#it's ok. 50k was never my goal. i just wanted some kind of progress

[cerealmonster15]

sfjksklefkls on one hand comparatively it's a lot of progress bc i doubled one of the two docs ive been working in and it's the most ive done in a day onthem. on the other hand Do Not Look At The Tracker Line It's Scary LOL

[angst-in-space]

december ‘20 writing progress (and yearly wrap-up)

december progress:

words written: 15.2k

yearly total: 248.8k 

projects worked on:

- sylvix dreamscape fic - edited/posted the sylvix xmas fic, “where the love light gleams” - finished writing the altea rising recap - worked on a couple secret projects

december goals: - reach my yearly goal of writing 250k words....*sweats* (ok i didn’t quite get there but i’ll give myself credit cuz i was only like 200 words off) - finish/submit final draft of piece for long live zine - finish editing and publish the sylvix xmas fic! - finish/publish [redacted] and [redacted] - work some more on the sylvix dreamscape fic  - finish the altea rising recap summary (and....maybe work a little on chapter 19 if i have time)

notes:

well, december was....a very busy month. had kind of a hellish start to the month what with a health-related thing (not covid, don’t worry i’m fine dkfjdl) so that kinda sapped my energy for about a week. then ofc there was the holidays and everything. aaand on top of that i had like four writing deadlines (although like....two of them were postponed so that was good haha). 

but anyway! i did at least manage to finish a couple of things––mainly my sylvix christmas fic (“where the love light gleams”), finishing/submitting my “long live” zine piece, FINALLY finishing the altea rising recap summary ... and also finishing one secret thing that is not published yet, but it’s for a fandom i’ve never written before and i’ll be very excited to publish it once i can!

other than that, i mostly worked on the sylvix dreamscape fic and on a secret santa exchange fic that i still have not finished (we extended the deadline to end of january bc like...no one in the group had finished by end of december lol). 

i didn’t quite reach my goal of 250k words for the year, but i mean my initial goal was 150k and i only ended up being about 200 words shy of 250k SO i still think that’s a big win lol. 

as for what i’ll be working on next: top priority is finishing the secret santa fic. but i also hope to keep working on the sylvix dreamscape fic. aaand hoping to edit/publish the klance hotel au by the end of january maybe, since uh i finished a draft of it in november and STILL have not finished editing that so OOPS. and mayyybe will finally delve into finishing the last few chapters of altea rising, and maybe at least start editing chapter 15 but that’s pretty optimistic of me lmao.

2020 wrap up:

total words written: 248.8k most words written in a month: 50.1k (november) least words written in a month: 14.1k (march)

works completed:

- want your fire on me - i know a place we can run - illumination - cover my skin with your sunkissed light - where the love light gleams - klance hotel au (not published yet) - [secret project] (not published yet) - miles to go (my zine piece for “long live”, not published yet) other wips:  - sylvix dreamscape fic - altea rising - secret santa fic - planning my wlw YA sci-fi novel 

2020 goals:

- write every day - write at least 150k words - focus more on my multichaps  - finish altea rising - finish a couple of my kl standalone fics?? not sure which ones yet, but yeah! - finish galolio fic - write burning hearts piece - work on wangxian fic w jessie! - maybe start writing something original??

notes: 

all in all, a very productive year! there were some yearly goals i did not reach (i.e. finishing my old klance multichaps.....rip) but i mean, i also ended up getting involved in (and writing fic for) several other fandoms, so i couldn’t really have anticipated that at the beginning of the year. i’m really happy with the two sylvix fics i’ve published so far, and i hope to write a lot more for them this year! 

so yeah... i have a few big projects i want to tackle in 2021. firstly the sylvix dreamscape fic is...already over 30k and i’m estimating it’ll probably end up being a total of somewhere around 50k-60k so uh yeah that’s gonna be a big commitment lol. but i think i’m gonna do the same thing i did with “cover my skin...” and make it a chaptered fic. not sure when i will start posting it but i’m hoping ideally sometime in like late february or early march, depending on a few things. 

i have a few other sylvix fics i also hope to at least start writing sometime this year. one in particular i have had fully planned out for months but ironically have not started it yet even though it was the first sylvix fic idea i came up with... but yeah i might start that one after the dreamscape fic is done. i also have a couple aus that i might tackle, but they both need a lot more fleshing out before i even begin writing them so hmm we shall see. 

besides that... i do really honestly want to finish my klance multichaps even tho it’s been...over a year since i updated either of them and idk if anyone even gives a shit anymore but i’m a completionist at heart and just wanna see them through sooo yEAH. i have at least finished writing up a (very long) summary of everything i’ve written of altea rising so far, mostly to recap myself to make sure i tie up all the loose ends in the last few chapters. i did work a bit on actually writing it in 2020 although tbh i like kinda fell off the rails once i fell into fe3h/sylvix hell BUT i still intend to get back to it because i do still have a soft spot for it and want to finish it. and long story short, i’ve decided to divide up what i’ve written of the last part into like...5-ish chapters so yeah, hopefully i can start posting those at some point in the near future. ....and uhh i don’t think i worked on red skies at all in 2020 which makes me sad bc i still love that fic dearly and want to complete it as well, it just may take me a few months to get back to it but hey if i’m able to update it at all in 2021 that would be great haha.  another thing i’m hoping is to possibly open commissions in 2021, something i said i would do in 2020 and never did but....kinda wanna give it a try, especially because i am funemployed once again. :’) AND LASTLY...i’ve been planning an original wlw YA sci-fi novel for like two years and i would really love to start at least the first draft of it this year....that would be neat. 

so yeah this post is starting to get insanely long but i’ll just wrap up with my 2021 goals and january goals, and...yeah. 2020 sure was a weird year, here’s hoping 2021 is (at least..slightly...??) better. 

2021 goals: - write every day - write at least 150k words - finish the sylvix dreamscape fic - start on like 1 or 2 other sylvix multichaps...? - finish altea rising - work on red skies again - do some fic commissions - continue planning my novel and maybe start the first draft january goals:  - finish secret santa fic - publish [redacted] - work on sylvix dreamscape fic - edit klance hotel au (hopefully send to betas by end of month at least?) - maybe work on altea rising ch. 19

[nanowrimo]

What Should My Camp NaNoWriMo Goal Be?

Camp NaNoWriMo is underway! If you’re wondering whether you set the right goal—or if you haven’t started started writing yet—Communications Manager Katharine Gripp has put together a helpful guide for setting your Camp goal:

The great thing about Camp NaNoWriMo is that it’s so flexible. Want to work on a graphic novel, an academic thesis, or a screenplay? No problem! Want to track pages or hours instead of words? Go for it!

But the flexibility of Camp can feel a little intimidating, too. When nobody’s telling you what goal to set this month, how do you know what a reasonable goal to aim for will be? If you’re working on an out-of-the-box writing project, how do you measure your progress?

Here are a few tips we’ve put together to help you determine the best Camp NaNoWriMo goal for you this month. Remember, these are just suggested guidelines: if you set a goal that starts to make you feel frustrated and discouraged, or bored and unchallenged, you can change it!

First, determine what kind of goal you want to work with.

Words

Tracking words for NaNoWriMo is… well, traditional! You may want to stick with that framework, or you may find that tracking words doesn’t work with your current project, or feels stifling. Track words as your writing goal if:

You’re working on a traditional novel project and have a good sense of how many words you typically write in a day.

You’re working toward a specific word count goal already (say, continuing a novel that you started in November).

Pages

Sometimes, words are just too small a unit to measure your creative progress, especially when you’re working on something a little out of the ordinary. Track pages as your writing goal if:

You’re hand-writing and don’t want to count or calculate all of the words that you write in a day.

You’re editing, creating a graphic novel, or working on something that already has a set amount of pages that you’re trying to get through.

Hours/Minutes

Sometimes, you have goals that can’t be measured in how much you physically write. Track hours as your writing goal if:

You know how much time you’ll be able to set aside for writing this month, but you don’t know or aren’t consistent in how much you typically write in a session.

You’re editing, drawing, researching, or working on some other project that doesn’t actually involve writing down a specific amount of words.

Ok, I’ve decided what kind of goal to track. Now what should I aim for?

Take it Easy

If you know you’re going to be super busy this month and won’t have a lot of time to devote to writing, or if you’re starting your project a few days late, start small. 

Words: Try setting a goal for 10,000 words. That’s a little over 300 words a day. If you find yourself meeting this easily, you can up it to 15,000 words; if you’re falling behind or you’ve missed a few days, ease it down to 5,000. Sometimes, just starting is more important than going big.

Pages: The lower limit of every goal you can set is 30, so try setting your goal to 30 pages. Depending on what you’re working on, a page a day can still feel like a big challenge, but go for it!

Hours/Minutes: We don’t all have the luxury of setting aside an hour a day to write. Sometimes, snatching minutes here and there is all we have! Try setting a goal of 900 minutes — that’s about 30 minutes a day.

Leveling Up

If you’ve never done NaNoWriMo before, or if you know that getting to 50K exhausts you, try setting a goal that feels challenging, but fun.

Words: Start out aiming for 20,000 or 30,000 — that’s between about 600 and 1000 words per day. It’s a healthy chunk of writing that nonetheless shouldn’t be too hard to reach.

Pages: Double it up! Set a goal of 60 pages to get through two per day. 

Hours/Minutes: Set a goal of 30 hours, or about an hour a day. If you don’t have hour-long blocks to set aside, you can also set your goal to 1,800 minutes, to make it easier to record when you write for smaller amounts of time.

Overachiever

If you’ve done NaNoWriMo, and you’ve found that 50K is a reasonable (or even easy!) goal for you to achieve, try going the extra mile. 

Words: Set your goal for 60K, 75K, or 100K, depending on how fast your fingers fly!

Pages: Aim to finish at least half of the full amount of pages you have in your project. If you’re editing a 50,000-word novel that you wrote in November, for example, you probably have about 200 pages, so make your goal 100 pages.

Hours/Minutes: Set a goal of 60 hours, or about 2 hours a day. Committing to a goal measured in hours may encourage you to set aside longer blocks of time to write.

Of course, you can always change your goals it you fall behind or jump ahead with your writing. Remember that Camp NaNoWriMo is here to help you reach your writing goals, but it’s also supposed to be fun!

Katharine loves being the Communications Manager for NaNoWriMo, where she gets to indulge in her life-long addiction to Young Adult fantasy novels. When not writing, Katharine spends her time dancing, working on cosplays that she never finishes, playing folk-punk music with her band, and spending as much time in the sunshine as she can.

Top photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash.