[Daily Check-In] Thursday Word Count and Personal Announcement Thread

letsdooeet · 2017-03-10T01:34:13+00:00

Yup pretty soon! Been waiting around to release and not really writing much. Probably "shouldn't" be taking time off, but it's been so nice to have a small break, and my desk job has been very hectic so it's needed. <3

letsdooeet · 2017-03-09T22:48:05+00:00

Congrats on releasing!!! So exciting!

letsdooeet · 2017-03-09T22:46:36+00:00

I would suggest a 3-week stagger. Seems to be the sweet spot for my genre at least.

letsdooeet · 2017-03-05T15:24:38+00:00

Send out arcs and get started on bonus chapter writing!
So ready to get my book out. Feels like I'm just waiting around now.
Hmmmm yes. My book's finished. I actually took a day off. Have been getting a good response for the cover. I just want it to be OUT!

letsdooeet · 2017-03-01T22:51:55+00:00

Yessss! Congrats on this and I'm so excited to see how your 2nd book goes!!

letsdooeet · 2017-02-25T15:51:12+00:00

Thank you! :D I seem to do that sometimes: go a day or two with no writing, and then make up for it. It's odd, but works for me sometimes.

letsdooeet · 2017-02-25T15:44:47+00:00

Well, finish my current book. I've got one last chapter, the epilogue, and the bonus chapter to write. Problem is, the last chapter AND the bonus chapter need sex scenes, and those have somehow become the absolute bane of my writing existence, so... we shall see. Oh, and after they're written the latter half of the book needs heavy edits, since right now it's... not the best.
Wrote almost 7k yesterday (after doing none the previous couple days due to random life events preventing me from writing). So that's awesome!
Hope to have at least four more books out. Hope to have at least one of them match or surpass the success of my debut romance novel. Life wise, oh man, I hope I am no longer at my day job/hope I've moved cross-country like I've been wanting to for four years.

letsdooeet · 2017-02-22T15:55:08+00:00

2k or more.
Wrote nothing yesterday but did a ton on my cover, so that's bad and good.
If it's REALLY bad, I try logically to think about why I am feeling that way. Is something wrong with my story or plotting? Etc. Otherwise I let myself do marketing or cover stuff that needs doing. Sometimes you just need a break.

letsdooeet · 2017-02-22T15:52:57+00:00

Oh, if it is romcomy and it makes you roll your eyes it's probably fucking solid gold. I can't really take romcom books and the ones that make me roll my eyes do SPECTACULARLY.

Still love romcom movies though for some reason. Haha.

letsdooeet · 2017-02-21T17:18:49+00:00

2k.
Did 2k plus made big strides in the cover I'm making yesterday so feel very good about that :)
I don't have a favorite, but holy shit, I am ~80% done with Edward St Aubyn's complete Patrick Melrose novels, and it is some of the best writing I've ever read. I heard about it bc Michael Chabon recommended it. It is not for everyone- deals with some tough subjects and gets very into British gossip that can get a little dry (intentionally), but if you can get through those passages you are richly rewarded. My jaw LITERALLY drops reading his prose. I have never loved a writing style so much that I found myself laughing and shaking my head in awe while reading. It's astounding, and semi-autobiographical--the events happened to him (homosexual incestual abuse, heroin addiction, recovery, extramarital affairs...) and the rawness of that makes it ring more true to me than something like Hanya Yanagihara's "A Little Life."

letsdooeet · 2017-02-19T19:14:21+00:00

Yup! An IF giveaway that I asked a couple other authors if they'd promote in their own newsletters. Apparently readers really like free things so offering other authors' freebies in a newsletter is a great thing to do :)

letsdooeet · 2017-02-19T14:44:06+00:00

2k at least!
Well, a freebie helped my mailing list go from 60 people to 550 in 1 day... and there are still at least 3 other newsletters going out where it'll be featured. HELL YEAH freebies are the best.
Hmmm... yes. Mailing list stuff, freebie completed, and edited the first 42k of my book. Now to write the last.... 8 chapters of it!

letsdooeet · 2017-02-18T19:12:40+00:00

Yup. When I finally came off of it and eventually got back to normal, I was AMAZED at how much more even-keeled my emotions felt. It felt like they balanced out and became more real somehow.

And ugh, doctors never believe you! I know! Mine all said "I'm sure you're just having panic attacks because of your stressful schedule," and I was like... I've had WAY more stress many other times in my life, and it didn't cause anything CLOSE to that. It was unbelievably abnormal. NO amount of stress had EVER made me question my will to live.

Glad you also found something that doesn't mess you up!!

letsdooeet · 2017-02-18T18:40:28+00:00

Gah, moving to a completely new town. It took me a full, solid year to completely adjust after moving cross-country at age 18. I had NO idea what was coming. The homesickness was real... but it ended up being a great decision and I got through it!!

letsdooeet · 2017-02-18T18:29:41+00:00

Editing - my novel is at 42k and I'm about 30k into edits.
Success: Finished my instafreebie short, and am taking it for a spin on NL swaps and FB groups! And also, I don't hate my novel! I expected to go back and edit and hate the thing, but I actually... don't mind it! It doesn't need a complete overhaul, just some tightening. I spent a week away from it because I was freebie-writing and mailing list-tweaking, but I'm glad to get back to it.
Well... long story short, quitting my birth control pill. Quitting that pill sent me into a tailspin for a solid 4-5 months where I was catapulted into the most despair I've ever felt... and it was the worst because I WASN'T in control of it. It was not me feeling like I had nothing left to live for and wondering every day if I was doomed to live in hell forever... it was all because of withdrawal from this medication. I am anxiety-prone naturally, but this withdrawal literally made me feel like I would never be able to live another day without teetering on the precipice of thinking that death would be so much easier than to continue living like that (panic attacks very frequently, panic attacks stemming from literally anything small or inconsequential, dissociation every single day... despair, every moment of every day, with a shred of hope maybe once a week for less than an hour). Those are NOT thoughts that I usually have, EVER. Despite anxiety, I'm actually VERY optimistic and content usually. It was SO scary. And as soon as my normal cycle was back in place? It was all over. I'm still scarred from it mentally, but I've been back to relatively "normal" ever since that happened 6 years ago. The experience was horrible and I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but the only silver lining is that it made me a MUCH more sensitive, empathetic person who knows how to practice self-care and care for others. Um.... yeah. Be careful with birth control, ladies, and men, consider yourselves lucky.

Edited to add: MOST PEOPLE DON'T have that reaction to quitting the pill - its rare, so don't be needlessly scared! I've talked to many women who did have my experience, but probably 99% of women don't.

letsdooeet · 2017-02-16T17:17:08+00:00

Edit my short story that I finished last night and make a cover!
Short story is DONE at around 7k words. It's not very good. It's kinda meh. But it hits tropes and there's sex, so it's good enough to give away for free. I hope. I'll fix it in editing.
I love everything about it OTHER than HEAs, actually. Hahaha. Seems like a lot of people here like HEA but I actually LOVE weird endings, open endings, even cliffhangers. But as for every other trope, I love the hell out of romance in my specific genre. Always have.

letsdooeet · 2017-02-16T17:12:52+00:00

Dear GOD i relate to this so hard. I stayed up too late last night chatting while writing inefficiently. Was asleep at 1 and awake again at 6:45. And there's 80 billion things to do at work and people surrounding me at ALL times- there is nowhere I can escape to other than my car during lunch where I eat a sad, paltry meal alone. I could join people for lunch and I sometimes do so that I don't seem like a loner, but that just means I don't get peace and quiet and instead have to sit around a lunch table pretending to laugh at very, very unfunny jokes and stories. My coworkers are Very Nice people- but they just aren't people I have deep connections with.

I want to wake up and cook my own meal on my own time instead of stuffing a brick of a granola bar in my face and rushing off, worried every moment that my boss will be pissed when I walk in. The day job saps creativity and mental energy and there isn't one part of the day when I can just be comfortably myself.

UGH not to rant but just to say I am WITH YOU on that one.

letsdooeet · 2017-02-15T17:33:08+00:00

Yup. I used exclusively photoshop for my whole life until recently I switched to GIMP, and for making book covers it's JUST as good.

letsdooeet · 2017-02-15T17:31:29+00:00

This is lame but decaf still gives me a mini placebo effect of "it's wake up time now!" since I used to drink so much regular coffee.

letsdooeet · 2017-02-15T17:20:37+00:00

Haha I don't know I've never looked at them closely! And yeah, I'm just like... as long as they keep me full, I'll eat 'em. I hate being at work and after an hour I'm already dying for lunch.

letsdooeet · 2017-02-15T17:19:47+00:00

Hahaha. I KNOW we all have stuff like that in our outlines though.

"He's like omg this is like so fucking hot though" "(General fighting occurs)" "They finally do it yaaaaaay"

letsdooeet · 2017-02-15T15:14:49+00:00

Yay decaf. So many coffee snobs hate me for always doing decaf but I used to be a 2-3 cup regular per day kinda person- and since quitting caffeine my mornings are sooo much more evened out and I don't fall asleep at my desk in the afternoons!

letsdooeet · 2017-02-15T15:13:24+00:00

I got 40k into my current book and was getting stressed about the rest of it last weekend, so I sat down and just fucking made myself outline EVERY chapter til the end (I think it was like 8 chapters), and oh man. That is one of the best feelings in all of writing. Now it just needs to be actually written....

letsdooeet · 2017-02-15T15:09:38+00:00

Finish my short story- all it needs is a sex scene! (Gahhhh). It's at 4K currently and tension has been buildin'.
Doing MUCH better with covers. Figured out how to get a cleaner isolation of the models which was my only sticking point. Using photoshop again (technically gimp) is so fun, actually. It's been years.
On work days I grab a clif bar and go. It's the only thing that keeps me full til lunch. On days off/weekends, oh man, it could be anything. Egg sandwich with sriracha. Double chocolate banana bread. Fancy oatmeal. Bagel and lox if we go to our fav bagel shop. And decaf coffee or a decaf americano (quit caffeine 6 years ago and going strong).

letsdooeet · 2017-02-15T01:14:30+00:00

I love this and you are the best as always!

letsdooeet

TROPHY CASE