Today is that day again. The day to come forward and announce your production or lack there of, in the art of writing. I hope that these notes prompt you into writing. You know the note is coming each week, and you know you want to announce you had a good week to write, even if it is a ten minute session. The hope is that you will use this note as a prompt sit and write even a little so you can announce you were successful. There were times where knowing I had to write this note, I would plan on writing something. It does work. Little bits of work builds into a big piece of work over time.
We all know that any new writing, is writing. In our minds, that might only what we call writing. Because few of us can write perfectly the first time, Rewriting, editing, is writing, even if it is someone else's work. You might not get the word counts that you can pat your back about, you can swap around a whole lot of words. I have zapped an entire page of writing, and ended up with something similar to the original word count after the rewriting and editing was done. Blogging, articles, newsletters, poetry, writing assignments are all writing. character or world building is also writing, preferably if something gets on paper. Even E-mails can be writing, if they are very wordy and pertain to story or writing. The real definition of what is writing, is up to you. If you say it is writing, I doubt anybody will say otherwise.
As for me, I had a golden time of writing. I had a lot of fun. The hour or so each day I am doing on my writing, is about the right amount of time. I keep excited about what I am working on, and also get some good production. I usually allow myself to write when I first get home, before I do anything else so I get it out of my hair. It helps that I have a fixed amount of time. Everything else tends to expand out into whatever time is available. This week, I did very little editing or rewriting. I spent the week on all new scenes. That really made this fun. It has been a while since I was in all new territory in my writing. I had several action scenes that need work, but I got them written. I have basically two more sections to write, one where there is bonding, then there is the ending where a simple childish judgement error ruins everything, creating th pattern for the rest of the stories to come. I had been saying that I might end at around seventy pages. I have to say I was wrong. One hundred sounds a bit more like it. The reason I say that was that I went from page 64 with 42,462 words to a count of Page 72 with 47,890 words. The words just flowed. One reason there is high page counts is that I keep reminding myself to detail what is going on rather than saying "he attached jewelry to his magical staff and made it into a golf club", I would go into detail about what he was doing and why, and showing the effect of the magic. As I said, I have loads of work to do on this piece. I finally figured out a bit more of the reason for the story. He is trying to figure out what to do with Waxy. I have to write it into the story, but it starts out that he ends up with something he really does not want, and she turns into something he really loves. It also explains the ending better too. During the week, I also figured out why the ending creates the problem. I came up with a reason he really wants to be able to return to this world, and Waxy following him home, rather than waiting for him to return, keeps him from being able to return. Things are falling into place. I love that. Of course, I do have to do at least one more heavy editing pass, but it won't take as long as I won't be re-writing, then writing new. Many of the additions will be a sentence here and there. ]
When I started writing my story ideas. I had some concepts I had no use for. I was not going to write them and I thought that someone else wanted to write and could not come up with something, could dig th rough my presentations and find some jewels to spark their imagination. at first, I kept the very best for myself. The concepts came out fast, an idea a day. At first, It turned out that my best writing was not that much better than the posts I was making (I actually still have that opinion on some days). After a year or two, decided I would post all ideas I came up with, even those I intended to write. The posts became my storage vault for my concepts. last month, I spent a couple weeks digging through the concepts I Post at the end of some of these notes to bring my activities back to writing, and I turned them into official story idea posts. This month, I returned to posting all new ideas for a while. The new ideas are not coming in fast, but they are coming in. At the moment, including concept I am posting today, I have 51 story ideas in my compost pile, waiting to be written up. Some of them are really good. I have some deeper down in the stack that are really good, but are more complicated or in depth than what I feel I have the time or energy to do. For those who are interested, my story ideas are posted on many bulletin boards, but the one I post on the most is Http://www.xprodigy.net/board/index.php and go to WRITER'S ROOST. The notes to look for are like NOVEMBER 2009 STORY IDEAS. I have one for every month that the record has. If you go to the very beginning page of the notes, you will find the Waxy Dragon stories as they were originally posted. All will eventually be rewritten.
On the wood working side of my activities, I worked on my carved Christmas ornaments, made some turned ornaments, and made a blank for a Rocket powered car for a friend. It is not right, but it gives them something to work from in their planning. I made headway on several projects too. they are not finished. I am doing a vase that I carved faces on. I had one question I needed to answer. I want the faces to stand out from the background. I got the idea that I could give them a coating so they would hold the color, and then soak the wood so the rest of the piece so it changes color compared to the face. Norfolk Island pine darkens dramatically when it is soaked in oil. If the finish is applied lightly to the surface on the other hand, he wood will remain light. My project was to find a coating that will hold the surface of the wood light, like a surface finish, while the rest of the piece is allowed to darken. I have to do some checking, but I think I have a solution. I only have a week to get it done. I might give it a surface finish for now and work on the tonal changes later. Just sand off the finish I am applying and work from there.
To use the above for a story idea. consider someone who makes magical containers. His main thing is to apply substances on the surface for the effects he is after. They are usually sparkles, or glowing at night, preserving foods or drinks, and so on. A customer asks him to fully seal the piece with a magical liquid, having it soak all the way in so it can contain a real evil magic. Along with that, they also want the surface with their normal effects. he decides he has to do some experimenting. He applies dozens of different finishes on some pieces and then applies the soaking magic. What he is after is to have magic surfacing that will continue to work, and work the way it is supposed to. he gets some strange effects that are not planned. After a time of experimentation, changing formulations, he comes up with some coatings that will be entertaining, will do their normal magic, and a couple that will help contain the evil that will go into the container.
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I did. I finished the first revision of BLOOD WILL TELL. And I started working on the synopsis.
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I've been plugging away at my current short story project. Word count isn't climbing as quickly as the last one, but I'm spending a little more time trying to get the writing half decent the first time around. Not because I expect it to be perfect, or want to avoid revision, but simply because I want to see what a more thoughtful pace will yield.
So far I'm happy with the results.
I've also tried to narrow my writing time down to an hour after the kids go to bed: 7.30 to 8.30. The 8.30-9 period is for me to chill out with the Mrs, and I'm up at 5am the next day. But an hour dedicated to writing every day seems to be yielding results, and it's manageable.
And I'm hoping manageable means sustainable, and sustainable leads to a little less frustration over a scattered schedule.
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yes. i wrote journal style that evolved into something of a hybrid of literature and dialogue.
something very big happened to me. then the very big thing died because i felt compelled to kill it. but then again, i have discovered that i have died, and Fear, my doppelganger, is no longer spectral and has replaced me. i am now truly a ghost. so Fear killed it as i watched.
i wrote two poems that need some serious work. i really have to get back into the swing of letting imagery speak the piece.
i haven't written in a long while. but i found some pieces i wrote ages ago. i am still the same sadsack i always was.
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I had a terrific writing week, writing a thousand words a day, every day, even on my busiest day of Friday. I manage to be impressed with myself, turning out this much on something that wasn't even in my head two weeks ago.
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did six versions of the ending scene of my WOTF story with each of those going through many rewrites itself
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I'm up to 30K on nano, I revised one of my other novels and I've written 1/3 of a diss. chpt. that I need to finish, oh, today. So I'm back to work!
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I am up to 21,000 words on my current novel, which I have also renamed "Curse of Tongues." I added about 1,000 of those this week. I have had a hard time writing this portion of my novel, because it is kind of a boring bit. Given some of the feedback I recieved when I asked about boring bits, I have had to stretch myself to deeper characterization here... And it worked!
I basically have a scene where my wizard can't sleep, so he stays up watching the rain fall, and the love interest comes up and sits by the tree with him. They don't speak each other's language, so there is not much communication, but I think its the best scene in my book so far!
So yup, I wroted. I am wroting some more tomorrow...
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I wrote 15K on my nano project and snuck in a crit I had forgotten about. I'm feeling super productive, even next to Oswam.
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