Sunday, January 31st, 2010

(Unofficial) Write Your @ss Off Results

So how did I do?

It was surprisingly difficult for me to devote nearly eight hours in a single day to “all things about writing” and not “just” writing.

I’ve done the Nano-thing, and the 3-Day Writing Contest and have spent as much as a week “on retreat” totally dedicated to “just writing.”  Mixing it up by adding in the “business of things” as well as the day-dream/plot noodling tasks felt a bit…off.

For me, it feels like I didn’t get much accomplished.

And yet, if you look at my list…

  • Write my daily minimum on my current WIP
  • Write a duplicate daily minimum on something new
  • submit three short stories to three different markets, 2 electronic, 1 snail-mail
  • Sign and mail my new contracts with Damnation Books
  • Reply to all my writer friends’ email that I’ve ignored for (a while)
  • Update some minor things on my Web site

…I think I did pretty well.

Between the first two items, I actually more than tripled my daily required output.

I wound up sending three stories to three electronic markets because the snail-mail market I’d been contemplating had gone digital. So, I spent less time on submissions than I thought I would.

Signing and mailing out the stuff to Damnation Books took a bit longer than I thought it would because I copied and filed the items right away.  (A good thing, because this stuff tends to pile up on my desk.)

Sorry, friends! I still owe you some chatty messages. I promise I’ll get back to you soon. And well, dear Web site, the minor things will have to get fixed up catch-as-catch can.

Still, not a bad day’s work…and I’ve got the “official” Write Your @ss Off day (again, Friday) this week.

…and yet…I really wanted to write THOUSANDS of words on Friday. So, I’m a tad disappointed. If I’d noodled-out the plot of my new WIP prior to staring the WY@O, I probably could have whipped out thousands of words on that alone.

The silver lining: by multi-tasking, I was focused. I didn’t play a single game of solitaire all day. I should get a medal for that.

Did anyone else play along, unofficially? How’d you do? Anyone saving it up for this coming weekend and the official Write Your @ss Off? Let me know in the comments below.

4 comments to (Unofficial) Write Your @ss Off Results

  • JES

    Woot! It sounds like it was a terrific day — amazing how fast the time flies by when you clear the decks, isn’t it?

    THOUSANDS of words a day is awfully damn tough; you might be able to do it sometimes, but if you manage to pull it off regularly please don’t discourage us slackers by sharing the news. 🙂

    For me, WYAO “day” is pretty much my regular Saturday schedule: get to the PC by 7am, and park there (with breaks for “coffee in, coffee out” and other necessities) until 2 or 3pm. I was especially proud yesterday, though, not to have opened the Web browser until nearly the end (to check a factoid). That’s SUCH a time-sucker!

    • JES!!! Thanks for stopping by!

      Friday *was* a good day…probably because I didn’t open the browser and mail programs….I did do a bit of tweeting, but not a lot: just enough to satisfy the craving of being on line without getting sucked into it.

      You’re right: THOUSANDS of words a day is awfully tough. But I gotta have a goal, right? 😉 I just remember being able to do more pre-massively-long-daily-commute. And, you? Slacker? You’ll never sell me on that. I’ve seen your awesome Web site.

      I’m looking forward to doing it again this Friday. Thanks for starting it all!

  • Congrats on getting so much done!!! I missed these posts earlier… but I actually did the 8 hours on Saturday. From 1-3, I re-recorded all the poems from my chapbook, and then… on and off from 4PM until 1AM (bathroom breaks in between, but dinner while working) I finished editing one of my WIPs and am gearing up to send it out!! 😀 That said, I still have so much to do, I may join you on the official WY@O… next weekend appears quiet. 🙂

    Thanks for the heads up – and go you! I’m ok w/ getting correspondence whenever. Goodness knows you’ve waited months for my responses sometimes. 😉

    *Hugs!*

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