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I don't want to sound stupid or paranoid, but that is sincere, right? Online, I'm afraid I really can't read tone very well.

My brain is not working properly... a monthlong issue...

I'm not even halfway done with mine.

Ugh, I'll have to put it out either tomorrow or Wednesday, but I'm getting this thing done and polished if it kills me!

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Don't worry guys, we're all patient, reasonable people. Just take your time and do it when you can. Quality over, ah, quickness, I suppose would be the phrase in this case.

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No worries, haha. I meant every word literally.

Darn. Over 2000 more words and the story is pretty much complete, but it's not ready for posting. Give it 12 hours or so and I'll have a chance to clean it up, then up it goes.

You know, I've read a number of these, and I've loved them all.

Well, another day down. The good news is that I've written twice as many words today as I did yesterday. Thus we get better and better.

The bad news is that, well, there's simply no way this is getting finished on time. Not at this rate. Without doubt, I am going to be late.

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I'll cheer for you from the sidelines.

I even promise to NOT do so in a cheerleader outfit, just to show you that I really want you to succeed

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I MAKE NO SUCH PROMISES

I mean, I didn't buy this cheerleader outfit to not wear it...

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I'm with Chris on this. I mean, why did I buy all this sparkly yarn if not to make pom-poms?

I could use some pom-poms myself. While I've realized over the course of today's writing session how overcomplicated I was making things, simplifying them only cuts my workload by a fraction. Still, if nothing else, a girl's got her sense of duty... Let's see if I can get it done by the end of the week!

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I really, really doubt that ME in a cheerleading outfit would be an encouragement to anybody.

Except as a threat. But I don't think we are at that point.

On the other hand, a drindl could work.

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Thanks, and I appreciate the hopefully purely symbolic gesture/threat, but as for me: sorry, it just ain't happening. I've made one promise here that I can't keep.

For what it's worth, I'm continuing to work on the project, in the hope of finishing it within the week. I fully intend to get it finished, come what may. But punctuality and focus are sadly not virtues I can claim for myself.

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“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” — Douglas Adams

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Okay, yeah, I feel a bit better. Thanks.

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We stragglers are gonna be late, but at least we'll be late together.

Progress Report: Another 1800 words (approximately) added. Estimated that I'm roughly two-thirds of the way through. Still not happy with how slowly it's progressing, but at least I'm getting somewhere.

I'm counting something like 2,310 2,697 words added today, not counting the constant rewrites and scratched ideas. There's still a long way to go, though. Still, while I wish I could have gotten this done in a week, I'm glad I couldn't. I'm writing a lot more than anticipated for this story but I feel it's for the best.

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Cool! That's an impressive number of words to capture in one day. Now you've made me want to see if I can match it.

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Those are indeed impressive numbers. I'm usually deliriously happy when I manage 1.5k words in a day.

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Is it really? Oh. Thanks. Um... Sorry. Thanks. Let's throw a in there and forget this ever happened.

Sorry, I don't take compliments well, it's a character flaw

Sometimes I wish I wasn't so long-winded.

Edit: Not counting rewrites here and there in other pages, I've added 2,164 words since I started this morning and that's only amounting to three pages—two of which are one page that I separated into two to cut down on a sense of bloat. I really need to cool it on the wordy words.

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You 'only' do in a day what I can maybe do in a month. And you complain things are going slow.
This is one of the reasons I say I'm not a writer.

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Everybody's different, right? Besides, it's not as if I write that many words every day.

I only managed a little over two thousand words before I had to leave for work, and I have plenty more to write... I'd like to apologise once again to the recipient of my efforts, but if they have figured out why I'm taking so long, I'm sure they sympathize.

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Wow, that's a consistently impressive output. Sounds ambitious! How big do you think it's gonna get?

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Too.
Too big.
I dunno. I'm nearing twenty thousand words now and I can't see this being less than forty thousand. I really should have come up with this idea earlier, instead of a week before the deadline!

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Ha, and there was me thinking I'd hand in the biggest submission here. If we manage to get ours published, our combined word totals will probably dwarf all the other entries combined.

From one overly wordy writer to another, I salute thee!

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Skaal!

I'm off to help take care of the home of the deceased, so no writing today. There's always next week.

Peeps, friends, compatriots, I just had a frickin' story featured in a frickin' Seattle's Angels blog post and I don't know how to handle this

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Congratulations! Nicely done. It's always good to get a signal boost, (and to be privileged with two reviews for the price of one, of course).

If it helps, standard procedure is to use it as an excuse for a party. And to stay up late. And... really anything you want, especially if it involves cake or cookies.

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Cake sounds nice. Thanks.

T+ one week or so and I haven't seen the story intended for me. But don't worry, mystery writer! I still don't know who you are and I'm happy to wait (and cheer you on a bit here) if you still intend to complete it.

Sorry, folks, a minor case of bleach poisoning knocked me out of commission for a few days. It seems someone at my workplace doesn't know how to clean a coffee pot! I hope to get back at it soon.

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Best wishes for a fast recovery.

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Nothing too serious, I'm sure. Thanks for your concern.

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Holy crap! :O I really hope you're all right. :(

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I'm fine, I swear. Just a little nauseous and fuzzy upstairs. I managed a whole hundred fifty words today.

With everything that's gone on this last week and a half, my output has fallen from around 2,500 words per day to just two hundred. Once again, I'm sorry it's taking so long; life is a strange ride, is it not?

Don't worry; whenever you get it done, I'm sure the person you're writing it for will still be thrilled to see it!

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Lemme tell you, Chris, cocoa out my nose isn't nearly as good as cocoa in my belly.

Progress report: still got this project on my to-do list, but it's not alone there and I haven't been able to write anything in days.

I swear I'm not slacking on this. What I don't want to do is ruin it by rushing. But it will be done, one way or another, and hopefully sooner rather than later. I swear it.

So, how's everybody doing? Still hanging in there?

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Miserably. I've completely stalled yet again.

I think I'm just going to leave it for a few days and see if I need time to recharge, or something like that. I'm really disappointed by the way I've handled this, though.

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Okay, to kind of address the elephant in the room here, have either of you made any progress since...?

Because it's been almost two months since the last fic was turned in, and I fear this contest will stall out completely.

It would be nice if we got results at some point.

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Yep, still plugging away when the fear and depression let me
I haven't been able to make nearly the kind of daily progress I'd been making before the bleach poisoning, and I just hope there isn't also a noticeable decline in quality to go with it. Only one way to find out, though, and that's to keep at it.

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Not so much as one word. Every time I make an attempt to finish it, my blood pressure goes up. Assume for the moment it's not coming, and then if it does come, it'll be a surprise.

But as for me, alas, I can say no more.

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I find it funny that when this whole things started, you were wondering what to do if you finished before the deadline.

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You mean this?

Honestly, I've learned not to find anything I do funny. Otherwise, I'd have died of laughter long ago.

On the plus side, I can call it experience. As Douglas Adams once said, "Experience is where you go 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do it again.'" (Paraphrasing from memory, but that's the gist).

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Yeah that's the thing.
Myself. When things are going bad, I find that you can laugh or you can cry. I prefer to laugh.