Back in August, I participated in a “WIPMarathon” put together by some of the other writers I follow on Twitter. Unlike NaNoWriMo, the WIPMarathon allows for personal, flexible goals: If you only want to edit and not write a new WIP, that’s totally fine. Whether you want to write 100 words or 2000 words a day, that’s totally up to you! And everyone’s a winner. 😀
I used the marathon to motivate myself to work harder on a YA fantasy I’d started the month before, and I actually finished the first draft that month! I wrote over 55,000 words in under a month to do so, too.
This time the WIPMarathon is running for two months: December and January. It’s not too late to join!
Learn more about the WIPMarathon and sign up here!
Marathon Goal: Well, I’m going to be honest and say that the first week of the WIPmarathon, I don’t plan to do a thing. Maybe brainstorm a tiny bit. But I desperately need a break from my creative projects after a lackluster NaNoWriMo.
After that, I have a number of things potentially going on, so it’s going to be a bit of a mixed bag of goals:
-Do edits (like a 6th or 7th revision? I can’t remember anymore!) on a YA fantasy
-Continue work on a YA fantasy WIP (currently 9591 words, needs to be a full first draft in a few months)
-Do edits (2nd revision) on a different YA fantasy (the one I finished during the last WIPMarathon)
…Those things are all my top priorities, but they also depend on talking with other people, and that depends on their schedules, so I’m not ready to dive into them quite yet. But I will be soon, I hope! I’ll definitely be working on at least some of them before the WIPMarathon is over.
My not-as-important optional goals to keep me busy when/if the above goals can’t happen are to finish the first draft of either my NA romance from NaNoWriMo (50,250 words at the moment) and/or a YA suspense I wrote last year (53,910 words currently). Both of these sputtered to a halt because I just felt that things were off about them. I’m not even sure I know how to fix them or if I can summon the ideas to at least finish drafts and try to fix them later. I think the YA suspense might even need close to a page-one rewrite. I just don’t know.
Stage of writing: See above. Five projects I’m juggling here! Two in revisions and three in drafting.
What inspired my current project: Reading The Hunger Games a couple of years ago really inspired me to get serious about my writing again. I wrote the first draft of the first YA fantasy mentioned while on a HG high. (Not that there’s much in common, I suppose, but there are some dystopian elements.)
What might slow down my marathon goal: Having five separate projects to work on for starters! Other than that, the holidays and keeping my motivation up. (And trying to fight the desire to give up on those two unfinished drafts.)
Best time of the day for writing: I work from home (as a writer), so my schedule is pretty flexible. I probably write best in the afternoons if I have the time.
Amy McNulty 
Wow, and I thought I was being ambitious with my project-juggling! Congrats on winning NaNo, and I hope you get your motivation back! 🙂
I kind of don’t have a choice about some of it, but in a very good way. 😀 Thanks! Maybe working on the projects I love more (the ones that are high priority), I’ll start feeling the writing-love again.
I was inspired by HG too! Like I keep thinking if my current WIP can pull off tension and great pacing the way HG did.
Good luck with your projects! And congrats on winning Nano!
It seems like a lot of writers were! The power of a powerful story. I never feel like I can quite match what she produced, but it made me want to try!
Thank you!
Good luck juggling all those projects–I sure couldn’t do it, and I admire your drive!
Thank you! Well, some of these goals are way more important than others. I wouldn’t be surprised if the “optional” goals get totally ignored. ^^;
Wow! This will be a busy few months. Good job with NaNoWriMo 🙂
Thanks you! 😀
I need a break after NaNo, too. I’ll be working on outlines this week, and that might be it for me.
Wow! Five projects! Good luck with everything you decide to work on!
You know Hunger Games inspired me stop dragging my feet, too! I don’t have dystopian elements, but it reminded me so much of why I love writing so much and why I started in the first place. ^_^
Enjoy your break–we definitely need one after NaNo! XD Thanks, and good luck to you too!
Exactly! I’ve heard this a lot about HG, actually!
Awesome! You’ll definitely be spoilt for choice as to what to work on each day 🙂 I hear you on needing a break… I don’t think I’ll hit my WIPMarathon stride until the second week, but I’m excited to join you guys! Good luck!
I know, right? It’s probably a little TOO much to work on, but I don’t mind if I don’t get around to the optional projects. Good luck to you, too!