Before I went to bed, I had a handful of options for characters and storylines.

I slept on them and in the morning I had my favorite. I outlined my story, and spent day 1 drafting it. I let it sit overnight, edited it once, gave it to my beta readers, edited it again based on their feedback. Tightened it to exactly 1,000 words, did a final proof, and uploaded with a few hours to go. <3

Edited to note that I completely rewrote the initial Friday night draft, and I spent most of the weekend agonizing over everything. In case that wasn't evident lol

I'm hoping I'll be able to jump straight into brainstorming and drafting this round. Historical Fiction was a curve ball I wasn't prepared for 

My preferred process: check prompts. Sleep on it. Spend the day on Saturday working it out in my head, noodling things. Try to have at least the major plot points sorted out before writing: inciting incident, conflict, climax, denouement. Sit down to draft Saturday evening and send to beta. Edit Sunday. Submit.

What ACTUALLY happens more often than not (including this round): fall asleep and check prompts at 3am during my regularly scheduled insomnia. WTF into my pillow for a bit. Do everything but write on Saturday. Pout because the prompts suck. Procrastinate some more. Panic write for an hour on Sunday evening and submit in disgust, sans beta. Try to forget about it until results come out. 

Truth be told, I often write better stories when I panic write than when I have more time...

I generally get up, take a shower, and eat something before really trying to figure anything out, as it takes me quite a while to crawl out of the sleep pit most days. Then I will spend about 1-2 hours on my laptop, writing something - sometimes it's one idea that I start working on and will take to the finish line, and sometimes I get started on 2-3 ideas. 

I then leave it for a bit and get other things done (life does go on, even during an NYCM weekend!), and come back for another couple of hours later in the day. At that point is when I generally start asking for Beta reads - which story line works better, what's working and what's not, etc. 

Then I really get into trying to flesh out the story and make it something I'm happy with. I generally try to have a decent-ish draft before I go to bed on Saturday night, and it's generally late Saturday morning into Sat afternoon and evening that I start offering myself to do Beta reads - that way, I feel like I'm involved in the contest, but not actively writing my own story. 

I get another couple of Beta reads on Sunday, then finish it up and submit. For Flash, I usually submit early afternoon on Sunday. For the 100MF, it's much closer to the deadline - usually between 10pm and 11:30pm . . . I haven't yet gone too close to the deadline!

I'd ask the dog, but he's a lab, and thinks everything is the bEsT tHinG eVer...

Hahaha ❤️

My favourite piece of editing advice is "When somebody tells you there’s something wrong with your book they’re almost always right, when they tell you how to fix it they’re almost always wrong."

It helps me listen to my readers and commit to fixing what they point out - just maybe not in the ways they suggest 😉

LOL. I would ask my chow chow but her two jobs are guarding the door and snoring very loudly, she's not interested in such frivolities (unless maybe copious treats are involved). 

Follow me for more writing and time management tips.

 This is great! I hope you get the chance to write comedy next! 

I mulled on the prompts for a day or so, getting a vague idea in my head of the approach. When I write it's kinda like I'm chipping away at a big block of marble. Each word, each chisel, takes me closer to the finished product. There's no real plan. There's no clear end goal to work towards when I start, that comes in time. I'm just chipping away at the marble. 

All in all over the 48hrs I probably spent maybe 90 minutes typing the story, 30 minutes researching lore accurate details ( my story was a fairytale but I wanted the characters to be mythologically correct - Ironically enough one of the judges had an issue with the historically accurate description of a character but ah well) and 30 minutes editing out errors or making minor adjustments. I think I submitted it late Sunday evening, Irish time, so maybe 7-8 hours before deadline.

I guess it's a 'writing process ', as something was written from it, but it's not the sort of process engineers will be studying for it's efficiency. It's the sort of process that gets the job done but afterwards I'm left wondering how exactly.

I tend to write word-association of different ways to take the assigned prompts. Often from that, I land on a character and some sort of crisis they are trying to overcome. The story follows from that. Sometimes I need to research and learn about the particular demands of a genre/setting, e.g. round 1 I was assigned a distillery as a setting, so I needed to go learn how the heck those work.

I usually write close to the last minute, because I have ADHD and struggle to start things. x)

I think being in PST as a time zone is somewhat of an advantage, because I get a couple hours to think over a prompt before sleeping on it.

I totally agree!  Getting to marinate on the assignment overnight before diving in is a huge advantage for my brain! <3

Ditto! It feels like I get 2 1/2 days instead of 2 :)

- I read the prompts, then carry on with my afternoon while brewing ideas. This can include brainstorming with my family or any other poor sucker who happens to show up. The cats are not interested so I've given up on them.

- later afternoon / evening I sit down and write a first draft, then sleep on it

- quick review on Sunday morning for obvious improvements and time to get out to the betas

- edit, finalise and submit Sunday night so I can focus on work Monday.

Unlike Frey_a I work for myself. That gives me a little more flexibility. So in practice:

- sometime on Sunday afternoon / evening I'm ready to submit to betas. I love betas but I don't share first drafts. I like them fairly polished before they go out.

- Edit more based on beta feedback. Sleep on it.

- wake up Monday. Review. Submit.

- Tinker more when I'm meant to be working. Resubmit. Obsessively check (no-work) email for additional beta feedback. Resubmit.

- Finally get into some work. Come up for air, think of something I want to change and discover the deadline has passed.

...I'm meant to be working now, but here I am procrastinating on the forums and we don't even have prompts yet!!!

The best was being on Central European summer time--I could wake up, see the prompts, and have all day to write. 

My "process" this time, not that it matters because 1. I'm certain to get yet another garbage genre, probably one I've gotten at least twice already and 2. unless I win the round I basically can't get enough points to move on anyway is going to be have to wait up, see the prompts, get a little sleep, feed dogs, feed cats, take care of all the livestock, round up cats into carriers, get them to the cat-boarding place on my way to work, go to work, and then try to vomit out something that will spoon-feed the judges the long-winded description their feedback suggests they have to have or they can't understand a story, because Sunday I have to get up, feed the dogs, take care of everyone outside, load the car, take the dogs next door, and drive three hours to mom's where there's more packing and unpacking. At least the feedback suggests there isn't any point in putting thought into it.

Haha, I love having a spare story to sacrifice ❤️ 

For me, sleeping on it is key. I might even take a nap just to make sure my idea holds water 

My cats are pretty good at listening to my ideas 

I'll probably be hanging out on the forum for most of tomorrow as well even though we know exactly what time the new prompts are going to drop at