just when you think I've stopped prattling about it, I start anew

[slumber]

I crossed the 25K mark on my het_bigbang on July 10. I nearly broke 30K a week later, and then... I stopped. For about five weeks. Then I rearranged things (SOBBING I LOVE SCRIVENER), cut out-- oh, what's 10K words?-- and started writing again towards the end of August. In the interest of not getting ahead of myself, I will just post numbers and leave the commentary for another day, preferably when I have finished the whole damned thing. :|

September 4:

33867 / 25000 words. 135% done! +10126

August 28:

23741 / 25000 words. 95% done! +2975

August 21:

20766 / 25000 words. 83% done! -8263 :\ (DOUBLE MEGA ULTRA FAILY FAIL)

July 17:

29029 / 25000 words. 116% done! +3341

July 10:

25688 / 25000 words. 103% done! +5864

July 3:

19824 / 25000 words. 79% done! +4338

June 26:

15486 / 25000 words. 62% done! +892 (FAIL)

June 19:

14594 / 25000 words. 58% done! +2770

June 12:

11824 / 25000 words. 47% done! +5685

June 5:

6139 / 25000 words. 25% done! +2612

May 29:

3527 / 25000 words. 14% done! +3527

In other writing news, hogwarts_houses (which I signed up for) has started posting, and will post throughout September. It's house-focused, and so far there have been some great pieces for it. I'm talking extreme minor characters (the Hufflepuff one is about a part-vampire once featured on JKR's site) and even an OC/OC one for Slytherin that was about Draco's grandfather's brother.

I also signed up for smutty_claus and I have an outstanding prompt for interhouse_fest that I still have to sort out plot-wise but can't wait to start writing. Smutty Claus assignments get sent out September 21ish, so I'm hoping to knock both out by October.

And then it's No-Write November for me, thankyouverymuch. Whew.

Comments

[slumber.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I didn't even think I'd reach 25K at first, and now it's like. I just want it to end? :|

There's a 30-day trial (they count the days on the actual day you use them so it can last 2 months if you use it once every few days or so), which I'm on right now, and I think it's just a really great program for novel-length things, but I don't really see myself writing anything this long for a while, so I'm still a little iffy about purchasing it.

I'm usually just happy with WriteRoom too, but with a fic that was as long as my big bang, it helped to be able to section out scenes, refer back to them easily (instead of scrolling all the way back up a really long document), and so on. I could also take snapshots of scenes before editing them so in case I wasn't sure what changes I liked, I can always look back the previous versions. There are templates for character sheets and setting sheets that I didn't use but would be helpful if I'd been writing about many different characters (although I could have used it a few times-- I could never remember what color eyes I picked for Astoria, haha). Ohh, and I was able to assign, like, a "category" for each scene (like "Major Storyline" or "Romantic Development") and then have a snapshot of what I have too much of (plot, no romance) and what I can do to sort of move it along.

It definitely has a ton of features-- it lets you use it so your entire screen is JUST what you're writing (which is my favorite thing about WriteRoom) but it also lets you view split-screen, which came in SUPER handy when I was going back through an earlier scene and having a character recount it in a new one I was writing, and I think its biggest strength is it lets you use it however you need it.

That said, there's probably no reason to get it if writing via word processor is fine by you (and most other times, it's all I need too). The only thing I've found lacking so far is a way to chart story timelines-- there's Aeon for that, but I haven't used it-- and it'd be great if it charted by word count by day automatically, probably.

I'd suggest testing it out first, and going through the tutorial, to see for yourself. I think we all have slightly different writing styles so maybe there's a feature on it that I didn't care much for that you'll find completely worth your while, or maybe there's nothing in it at all. But they don't ask for a credit card when you download the trial so it's worth a look. :)

[lelek.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I usually use Bean, which is a pretty stripped down rich text editor that has a full-screen mode, so all the basics are covered. I'm probably going to download the Scrivener trial, though, to check it out. It looks awesome, I just don't know if I'll take advantage of the extra features enough to justify the cost. I'm so used to just writing, all in one big document, with 8904312 notes in various locations, but I'm going to take my failed NaNo project from last year and start over and something fancier might help. While I like the simplicity of applications like Bean and WriteRoom, with a novel I'd probably benefit from having outlines and notes handy all the time. No more digging around for the right notebook or whatever.

I might try Aeon, too, while I'm in the mood to change things up.

(I totally understand just wanting a project to end. Been there.)

[slumber.livejournal.com]

I wanted to try Scrivener out but didn't really do it until I started getting bogged down by my current fic, so it was pretty useful in helping sort everything out, especially since I could first create the structure of the plot in outline form and then slot scenes in place. There's a "Research" folder for Scrivener as well, so if you have any notes or pages that you periodically look into for research material you can store it there.

Let me know how both Scrivener and Aeon work out for you! :)

(SOCLOSE, dude. SO. CLOSE. Gah.)