remaining three months, I wrote more than 20K in two of them and less than 10K in only one. I had a streak where I wrote something every single day from August 30 to December 14. The longest in memory, and I'm sure the longest, ever. I had a pair of back-to-back crazy months: planning NaNo in October with 72,556 words, and actually doing NaNo in November with 100,227 words--not all of them for that novel, but about ¾ of them. I really got my discipline together this year.

I worked on more original fiction, more often, than ever before, too. I miss fanfiction, but I am happy about that.

It was the most productive word-count year on record, at just over 500K. Beats out my previous most productive year, 2015, by more than 125K words. I wrote 373,467 words that year. It was also easily most productive in terms of time spent writing; I put my ass in chair and wrote for about 300 hours in 2017.

Goals

Last year's goals seemed to work out for me. I didn't always adhere to them perfectly, but the spirit of them led to a very productive year. So with that in mind, I'm going to reprise most of them:

Spend a little time writing every day: this was not true 100% of the year, but making an attempt meant I tried more, and led to more success.

No word count goal; I just want to make sure I'm keeping track with my handy-dandy spreadsheet.

Permission to write ficlets, drabbles, and even multi-chaptered fics as I want to. Still working on balance between original fic and fanfiction. After revisiting some of the joy of writing fanfiction late last year, I'd like to get back to it again, in some capacity. But multi-chapter fics with coherent stories, again, I would like to have a full first draft written before I start posting. It drastically cut down the WIPs I have floating around out there.

Get back to These Chains. I did some work on it mid-2017 to the tune of like, three more chapters, but didn't post. I have it planned out. I just need to do the thing.

I hope that, for all of you, you find satisfaction in your creative endeavors this year, in whatever art or practice that may be.

#universe writes about writing #this year was kind of bananas

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