Did you Write? February 11, 2008 . Another week of embarrassment has arrived. This note is intended to humiliate myself, and the rest of you too, if you wish, into writing regularly. It gives a deadline to work towards during the week. You know this note will be posted, so you are supposed to force yourself to get your work open and start writing. I consider writing to include, of course, new writing, Editing, including editing someone else's work, world building as long as you get something on "paper", poultry, journals, articles, and possibly even blogs. The more you write, the better.
As for me, I have an excuse for not writing this week. I have to say that I had some health problems the past couple weeks. I found I have Pityriasis Rosea. I am getting over it, but it is not fun. It is one of those childhood viruses, like chicken pox / shingles, that you get as a child and reoccurs as an adult. I woke one night scratching my hand vigorously. It turned out that there were little itchy pimples over much of my upper body and when I scratched, I knocked off the tops and ended up with all sorts of little red dots over my body. I took some medicine the doctor gave me and I am improving on my healing. the dots are just red, and I have only a few itchy places that won't go away. The worst part of this illness is that it kills sleep. so does the medicine to treat it. I spent my Sunday morning, when I do my writing, sleeping instead. It is frustrating to have a good story to dig into, the desire to fill it out, and not be able to do anything about it.
On the story ideas, I am keeping up with the times. A couple days ago, I wrote a four page, 10,277 word story idea. That is long and rare. It was one that flowed off the keyboard. That joke was based on a joke. I have had a number of evenings where I had time to write my pieces, but not to post them. that makes the next time on line a lot longer on posting.
My name list has continued to grow. I gather the names out of my junk mail, where I have the spam filters turned off. I will take anything that could be a name, especially what can pass for an alien name. I split first and last names as I usually only deal with one name for a character in my story ideas. I just checked and righ tnow I have 2857 names, ending on page-67. I did not check for doubles this last time, but it won't get off the last page.
I did not do too much woodworking this weekend. I went to the renaissance fair that started in our area. Five weekends of 1600 and fantasy fun. I might make it there again this year. Will have to see. I tend to spend my time talking to vendors and this weekend, I picked up several items from vendors I liked. I carry a few of my pieces with me. There are times when I will talk about what I am up to and the look in the vendor's eye is "yeah, sure." I get a different response when I show a few of my pieces. I have done several story ideas based on the renfest. They usually involve actual contact with the people of the time. On woodworking, I did make a goblet Sunday. I start with the bowl and then work down to the stem. I had two rings on the goblet. As usual, the bowl, supported only by the thin stem, started to wobble. Like an idiot, I tried to steady it by grabbing the bowl. I snapped the stem in half. I then turned the bowl into a flower, and the rings will be earrings.
So, in answer to the question of the day. I can say that NO, I DID NOT WRITE. Excuses don't matter.
DID YOU WRITE?
Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :
I did write, but regrettably not until this Thursday or Friday. I'll try to improve. I think I'm having one of those bad weeks, you know, the ones where you feel as if nothing you write is any good, and you'll never get anywhere with anything, and why can't you just write one darn thing that everyone likes?
On the other hand, I've had a lot of time to read, which has been wonderful. And I've been keeping up on my crits.
Posted by gobi13x (Member # 6837) on :
Between a heavy load of tests and catching blepharitis, I have not had much time for writing on my novel. I did turn out a few thousand words for school projects, so I did writing in that respect. I hope that now that the test loads have lighten and I am recovering from my infection, that I can resume on my novel. I have some catching up to do. I have only written about 500 words over the last two weeks on it. Since I include writing for may classes to count, I have written for 42 days straight. I am on my way to 365 days of writing something.
Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :
I did. I am. I've submitted one short story, and I'm finishing another, which I will post the first 13 of in the FeedingFrenzy shortly.
Posted by A.R. Martin (Member # 7793) on :
I wrote! I just got to the climax scene in my first short story. SOOO, I'm half way done. If I keep my current pace that will be 1.5 weeks to complete a 6-7 pager.
Could you add marketting to the requirements though? If you spend a lot of time marketting your work does that count?
[This message has been edited by A.R. Martin (edited February 11, 2008).]
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Nothing yet...Friday or so I had a terrific idea, that I've been chewing on ever since, but I haven't written anything down. I hope to write an outline soon, though...at least my mind is still working on this idea or that...
It's kinda a sequel to this lengthy novella that was the only thing I finished and sent to market last year...it recycles the background and maybe some of the elements...and, since the first one wasn't published or accepted, I can plunder what I want from the earlier item, change things 'round, maybe get it right this time...
Posted by Tricia V (Member # 6324) on :
I'm not sure I can say I've written anything since last week. I guess it's a good reminder to myself to get back on the wagon.
Posted by MrsBrown (Member # 5195) on :
I'm trying exercises by Bell in Plot & Structure. The current one is to notate scene ideas on index cards so I can easily move them around. The idea is to fit my threads together, intersperse POVs, get a feeling for action vs reaction and transition scenes, and see the rise and fall in intensity levels for pacing. He even suggests creating paceholders where you see that SOMETHING is needed but you don't know what yet.
And I recorded new ideas in my outline. They keep coming, and the subplots keeps changing as it fills out!