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How many of the alotted 24 hours did you use?

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote FireHorse Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2021 at 3:51pm
Originally posted by C.C. C.C. wrote:

Is there a way to delete one of our forum replies? (I initially neglected to quote the comment/s I was replying to).

I don't know about deleting but you can go back and edit. It's under Post Options on your own post. No help this time, but next time (if there is a next time), you could edit the existing post and put the quote in there.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote FireHorse Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2021 at 4:09pm
Prompts came out here in Sydney at 3pm Saturday.

How much time depends on whether you count:
- the 30 minutes I spent boring my husband with ideas while we were out to dinner on Saturday night
- however much sleep time my brain spent rejecting the idea I'd settled on and coming up with option 2
- the hour I spent curled up in bed on Sunday morning running drafts of option 2 through my head
- the 30 minutes I spent on the first draft of option 2
- the hour I spent on the first draft of option 1, driven by the fear that option 2 was not actually in genre, even though once I had it, it was a story I had to write
- the time I spent with beta readers - probably an hour for their stories and half an hour for mine
- two redrafts of option 2. Probably 20 minutes each.
- 45 minutes - yes, 45 whole goddamn minutes and it would have been longer without the deadline - staring at my final draft wondering what the hell the title should be. Cut short by the deadline, as I submitted with 4 minutes to spare.

I've been doing NYCM for a bit over a year now. This is the first time a first draft has come in under the word count. Maybe that hour in bed thinking it through helped. My betas didn't change much either - except for the vital part of giving me a title.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TeeHi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2021 at 4:20pm
Originally posted by Sparker Sparker wrote:

I’ve realised as a beta reader that there are basically two categories of processes - some people process externally and some process internally.  I call it Vomiters vs. Poopers.  My husband is a vomiter.  He barfs up a sticky mess of words and them plays with it til it comes together.  I’m a pooper.  My sh*t comes out digested and formed, and then I polish it up until submission time.

I think I'm somewhere in the middle, like maybe a poomiter, or something. LOL
I generally get a basic overall idea in my head, and the beginning nearly always comes to me when I get the idea. Shortly thereafter, I have an ending, and a slightly clearer idea of the middle. This is when I get excited and start writing, mostly making it up as I go but still with a vague idea in my mind, if that makes any sense at all.

I also cry when I have to chop stuff I've created so, thanks to NYCM, I've become manic about keeping an eye on the word/page count when entering these competitions. I enable "word count as I type" or whatever, and keep a close eye on it. When I'm at the midway point, I start thinking about how to wrap it up and start heading in that direction. 

This particular competition, I got ideas right away - prompts drop at 11pm for me -  but the bf and I were watching TV, so I let them marinate while I half paid attention to the stuff on the screen. By the time the shows were over, I had my basic idea. Spent about 90 minutes writing off and on, then went to bed around 3am with 247 words down. Next morning, edited some, sent it to a few betas, ran errands, returned home, and spent the next 2-3 hours reading beta feedback and editing. So, all told, I spent around 3-4 hours actually writing and editing, which resulted in about 5 submissions before the final one half an hour before the end because I always last-minute panic and double- and triple-check, even though I was satisfied hours beforehand.

WHEW!




Edited by TeeHi - 17 Oct 2021 at 4:30pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AutumnBe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2021 at 4:22pm
I'm on the west coast so we get our prompts at 9pm. I looked the parameters over and let it steep while I slept. Got up in the morning, drank some coffee, sent my kids and husband away for the entirety of the day and got to work.

All told I probably was working on it for 5-6 hours. I am the kind of NYCer who only comes up with one idea and then works on it forever until it's polished enough to send. So I would say the bulk of my time was little edits to the singular idea. I love offering beta reads and sending mine off to beta readers both on the forum and in my real life. It was enjoyable hearing suggestions as well as getting new creative little bursts reading other people's pieces. There's some real contenders this competition, I have to say! I was super impressed with the quality of work I was reading!

I'm one of those people who feels like if I don't use the whole time then I'm not making the most of it. That being said, by about 4:30 PST, my eyes were getting blurry and I could tell that any more editing would just be making it worse, so I submitted it and poured myself a beer.


Edited by AutumnBe - 17 Oct 2021 at 4:24pm
250R1 - Last Word
500R3 - Seeding the Clouds
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lindzombie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2021 at 4:49pm
This time I spent about an hour on the first draft, half an hour revising/paring the story down to 200 words, and then another half an hour deciding what to do with my extra 50 words once I realized my mistake 😂
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote surnica Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2021 at 5:01pm
I usually work on these contests most of the day and do several drafts and several beta swaps. Writing is a bit out of my comfort zone altogether (I'm a math teacher), and I started doing these so my kids would see me writing and do more writing of their own. I rrally enjoy them, but they stretch me a lot.  Now my older kids do the contests too.   

Yesterday, I only had about 2.5 hours between other commitments, during which time I also was taking care of five kids and cooking dinner.  I went from a scrap of an idea to submission in that window. I was able to get a couple betas.  I wish I had been able to return the favor better.  Overall I'm fairly happy with my story. 

But I wouldn't worry about how much time it takes you.  Everyone works differently and that's okay. If you submitted, you should be proud. If you didn't make submission, but still wrote and enjoyed the process, you should also be proud.


Edited by surnica - 17 Oct 2021 at 5:02pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote theinquisitor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2021 at 5:27pm
It took me from 8am to 11pm to have a workable idea (my deadline is 5am), but the actual writing time was about 90 minutes, then another half hour of tweaking.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Sprice Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2021 at 5:47pm
I checked the assignments when they dropped, in the middle of the night for me, then went back to bed. Chewed on it as I was waking up in the morning and had a general idea of what I wanted. I spent about a half hour writing a really rough first draft, about 500 words of ideas, then pared them down to around 300. I spent probably an hour going back and forth and tweaking what I wanted the story to say. Then a grind of around four hours figuring how I wanted to say it, nitpicking and trying to make the best use of my 250 words... cut one there to tack one here. It was interesting to me that it's really the way I work on everything, I just never had a time limit imposed on me where I was aware of it.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nero Nero Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2021 at 5:50pm
Midnight in New York is 3pm in Australia. I spent:
- 3 hours stressing I had no idea how to write suspense/thriller and reading stories here for inspiration 
- 3 hours watching a YouTube video on writing short stories 
- 3 hours not coming up with any plot ideas I liked
- 6 hours sleeping (and dreaming crazy suspense thriller scenarios that were totally wacky)
- 3 hours binge watching Netflix 
- 3 hours changing locations, moving furniture, getting snacks (and wine)
- 3 hours actually putting pen to paper (well fingers to the keyboard), all the while wishing I’d started a little earlier…
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jacksilver Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Oct 2021 at 6:37pm
Originally posted by C.C. C.C. wrote:

How many hours did you dedicate to this effort?

I feel like the slowest girl in class...the one who tends to miss recess because she's not done with her assignments. 250 words is so much more challenging than I'd anticipated! This is my first time participating in the challenge and I really had to stretch. 

I haven't seen any posts by Group 11 writers yet but am excited to learn how others handled my assignment. Since 'Romantic Comedy' is entirely outside my wheelhouse, I am preparing to get shredded! 🤪




I started wiring at about 8am (UK time) and I finished writing at 3am .. it was probably 3-4 hours writing the first draft .. and then 1-2 hours rewriting and trimming / cutting / honing .. with another 2 beta reading other people's stories.

At the end of the day nobody cares how long The Great Gatsby, Tom Sawyer, or Hard Times took .. it's the end result that counts!!
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