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Congratulations on the publication michael!

Well done on doing the whole month's worth of exercises!

Hopefully whatever form you like will work for you. Bi-weekly seems like a good pace to me, if I can bust out of these doldrums I suspect I will start using the two week interval.

Congratulations SwiftPotato! How exciting and wonderful.

Nice job on the novel and the story sale!

I'd add one important thing is to trust yourself and your vision for your story. Oh, absolutely. That's incredibly important (and it can be very difficult to do until you get the hang of it). 100% difficult to do even after you think you are getting the hang of it (at least for me). I've ended up h...

Andy I've had similar experience on critique circle with disparate quality of critiques and with widely differing opinions! One thing I'd make a counterpoint to in your comment is about needing lots of critiques. I've mostly stopped using the open queues on CC because getting too many critiques does...

I'd add one important thing is to trust yourself and your vision for your story. Sometimes a critique has lead me down the wrong path. For example I had a flash story that I got encouragement to flesh out to a longer story. I did that and it lost something. In the process though I did add a few litt...

My first R :(

That is a good idea glib! I haven't been reading much and I have a couple good books on writing I could read to maybe stimulate some of the writing urges!

I don't have a new born but I can only guess it would be mushy peas filling my head if I did :)

Congratulations Peony! And the long list of Silver Honorable mentions and Honorable mentions. Fantastic bunch of success for the forum folks!

Streetlight is probably enough light at my actual bus stop in reality. If I'm honest it isn't the dark getting in the way :p

Just got my R. First non HM for me so far. But at heart I knew it wasn't right for this contest (see my previous post) so it isn't surprising.

I also am not twitchy at all this quarter. Despite my entry being one that got held for consideration by Diabolical Plots I don't actually expect it to win here (may not have a strong enough speculative element for this contest). But who knows what will talk to the hearts of the readers :). What I p...

Disgruntledpeony - sometimes I feel like the last holdout in the world with no cell phone. But inching ever closer to deciding to get one. aidanka I did absolutely nothing for Nanowrimo. Despite my plans to work on a novel rewrite it just didn't happen. I personally think if you want to consider sho...

Nice job on those anthologies folks!

Also I agree with disgruntledpeony lots of ways to define success and yoyo I think doing your first submission is well worth calling a success!

Thank you for the suggestions. Honestly I feel like sleep is my biggest barrier (that and being distinctly NOT in love with my job). When I'm writing something new I do find my wait at the bus stop and ride on the bus quite productive sometimes. Maybe I just need to start taking my notebook with me ...

Well done Michael on keeping up that pace. Very impressive. Alex it sounds like you are doing a pretty solid job too with both revising and new writing. Wish I could join in and say how well I'm doing but honestly I am in one of the biggest slumps I've been in for a long time. One of these days I'll...

That sounds like me! Whichever grabs my interest gets some attention. But honestly most days haven't featured any writing at all :(

Submission grinder https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/

I wonder how "rough" the roughest story that has ever won the contest was. I mean in terms of the finer points of editing and polishing. Asking this for a friend*



* You guessed it, I'm the friend.

Ha I just reopened my computer after doing a bit of soup making and saw the title for this thread and my brain read "A Month of Writing Excuses". That seems spot on for me :(. But I do love that pod cast so maybe it is a sign I need to go listen to one so I can get motivated.

That sounds like some great progress. Despite my many desires to do something so far this month has been a slog. I know I need to just kick myself into gear and do something - may swing in to do one or two of these to see if they can get things going. I remember there was an exercise in one writing ...

I feel like I must be some kind of grinch. I don't even ask for the certificates (maybe if I make finalist or semi I will, definitely if I win :) ). But any certificates I've earned (Masters, Bachelors, Diploma, Certificate) are all sitting in a box mostly still in their envelopes or tubes unless th...

And I am forgiving myself because I am already pretty convinced I am going to be going on two week cycles instead of one week ones. I'm in a pretty new job and feeling a lot of fatigue so I'm pretty regularly feeling too exhausted to write or edit. So I know I need to leave myself a bit more breathi...

Wow GlibWizard I love that! The interesting ways humans find to make things work and in particular to make the writing/editing process work is wonderful. Thanks for sharing. I technically am also alternating but whoo doggy am I having a hard time really going on anything right now (either editing or...

Congrats on the sale!

Of course - it's never too late to join in. That is interesting that you find yourself on the lean side for long formats and the long side on short ones. Always interesting to experiment with different goals whether word count or whatever - can reveal a lot in the learning process. Glibwizard - I am...

Fulfilled my goal of finishing the new ending yesterday (not typed yet but written out in my notebook). Today I went through my critiques and jotted down notes about what I need to do in my revisions next week (letting them percolate for the day). So I think today is going to feature some planning f...

That sounds like a solid strategy - to work based on a time spent goal. Looking forward to hearing how your writing goes as you wrangle the child infestation! I wish I could answer your last question with a bit more cheer but alas I have been caught in the writing doldrums. I've got some critiques w...