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#camp nano 2023 day 1
duskyashe · 10 months
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CAMP NANO DAY 1
Calling All The Monsters part 4 chapter 1
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Jason was more than ready to get this over with. Unlike the others, he'd known he wasn't fully human for years, pretty much ever since he'd come back from the dead. Looking back on it, he'd even known the others were slowly changing, too, he just hadn't had the words. He hadn't known there even were words for the feeling of slowly finding his footing among others that were just as inhuman as himself. Well, other than relief.
As soon as Dick confirmed when and where the kid was willing to host tutoring sessions for all of them ("He said he wanted to work with each of us individually, first, but that he was willing to work with groups of up to three at a time if B was more comfortable with that," Dick said with a thoughtful frown, cowl held loosely in one hand. "Personally, I think the first meeting should definitely be two of us, but the rest should be played by ear, but it's your call, B,") Jason was nearly vibrating out of his own skin in anticipation. Answers to all his questions about himself, from his first fully conscious thought after his dip in the Pits to a reaction he'd had to something just last Tuesday, were just out of his reach and he could feel his frustration and impatience building in the back of his throat. Grimacing, he swallowed the urge to vocalize his feelings before taking a deep breath. It was only an hour more before Condor and Starling would be meeting up with their new tutor, he could hold out that much longer. He could.
"You alright there, Jay?" Steph asked as she entered the cave. Her long blonde hair was braided tightly against the crown of her head in preparation for getting in costume.
He shakily let out the breath he'd taken and nodded in her direction. "Just anxious," he said, meticulously going over his guns yet again. He was mostly suited up, himself, just needing to mask up and slip his gloves on. He'd initially had his gloves on, but cleaning his guns was easier and more grounding barehanded, so off they'd come.
She gave him a searching look. "You really believe Phantom, don't you?" Steph asked after a moment.
Jason paused his movements and let out a sigh. "Yeah. Yeah, I do," he replied, setting his cleaning rag to the side and finally looking directly at her instead of just from the corner of his eye. "Look, I'm pretty sure it was fairly obvious to B, Dick, and Alfie, and maybe Tim saw it, too, but I didn't come back from death the same as I was before. And I don't mean "the trauma of my death changed me"," he said with finger quotes, rolling his eyes at the same time. "I mean I literally didn't come back fully human. At the latest, I've known I wasn't fully human since shortly after everything that happened with Tim, but it's far more realistic to say I've known, at least on some level, ever since I first came out of the Pit." Jason sighed and ran a hand through the tuft of white hair that liked to fall into his eyes. "Looking back, almost every single fight between me and another member of the family, except Damian, started because I either misunderstood something someone said or took insult where none was meant, because I reacted based on instinct and emotion first instead of logic, and while I've gotten better at thinking crap through before I respond, interactions between all of us for the past year and a half have been noticeably less tense and have resulted in a lot less bloodshed. That's not all on me, and neither is it all on the Demon Spawn finally starting to get a clue."
"Alright," Steph said, the gears in her head almost visibly turning. "Putting aside you knowing years ahead of us that it was possible to start out human and end up not, what do you mean by almost every fight between you and a different family member except Damian? Are you saying the fights between you two were that different than all the others?"
He blinked at the blonde in incredulity for a moment. "Steph… Damian's from a warrior culture," he said slowly, praying he didn't need to spell it out for her. She just blinked blankly back at him and he let out a soft curse under his breath. No luck. "Out of the entire family, only four of us have been trained by the League of Assassins, and B didn't exactly keep up with the cultural practices after his stay with them. Cass may have picked up on a lot of those practices from her sperm donor and whatever other trainers he allowed her to train under, but she didn't have all of them and didn't really understand what she had picked up or how to actually apply it. I was the only one who, in Damian's eyes at the time, was cultured and spoke a familiar language. He saw me as someone who was reliable, and a part of me saw him in a similar light due to my own experiences with the League right after my resurrection. Fights with the Demon Spawn were more like training spars while fights with pretty much everyone else were basically honor duels." How has this not come up before now? Are the others just as clueless about this crap? Jason wanted to shake some common sense into some of his siblings, maybe scream a little in frustration. If the only ones who knew anything accurate about his and Damian's relationship were literally just the two of them, he was going to be so disappointed in his family…
Steph looked like she was going to say something more on the subject when Bruce and Babs entered the cave, Babs heading to the Batcomputer while Bruce walked over to the two of them.
"I had a feeling you two would still be down here. Steph, go get changed, I'll help you with your hair pins before you head out, okay?" Bruce asked. Steph gave a sloppy salute and skipped off to the changing rooms, though Jason could tell she wasn't going to let their conversation drop that easily. Bruce took a moment to watch Steph go, and Jason got back to cleaning his guns as he waited for his father Bruce to say his piece. "Are you alright, Jaylad? You usually aren't this anxious before an op, especially an information gathering one like this."
Jason finished rubbing down the last part that needed attention before quickly reassembling his guns. "At the beginning, back when the Demon Spawn first came to live with us, did any of his interactions with the family stand out as different to you?" Jason asked instead. He switched to checking his hidden ammo pouches, making sure everything was topped off. He wasn't expecting a fight tonight, but he needed something to keep his hands occupied.
A hand, scarred and familiar, caught his attention as it came to rest on his own. "I've always known yours and Damian's relationship was special to both of you. You both got each other in ways the others are still trying to understand. And yes, I'm aware a large part of that is due to your time with the League, I'm not as blind to your dealings with your siblings as you all seem to think I am," Bruce said with a chuckle. He brought his other hand up to gently raise Jason's head, making eye contact soon after. "I'm grateful you were able to give Damian a small slice of his first home when I couldn't, Jason. While I wish neither of you had ever been in the situations that lead to you both being with the League, I'm grateful those experiences were able to bring you two closer together as brothers."
He stared at Bruce in shock for a moment before clearing his throat and looking away. "Damn it, B, warn a man before you bring out the emotion talk," he said, stalwartly pretending his eyes weren't misty.
Jason saw Bruce smile out the corner of his eye as his father patted his shoulder with the hand that had been on his cheek. "My bad, sorry about that. Finish getting ready then meet by the Batcomputer for a quick briefing," he said before walking away.
As Jason finished checking his ammo pouches and slid his gloves back on, he couldn't help but smile to himself at the faint, almost tangible, warmth in his chest. Things had really changed in the past year and a half, and for the better, at that.
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Danny was both excited and nervous for what this evening would entail. He'd been obsessively going over everything he'd ever been taught about the various non-human beings that called Earth and its various pocket dimensions home in preparation for this night. He didn't know who he was meeting with first, nor did he know how many of Batman's clan he was meeting with, so he and his Fright had probably gone a bit overboard with potential lesson plans. He just wanted to give the Bats a good first lesson about their various species and the instincts and abilities that are a part of them.
He was waiting at the rooftop shrine where he met with Raven, once more sitting cross-legged about a foot above the roof. It had been almost two weeks since he and Raven had set up these lessons, and he was eager to get started. The current plan was that for the initial lessons, if everything worked out during this first one, Danny would be meeting each publicly known member of the Batclan at that exact shrine for basically what boiled down to essentially bookwork before eventually moving on to hands-on training with their current and future abilities at a different, more secure location. He had to admit, it was a pretty good system for having been developed at the drop of the hat between two beings who didn't even know each other yet.
A sudden burst of flame on the corner of the roof drew Danny's attention to Condor's arrival. Y'know, Danny thought with eyes wide with awe as the hooded form of Condor stalked out of the fire with a predatory grace, little tendrils of fire chasing after him, if we'd known Condor literally appeared in a burst of flames at times, lich would have been the last thing we thought of. It's so freaking obvious he's a phoenix that in hindsight I feel like an idiot.
The faint rustle of feathers against fabric had him turning around just in time to see Starling drop down from on top of the shrine and land in a stooped crouch, feather headdress flowing in the breeze as her head tilted ever so sightly to the side, the hood of her own costume shading her face enough to make the florescent red lenses of her full face mask stand out starkly.
"We aren't late, are we?" A soft, almost lyrical voice asked from behind Danny, brimming with power and potential but holding nothing but eagerness and nervousness. Condor's voice was most definitely masculine, but it was almost impossible to tell if it were tenor, baritone, or bass as it seemed to be all of them at once. It was captivating and bone chilling all at once.
Danny looked over his shoulder, more sure in his assumptions of the species of these two vigilantes than ever before. "Not at all, you're right on time. Shall we begin?"
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HEY EVERYONE!!! So sorry for the wait, I meant to get this chapter finished and published back in May, but, well... That obviously didn't happen (⁠^⁠~⁠^⁠;⁠)⁠ゞ also, you may have noticed something different about this part (⁠ ͡⁠°⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ͡⁠°⁠) yes, that's right, part 4 of this series has been broken into chapters!!! This will mainly come into play on AO3, as part 4 will be a multi chapter fic over there (as well as actually have a title (⁠;⁠^⁠ω⁠^⁠)) but I thought it was important to acknowledge it here, too!
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seannajanwrites · 1 year
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Camp Nano: Day 1
Camp Nanowrimo has officially started.
My goal is 850/day. I was able to write 1,109 today, so I feel satisfied. I wrote half a chapter and I'm really happy with it so far. I'll finish the chapter tomorrow.
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nanowrimo · 10 months
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Five Scenes That Make or Break Your Novel
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Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Bookflow, a 2023 NaNo sponsor, is a cloud-based writing tool that helps writers stay motivated and organized. Today, Bookflow shares five important scenes to consider when writing or editing your novel:
At Bookflow, we’re all about helping writers start writing and keep writing. What stops writers from writing? Overwhelm, fatigue, perfectionism, fear, life events—there are an infinite number of reasons why we take a pause and then, sometimes, fail to get started again. At Bookflow, we’re all about focusing on how to make writing feel doable, so that you can get in the flow and stay there…all the way to “The End”.
Promoting the positive energy of experiences like Camp NaNoWriMo is what we’re all about. After all, writing isn’t just something we do when we’re putting words on the page: it’s a way of life, a way of seeing the world through a creative lens. Bookflow makes it easy to capture and organize the thoughts that make up a novel’s raw material, and then turn that material into a finished draft.
Writers often get stuck in their plots or struggle to see the big picture behind their manuscript’s events. But the basic structure that underlies most stories in the Western tradition is actually fairly simple. (Simple, of course, does not necessarily mean easy!)
According to playwright David Mamet, plots have five foundational moments. Here, we explain what each of these moments means.
1. Once Upon a Time
We can’t understand why something changes if we never understand what things were like before that change. Consider what an ordinary day was like for your protagonist before their main conflict arrived. Were they happy? Dissatisfied? Frightened? Content?
2. And Then One Day
This is the moment that things change for your protagonist. And then one day…Gandalf handed me a magic ring. And then one day… I woke up and was a cockroach. And then one day… the prince invited everyone to a ball. Usually, this scene will appear at or near the start of your novel, and will set things in motion as your character makes a plan to get what they want.
3. And Just When Things Were Going So Well
This is a major reversal that happens approximately midway through your novel. After initial setbacks, your protagonist seems to be on the verge of success…only to fail in a way that seems catastrophic. This causes the character to contemplate giving up entirely. But after they deal with the emotional fallout of their failure, they reassess their actions and what they are willing to do to get what they want or need.
4. When All of A Sudden
The character’s new plan has worked, and they seem to be on the brink of success. But near the end, they face an enormous, final setback that looks as if it will end in disaster. However, the character’s earlier challenges have helped the character grow. They put everything on the line (emotionally or physically) in a final bid to achieve the outcome they want.
5. And They All Lived Happily Ever After
Sometimes they all live happily ever after (Cinderella). Sometimes they don’t (Macbeth). But there’s always a decisive moment in which the protagonist achieves their goal, fails in their goal, or a mixture of both. Either way, once the outcome is decided, your story is effectively over. Tie up any loose ends and write The End—you did it!
Bookflow is a comprehensive (but easy to use!) tool to help you build out characters and scenes that work and organize your writing into a successful novel. If you’d like a copy of our free outlining guide, click here!
Bookflow is the cloud-based writing tool that helps writers stay motivated and organized. Track streaks and goals, organize and re-order your manuscript, and find daily inspiration and writing prompts with the tool that gets you all the way to “The End”. Camp NaNoWriMo writers get 30% off an annual subscription when you sign up with code NANOWRITER. Offer expires August 1, 2023.
Top photo by 愚木混株 cdd20 on Unsplash.
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little-peril-stories · 9 months
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Camp Nano July 2023
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How It Went
Um, not how I expected.
The good:
I managed to write every day. I'll confess here that, because we went on vacation and were all over the place most days, I sometimes updated my word count for the day, wrote more, and saved that 'update' for the next day because I like getting the badges. (All the writing was done in July though! I did all the outlining and planning work between February and June, but I didn't start writing till July 1.)
My outline was helpful. I didn't spend a lot of time agonizing over "what happens next" because I always knew, even if the specifics were a little fuzzy. My process boils down to 'plan hard, but allow for deviation & exploration' and it seems like that is still a system that works for me.
Some of the writing was OK. I mean, it's a writing challenge and I was going fast. She gonna need work. But I often smiled while I was writing, or when I was rereading scenes, and that's a good indicator for me. :)
The , uh, well, you see:
I wasn't always feeling it. Trying to track exactly why I felt this way has been tough. I'm willing to admit it could have been burnout (or something adjacent to it) since Camp Nano began right on the heels of the end of the school year, and I had just finished the whirlwind of writing The Queen of Lies in a month, a Thing That Happened that we may never understand. Maybe I started planning too early and the passion had faded since the height of my enthusiasm as I plotted it out. Idk. Maybe it was being on vacation, constantly being around people and having limited time to myself to really feel the story and the words and the everything. Idk.
The romantic tension isn't there. And this one hurts, because I (personally, as someone who is actually really new to writing romantic tension lol) think I did this really well in TQOL, so what's different here? (Aside from diff characters, diff story, okay I get it, you know what I mean.)
I was distracted. And this one is purely my fault. I was editing chapters of TQOL for posting throughout this time, too, and even though it takes a different kind of brainpower, it was often the task that called to me more.
Overall:
So, I'm SUPER proud of myself for achieving my Camp Nano goal of 31,000 words (1000 words/day) on July 28. But I kind of wonder if maybe it wasn't quite the right time to write this story.
We'll see how the last three days of July go (I want them badges, dang it), but the true test will be in August, when I have no goal set for myself. Will I focus on the finally finishing Book 1 and letting humans read it? Will I just work on TQOL? Will angsty heist wip rise again? Or will the passion for Book 2 (which I was SO EXCITED TO WRITE) return the moment the daily word goal is gone? (lol what a joke we all know I'm gonna write Will's POV chapters for TQOL.)
Thanks for reading this pointless ramble.
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Camp NaNo April 2023: Day 1 Wrap Up
Project: Mage Princess
Word Count for the day: 2,015
General feelings: It's nice to be back to writing original fiction again. I'm a little rough around the edges, but that's to be expected. It's also a first draft so I'm not worried.
Excerpt of the day (text and disclaimer under the cut):
Now that [Tara] was 18, she would be presented to the nobles of Anetalia, as well as certain foreign dignitaries looking to arrange a marriage with the future Queen. Tara already knew her role - to show up, look pretty, dance with whoever asked, and give a small speech. She wasn’t to speak otherwise unless spoken to first, and certainly never to offer a negative opinion to someone who might provide a beneficial match for her and her land.
And, above all else, never ever use any type of magic.
She scowled at the thought. She brought her hand out of the water, palm towards the ceiling. She channeled a bit of energy into her hand, and a small orange flame sparked in her palm. She smiled as the water on her skin evaporated, the flames dancing merrily by her fingers.
*This is unedited from a work in progress and is subject to modification or deletion in future drafts. Copyrighted by me and may not be republished or redistributed.
~
Mage Princess Tag List: @nightingaleflow @morganwriteblr
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maguayans · 1 year
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AYE’S YEAR OF WRITING ‘22
Hi, hello! How have you been? I hope the season’s treating you well. It’s that time of the year again—to see how I ruled as a writer this year. (It’s already 2023, though. Happy New Year!)
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GENERAL WORD COUNT: Forty-one thousand eight hundred plus words—pops confetti—across eleven stories! That’s not a lot compared to what I’ve written last year, but I’m pretty proud of it, especially because almost half of it was written within thirty days—thanks, Camp Nano.
If you happen to stumble upon my posts, you may know some of them: Lethal Bloods, Mariang Makiling, Red Complex, Crimson, Fair Waters, Maharlika, All in Favor, Say Aye, Red Cuts, Where the Poet Went to Die, Don’t Fall Asleep, and Tres.
Yeah…I don’t think jumping from one WIP to another is good…for me. But it’s fun!
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WORKS IN PROGRESS: In addition to drafting the stories listed above, a few ideas came up and made it to my list of projects. It seems like I’d never run out of stories to write and talk about.
New WIP #1: Human x Deities — Once in a while the deities would come down from their heavenly, divine realm to visit the mundane (like tourists.) When they do, a human would accompany them (like a tourist guide). The story features the gods of Philippine Mythology, soulmates and reincarnations (I’m a huge sucker for it), shamans and glowing tattoos.
New WIP #2: Flea Market Isekai — MC enters a flea market at the wrong time and finds herself in the same market with a different crowd. The story features the wonderful creatures of Philippine Mythology.
There are also four new short stories. *eye emojis*
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WORLDBUILDING: Maybe I didn’t surpass my word count last year because I was too immersed in ✨worldbuilding✨.
Tres. Following the decision to change the titles and revise the origins of the characters I immediately went to Tres’s worldbuilding — an island far, far away; isolated from the main population (which could mean a lot of things, but most importantly overlooked crimes, gore, and everything in between.) The island, San Angel, is modest and gorgeous, but like a multicolored amphibian in a rainforest, it is deadly. Lovely flowers grow by the earthen roads, and underneath lies the remains of those buried without tombstones.
Red Complex. The red strings universe is expanding. In addition to a novella called Red Cuts, there’s a short story collection featuring characters from the mundane and the Matchmaker’s realm.
The Morose Cat. There’s a mini worldbuilding series I call, The Uphill Town, introducing a town up the hill (where the story takes place) and what makes it so different…and magical. For one, there’s an abandoned shrine that cats always pass through, and where the veil between the mundane and the otherworldly fades.
Elementaliaverse. There are so many things I added recently to the project and the stories. Mainly: Mystique Heights, Fair Waters, and Maharlika.
Worldbuilding, my beloved.
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WRITEBLR. I can confidently say I interacted with the community more in 2022, and it was so much fun! Hopefully, I could do the same and more this 2023, and participate in more writeblr events/activities. Speaking of which, here are two: 30 Days, 30 Lines Challenge (by blind-the-winds), and Trick or Treat Writeblr Halloween Event (by pluttskutt). Thank you so much for these!
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BOOKS & READING. I read less than ten books, and I enjoyed them. I am open to random book recommendations in my inbox/messages. I'll continue reading reviews/posts about books—how I discovered The Great Library series. (A writeblr posted about how much they enjoyed reading the books, so I bought copies. They were on the third book then, If I remember correctly, and I wanted to reblog the post but I forget their handle.)
Crier’s War Duology, Nina Varela
House of Hollow, Krystal Sutherland
The Great Library (1-4), Rachel Caine
Intersections, B. Pigeon; Fell Marsh
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MISCELLANEOUS/PERSONAL. We went on a trip for Christmas, and the funniest, most writer thing I did was buy a stick (an arnis stick, the vendor told me, though it seemed different), thinking it would help me write one of my WIPs. It was affordable, so I guess it was fine. ( A little Christmas gift for me, I told myself. But I did buy more than a stick from a gift shop. *laughs hysterically*)
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INITIAL PLANS FOR 2023. Read at least twenty-five (25) books. // Finish at least one (1) draft. // Share two (2) short stories. 
I think...I’m going to be busy.
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Thank you so much for reading! Enjoy the rest of the season. Stay warm and safe. Let’s hope 2023 will be kind and gentle. Cheers to more writing and reading and writeblr-ing!
If you have time, visit #ayearofwriting to see how other writers owned 2022!
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lonsdalewrite · 9 months
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Monthly Writing (and Adjacent) Summary - July 2023
🫀 THE CLAWS OF THE OUNCE 🫀
FIRST DRAFT COMPLETED!
Word count: 114,730
Words written: 21,005 (😮)
Chapters finished: 5
Snippet:
Mailhairer handed it [the hot dog bun he didn’t want to eat] to Ash. As she savoured it, she found herself tracing the little felines on the blanket with her free index finger. “It would be nice if we knew a weretiger,” she said. “Then we could eat together on this blanket and match the pictures.” “Truly, it would be,” Mailhairer agreed. “I’d love to know for certain if there’s more ailuranthropes in the world.” “Hey, you didn’t guess I existed until you ran into me. There might be a weretiger roaming around somewhere out there.”
Notes / Accomplishments:
Accomplished the goal I set for Camp NaNo!
Reached my word count goal on all but four days! And it was higher than usual - I bumped it up from 400 words/day to 525, then to 600.
I’m so proud of myself!
Goal for August: Finish the first round of edits for Part 1. (I’m taking a two-week break before I start edits.)
🪴 A SUMMER WITH THE IMMORTAL 🪴
On the flip-side of news: unfortunately, I still didn’t manage to get this one published 🥲 I’m really, really sorry - some hard personal stuff’s been holding me back (don’t want to get into it). Haven’t even managed to make an account with the self-publishing service I want to use. I will announce things when there is something to be announced…
🦋 VERDANTLAND TRILOGY 2 🦋
(Note: I decided to cut the previous Chapters 2 and 3 and the ending portion of Chapter 1, hence the inconsistencies with last month’s writing summary.)
Draft: 1
Words written: 4,244
Word count: 8,719
Chapters finished: 3
Current chapter: 3 out of 25
Snippet:
(Context: Cameron is a cursorial / high-speed-running-adapted altered human. He can run both bipedally and quadrupedally.)
Cameron loved to run, to feel his body work in the way the Tachytely had designed it to. Sometimes he wished he could keep doing it forever. Just launch into a gallop and never stop. Make it so that there was nothing except the ground flying by underneath him, punctuated by the drumbeat of his hands and feet. It was the best when he was out in the forest. True, he had to be much more careful, and that slowed him down. But what forest running lacked in speed and losing yourself in the gallop, it more than made up for in… he didn’t even know what to call it. Connectedness was the closest word he could think of. He was made in the flawlessly-calibrated way of the tachytelic force, as were all the forms of life that surrounded him, closing in on him with carmine leaves and bumpy roots and tiny fluttering wings. They were all born of the same parent, siblings in the invisible force weaving through the world.
Notes:
The new POV characters are so much fun to write.
Goal for August: Get to 20K.
🧤 THE GIFT OF GLOVES 🧤
Draft: 1
Words written: 1,609
Word count: 31,609
Chapters finished: 1
Current chapter: 9 out of 9
Snippet: Unfortunately, pretty much everything I wrote this month is spoilers…
Notes:
Hit a slump on this one again 😞
Goal for August: ACTUALLY FINISH THE FIRST DRAFT DAMMIT. I’m so close…
OVERALL
Finishing The Claws of the Ounce kind of took up all my energy, and while I’m proud of everything I did, my other projects suffered for it. At least I topped my previous goal of “words written for a specific WIP” by a good ~7,000.
Onwards into August! Let’s see what the final month of this hyper-productive summer has in store…
Tag list: @ashen-crest @writeblrfantasy @edj-writes @emwhyarentyouwriting @kirsten-is-writing @chayscribbles
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pterawaters · 10 months
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Ptera's WIP List (6/2023)
Recently Posted
The Pelt (Complete) - Stranger Things, Steve/Chrissy, Werewolf AU, E rated, 1529 words
In Progress
Stranger Things
Hold on to Your Heart (WIP, 11/15 chapters posted, 12 written) - The older teen polycule, Jonathan/Argyle, Eddie/Chrissy, Steve/Nancy, Robin/Nancy, Steve/Eddie, Argyle/Eden, E rated, 59k
Post S4 Stoncy (editing, will post for @julybreakbingo), Stoncy, T rated, 8k
Demogorgon Steve (WIP, 7 of 9-ish chapters written) - Steve/Demogorgon, horror/body modification, some noncon, E rated, 30k so far, might finish up for julybreakbingo
Wrong Bed Coffee Shop AU (WIP, my main julybreakbingo fic) - Chrissy/Steve, Steve/Nancy, Jonathan/Nancy, Jonathan/Chrissy/Steve/Nancy, aged up, pregnancy, E rated, 21k so far, maybe 40k when it's done?
King Steve - Steve takes on a greater protector role starting in S1, 6k, not sure where it’s going exactly, but I'm not ready to abandon it
Wednesday
The Beast in my Bones (#3 of When is a monster not a monster?) - Tyler/Xavier, Xavier & Wednesday, eventual Wednesday/Tyler/Xavier, season 1 rewrite with Xavier as the Hyde's master, 13k and 3/~6 chapters? I need an outline for the rest
Original Works
"The Cave" - a 7.5k fic that will be included in a future anthology put out by Duck Prints Press, more info to come
Overnight - Magnolia Way book #3 (polyam/bisexual MCs), 25k, Coming Soon! (beta readers needed!)
A call from his dad ruins Brad Shepard’s plans for a relaxing weekend off work. He has to pick up his high school memorabilia collection from his dad’s place before Monday if he wants to save it from the dump. Time for an eight-hour road trip! Brad’s boyfriend, Sean, tags along for moral support. Along the way, a flat tire leads to an argument that threatens their relationship.
With the boys gone for the night, April and Jaime decide to throw a sleepover with April’s friend Nisha, the cute college girl from across the hall. Despite a rocky start, Nisha and Jaime get along better than April could’ve hoped. A night of movies, snacks, Truth or Dare, and karaoke ensues, though they’ve got to keep it down to avoid a visit from their cranky, homophobic landlord.
Moving day rewrite - Magnolia Way book #1, 14k of about 20, I felt like I could make some vast improvements with a rewrite, so I’m working on it!
Phase shift - Nyctophobia book #1, 99k, Sci-fi novel about a small-town family fighting interdimensional aliens and the government trying to cover up the invasion. In revisions.
Inertia - Nyctophbia book #2, 80k, I have about 15-18k left I think. I focused on this one a lot during Nov 2022 Nanowrimo and April 2023 Camp Nano, but I haven't worked on it much since. I could use some cheer readers, if anyone wants to read it and help me wrangle the ending.
"Many Hands" - I submitted a pitch for a polyam erotica anthology and I'm waiting to hear back if I got in!
GYWO Progress
My pledge for Get Your Words Out this year was 350k. Currently I'm at 165k, right about where I should be to reach my goal by the end of the year.
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Camp NaNoWriMo 2023: Last Two Days
Since we're at the last two days of Camp NaNo, I figured I'll update them here!
Day 29
Words typed: 969
Total words: 29,308
Times updated: 1
700 words left before I meet my goal. If I really wanted to, I could end it off right now and just finish a day early, but I think I’ll keep going. One more day!
Day 30
Words typed: 736
Total words: 30,044
Times updated: 1
And with that, I have completed it. My goal for Camp NaNo has been reached. I feel like this definitely worked for me, and this was my first time ever doing AND completing an official NaNoWriMo event. I’m so proud of myself!!
@the-wip-project
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authorivyljames · 10 months
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Happy first day of camp nanowrimo July 2023!
my camp goal is 10k towards ANY project.
The projects I might work on include:
- The Plus-One Contract draft 1 (lesbian romance - professional companion as wedding date)
- Pomegranate Lips draft 1 (lesbian romance - tattoo artist butch x flower shop femme)
- The Winner Takes It All revisions
... truly, the list just goes on lol
Anyway, I'm Author Ivy L. James on the NaNo site: https://nanowrimo.org/participants/author-ivy-l-james
Be my friend there!
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moondust-bard · 1 year
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Camp NaNo: April 7th, 2023
I took the day to re-evaluate my goals and check in with how I’m feeling toward the projects I’ve been working on this month. It’s difficult to admit when you’ve lost passion for a project— but I’ve lost it for Hunting Ground, my Regency Era + dragons book. I’m still very much ensconced in the world of The Bloody Divine, my other active project. The chaos and complexity of The Bloody Divine calls to my curiosity, drawing me into its story.
For this version of me, in my current mental state, a story as pretty and clean as Hunting Ground isn’t satisfying. In that story, there’s a clear good guy and bad guy, a happily ever after, and the world glitters with hope and luxury.
I never change a story from what it needs to be just to suit what I want to write; I shift focus to a story that would benefit from the sort of words I need to write. With that in mind, I am shelving the dragon book in favor of working on Lost in the Witherwoods #1. This trade is perfectly in line with my Camp NaNo goals, so that’s nice.
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nanowrimo · 1 year
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How to Unstick Your Camp NaNoWriMo Project
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Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. ProWritingAid, a 2023 NaNo sponsor, helps you turn your rough first draft into a clean, clear, publish-ready manuscript. Today, author Krystal N. Craiker shares some tips on how to push through to the end of your writing project when you’re feeling stuck:
Camp NaNo is the ultimate test of your creativity. You push your writing skills and habits to a new level. 
It’s inevitable that at some point this month—or any time when you’re writing a novel—you’re going to get stuck. 
You’ll run into a plot conundrum, or you’ll feel creatively drained. You’ll stare at the page and have no clue what to write next.
It happens to all of us, so don’t worry. Here are some of my favorite ways to get my stories unstuck and my creativity flowing once again.
1. Go Outside
Writing is an isolating process, and writers are notorious for losing hours of the day to the computer screen. But when you’re stuck in a rut, staring at the page stressed out doesn’t make things better.
Get up. Go get a drink of water. Then go outside. What you do next doesn’t matter. You can get some exercise in or drive to the coffee shop. Birdwatch, play with the kids, splash in some puddles—you get the idea.
A little movement and some sunshine will help you feel refreshed when you sit back down at the computer.
2. Brain Dump
This is my tried and true method for NaNoWriMo. When I reach a point in my novel that I don’t know what to write (or just don’t want to write), I insert a random brain dump. 
I’ll write what I’m feeling about this scene and type out what I think the issue is. Sometimes, it’s just a bulleted list and others it’s a stream-of-consciousness flow. Here’s an example:
“I don’t know what to write here. I was going to kill off that character but didn’t. Somehow I need to get to X plot point from here. How do I do that? This is so frustrating. Now that I didn’t kill them off, I need a good reason for them to stay in the story. What are their motivations?”
If that’s all you write during a writing session, that’s okay. You were still working on your novel, so it still counts.
3. Use AI
It’s the first NaNo event since Chat GPT opened to the public and countless AI tools are popping up. AI can be a great way to brainstorm and spark inspiration.
As writers, we often get hung up on finding the perfect way to say something. But you don’t need to let one sentence slow down your writing flow.
Rephrase by ProWritingAid is a brand-new feature meant for writers like you. You can highlight any sentence, click Rephrase, and generate a new sentence. Shorten or lengthen a sentence, change the tone to formal or informal, or add sensory detail. 
Here’s a boring sentence I wrote: “Quinn entered the dark and cold forest.”
And here’s a sentence Rephrase gave me: “Quinn shivered as he stepped into the cold, dark forest, the air thick with the scent of damp earth.”
I can build off that! Now I’m more excited to write this scene that was feeling bland. 
Sign up for ProWritingAid to get access to Rephrase and more than 20 in-depth writing reports.
4. Keep Going
Whatever you do, don’t give up! Getting stuck is part of the process. When you hit that creative wall, give one of these methods a try.
Your story still wants to be written, so keep writing.
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Krystal N. Craiker is the Writing Pirate, an indie romance author and content writer who sails the seven internet seas, breaking tropes and bending genres. She has a background in anthropology and education, which bring fresh perspectives to her romance novels. When she’s not daydreaming about her next book or article, you can find her cooking gourmet gluten-free cuisine, laughing at memes, and playing board games. Krystal lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband, child, and two dogs.
Top photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash  
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ifonlyitweregay · 1 year
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Camp NaNo April 2023 ✨
this camp, i thought it would be fun to document each day of my writing. i'll be updating this post regularly with my writing progress!
i would love to hear about what folks are working on! 
for this month, my goal is to write at least 15 minutes a day for every day of the month. 
april 1: i had a bad headache for most of the day and didn’t want to look at any screens, but i managed a bit of writing near the close of the day. i worked for abt 15-20 minutes on my polar fantasy WIP. i realized i needed to integrate a minor character more throughout the story and planned how i would do so in my outline, and then i wrote abt 400 words in chapter 3. 
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yvesdot · 1 year
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Behind the Scenes: March 2023 Newsletter
(newsletter in question)
If you're wondering what the actual process to get that output was, the answer is: harrowing. I likely spent a lot more time working with the prompt than I would have if I had just written the thing myself-- but it was fun!
(I recommend opening this post in two tabs so you can compare output to my comments on it. This is also your invitation to ask yourself how much of the newsletter was my input and how much of it was interpretation. Which of those phrases do you think I naturally write? Which of them do you think I wrote?)
If you've never used ChatGPT before, I do recommend you test it out. The tl;dr on process is that you enter a prompt and it generates a convincing output using the patterns it has learned from its training data.
The ultimate prompt that worked for me (with numerous re-generations):
Hi ChatGPT! I need you to write a Patreon post for me based on my last few posts. It is a monthly newsletter telling people what I'm doing. Please write a newsletter post, organized into THE WRITING (a section about the writing I've done that month) and THE LIFE (how my life has been going), with the following information: 
I had a lot of trouble scheduling time to work on Something's Not Right's 5th anniversary rerelease, but it's coming along. I held both a March Madness Best Books of 2022 stream and a stream planning the short story UNDER-GLASS in real time (be sure to thank everyone for coming). Both streams are now available on YouTube. I'll be streaming in April with OHHOW for Camp NaNo during the 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM slot on Saturday, April 8th. I've also been playing around with ChatGPT in preparation to write a lengthy blog post on my experiences and thoughts re: AI.
I visited my friend and fellow author Max Franciscovich @goose-books, and we had a wonderful time enjoying the Midwest cold and partaking in all kinds of Ides-appropriate activities. 
At the end of the post, reveal that the entire post has been written by ChatGPT. Do not mention it at any other point, especially the beginning. Also thank everyone for continuing to support me. 
Write the post strictly adhering to the style and authorial voice of the following two posts:
FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER
Happy happy February, everyone! Boy, does it feel strange to have a new year.
THE WRITING
We are on SNR2 LOCKDOWN! I am still editing up new stories to enter the 5th anniversary re-release of Something’s Not Right.
At the same time, I’ve been running occasional streams, mostly thanks to OHHOW’s theming; a giant thank you to them for having the Monthly Themes for everyone to use. February’s theme was, naturally, Romance, hence our Romance Studies stream, where we learned from excerpts of many great titles how to write a good kissing, intimate, and/or sex scene. You can now find the stream on YouTube, where I hope to post more recordings! (Plus: the snippet I shared from KAY is up here.)
Be sure to turn up to March’s themed stream, Planning to Pantsing—where we’ll be planning an entire short story live on air—and our bonus funtimes March Madness stream, where I’ll be pitting all my favorite reads of 2022 against each other. (The Reading Roundup is still coming, whenever day jobs and SNR2 and so on allow).
On the smaller side, we held a little poll for Tumblr’s favorite genre of books, with expected results. And, on top of all of the above, Hourly Comic Day!
...so the lockdown isn’t quite as secure as we thought. Thanks for keeping me company while I do the quiet, often solitary work of editing and shining-up.
THE LIFE
I have been working on my work/writing/life balance. This is one sentence, but it is all the nooks and crannies of my life right now. It’s been going well so far! As always, direct all thoughts to me here or on Tumblr.
DECEMBER NEWSLETTER:
Hello, dear Patrons, and my best wishes for a beautiful opening of a brand sparkling new year! Thank you so much for your patience as I have wrapped up a wonderfully busy month. <- After writing these words, I was hit by a wayward ship at the dock, and as a result this is a full month late. Apologies! It was a VERY busy month.
THE WRITING
I spent December first primarily on Long Line, my debut erotica on yvesdotafterdark, and then on gathering all my bookish things up from around the year. I have not finished them, mostly because January has been focused on getting SNR...2! into the works (ICYMI: I’m trying to put out a 5th anniversary edition of Something’s Not Right; it takes a lot of work). The Scar and Tragic Accident have also been unlocked for free reading!
Otherwise, I really didn’t write very much this month. I decided to take a kind of pseudo-break from the literal act of writing and editing and so on to focus on my end-of-year things, and I did enjoy it—though I think breaks are perhaps more relaxful when they’re actual breaks and not just Break From One Thing To Do Another.
THE LIFE
I never did clean my room. I am now cleaning my room, in fits and starts, around everything else. This is part of a larger desperation for more time, not only for writing but also for my friends and my chores and my errands, and it signals to me that I am burning out a little bit. Look out for Patreon changes!
I also sincerely appreciate everyone being here and cheering me on specifically during this month. December 2022 was undoubtedly one of my busiest months ever—and I created and sold a limited edition print run of Exhaustively earlier this year!—and I’m so grateful for all the people who boosted my posts and chatted to me in the yvescord and hyped me up when I thought I would never finish a review. You made everything so much easier, and you continue to make it worth it.
Wrapping up with some maintenance notes: the giveaway is over, and (Oscar Isaac voice) somehow, Max @goose-books won. He will almost certainly not be taking duplicates of everything, and I’m sure everyone I gift a copy of a zine or book will be very grateful for his donation. The good news is that I was going to be visiting him anyway, so I believe I have saved on some shipping, I say, holding several-hundred-dollar plane tickets.
JANUARY NEWSLETTER
Happy end-of-January! Don’t tell me that it is, because I need to pretend it’s still two days after 2022 in order to finish all my 2022 wrap ups guilt-free. To that end, I have been writing “/22” on every form with a date. They’ll never take me alive!
THE WRITING
I fell off quite a bit this month, needing to focus on various other things in my life. The good news is that, apparently, for me falling off means releasing a new short story, so hopefully you didn’t notice. I’ve also been working very hard on putting together February’s Romance Writing Stream (on writing kissing & intimate scenes), so I hope you’ll come! And, of course, SNR2 work continues. Thanks for coming to the announcement stream!
(And I finally posted an Avner/Eliza deleted scenes roundup from recent Forest Castles editing work. Scraplets continue to be posted as I discover them in my drafts!)
THE LIFE
What a storm that was! Fortunately, I am completely fine, quickly changing some travel plans and conveniently having family everywhere in the state to host me when necessary. Wishing much love to Californians worse affected, and to anyone else dealing with rough winters this side of the climate terror. I do say it every month, but thank you again to Patrons helping me sail these seas... and THANK YOU FOR 3 YEARS ON PATREON!! To many many many more!
Arguably I could have done better if I hadn't greeted it, but I still can't ask ChatGPT for things without providing a greeting first.
Various iterations on the prompt I deemed good enough to copy-paste into another document in case I gave up on getting anything better:
Hello everyone,
It's March and time for my monthly update!
THE WRITING:
It's been a challenge finding time to work on the Something's Not Right 5th anniversary re-release, but progress is being made. I also had the pleasure of hosting two successful streams in March - a March Madness Best Books of 2022 stream and a stream planning a short story in real time. A big thank you to everyone who attended! In April, I'll be streaming with OHHOW for Camp NaNo during the 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM slot on Saturday, April 8th. Additionally, I've been exploring my experiences and thoughts about AI in preparation to write a blog post.
THE LIFE:
I recently had the opportunity to visit my friend and fellow author Max Franciscovich (@goose-books), and we had a great time partaking in various Ides-appropriate activities and enjoying the Midwest cold. Balancing my work, writing, and life has been a priority, and I'm happy to say that my Patreon remodel is going well.
And there you have it - my monthly update. Oh, and by the way, this entire post was written by ChatGPT. Thank you all for continuing to support me!
(It doesn't really sound like me-- an issue that continued despite the addition of two more Patreon posts as samples to the prompt text-- but the main dealbreaker was calling the streams 'successful.' I wouldn't say they weren't, but it felt a little stuck-up. That reveal also strikes me as too... catty, almost. Am I catty?!)
Happy March, everyone! Can you believe it's already the third month of the year? Time seems to fly by so fast.
THE WRITING
I have to admit, scheduling time to work on Something's Not Right's 5th anniversary re-release has been quite a challenge this month. However, I'm happy to report that it's coming along nicely. I've been in touch with tRaum Books, working on promotional materials, and editing up new stories to include in the re-release.
In addition to my editing work, I've also been busy with a couple of streams this month. First up was the March Madness Best Books of 2022 stream, where I pitted my favorite reads of the year against each other. I'd like to thank everyone who tuned in for that. I also held a stream planning a short story in real-time, which was a lot of fun. If you missed either of these streams, you can catch them on my YouTube channel.
Looking ahead, I'll be streaming in April with OHHOW for Camp NaNo. You can catch me from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM on Saturday, April 8th. I'm excited to participate in this event and can't wait to see what we'll come up with.
Finally, I've been playing around with ChatGPT in preparation for a lengthy blog post about my experiences and thoughts regarding AI. Stay tuned for more details on that.
THE LIFE
In the midst of all this writing and editing, I did manage to take a break and visit my friend and fellow author Max Franciscovich (@goose-books). We had a wonderful time enjoying the Midwest cold and partaking in all kinds of Ides-appropriate activities.
In general, I've been working hard to balance my work, writing, and personal life this month. It's been a bit of a challenge, but I think I'm making progress. As always, I appreciate all the support and encouragement from my readers and fans. Thank you for being there for me.
And now, the big reveal: this entire post was written by ChatGPT! Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time.
(Not 100% happy with this reveal, either, but in this case the dealbreaker was the word-for-word copy/pasting of text from previous newsletters-- the line including "editing up" is clearly identical.)
Greetings and salutations, lovely Patrons! Another month, another update.
THE WRITING
I must admit, scheduling time to work on the 5th anniversary rerelease of Something's Not Right has been quite the challenge. However, progress is being made, and I'm excited to share it with you all soon. In March, I held two streams that were an absolute blast. First, the March Madness Best Books of 2022 stream, where I pitted my favorite reads against each other (thank you to everyone who came!). Then, we planned a short story in real-time, which was so much fun. If you missed either of these streams, don't worry - I plan on posting recordings on YouTube soon.
Mark your calendars, because on Saturday, April 8th, I'll be joining OHHOW for Camp NaNo during the 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM slot. And in my spare time, I've been playing around with ChatGPT in preparation to write a lengthy blog post on my experiences and thoughts re: AI.
THE LIFE
I recently had the pleasure of visiting my friend and fellow author Max Franciscovich (@goose-books). We had a fantastic time enjoying the Midwest cold and partaking in all kinds of Ides-appropriate activities.
In addition to writing, I've been focusing on my work/writing/life balance, and I'm happy to report that it's going well so far. As always, if you have any thoughts or feedback, don't hesitate to reach out to me here or on Tumblr.
And that's a wrap on this month's newsletter. Surprise! This entire post has been written by ChatGPT. Thank you all for continuing to support our lovely author, and we'll see you again next month.
(Hooray for the unique and yet utterly dottian phrasing of the opener! The parenthetical in the March Madness stream comment is a dream! But the recordings were planned to already be up once the Patreon post went out, and the "mark your calendars" transition is nonexistent. Good transition on the next line, though! Unfortunate that it stole the work/writing/life bit from an example and then seems to ask people for their feedback on that [since the post it snatched from asks for feedback on the reorganization of Patreon in order to form a better work/writing/life balance]. Also, who is this lovely author...)
Dear Patrons,
Welcome to another edition of my monthly newsletter! As always, thank you for your continued support. This month, I've been up to a lot of things, so let's get right into it.
THE WRITING:
It's been a bit of a struggle to find time to work on the fifth-anniversary re-release of "Something's Not Right," but progress is being made! In addition to that, I held two streams: a March Madness Best Books of 2022 stream and a stream planning the short story "UNDER-GLASS" in real-time. Both streams are available on YouTube, so a big thank you to everyone who came and made them so much fun to do!
In April, I'll be streaming again with OHHOW for Camp NaNo during the 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM slot on Saturday, April 8th. I've also been playing around with ChatGPT in preparation to write a lengthy blog post on my experiences and thoughts regarding AI.
THE LIFE:
I had the pleasure of visiting my friend and fellow author Max Franciscovich (@goose-books), and we had a wonderful time enjoying the Midwest cold and partaking in all kinds of Ides-appropriate activities. It was so good to get away and spend some time with someone I care about.
And that's it for this month! Thank you again for your support, and remember, this entire post has been written by ChatGPT. If you have any thoughts or comments, feel free to reach out to me on here or Tumblr. I'll see you all next month!
(That... is not how a reveal works. Poor ChatGPT.)
And, of course, the final functioning prompt, which included no reveal. I found myself preferring to say it myself, because at that point I was having enough trouble getting ChatGPT not to open in the third person (e.g. "ChatGPT here with another update from your favorite author") to not warrant any further nonsense.
I absolutely did not go about this wisely. I used ChatGPT as a playground, not as a Serious Buziness Investmump, and as a result I 100% forewent research into prompts that would have done objectively better. I'm also, in case anyone was worried, not planning on using ChatGPT to write more Patreon posts-- as you can see, it's really only functional as a gimmick.
The idea I had here was that I often spend too much time writing Patreon newsletters than I need to; nobody is going to freak out if I use one turn of phrase versus another, and it doesn't have to be a two-hours-combined affair. The vast majority of these outputs were usable with only light editing for voice; the only reason things took so long with this method was that I refused to edit them for the sake of the gag. (And, admittedly, my awful prompt.)
What I like about the ChatGPT Patreon idea is that it gets me out of my head. It says, "look, when this draft isn't written by you, suddenly it seems a lot more functional, doesn't it?"
If you're interested in more of my thoughts on AI and how it ought to be used, please subscribe to my Patreon! I'll be dropping a pretty lengthy blog post on AI there for the Little Ones before it hits Tumblr-- not to mention the actual behind the scenes posts you get on, well, pretty much everything I do. And, in the meanwhile, any curious questions can be sent to my inbox or Discord.
Support the author: all writing | book | ko-fi | Patreon
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winnieleighwrites · 1 year
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camp nano april 2023 final report;
WIP #1 -> elizabeth's recovery
draft stage -> zero drafted
scenes -> 50/50
goal word count -> 10,000
final word count -> 23,037
time -> 13.78 hours across 9 days
status -> done; queue pile for re-outline
to learn more ;
links related to elizabeth’s recovery -> pinterest | spotify | tumblr tag | outline post
elizabeth’s recovery taglist -> (send an ask regarding elizabeth to be added to or removed from the elizabeth’s recovery taglist)
WIP #2 -> fear of you
draft stage -> zero drafting
scenes -> 14/70
goal word count -> 10,000
final word count -> 6,791
time -> 5.17 hours across 4 days
status -> not done; queue pile for camp nano july 2023
to learn more ;
links related to fear of you -> pinterest | spotify | tumblr tag | outline post
fear of you taglist -> (send an ask regarding fear of you to be added to or removed from the fear of you taglist)
tags to follow or block ;
p; camp nano update | wip; elizabeth’s recovery | wip; fear of you | u; winnieleighwrites
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densehumboldt · 1 year
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Camp NaNoWriMo April 2023
I have decided to do something a little different for Camp NaNo this year.
I am splitting April into four projects. Dedicating a week to each.
My goal is to get the word count smashed out by "june bugging" onto smaller projects. That way I will have the variety my ADHD demands, but without sacrificing word count to jumping around too much and losing momentum.
Week 1
Genre: SF
Title: Hunting Big Game
Inspo: Ballard, Vonnegut, Coen Brothers, Wes Anderson
1 Sentence Pitch: It becomes legal to hunt Billionaires as long as the killer redistributes their wealth
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Day 2 Word Count: 4286
I will be streaming over on Twitch for accountability, but I am still learning the platform. So keep expectations low for a while.
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