Note for new arrivals: The 10K Day starts on the morning of Thursday, July 16. Your exact starting time is up to you.
WELCOME TO ALL those plucky writers who are participating today!
This is the place to post your check-ins.
If you develop a case of writer’s block—or if you need some extra ideas about what to write—you’ll find links to inspiring resources compiled below.
DON’T FORGET TO HAVE REGULAR BREAKS!
You’ll regret it later (when you’re feeling fried) if you don’t take regular breaks. Even if you’re on fire with your writing, take your scheduled breaks. Every two hours is recommended. Breaks are also for posting check-ins.
WHAT SHOULD YOU POST FOR YOUR CHECK-INS?
Comment moderation will be turned off for the day so your posts should appear right away. If you don’t see yours, try refreshing your screen.
Keep check-ins fairly brief:
1. You can mention your word count if you want to. If you’d rather not, please provide a general comment about your progress thus far.
2. You can also describe what you’re working on.
3. Feel free to mention how you’re feeling and how the day is going for you.
4. It’s always fun to hear what people are drinking, snacking on or listening to.
5. Check-ins only. Please DO NOT post your writing! (The comment section will become unwieldy if people try to post stories/chapters from their novel.)
6. If you have any special revelations or remarkable experiences, please give the MINI-version. All of you are invited to write about your 10K Day on the Fear of Writing blog after it’s over. Save your juiciest anecdotes to base a guest blog post on.
DON’T FORGET TO log out of forums, Facebook, Twitter, email, etc.
Go gettum, Tigers! – Milli
————–
RSVP Page for the August 13th 10K Day
————–
RULES & TIPS
Survival Tips, Productivity Tricks
GOT WRITER’S BLOCK? TRY THESE . . .
Featured Warm-Up Prompt Vintage Typewriters and Deviled Ham from our very own Tumblemoose (10K Day participant)
Use the Whiplash of Your Inner Critic to Make It Across the Drawbridge
Here’s an example of doing the above but with a fictional character instead, by our very own Patti Stafford (10K Day participant). Look for the second entry on this page; it’s entitled writer’s lament.
Four of Milli’s Fun ‘Fertile Material’ prompts
10 Tips for Using the Fertile Material Writing Prompts
New Writing Prompt: Sparkling Beasts & Glimmering Gods
Milli’s Zodiac Writing Prompts based on Sun Signs for Writers by our very own Bev Walton-Porter (10K Day Participant):
Aries / Taurus / Gemini / Cancer
11 Fun Writing Challenges from Sunflower Ranch (50-word challenges, but you could easily use any of these to write a short story)
MOTIVATIONAL ARTICLES
Writing Dialogue: Don’t Freak Yourself Out
How I Am Overcoming My Inner Critic and My Fear of Success by Lois Eighmy
A Writer Kissed by Inspiration
Finished a book! Jenny, that's awesome, congrats! I've had so many distractions this afternoon. The water softener people came out to vacuum the well reservoir. Yes, vacuum the bottom as it collects rust. That and my father calling and my husband calling while he's on a rode trip on the way home and will be here any minute.
I did manage 9164. That is zero editing. If I had to edit as I go I would never get my stories on paper. It was much harder during the last 10K than this time. But I so understand the need to correct all those red and green squiggly lines. Now and then I will correct a misspell but I try to avoid that.
Any, I don't know if I'll get a chance to get back tonight. I think I've squeezed as much creative juice as I can for the moment. And I am a morning person.
If I can't get back, congrats to you all. It was a great day and Mikey Dog is still growing at this point and I just finished the story about the nosy neighbor telling me, at 11:00 pm, that I have a rat in my back yard that's getting into her yard. Did I tell you I am a morning person?
I love this. I think I have found my writing niche. Thank you Miss. Milli. I would never be doing this if it weren't for you. And thanks to all of you and I'll be here next month.
Cheers,
Marilyn in hottern' hell Texas Hill Country
Marilyn, what a funny and beautiful wind-up message. And congrats on 9164 words!!
Hey, you got close, woman, and that's a fun thing. Plus, you wrote 262 words for your eloquent check-in, so consider yourself up to 9426.
XOXO
Hubby just called, he's on his way home so I'm done for the day. I reached 5,105 words. My best accomplishment so far.
Thanks for the challenge! And good luck to all you guys still going. Write, write, write!!!
Checking in. I wrote 1,440 in the first hour of 10K Day. 😉 A good start!
Hubby's procured a pan of lasagne for dinner and is already baking it in the over so it'll be ready in a couple hours. Thanks for the support, honey!
Eileen, that rocks!! 5,105 words. Snoopy dancin' for ya! It was wonderful to meet you yesterday and I hope you'll be back next month. The RSVP page for August 13 is available here:
RSVP Page for the August 13th 10K Day
Bev, my hubby is going to make Simple Dinner Provided by Milli for the Occasion, so I hear ya. It's a great feeling not to have to worry about that when I still have so far to go (I've finally broken 5K).
Woo hoo! Gratz on hitting 5K, Milli!
5000 words. Shoot. Not bad
Just at that mark myself.
Go, SexyWolfen! Yeah, we rock ;~D
Bev, thanks for your RSVP for the Aug 13 10K Day. Glad to hear you're lovin' it this much already!
Anybody else who wants to RSVP will find the link mentioned several times on this page. Just do Ctrl + F and then search for August 13.
I'm still here! 😀 I see everyone's still chuggin' along.
I've now reached 7,727 words. I'm in the middle of writing Sawyer's second post but wanted to take a break to update here and check my e-mail and stuff.
I'll be back later.
Keep on keepin' on, y'all! 🙂
8,225. Though I dont think the last 1,000 or so have been very good. PLUS, the Literary Gods have toyed with me by delivering my Amazon book order at 3pm. Now 400k words of other people's amazing stories are calling for me to start reading them! Sigh.
Lois, I was starting to wonder if you were still with us. Great progress!!
Karen, that's too funny! But with you being so close to the 10K mark, I'm hoping you'll resist the temptation for a bit longer :~)
I konked out for a bit, lack of sleep last night. I had written around 5k words at last count. Worked on a few notes and stuff. Still groggy. Will check back in later.
Everyone is doing EXCELLENT!
J. Francis, you still out there?
I'm a bit concerned about Tumblemoose. He was grappling with the self-editing bugbear and hasn't checked in in quite some time.
George, if you're still out there, I've been thinking of you and sending you wishes for a successful breakthrough. Hope to hear from you soon.
Holy Crap, my Screenplay is finished… Time to get something to drink!
Nearing 4,000 words!
Wolfen, congrats on the screenplay! And congrats to everyone else for such awesome results!!
Back to work —
Thanks, I've rewritten this thing time and time again since I was 10… whew. I need to get back to work and stop looking at these puppies. Or I might just end up with all of them…
I sneak out for a while to have dinner and come back to the news that ….. Wolfen finished his screenplay! YAHOO!
I'm drinking a glass of Los Cardos Malbec (red wine) and tipping my glass to Jenny — for finishing her book — to Wolfen, for finishing his script — and to all of us for being such Scrappy-Doo writers!
Grabbed a shower, then managed to edit 1500 words for the Saturday Serial Bella Vida and I are doing together 😉
THanks everyone for the congrats on my book getting finished. I'm excited to edit what I did today and get it turned in 🙂 Then there's only four more books to write in the series! :0
🙂
Congrats to everyone for your accomplishments today. I think it's super great when we get to be the writers we want to be with other writers, and that more than anything is worth doing a 10K day! 🙂
Thank you Milli, for all your hard work hosting these events 🙂
Warmly,
Jenny:)
Congrats on finishing your screenplay Wolfen!! That rocks!!! 🙂 Now I'm gonna celebrate with you "on the rocks" me 🙂
Congrats 😉
Warmly,
JennY:)
Granted I'm splitting the damn thing into 3 films instead of the behemoth 300+ page hurricane I had before…
Still it's a weight off. Time to start part 2… ughh.
Congrats to Jenny and Wolfen – AWESOME JOB!
I'm a bit worried about George (tumblemoose) too, and John (J. Francis). Maybe they just found their flow and riding the tide.
Doesn't looks as if Lois has checked in much this afternoon either.
Everyone is doing a great job but the most important thing that's really shining through is how each feels about the work their doing, just being damn happy to be a writer. That boost to self-esteem is worth way more than a gazillion words.
My main word count remains around 5K, half of that was purely fiction. I've finished the course I wanted to finish, lined out some ideas, organized my 3 ring binder, worked on goals, jotted down due dates and assignments in my calendar–all work related and all about being a writer.
We Rock!
To many things going on today, I ended up with 2200 words on my own projects. Plus the two articles, but I'm not counting them in. This was supposed to be for me.
Oh well maybe next month.
That's good John. I understand not counting everything in your total–I included a personal letter I've been putting off writing–but that was for me and something that made me feel really good. It goes in the mail tomorrow. Yay!
I'm still here!
And I did it! 😀 At a little before 8:00 p.m. (CST), I reached 10,773 words! Go, me! 😀
I finished the second Sawyer post for the character journal, then went to work on a new scene. I've posted an excerpt over at http://lmeighmy.blogspot.com/2009/07/10k-day-july-16-2009.html
Congrats to everyone who finished their goals! And to everyone who tried. As always, you're all winners in my book! 😀
Wunderbar, Lois!! Good for you. Another 10K beauty ;~)
Yeah, it started out sloooooowwwww. I couldn't really get into my stories today…or the journal entries. But once I hit that scene, it just took off from there! 😀
I feel pretty darned sloooooowwwwww. I'm still only on 6,675. But I'm happy with the amount of articles and blog posts I've written. So, as Patti says, the feeling's the thing.
Yes, I agree! And I don't know how happy I am with everything I've written, but I'm sure happy with the last thing I wrote…the scene that really got me going. I can't wait to continue where I left off! 😀
Oh! And I ended up posting Fox and Sawyer's entries early. I was going to wait until the weekend, but if anyone wants to read them, they're up now: http://sotwildfrontier.livejournal.com/.
(If these links aren't allowed, just let me know.)
Those links are fine, Lois! You're such an inspiration with your character journals.
Uggghhh… a lot was done today. So tired. I'll catch you all later.
Thanks, Milli! 🙂
I'm going now. It's getting late.
Good luck to everyone who's still shooting for the stars! Hope y'all get there. 🙂
Calling it a night. Will check back in tomorrow.
Sweet Dreams!
Bev-o-licious, ya still out there?
I think it's down to you and me, baby. Everyone else has called it a night. I've still got at least 3K to go before I break the big 10 so I'm going to keep at it for as long as my eyeballs remain open.
Is Jon still working on his screenplay?
Howdy howdy! It's 9:52 here and I'm still at it! Took a break at 5,000 words and got some dinner. Posted a few of my blog posts that I've written today on Facebook, too. Still alive and kickin'! Woot!
Same here — I'm gonna keep keepin' on!!
Jon hung it up and went out with his gf and friends, but he got between 3,000-4,000 done. Not sure if he's going to jump back in after he gets back or not. But he really liked this and I think he may do it again in August! 😉
Still rockin' and rollin' on this end, though. I've discovered that I'm actually an endurance writer. I didn't even find myself wanting to take a REAL breather till I hit about 5,000 — so I find that incredibly awesome!
By the way, CONGRATS to all involved for an inspirational and wonderful 10K Day! Thanks, too, to Milli for hosting this.
Now I'm off to do some more damage on this keyboard *laughs*
11:52 I ended a sentence that put my count at 10,006. Mission accomplished.
WHOO HOO, Amanda!! Not too shabby for your first 10K Day and with a sore back too. Does your back feel better now you've written all those words? LOL!
Bev, glad you're still here–we can keep one another company down to the last dregs of the night. And I'm pleased to hear Jon liked it enough to want to do it again in August!!
Sorry, that should've been
WHOO-HOO, Karen!!
LOL!! It's after midnight, I didn't sleep well last night and my eyes are starting to cross ;~D
Well, it's just after 10 where I'm at, but hubby is hounding me to put the computer away. I have to say that this has been a great way to make a breakthrough in my WIP.
I didn't make the 10K, but this is the most writing I've done in one day in a long time, and it made me so HAPPY!
It's amazing how much better I feel about myself and my ability to write. It's been too easy to forget while trying to get past the partial stage with agents. Who knew it would take failing a 10K day to get back that writing mojo?
I'll be participating in the next one for sure. Maybe I'll unload the kids on an unsuspecting relative or something… 🙂
Tracy, that's awesome! By the way, not everyone around here makes the word count. (See article in the sidebar under 10K Day, "June 18's 10K Day Beat All Records for Massive Writing Fun!" for the variety of results from last month.)
The great thing is (a) you participated! (b) you feel happy in all caps about your writing.
I'm so glad you're planning to come to the August event! You can RSVP for that now if you want to. Just do search on this page for the words "August 13" and you'll find the link to that post.
Hey Milli! It's just shy of midnight here, so I think I'm not going to make 10K before I wrap it up, but closer to 7K. I'm still happy about it! This day was SO needed for me. It really, really was. I can't wait till August so we can do this again. Ecstatic over the results! I didn't get to work on the fiction book, but I DID write quite a few blog posts and am going to work on that proposal before I go to bed to get the last inkling of the word count I wanted, but all in all, I accomplished 3/4 of what I set out to do. *Snoopy dance*!
Sleep well!
Well, now that I know where all the posts have been hiding, I'll put in a bit.I've been working on my Michael Jackson face reading blog post and it has hit some snags. So I'm quite disappointed in how little I got done of actual writing — only about a thousand words, and have had several major interruptions I didn't expect and had to take care of. Blah.
Everyone seems to have accomplished stellar results! That's fantastic. You inspire me.
Tomorrow.
Sleep well, you knights of writing.
Finding *real* pictures of Jackson has been part of the rub! The ones I had prepared and had ready to go, I found out belatedly today, are not early enough to show his unchanged face. I've had to go back to when he was 21 and they seem to be few and far between on the web. But I'm finally homing in on the real Michael. Yea!
Ok,
Twas a valiant effort but the Gods conspired…
Babysitter bailed so I had the six year old, girlfriend worked late so it was all me 🙁
Got 175 words done, I did.
Learned: I've never been one to outline, and I see the need now. I've got two novels in progress and they both have stalled because I've not idea where to take the story.
Despite the encouragement (Thanks Milli and Patti!) I sat dumbfounded, staring at the screen. The canvas was too big.
It's all ok because I've learned a great deal. I'm going to work on outlining a bit and next month I'll give it another whirl.
It's been great reading all of the checking in comments and such. It seems like it was a big success.
George
Yay, George!! So glad you came back to update us on what happened for you.
It's great the way you're taking a positive attitude to the learning experience. I've had some of those myself during 10K Days, even though I've done enough of them now that you'd think it would all be ironed out in my own mind.
Re: Outlining. I was never drawn to it myself (I felt it might inhibit my creativity) until Jenny Turner of this check-in page–and the one who introduced me to the 10K Day–started writing about Creative Outlining. Here's her article about it:
CREATIVE OUTLINING: Not an Oxymoron
I'm excited that you'll be giving the 10K Day another whirl on August 13.
Cheers, George! ~ Milli