It is that horrible feeling where you sit down at the computer, you boot up your favorite bulletin board, and you find yourself facing with a note that sends chills down your spine. another week you forgot to write during the week. You close your browser and you open your present work in progress and start adding words, or start editing. A time later, you log back on the board and proudly report that YES, YOU DID WRITE!
This might be a bit melodramatic, but you get the idea. this post is to get you to write, anything, sometime during the week. It is better that you write early in the week, so you might have a chance to sit and write more in another session or two, but even once, some time during the week is the real goal.
Many write every week even if the world around them was falling apart. The rest of us will write in a great burst of imagination, then go weeks or months without opening the word processor. If I can help you develop the habit (yes, some habits are good for you) to write every week, I know I have helped the world in the slightest way. This note also helps me get to writing because I don't like writing this note without results.
We all agree that new writing is writing. We have some arguments as to whether editing is also writing. It is, even if you edit someone else’s work. I consider critiquing someone else's work as editing so that counts too. Other things are also writing, even if many of us might not agree on them. Poetry, world or character building, technical writing, writing assignments, bogging. Even E-mails can be writing as long as they are wordy and pertain to story or writing. We don't quibble about how much you did when you write. You might only write one word, as long as it is the RIGHT word. If you are editing, it is not uncommon to go backwards or come up with a nothing number when you have zapped passages to rewrite them.
As for me. I have been fighting my work in progress. I decided to follow my own suggestion. I started from the beginning and have written seven pages and 4181 words, of the same story in the style of writing as my story ideas. My story ideas TELL the story and include only enough information so you can follow it easily. I changed the path of the story some, and am now beyond where I was stuck. This won't be the final path of the story, but this tactic is helping. My seven pages was in two sessions, one where I wrote five pages. I verified that I type about 30 words a minute. I don't count mistakes. It really felt good, though.
On the story idea front, I am already two story ideas behind for the month and it is only the 5th. I had one of THOSE weekends. I am not worried as I can catch up easily. I don't like to. I would rather use that effort to gain on the year. Ideas are coming to me in a nice flow. Including what I am writing tonight, I have 53 story ideas in my compost pile. A lot of good ones near the top. Even the bad ones near the top are writeable if I get to them soon enough.
I returned my art work to the antique shop for display. I did not have as much room as I once did, so I picked out some pieces that would be of interest. While I was setting up, the proprietor of a gift shop was there and he saw my work and asked me to bring my stuff down to display. They accepted a group of my work that they would love for people to see. Wee. I also got ideas for projects to work on over the next period of time, based on what they like to see.
This weekend, I am trying to perfect a system to make platters easily. The concept is there, but there is a flaw in my process. I am getting far better results than what I came up with last year. Because I am making some platters, I picked up a board to make them from. While digging for the saw to cut the board, I ran across several blanks for platters. I take a square piece of board, chop off the corners so it is somewhat round, and there are lines locating the center. These blanks then simply fit on the lathe and are turned round and shaped. I have to remember to bring a saw with me next weekend. I think part of my problem with the system I am using for these platters, is that I am not taking my time. I need to modify or remake my jigs to solve some simple design problems I have. I am impressed with the improvement I have had.
Two and a half years ago, I started taming a cat. Even as a kitten, it would fight you if you picked it up. I was about the only one who could handle him in the slightest. he would let you pet him while he was eating. You pet him six times and he would then swat at you. I gave him a little food and petted him, then gave him more food and petted him, until he learned that being petted was pleasurable. Last year I got him to where my mom could touch him, since he is in Mom's yard, and she started working on him. Between us, he has tamed down dramatically. This month, we realized that other than a slight sign of his attitude yet, He is almost a house cat. We joke that whoever took the beast and replaced it with a cat, had better be happy with what they got.
Using the above as a story idea, they have what was supposed to be a pet. It was extremely expensive and hard to gain even without the expense. they had the bad luck that it got into some chemicals and has gone wild. it attacks everything that moves. lots of bandages later, they now have it where they can walk around the yard without being attacked and can actually pet it while it was eating, but that was about it. A space captain has the same kind of creature on board. he wants something that is wild, that he can put in a pit against other creatures. His creature is soft, sweet, cuddly. While on the planet, he sees the beast. He sees how it reacts to the people. he notes that the markings are almost exactly like his. One night, the slip in and use a light gas to knock the beast out. they put their ship pet in the yard and leave with the beast. The next morning the people go out to feed the beast. They start petting it and the beast reacts like it really enjoys it. They end up giving it attention all day long. That night, it is laying inside the house, quite tame. They joke that whoever got their beast, swapping them, had better be happy with what they got. The captain finds he has problems with the beast in space, He forgot that he had to house the thing until they got to where the fight was. It does not like space at all and does not like anybody on board the ship. It also does not like being surprised and there is no place for it to get away from people. anybody coming into whatever room it is in, is a surprise. I just cleaned this up and made it into another story idea. That caught me up a day, since today’s story idea is also short. I like that.
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Yes, I did. Some on a new short story, some new material at the beginning of DREAMER'S ROSE, some revisions on THE IGNORED PROPHECY, some work on the synopsis for BLOOD WILL TELL and some on my blog.
No wonder I don't feel like I'm making any progress. I need to concentrate on one or two things at a time. I don't actually own a blue leotard with a red "S" on it and I couldn't fly if I did.
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Wrote a 1,600 word flash and outlined a new (much longer) short. Getting ready to get back to my novel rewrite after two months of inactivity.
Posts: 1608 | Registered: Feb 2009
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Yep. Finished a short story that had been sitting unfinished on my computer for more than a year and added about 500 words to my next WOTF entry.
Posts: 968 | Registered: Sep 2008
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I wrote about 1,500 words this week on my short story. Would have been more if I hadn't been so busy. I'm aiming to get it done (and named) by the end of next week. I guess I'll have to see if I manage to follow through.
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Wrote five hundred words on Saturday---five hundred second-draft words, 'cause I went back to the thing I was working on before I was working on the thing I worked on for the last month. Seems I like it better, even if it is substantially too long for the market...not that I'm overly fond of either...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I started a new intro to my book, then scrapped it and worked on a 13 line opener kind of thing. Not ready to post it, though. I think I'm pretty rejection shy, which I know I will have to get over if I am going to be a professional writer.
[This message has been edited by Tricia V (edited April 11, 2010).]
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