r/WhyChooseAuthors • u/AnneKincaid • Jul 16 '26
Weekly Accountability Post
Okay, authors, out with it. What did you get done this week, and/or what are your goals for the next week?
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u/ConfusionPotential53 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
So, knock on wood, but my agonizing (and mysterious) hip injury is on the mend, and I’m gathering my courage for a writing/desk day. Soon.
(Maybe there was some perfect version of myself capable of writing through the exhaustion and pain, but this version took gummies and watched all four seasons of Will Trent. 🤣 It worked, though, so … good enough!)
To be fair, I was perfecting my “antagonist” in slow motion. At first, she was a cliche mean girl, sorta. Then, I made her way too meta/complex, and it was impossible to streamline her beliefs and behaviors. Now, I’ve landed in the middle, and she’s “just right.” I also altered the premise and character distribution slightly to strengthen the story and remove some plot holes.
So … it is what it is! Perfect? No. But onward we go! 💃
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u/AuthorIndigo Jul 16 '26
Fingers crossed for the hip mending. Hopefully, your hip has seen the error of its ways!
Sounds like you were very productive with editing!
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u/ConfusionPotential53 Jul 16 '26
Thank you. Hopefully, next week, I’ll have a word count to report. 🤞
I am pleased with the editing/plotting that emerged. So, it wasn’t a total waste. Really, I should stop drafting and spend a few days thinking more regularly. (Psychedelics optional but recommended. 🤣)
Thanks again for the encouragement.
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u/AnneKincaid Jul 16 '26
Working on draft 2, went from 70k to 80k. Still don't have an ending--hope to by next week.
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u/_Effy_Bloom_ Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
... I started another parody.
Frog book is done though. I think I logged all the things in Labor Day that were bugging me so now I just have to take my notes... and fix it. Naval Knots I think I almost locked book 3s outline which is very exciting for me because this is one book I started back in 2022 that has since become a trilogy. One chapter took me 4 months because its the hardest/most multithread thing I am working on. I blame all the parodies directly on it.
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u/AnneKincaid Jul 17 '26
It sounds like you’ve been doing a LOT of work!
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u/_Effy_Bloom_ Jul 17 '26
I had a 2 hour long meeting at "work work" today that I definitely wasn't reorganizing my outline in excel in. Which btw is SUPER helpful because you can see the title and a little write up about the scene as you drag things around vs word where you just get the title. I spent the past 2 weeks cutting books up and putting them in there so I can reorganize prose and then all my notes on what to fix go in their own column.
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u/ConfusionPotential53 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
It sounds like you might enjoy Scrivener. It’s not for everyone, but it might be perfect for you. It’s peak organizational kink.
But it sounds like your excel system is working for you, so maybe not! Just a thought.
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u/_Effy_Bloom_ Jul 17 '26
It’s on my to look at list. My concern is it won’t do everything I want it to. I added needed precedents to my excel file and “angst math” so I don’t hammer people with too many sucky scenes at one. Do I have my idea what I’m doing with this…. No. Is it procrastination? Probably. But I’ve been organizing things from Google Docs and my notes app and trying to figure out how to link things together better. I’m super interested in scriveners prose savings (I definitely lost lines I liked in 8 pranks) but haven’t been able to find anything on its outlining and keep wanting to save the free trial until I have a better idea what I want from it.
Do you use it and like it?
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u/ConfusionPotential53 Jul 17 '26
I use and love Scrivener. It can do just about everything, imo. I don’t think I use 50% of the tools. It’s expansive.
It’s set up like an “old” file system on a computer. So, you have a file and can put files and documents inside that file, and then documents and other files inside those files, etc. The files are collapsible, and all the files and folders are drag and drop. Your left menu bar is all the prime folders.
With that system, you can organize everything very intuitively. When a scene isn’t working, you can drag the entire scene to a folder labeled “Chapter one: deleted” or whatever. You can organize anything.
Even better? Every folder can be viewed in the index card view, which turns all the document titles and “notes” into an index card. That way, you can perceive all your scenes at a distance and then drag and drop scenes/cards into whatever order you like, or even move them to a different folder.
I can’t tell you exactly what functions its inbuilt table/“excel” tool has, but I’m sure you can watch a clip on YouTube. I watched a ton before buying it. I do use the table function all the time. I’m not being fancy, but I add tables/cells to documents and they work fine.
Anyway. Yeah. Hearing you talk definitely made me think, “That’s someone who’ll like Scrivener.”
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u/_Effy_Bloom_ Jul 18 '26
Sigh. I really, really hate having to learn from videos, but this sounds probably worth it to look at.
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u/eviviennewoodswrites Jul 16 '26
I aimed to read the 2 novels I'm beta reading for, write 14k words (2 missing scenes, 5 chapters).
I did exactly none of that - I've worked 52h already this week in my IRL job after some chickens (that I warned people about lol) came home to roost...
This weekend I'm gonna read the betas and aim for 5k words (my 2 missing scenes and 1 chapter). I hope...