Saturday, September 10, 2016

100-for-100 Challenge Report (aka i've fallen and i can't get up)

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Thursday, September 8th was the final day of the 100-for-100 Challenge hosted by Go Teen Writers. In case you're unfamiliar with that, it's a challenge to write at least 100 words daily for 100 days.


So. Since the beginning of the summer (June 1st), I have written every day.* Um, wow. And I don't mean wow, look at me, I'm such a fabulous superhuman writer. Because I'm not. (More on that in a minute.) I mean, wow, did I actually manage to follow through and beat the challenge? I honestly thought I would fail.

*Minus the twelve grace days I took. Participants were allowed one grace day a week, and one grace week throughout the duration of the challenge. I saved my grace week for family holidays, but we never took any, so I just kept writing.

In a way, the challenge seemed to drag on and on. Around the half to three-quarters mark, it felt like it would never end. But then I think I just fell into a daze of writing exhaustion and typed with numb fingers until, oh look, it's over. And in a way, it passed quite quickly, and it doesn't feel terribly long ago that I started out.

A hundred days is a long time to sustain something. So I thought I'd recap the challenge by sharing with y'all what I did to stay on track (in hopes of bolstering your own writing habits and figuring out how the pumpernickel I did it myself . . . because if I don't write it down, I won't internalize it). And I'll also share the pros and cons of writing daily. I sense lists coming up! Because lists are life, am I right, my questing quizzle-birds?*

*What those are, I have no idea. Somebody make up some facts and add them to Wikipedia, quick!

I like charts almost as much as lists, so before we get to those, here's my word counts for the challenge, if you're interested:


How I Survived



  • I set a timer on my phone to go off at 8 pm daily. I'm often busy earlier in the day, so if I hadn't written anything by the evening, I had that automatic reminder to get cracking. Most days when my alarm started tinkling sweet music, I had not written a single word. I wasn't always able to put in my daily words right when the alarm went off, either, but having it ring near the end of the day kept that goal hovering at the forefront of my mind the rest of the evening. Some nights, I sat in my PJ's on my bedroom floor to throw out a hundred words before bed. There were even a few nights where I'd already turned off the lights before I remembered, shoot, I haven't written yet! Let's just say there were a couple bleary-eyed, my-brain-is-dead writing sessions this summer.
  • That's basically it.
  • But a one-item list is lame, so let me think about this harder.
  • . . .
  • . . .
  • Little is okay. Only two days did I break into a four-digit wordcount. Only twice! And only twenty-two days saw me crest 500 words. To say it another way, the only way I could manage to keep this up all summer was to be okay with producing small bits at a time. I just didn't have the stamina to come up with a ton of story every day. But even a couple paragraphs moves the book forward. It's that forward movement, that momentum, that's important.
  • I let myself write junk. On busy days where my creative juices were low and the words just clunked together like tin cans in a dryer, I refused to freeze up. I wrote down those ugly tin can words because they were words. When I sensed the pacing doing weird things, or plot holes forming, I left myself notes and plowed onwards. To keep my momentum, I didn't have time or energy to go back and fix things. Besides, this is a first draft. It's not supposed to be pretty.
  • I slacked on research. You guys know this book (The Prophet's Key) involves globetrotting and consequently, research. I had some stuff done beforehand, but once the challenge began, I very quickly realized that my schedule didn't have time for in-depth research AND daily writing. So there are plenty of places where my description is nonexistent, where I made up placeholder names and directions, and where the timelines are simply not discussed because I have no idea how many days the characters have been traveling. It was about getting the story down, not about getting all my facts right. That's for editing.


The Pros of Writing Daily

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  • Momentum. If you push yourself to add something to the story each day, you keep yourself from getting stuck. With that self-imposed challenge hanging over your head, you force yourself to push through, even if the result is messy. This makes it easier to pick up again the next day. The work is fresh in your mind, so moving your characters one step further doesn't take so much forethought.
  • Productivity. I wrote 32,768 words this summer. It's not as much as I expected, but it's probably more than I would've written had I not participated in the challenge.
  • You realize how valuable a few minutes are. It doesn't take long to write 100 words. I'm not the fastest writer, and I usually did it in five to ten minutes. Some days I wrote two or three times the minimum in that timeframe. You don't need three hours of free time to get writing done! Yes, those long stretches can be great, but writing is sustainable even when you're busy. A few minutes before you go to work or school, a bit of time snatched over a meal break, a quarter hour in the evening . . . It's doable.
  • You form a habit. Eventually, it became more natural to sit down to write every day. I don't think I'll keep writing each and every day like this (which I'll explain in the con list), but now I know I can write little bits more often.


The Cons of Writing Daily

"I've fallen and I can't get up." -Alfred from Larryboy and the Fib from Outer Space


  • Some of your work is going to be horrible. Like I mentioned earlier, some days I just wrote filler. I'm not real happy about that, but there it is. Yes, first drafts are messy, but at the same time, I feel like I just made more work for myself later on.
  • Burn-out. To be honest, I'm relieved the challenge is over, because I'm feeling kind of dry. I am so ready to take a break now, which college is forcing me to do. Having to come up with another piece of the story on a daily basis sometimes stretched my creativity and even my desire to be writing.
  • If you're not careful, you can get wrapped up in hitting your wordcount goal instead of enjoying the process. I'm a goals person to begin with, so it was easy to fall into the trap of focusing on numbers rather than immersing myself in the experience of creating something from nothing. Parts of this draft probably suffered for it. But at least it's written. You can't edit what's not there, right?
  • You may train yourself to write in spurts, so when it comes time for a long haul, you're not strong enough. It's like sprinting every day instead of training for a marathon. Since the challenge ended, I haven't yet tried to write for a couple hours at a time, but it may be a stretch when I do. I'm not sure if my brain will, after writing a couple hundred words, say, "Okay, I've done my due diligence, goodbye." (Though this might be remedied by writing several spurts in one day? And decreasing the intervals between spurts day by day?)


My conclusion is . . .

I'm glad I participated in the challenge! It feels good to have beaten it, and I'm over 30k words further in my story than I was at the start of summer. But am I going to keep writing every single day? Probably not. I've come to appreciate the value of breaks. A good balance for me personally would be writing four to five days a week, if I was a full-time author. As it is, present circumstances may allow only one or two days a week.


But I don't regret participating, and I may even join in again one day! It was a good motivator to keep plowing through a difficult, stubborn first draft.


Did any of you participate in 100-for-100? Have you ever? Would you ever consider it? What do you think about developing a daily writing habit?

39 comments :

  1. Wow, that's quite a feat! Good for you, Tracey!
    I've never taken the 100-for-100, but it sounds like something worth trying!
    I like the idea of a daily writing habit. The problem is that sometimes I forget where I am going with a story, so I do need to take my breaks now and then.

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    1. Thank you, Blue! I'm about ready to collapse, but it feels good to have done it. :) I like the idea of writing more frequently too, but the execution doesn't always go smoothly... That's true about taking breaks to figure out (or remember) where you're going with the story! It's kind of hilarious how I find myself forgetting what I had planned and totally deviating. XD

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  2. Wow, if this isn't a motivating post, I don't know what is. At least 100 words every day! You go girl!

    I wish I would have participated in the 100-for-100 - as it is, I hardly wrote anything this summer. :P I have been trying to write every day for the past few weeks, however, and although I haven't been half as consistent as I originally hoped, that intention has helped me make progress on my current draft. If I can get to the point where writing every day is second nature, I'll be very happy. :)

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    1. I'm glad! The point was to motivate, not to make myself look good, after all. (Because if any of you could see what I've written this summer, trust me, it's not anywhere close to "good!" XD) But thank you!

      Summer is a hard time to write sometimes. Having the structure of the school year can make it easier to stay on track with stuff like that. But that's awesome you've been cracking down on it lately! Yay for progress! :D

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  3. Good for you, for doing it! Writing is hard, I need to write.

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    1. Thanks, girl! <3 It IS hard sometimes, ugh. Right now I don't even want to look at my manuscript. It's bad. XD You and I can drag ourselves back on our feet and send each other motivational kittens.

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  4. Ahhhh, you're SO amazing, Tracey! Honestly. I can't imagine writing every day for 100 days. Like that would literally suck the life out of me. XD It was hard enough to write 21k (I think?) during July so...*cough* yesh.

    I'm actually trying to write 15k during the month of September, which means I'm aiming for 500 words a day. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened yet. I can't seem to motivate myself to sit at the computer and WRITE. I don't know if I should lower my word goal for the month or just try to push myself. *sighs* The struggle of a writer. (But hey, I *have* written some words so that's something!)

    Once again, YOU ARE AMAZING. I can't tell you that enough. Honestly, this post has just inspired me to go write again. THANKS MUCHLY, FRIEND. <3

    *surveys comment* *beams because it's actually not 2,000 pages long* :P

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    1. Awwgsh, thank you, Mary! I think it may have sucked the life out of me... XD I feel like writing 21k in a month would be harder than writing every day for 100 days. It would be a lot more intense! Like I've said before, you're a superhero.

      Eeep, good luck on your September goals! But ugh, I often don't know whether to adjust my goals or push myself to meet them either. :P Whichever way you go, I know you'll do amazing!

      I'm so glad that was the result! #goalmet GO WRITE. GO BE AWESOME. YOU CAN DO IT. <3

      *applauds you* XD

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  5. So I wrote up a very long comment and then Google decided to accidentally sign me out and ate it. -_- Ahem. So I don't remember what I said but I will try again. XD

    CONGRATS!!! You finished! You did great! :D *throws confetti and cake at you* As someone who did the 100-for-100 challenge a couple years back, I totally understand all your feelings/thoughts -- especially the burn out. ;) Don't worry, you'll be able to get back into writing longer amounts again, I'm sure of it! You'll just need a break, I think. It's kind of exhausting, isn't it? O_O I liked having the daily continuation of progress, but it taught me that I just am not a slow-and-steady daily writer; I'm a binge-writer who writes in large 1-2K in a day spurts and then will go several days or a week or two without writing. Even during NaNo, I've found I'm more likely to write 3K in a day and then skip one than to write the 1667 words every day. I need my breaks. XD Otherwise I just get burnt out and tired and can't focus or figure out what I should be writing. Maybe that means I'm lazy to just wait till I'm inspired, but right now I can't stand writing to be a chore. Which is probably why I've only written 16K this year. >.> I'm a mess. XD But hey, 32K in 100 days is a lot! You did fantastic! :D And it looks like the timing worked out good, so that you got stuff done and now can take a break at the beginning of college (hope that's going well by the way!). Congrats on finishing! You're amazing! And congrats on all those words! ^_^ I hope you have a great break and that you'll be refreshed and ready to write again when you recover! :) *huggles* <3

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    1. Silly Google! That's no fun when it gobbles up comments. >:P

      *picks confetti off cake* Thank you, girl! You did the challenge a couple years ago? I didn't know that--very cool! It's nice to hear from another "survivor." XD It is kind of exhausting, but like you said, I just need a break and then I'll be able to start writing again.

      I found the day after my weekly break was often easier too. I think I'd function best having about 2-3 days off each week just to let ideas percolate in my mind a little longer. When writing becomes a chore...blegh. Just blegh. Because we WANT to be enjoying it, but we can sometimes fall into viewing it as a "have to," not a "want to." And that takes a lot of the fun out of it.

      Thanks so much for the wonderful comment, Deborah! *huggles it and you* I appreciate that so much! (And yes, college is amazing and busy, but I know I'm going to grow so much. That's an exciting thought. ^_^)

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    2. Yup, I did it in 2014, when it ran from like September to sometime in December I think? Which meant it encompassed NaNo that year... the same year I was on a roadtrip for like two weeks in November. Let me tell you, I was very glad for my grace week and weekly grace day. XD I can't believe I survived it. :P

      Yay! Glad it's amazing! :)

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    3. Okay, cool! But oh my word. It happened right over NaNo??? :O :O :O That would be insane. Go you!

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  6. GOOD FOR YOU! Wow, writing every day is tough, but I'm sure you did great. :D

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    1. Thank you, Emily! :D I'm not sure how great all the words were, but at least they're there. You can't edit what you haven't written, right? XD

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  7. AAAAAHHH, TRACEY. YOU ARE SO AMAZING!!!! Look at what you accomplished. I AM SO PROUD OF YOU. I don't think I've EVER had a writing stretch that long. :O I AM IN AWE.

    A lot of what you said made me think of NaNoWriMo. BUT 100 DAYS. NaNo is verrry demanding, but it just flies by since it's just a month. I can't imagine taking on a 100 day commitment. I just...I'M IN AWE.

    I love the chart. And I think it's AWESOME how you did over 100 words on so many of those days. I'd probably get like, exactly 100 words and call it quits by the end of each day. BUT LOOK AT ALL THOSE WORDS.

    Setting a timer to remind yourself to write each day is genius! And I totally get that just-trying-to-get-words-down mentality. I fall into that a LOT during NaNo. I remind myself I need to actually make PROGRESS and ignore the wordcount. It's really easy to fall into that. And writing a few minutes here and there DOES add up so much! Before I ever did NaNo, I always had the mindset that I had to set out long amounts of time to write. But then NaNo happened and I learned writing 100 or so words here and there really can stack up. AND it absolutely becomes a habit! The first week of NaNo is always the hardest for me. It feels like so much WORK. But by the second week, writing a ton every single day has just become life. And by the last couple of weeks I've gotten so used to it and so into the story, it's not TOO big of a deal. (Though it's still always a relief when December finally comes. XD)

    Anyways, I'm just babbling about NaNo! It's just every single thing you said made me think of my NaNo experiences. But, again, the 100-for-100 challenge daunts me even more than NaNo because 100 days is a LONG time. o.o I just...I can't get over this. YOU ARE AMAZING. And now you have nearly 33k more words under your belt. THAT IS SO MANY WORDS.

    YOU ARE AWESOME, TRACEY. Now go take your well deserved break. You've earned it! *gives cake and throws confetti* YAY TRACEY.

    (Also I want a story with questing quizzle-birds! THAT IS SO GREAT. XD)

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    1. Awwwgsh, thanks. *blushes* ^_^ In a way it felt like forever, but in another way I can't believe it's already over.

      That's true, there are a lot of similarities to Nano! Or at least, from what I know (and imagine) Nano is like. XD

      Heehee, charts are so fun. I liked keeping track of my daily counts... I might even start doing that on a regular basis. (I already have a writing log in a notebook, but I always round the wordcounts to the nearest hundred, so I don't know the exact amount I write in a month.) Oh, trust me, there were plenty of days I wrote the bare minimum and called it quits!

      Yes, the timer was probably the most effective tool I used! Progress over wordcount--a much better mentality to have. Because progress doesn't always manifest as words being added to the manuscript. Sometimes progress is brainstorming, or taking notes, or researching, or rewriting. *nods*
      Absolutely, the way we can form a habit is great! Doesn't it say somewhere that people can develop a new habit in 30-60 days?

      No, I love all the Nano babbles! It really relates to the 100-for-100. YOU'RE AMAZING TOO. <333

      More cake and confetti! Yay! You guys will fatten me up with all these virtual goodies. XD

      (Oh my goodness, yes. Those need to be in a story now. o.o)

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    2. *creeps into conversation* That's so funny you feel that way about NaNo, Lauri, because I'm the other way! O_O Yes, sometimes it's a little hard to start, but I tend to find it easier in the first week of NaNo because I'm excited and haven't run out of inspiration yet or goteten burnt out. And then in the middle it starts to be a drag and I get tired... and by the end I'm usually like AGH WHAT R WORDS and do one last desperate push to the end and then win and collapse and vow not to touch a word for at least a month. XD I'm not sure I knew it was so opposite for us, but I absolutely LOVE how it becomes a habit to you! :) I've always admired how well you handle NaNos, so I guess that's why! :D I've just never seen you explain it like that and now I'm fascinated. XD

      @Tracey: I thiiiink someone once said that if you do something every day for like 3 weeks it's a habit? I'm sure there's lots of different theories but that's one I've heard. :P

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    3. I love how it works so differently for the two of you!

      @Deb: Ooh, even shorter. I'm not sure which one is the most accurate, but either way, habits obviously don't take long to form. (Which is a good thing AND a bad thing. XD)

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    4. I didn't realize I've never mentioned that's how NaNo goes for me! I think because I've only just recently realized that...here 6 NaNos later. *snorts* I always THINK the first week is gonna be the best, but it's hard for me getting into the story and writing and writing and WRITING. But once I've been in the story for a few chapters, and formed a writing habit (and gotten my mind used to the idea that I'll be holed up in my room writing for a month XD), it becomes much easier. But trust me, I'm always ECSTATIC when the end comes around. It can be so tiring. Z_Z

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  8. Congrats on finishing! That's AWESOME!
    I like the idea of writing every day. I might try this challenge sometime. :)

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    1. Thanks so much! I'd recommend giving it a go sometime! I'm not sure when Go Teen Writers will hold another one, but you can always make it a self-imposed challenge, too. It definitely gives you a taste of what a published authors life might be like (having to write every day). :)

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  9. TRACEY DYCK. YOU DID IT YOU DID IT!!! HURRAH!!! *raises sword in triumph for you*

    I loved reading this post - it was so much fun seeing how you tackled 100-for-100! I may or may not have to do a post like this of my own ...

    ~ Savannah
    scattered-scribblings.blogspot.com

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    1. THANK YOU, DEARIE! :D You should definitely do a post too! I'd enjoy seeing how it went for you in greater detail. (Especially since you wrote over 60k! o.o)

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    2. Oh, and what's this I see? You've made your blog public? How exciting! When I have a moment, I'll pop on over. ^_^

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  10. I've participated in this challenge a few times. It's really helped me in a lot of ways. Many of which you stated. It helped with consistency primarily, but I too dealt with burn out. Yesssss to the Larry Boy reference. I love that movie. XD

    storitorigrace.blogspot.com

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    1. Oh, really? Cool! Yep, consistency: great. Burn out: not so great. But at least given enough time, we can build up our creative juices again. YAY, SOMEONE WHO KNOWS THE LARRYBOY REFERENCE. VeggieTales was my childhood. XD

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  11. Great job (and great post)! I started the 100-4-100, but didn't get very far. I got married in August, so wedding stuff got in my way. Yes, I fall into the "Old Fogies" group on GTW. I've been reading it since I was in high school and I'm still hanging around...

    Anyway, I would like to try my own 100-4-100 again in October, I think. I actually do better in short spurts than I do when I try to go at it for an hour or so. I didn't think this would be the case, but I have an app on my phone that allows me to start a timer when I start writing and when I stop and put in my word count it tells me my words-per-hour ratio. When I looked at my stats, the 15-20 minute sessions were much better than the hour+ sessions. I don't know. Maybe I'm just weird.

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    1. Hey, thanks, Ashley! (And welcome here!) Getting married is most definitely a good excuse for not finishing the challenge. Congrats on that, by the way. I guess I fall into the "Old Fogies" group as well--I only started following GTW within the last year or so, but I'm closing in on 21, so I'm no longer a teen. XD But the posts are so good, I'm not planning to leave anytime soon!

      Ooh, that's a great idea! All the best with that! Is that the Wordly app??? Because I've been using it too, and I've noticed I write faster in short bursts as well! Such a handy dandy little app, isn't it? I just wish I could add more than one project without paying. :P

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    2. GTW does have good posts, especially if you write YA, so I don't plan on leaving either. Lol.

      It is the Wordly app! I also wish there were more available on the free version... I know $4.99 isn't a ton of money, but it does feel kind of steep for an app.

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    3. Which I do (write YA, that is), so yes--lots of reason to stay. :)

      Nice! Yeah, I don't usually spend money on apps and stuff. With the exception of iTunes, I don't buy much of ANYTHING digital, actually. *shrugs*

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  12. I participated, too! It was a lot of fun, although I had to reallyyy push myself to get to 100 words some days. It would have been better if I had had a better idea of where I wanted my story to go, but since I was kind of stuck I wrote junk a lot of days too. xD
    And yeah, even though it may not be my greatest writing, it totally feels great to have finished! I was super proud of myself for actually sticking it out to the end. :) And I was ready to take a break, too-- I started to switch to another story when I was finished, but I was having trouble getting into it, so I haven't written in a week and it's actually been kind of nice. :-)

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  13. For some reason, a comment isn't showing up here. Emily G said: I participated, too! It was a lot of fun, although I had to reallyyy push myself to get to 100 words some days. It would have been better if I had had a better idea of where I wanted my story to go, but since I was kind of stuck I wrote junk a lot of days too. xD
    And yeah, even though it may not be my greatest writing, it totally feels great to have finished! I was super proud of myself for actually sticking it out to the end. :) And I was ready to take a break, too-- I started to switch to another story when I was finished, but I was having trouble getting into it, so I haven't written in a week and it's actually been kind of nice. :-)

    My reply: Some days were hard to push through, weren't they? Way to go for sticking it out! You *should* be proud! But yeah, I had a similar problem with not knowing where the story was going. I mean, I have an outline, but I was in a part where the details were fuzzy because I needed to do some research... and I didn't do the research... so that was interesting. XD Let's enjoy our time off from writing! I'm sure before we know it, we'll be ready to start it up again. ^_^

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  14. Congrats, Tracey!!! You did so good! I'm proud of you, sweetums! ;) (I don't know why I called you that. But whatever. I'm a bit weird but you already knew that.)

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    1. THANK YOU, CHLOE!!! Love you, sweetums! ;D You're awesome, sis.

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  15. Congratulations on conquering the 100 for 100 challenge! I started out participating, but derailed partway through and abandoned it. I absolutely love your idea for setting a reminder at the end of the day to make sure that you write something. I really want to try that now. Remembering to write regularly is such a challenge sometimes.

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    1. Thank you, Imogen! I came so close to abandoning it myself. Glad you found the reminder idea helpful! Let me know if it works for you. :) It definitely is a challenge to make time to write. For me, I've spent a long time envying people whose daily schedules are consistent enough they can schedule in writing at the same times every week. But I've come to accept that doesn't work for me, so I try to develop a mental habit of LOOKING for writing times rather than continuously failing to write for, say, two hours every Wednesday night. (Whew, didn't mean to go into a ramble there! XD)

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  16. Well done! I'm so glad you made it through. Well done! Personally I would never participate, the main reason being, of course, that I'm a handwriter (which stops me from participating in, like, everything. NaNo? Forget it. Anything with wordcount goals does not happen because, ha, I don't know how many words I've written!), but also because 100 words sounds like a horrible number to me. That might be a paragraph of description, it might be like a quarter of a conversation, it ... would not be a full scene. So I would be patchworking scenes together day by day and I am not a patchworker. I very rarely write a whole chapter at a time, but I do tend to write a scene. My daily goal is 1k. If people ask me if I write every day I say yes, but it's probably normally more like six days out of seven ... Still, I start getting v stressed and anxious if I go more than one day without writing. Honestly I tend to prioritise it over almost anything (hence my blog suffers!) which is how I can get about 1k a day done. We must also bear in mind that I only work three days a week so I'm a lot less busy than I was when I was in school! And I guess I wrote a lot less then. (I'm loving my gap year!) So yeah, I can't really remember what point I was making ... oh yes, patchworking. I think it's important to write as often as possible and if I do only have time for 100 words then so be it, but I would much rather write ten times that, so that I feel like something significant has happened, rather than just, like, a 100-word description of the sea (*hemhem* Corrie *hemhem*)

    But anyway.

    I'm so glad it has worked out for you! I love reading about other writers' processes. On the topic of writing drivel, if I really feel like what I get down in SitC is not gonna be worth it, I'd probably write something different (eg LesMisBook) rather than forcing rubbish. It is good maybe having more than one project at a time, I think. Even if my other projects are not actually novels. But yeah, I'm going off on a tangent again .... What I was saying was, I love other people's processes and I'm glad this has been good for you. Isn't it great that we can all choose our own way to write?! Because I read about other people doing what they do (like Cait's 20k days, or you doing this challenge, or Victoria writing like four books at once) and think BLEGH NEVER EVER but hey guess what! No one IS going to force me to do any of those things! Because we can all find what works! And what a nice truth that is :)

    Happy Monday! <3

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    1. didn't mean to say "Well done!" twice in three sentences ... and THAT is why you reread your comments before publishing them! But, you know, Tracey, you deserve two well dones because you've done doubly well XD

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    2. Thanks so much, friend! (Had to giggle at you catching your repetitiveness. XD Too bad comments can't be edited, right?)

      YOU'RE A HANDWRITER, OH MY GOODNESS. I feel like I knew this? But didn't? That is admirable. I used to handwrite before buying a laptop, and I currently value the speed of typing and ease of editing over the more tangibly appealing pen and paper gig... But that's not to say I'd never try it again. :)

      But girl. Writing six days a week, approx. 1k a day... that is fabulous. o.o Wow! I totally get the aversion to patchworking, though. I kind of wish I had that luxury of avoiding it, but if I only wrote when I had time to do entire scenes... I don't know WHEN I would ever get anything down. So I've taken to the patchwork method of writing bits and pieces when I can--of course larger chunks are preferable for getting "in the zone"--but overall that's how it has to go for me in this season of life. :P And I also find that if I end my writing session by finishing a scene or chapter, it can be harder to pick up next time. Whereas if I leave off in the middle of things, all I have to do is reread a bit, then keep writing from where I stopped mid-flow.

      But I didn't mean any of that to say that your methods are wrong or anything! Because they're working for you, and that is SO GREAT. Because like you said, we all have our own processes, which are fascinating to hear about and learn from. And oh goodness, those 20k days sound like pure insanity to me. I don't think I'd enjoy working on four projects at once, either. XD So yes, it's awesome that all of us have our own ways of creating books and are finding what best suits us. ^_^

      Happy Wednesday to you! <3

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