So
maybe a bit dramatic … and it won’t exactly be the last time, but why quibble over semantics?
With
the third Hobbit movie coming out in theaters in less than a week, it feels
like the Battle of the Five
Armies has already begun with the onslaught of posters, trailers,
and #OneLastTime attempting to take the world by storm.
Needless
to say, it’s stuck in my head. Score one for the marketing team!
Meanwhile,
I’m buried beneath a pile of sticky notes, outlines, and character sheets as I
furiously work on book two of the Songkeeper Chronicles. If you haven’t read Orphan’s
Song yet, you certainly will want to read it before book two
comes out.
Because
here in book two, our beloved characters deal with bigger stakes, tackle bigger
opponents, encounter a bigger world, and brave even bigger dangers than before.
In
short, it’s bigger.
Which
means that I as the author am dealing with bigger stakes, tackling bigger
opponents, encountering a bigger world, and braving even bigger dangers than
before too.
But
I have off from work at my day job over the weekend and through Monday, so
being the glutton for punishment dedicated writer that I am, I have
issued myself a challenge.
A
full-on gauntlet in the face challenge.
Starting
tonight promptly at 6:00 PM and concluding before 6:00 AM Tuesday:
Whew,
there I said it … now I have
to follow through. Or die trying. (Maybe not that part.)
I’m
an edit as you go type of writer. If I’m not happy with what I write it’s super
hard for me to keep going. But I’ve managed to crank out 50,000 words in 13
days before, so obviously
this is the next logical step in my writerly progression.
In
any case, I’m looking forward to my writing weekend and wanted to invite all
you writers out there to join me in my epic quest.
Set
your own goal if you wish—after all you know your writing pace best. Choose to
write for part of the time, most of the time, or all of the time. Come hang out
on my Facebook page where I’ll be posting (hopefully excited) updates and
writing inspiration throughout the weekend.
But
join me, fellow warriors of the pen, and “write with me … one last time.”
Good luck on your challenge, Gillian!
I can't join you for the full 20,000- I have way too much to do. :P But I'll be mentally cheering you on. And maybe I'll set a smaller goal to work towards. Like . . . getting to the climax (probably about three scenes away) by Tuesday.
Thanks, Sarah! The cheering on is much appreciated. And reaching the climax and crossing three scenes off the list is a very respectable goal! Good luck! :)
I'll be praying for you! I'm not a writer so I won't be joining you, but I can support in prayer! :) At least think of how cool a reward you can get when you meet it…seeing The Hobbit! :D
Thanks, Laura! Prayer support is definitely appreciated. :) Yes, I shall play epic Hobbit music, perchance even dress up in epic Hobbit garb (just to get in the mood), and look forward to seeing The Hobbit after I cross the finish line.
I think I may join you for the full 20,000. I have a book that I need to finish getting out of me, and that should get me to almost done. I'll do the math later and determine how many words I need to do each day, but it should be doable. I've accomplished 5,000 to 7,000 words a day before. Yes, I do believe I shall attempt this.
Yay, Kendra! You can do it! Yes, it sounds insurmountable until you realize that I slipped an extra day into the weekend (Monday) and it's only a little more than 5,000 words a day, since we won't be starting until 6:00 tonight.
I won't join in the writing, but my goal is to EDIT 20k since I'm going through the "rip-it-all-apart" stage of writing. Awesome challenge! I'm excited to join! Good luck on yours! :D
Sometimes editing 20k is harder than writing 20k! I guess it depends on the state of your first draft… ;) Gad you're joining in. We can encourage one another. I shall be issuing some major editing challenges to myself in the near future!
Crazy girl! :D I applaud your pluck, though. Seeing your title nearly gave a heart attack – #onelasttime has me clutching my heart every time I see it. ;) Anyway, I wish you the best of luck with your challenge! I know I don't have the time to write 20K this weekend, but I'm also not anywhere near ready on any story to try. So, I believe I'll challenge myself to write at least one flash fiction/short story before Tuesday.
I've gotten to the point where I simply cannot watch the Hobbit teasers and trailers they keep posting, and I quickly scroll past all of the promotional pictures, because it just makes me too sad and happy and excited and anxious all at the same time! #OneLastTime
That's a great goal as well! Best of luck with your challenge too. Keep us posted on your progress! :)
EXACTLY! And yet I'll still be in theaters to watch it. :D I think we might be nuts.
Thank you! I'll be sure and do that!
You can do it!
I wish I could join you!! I have to rewrite book 3 eventually. But I'm in the trenches of content editing land for book 2. Ha!
And I refuse to watch the trailers and all. I don't think my heart can take it! I will wait until the last movie is on DVD and then I'll do a Hobbit Marathon.
Thanks, Jennette! Good luck with your edits.
It's funny. You'd think because I'm so excited about the movie, I would be watching and rewatching the trailers and gushing over all the posters … but I find I simply can't take the anticipation! I'm just ready to watch the movie – once I nerve myself up to face the ending!
Me too! (Can't face the anticipation!)
How did you do on your writing? My edits, not as well as I had hoped. Sick kiddos and all. Plugging on!
Yeah, didn't quite make my 20,000 words. But I made some good, solid progress and figured out some of that behind-the-scenes stuff I desperately needed to tackle! So all in all, I'm fairly pleased at the amount I got done. :) I used to be able to put down 10,000 words in a day – back when I didn't really care about the quality of my writing and hardly ever made it to editing a first draft. Now that I do, I find I like to think things through a little more the first time around and save a bit on editing later.
I got 13,750. I hit a slow scene on Monday, and I couldn't write it as quickly as I did on Saturday and Sunday. And I agree with you on going slower to make sure the words are the best they can be, and that's what I usually do. This book is the rewrite, however, and I therefore am spending less time on the "what's next" so I'm going faster.
You can do it, Gillian! :)
I am so nervous for how they are doing the ending to the Hobbit movies also! :0
Elizabeth
How are you doing so far? :) I probably won't do anything, but it's cool to see others put such big goals for themselves. :)
http://teensliveforjesus.blogspot.ru
9,000 words so far! I'm decidedly not the fastest writer in the world. I like to take my time and think things through, but having this challenge is definitely helping keep me going! And I've made lots of progress on behind-the-scenes stuff that had to happen as well, even if I haven't gotten as many words done as I would have hoped by this time.
One more night and one more day! :)
I'm at 8,000, so you're doing great! I do my best writing at night, and I've hit a scene that should write itself pretty fast once I get it going, so I'm still holding my breath that I'll still get there. But, hey, even if we don't, it's still progress that we wouldn't have made otherwise, you know?
Behind-the-scenes stuff is always important. Good luck!
Wow, good job! I can hardly imagine writing so much in so little time at all. :) How did both of you finish the challenge? I'm going to try and type up my story (which I mostly hand-wrote) this week. It's very bare-bones, so maybe I can do it. God bless!
http://teensliveforjesus.blogspot.ru
Good luck! Yaaay!!
You are intrepid and amazing, Gillian!!! I am far too dead of a writer after my craziest NaNo yet to do more than squeeze out the minimum 100 words daily for the 100-for-100 challenge (only 9 days left! I may live!), but I applaud you and pray you'll get the words you need! <3
…And considering how book 1 ended, the thought of you finishing book 2 is a VERY high priority in my mind!!! O_O BEST OF LUCK!
And the Hobbit movie. Meep. o.o *crawls under Elven cloak in denial* IT'S GOING TO BE SUCH AN AWESOME MOVIE AND SUCH A HORRIBLE ADAPTION. AND THE END. WHICH IS BOTH AWESOME AND HEARTBREAKING. SO MUCH CONFLICTION. If my feels survive it, it'll be a miracle. XD
Yes…I saw it and wow. I don't know whether to cry or be happy… Some parts of it I cringed and others I really liked :) I guess all the parts with Bilbo and some with Bard were the ones I liked. The others…ehhhh….
Yep, pretty mixed, but there WERE a lot of parts I liked, despite the problems. :) I agree–Bilbo and Bard were fabulous!! :) I also really enjoyed Thranduil and Legolas because I'm weird like that. :P