One Third of the Way Through the Year

[smallhobbit]

A reflection on this year's goals:

Goal No 1 - Write all the things

By the end of July I'd written just over 96,000 words since January, and with my target for the end of this month being 100,000, I can afford to take things easy.  Which is good because watsons_woes  July Writing Prompt was a distinct challenge.  I'm really not sure whether I will do it again next year, or whether I will more sensibly go back to just doing the prompts I like rather than determinedly writing every day.

I posted my Lewis Challenge Summer drabbles, The Start of A New Case, which could become the next full fic in the Oxford Tales series.

I also wrote The Many Lives of Lucas North and Adam Carter, a series of drabbles for Ushobwri trope month, one drabble per trope.  There are two drabbles which could be expanded on, one is Sentinel/Guide, and the other was an Alternative Universe, which I set at a houseparty at the beginning of the 1920s.  The latter appeals greatly and I may well take it as my longer fic (ie 10K+) to write over the autumn and winter (together possibly with the Lewis casefic).

I've signed up again for a Shakespearean exchange (run by a friend) and also The Written Word which is a book fandom exchange.

This month's whatif_au is characters as animals.  There will be rabbits!  In the meantime, yesterday I wrote a Sherlock BBC ficlet for cocomment_fic which fitted the subject, so I posted that as well: The Shapeshifter


Goal No 2 - Continue with the art and craft work

The art still isn't progressing as well as I would wish.  I drew a chair when we were at Wightwick Manor, but that's about it.  Maybe I'll manage to produce something for fan_flashworks  Amnesty challenge.

The cross stitch is good though:




Goal No 3 - Do something new each month

Work once again is providing plenty of new things.  Yesterday I went with a colleague to visit a summer activity involving music making, and we're going somewhere different every week during August.

However, I'm also going to London for a few days next week (yes, there will be lots of blog posts), so I shall be counting one of the exhibitions as my something new for the month.

In the meantime, have a picture of a moorhen and chicks I took on the way into work this morning:

Comments

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I enjoyed all your Watson Woe's fics. And I was quite impressed with the prompts. For every one or two 'meh' ones (not bad, just not top-shelf) there was at least one corker, as Bertie would say. I, too, am ahead of the game, about 68k away from my year-end goal so I can coast a bit. I liked both AUs and look forward to longer versions. I am always amazed at how you find all these challenges and exchanges.

Kudos on the cross stitch. It's looking like something! Yea!

Glad the job's going well. Christ, we're already through a third. Wheesh! Time flying.

[mafief]

You're writing like crazy! Congrats on the wordcount and progress. :)

Was the Lewis case fic the one you were working on during mini-NaNo?

[smallhobbit]

Thank you very much - there were a few prompts where I was really struggling and wasn't that pleased with what I wrote. Your encouragement is one of the reasons why I'm looking to expand my AUs.

You're being really prolific, I'm very impressed.

It's a combination of previous challenges/exchanges which I've done, following one of the comms which promotes exchanges and being encouraged to join in by others.

[smallhobbit]

Thank you very much :)

It was the previous Lewis casefic I was working on during mini-Nano - which I had begun for a Lewis summer challenge the year before I wrote it. I'm hoping I might get this one done this year and not next ;)

[aome]

Do you have to write your Shakespearean Exchange stories in iambic pentameter? :D

Cross-stitch looks beautiful - so green and serene.

[margaret_r]

That's a fantastic word count! And your cross stitch is very good, it's Monet's Bridge over Water Lilies isn't it?

Love the moorhen and chicks, it's a lovely photo.

[smallhobbit]

Fortunately the Shakespeare exchange can be written in prose, and since modern AU is an option that makes it even easier - last year I wrote a modern take on Ophelia and Hamlet.

Thank you - I've been pleased with the cross-stitch. And I'm enjoying adding little bits of pink, otherwise the green would become a little too much.

[smallhobbit]

Thank you - yes it is. We saw the original a couple of months ago and I was able to point out to SM how far I'd stitched!

I'm glad you like the photo - I took three or four, most of which show accurately where the moorhen had been.

[vix_spes]

Yay for all of the things and congratulations for the words that you've written so far. I'm really enjoying The Many Lives of Lucas North and Adam Carter ♥

[smallhobbit]

Thank you very much. I'm definitely going to expand on the AU Lucas/Adam life.