The SC Book Festival and A Challenge Begun
This weekend I attended the SC Book Festival. I have been going to this particular festival regularly for the last three or four years, and I always enjoy it. This is a readers festival, not a writing conference, so I don't go expecting to learn much (though this time I did pick up some grisly details about decaying bodies from an author who co-writes with the man who started the body farm.) But, I do usually come home with a new writer (or, at least, new to me) to read. This year I went to a panel with the very interesting J. T. Ellison, and I will definitely be looking for her thrillers next time I stop by the bookstore.
In other news, the the Tri Mu started a writing challenge this weekend. We had planned to have a writing challenge at some point later this year, but as I need HB2 written sooner rather than later, NLBerger recently discovered a shiny she couldn't wait to write, and Tori needed a push to finish her WIP, we moved up the date. My goal during this challenge is to write a decent draft in the next three months. Usually I write a really fast but bad first draft and then spend a lot of time editing. With HB2, I'm setting my daily wordcount goal lower than I normally would (only 1k a day) and I intend to do a macro edit as I write. I've never tried this approach before, and if I get too caught up in editing the previous day's words and not writing new ones, I'll have to abandon it, but hopefully by using this method I can effectively end with a product that is more of a second draft than a hideous first. We will see.
Current progress:
Wow, that's a sad little word meter, but it includes only the first day and the work I did at lunch. That little red bar will be growing soon.
What has everyone else been up to? Did you have a good weekend?
In other news, the the Tri Mu started a writing challenge this weekend. We had planned to have a writing challenge at some point later this year, but as I need HB2 written sooner rather than later, NLBerger recently discovered a shiny she couldn't wait to write, and Tori needed a push to finish her WIP, we moved up the date. My goal during this challenge is to write a decent draft in the next three months. Usually I write a really fast but bad first draft and then spend a lot of time editing. With HB2, I'm setting my daily wordcount goal lower than I normally would (only 1k a day) and I intend to do a macro edit as I write. I've never tried this approach before, and if I get too caught up in editing the previous day's words and not writing new ones, I'll have to abandon it, but hopefully by using this method I can effectively end with a product that is more of a second draft than a hideous first. We will see.
Current progress:
| |
1,544 / 90,000 (1.7%) |
Wow, that's a sad little word meter, but it includes only the first day and the work I did at lunch. That little red bar will be growing soon.
What has everyone else been up to? Did you have a good weekend?
Comments
Other than having a blast with my current WIP, nothing much going on this past weekend. Oh wait. There was that charity bachelor auction I went to on Saturday. But considering I nearly forgot to mention it, that's how lame it was. So much for it being a research outing.
...So it was a positive weekend. :-S