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I've spent the last week on and off wrangling the WIP Folder of Doom back into submission. The last time I'd gone through and organized it was at the beginning of 2019 so it's been a while. At that point, I had 113 WIPs and about 350k of writing in there. So I went into this assuming that I'd have somewhat more than that, but probably not too much more, since I haven't been writing all that much over the last couple of years. Probably about 400k is what I'd mentally (and emotionally) prepared myself for.

Y'all. I just finished. And I have 460,000 of unposted and incomplete writing. What. The. Fuck. It feels a bit ridiculous to be as shocked as I am, because I was expecting 400k and when we're already at that point, what's another 60k? But. Yikes. I really really need to get some of this out of my life. The good news is that after another round of combining docs and transferring fics I'm for-sure never going to finish into the Graveyard folder, I've only got 105 WIPs, which was a lovely surprise to have the total number of WIPs go down instead of up. Then, for shits and giggles I went into the Great Big Doc of Fic Ideas to see exactly what's there. Another 172 ideas for fics, ranging from full outlines to ones that are just a line of dialogue or a title or an image, or--my very favorite--one that just reads "gothic horror and fucking." I still have no earthly idea what that means.

I closed it again. We're not going to think about MORE IDEAS when I've got 460,000 of fic that's already started and needs to be finished, jesus christ.

I'm aiming to finish and post at least one before the end of the year, and am fairly optimistic about doing it. I'd thought about getting a PWP done, as that'd be the lowest hurdle wordcount-wise, but ended up pulling out one that'll be a bit longer. I've got 8k, and think it'll be done in another 8-ish, which means it's long enough for me to really sink into and build up some momentum on, which will (hopefully!) propel me through into the new year, when [personal profile] gracerene is twisting my arm to make me sign up for Harry Draco Bang. Which I'm actually really excited about and looking forward to! It'll be really nice to have a deadline to force me to finish something longer, which I've not done for a while. It's been... (and I actually had to hop over to AO3 and check because I honestly couldn't remember) almost 5 years (how has it been five years?!?!) since I've posted anything that broke 50k, which is a real problem considering the number of 50k+ WIPs I've got languishing.

Beyond that... I need to come up with a plan about how to tackle the rest, because I really do want to get this madness under control. I think setting a goal of one fic per month is probably too ambitious, but maybe one per quarter? That'd be four, plus Harry Draco Bang, which seems a nice, reasonable, not-completely-bonkers amount of fic to aim for when I've only been averaging about two per year for the last few years. In any case, I've got some time to think on it before I set my 2021 goals.
firethesound: (Dr Who chucks)
Day 9: In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


I’ve already done a post about goals for the upcoming year, so I took this day’s assignment as the opportunity to do something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I went thought my Great Big Notebook of Fic Ideas and finally transcribed it into a googledoc. While I worked I took the opportunity to sort through ideas and WIPs and restructure the writing queue and figure out which stories I wanted to give priority to in the upcoming year.

WIPs and Ideas )

Anyhow. Sorting through this gave me the chance to work out what I’ve got and what I want to do next. So instead of posting goals, I’m going to post a very rough Writing Queue:

The List )

So, I am absolutely not going to finish all of those this year, I know that right now and I am not planning on trying. Because it's over half a million words and even if I weren't coming off a long bout of writer's block, there would still be no way. Plus, I don't plan on limiting myself exclusively to these. Numbers 1 and 2 are both hard-and-fast Must Finish ASAP, but once I get those done I'd like to try to get some shorter fics posted in between working on the longer ones, and also I plan on doing Erised again this year and the length of that one will be entirely dependent on who I get assigned and what they request. But I think this is a good place to start, as far as getting organized goes. I'm hopeful that by saying "Here is the list of things I am working on" that it'll give me enough direction that I'll be able to focus on those and won't go around starting fifty bazillion new WIPs. ::nodnod::

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cunning as a weevil

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