What is the next big thing you want to accomplish?

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Tell us about your ambitions, what is the next big thing you want to accomplish?

Ok, me first

I've an ambition to gather all my childhood friends at one place :)

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I've been an office mommy at my day job for a long time now. Maybe it's time to get serious about project management.

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Is that a PMP certification or a job change?

As for me, I've been thinking of starting a blog. Maybe it's time to plan out what I actually would want to post there.

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What kind of blog?

Quote by Anatomy


That IS the question. Some kind of writing blog; the kind that I write and no one reads. ;)

But seriously, thoughts, story ideas. Maybe actually stories. I haven't really decided. I've stumbled on a practice of devising story ideas almost daily, mostly as a tool to keep writer's block at bay. Sometimes sexy, sometimes serious or dark, and even sometimes gonzo and silly.

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I've been publishing on sites for a couple of years now, but I hope to write some actual series, not just stand-alone stories. I'm trying my first one now, on another site. I've had groups of stories that are related (same characters appear, for example) but never a series with a true plot. I have ideas for maybe five or six, and it would take me a long time to do them all. I'm in no hurry, however.

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That's great! Series can be tough. Last year I co-wrote a novel with an unpublishably high word count. I might consider that being something to post on the future blog, but only if i can figure out how to make it a more palatable length.

For me, I've found cowriting to be really helpful for accountability and brainstorming plot ideas and pushing through writing blocks. Solo writing is still a struggle and I'm much slower.

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Thank you. Except for maybe one of them, I foresee these as being only ten or twelve chapters long.

How long is "an unpublishably high word count?" Infinite Jest length? On another site, somebody has thirty-six chapters and 340,000 words. It took her three years. Another guy claims to have forty-one chapters and 800,000 words. He did it in only two years.

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An unpublishably high word count in this case is nine hundred eighty-thousand words, or 1.75 War and Peace. It was co-written late January 2019 to mid January 2020.

It's a romance scifi drama with erotic elements and deep characterization of the 2 protagonists.

Quote by Anatomy



An unpublishably high word count in this case is nine hundred eighty-thousand words, or 1.75 War and Peace. It was co-written late January 2019 to mid January 2020.

It's a romance scifi drama with erotic elements and deep characterization of the 2 protagonists.

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You wrote 980,000 words IN A YEAR!? That's like 10 books!

How do you do it? I can barely write 1000 words in a day on my best days.

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This is fast creeping out of Oli's thread, so I'll answer, but don't want to say too much more about my nontopical writing.

This is more "What was the last big thing I accomplished."

But how did I do it? Obsession.

There are also some caveats. My contribution was about half (490k), co-writer writing the other half of the word count. We write on google docs live, as in I write a paragraph or 3, and then she writes a paragraph or three. Live writing takes some getting used to because the other person is seeing every word you type. You can backspace, but they see that too. Anyway, it's what I would call a draft manuscript. It's not polished and edited which is part of the reason that it's unpublishable. There's lots of repetition that I think would have to be pulled out, but when you're writing so much and just going going going, you don't have time to clear out cruft scenes or change synonyms or phrasing on everything.

I suspect that I will never again write at that volume in a year ever again. We are writing a sequel and are averaging about 30-50k per month now. That prior pace wasn't maintainable, but it was fun while it lasted.

For what it's worth, I just tried my hand at solo writing for the Time Travel competition. It took me weeks to get that 5000 words, and I ended up missing the deadline by 2 hours, so, it will be on the site soon, but not in the competition. Solo writing is much harder for me for whatever reason.

If you are up for it, find someone with compatible tastes and writing skills, and give cowriting a try. :)

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Learn to play an instrument. I bought an electric guitar, I just gotta sit down and actually learn. I also want to learn Japanese.

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That’s awesome!
What song are you learning first?

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Something Japanese, I expect!

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Something Japanese, I expect!

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Good point! Utterchaos likes Visual Kei style. Though I predict an Alkaline Trio song.

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Finish a novel, finish some dev. certifications, and/or get a new job.

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What certs?