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Did You Write? 06-02-08 . This is another week to brag about your accomplishments, cry about your failures, and otherwise tell what is going on in your life. The purpose of this note is to give everybody a weekly goal to aim for as an excuse to write. One reports about any writing any time in the week. One could also give reasons for not writing and then hope you get your act together write for the next note. My goal for these notes is to try to shame myself into writing each week, hoping I can write here that I was not a shameful drag on the advancement of society. What I accept as writing is quite broad. It can be any new writing, of course. It is also ANY editing, even editing the works of someone else. It can be poetry too. It can be articles, blogs, writing assignments, E-mails if they are long and having to do with writing, world building as long as something is written down. If you think it is writing, I guess it will count.
"I hang my head with shame, on the wall with pride......" I had to write that description down. I did write. I dug into WAXY'S CLEAN FUN. I started just reading what I had, making a change here and there. I then did not like the way a scene was going, and zapped it, and rewrote it, added to it, expanded it. I then added to what I had. In the end, I went from page five to page seven. I added 1260 words officially, but likely doubled that amount when I was done. I like the way the story is going. In order to clean up, the animated teddy bears needed to clean up first. They washed up and were soaking wet. they went to the dryer and had fun running and jumping the flaps, then tumbling, making faces at Waxy until they were dry. That scene was suggested early on in the discussion of the story and I did not fell it fit. I found it was needed. I then have them starting to clean which was something I am not good at, writing about cleaning or cleaning itself..... <G> Anyway, the story is now on page 7 with a total of 4129 words.
On the story idea front. I ended the month with 32 story ideas for a 31 day month. I am now one story idea ahead for the year! I wish it was more, but this is what I could do. the may stories ended up to be 54 pages of writing, at 32,748 words. If this were a novel I was working on, I would be astatic. I could be writing rough drafts of novels every four or five months. Since I write them every day, I don't count them as writing. I talked to my nephew a while back and he said that over the years, they were getting better, closer to short stories. He has not read them for many months, since my laptop died on me. I don't have my E-mail addresses so I cannot send out the story ideas with an extended version of this note each month. I was unable to post yesterday, the first idea of the year, so that places me an idea behind for the month. since it is so early, it will be little to catch up. Even so, after posting six story ideas this past week, I still have twenty six story ideas next to my keyboard. I do love writing them.
I went with my mom to a nursery to take pictures. We were disappointed that the flowers are past their prime compared to two weeks ago, but we still had fun. I shot about seventy pictures of the plants and flowers. mom got to talking gardening and shot a third that many. I still love to be blown away by the mixture of colors.
In a wood working club meeting, we were given an assignment, a challenge, to make a weed vase on the lathe. I have a dozen interesting designs in my mind. I decided to try a design with what I consider junk wood. I must tell you that the junk wood woodworkers on TV say is junk wood, is my good wood. This was some wood from a furniture shop that they glued up. I had the idea of a vase could hold several stems in a fan. I started out making the piece two sided, fairly flat. The piece spun on one end, with the other end flying around. I tapered it from the flying end up to the "Base. When I had both sides done, I had a lot of break out along the edges. That was not acceptable. I turned it ninety degrees and made both of the remaining sides match the ones I just finished. I then drilled out where the spiked bits dug into the wood. This weed vase turned out to be far better than I ever imagined. It was all in correcting for a problem. I showed a picture of it to a friend at work and he said "Wow!"
To use the above in a story, you have a student who is competing with masters in an art show. If she does well, she will be allowed to take the master's tests and become a master artist. She knows the piece she needs to make is going to have to be imaginative and experimental to even have a chance. She decides to make several test designs, just see what works and what does not. She does some test pieces, using some techniques and processes that are absolutely stupid for design. She is looking to see the effect of the designs, hoping to use a tiny bit of what she sees in the final work. She has to make corrections in most of the designs while making them. She immediately goes to the next piece when she finishes one. She is finally finished with her experiments. she has them sitting on a table together. She walks over to them to see what she can learn and stops mid step. She then moves slowly around, studying each piece as it sits, then picking each one up to examine the effects. There are little corrections she has to make, but that is part of finishing. Each one is an interesting effect. She decides to finish them to give herself some time to think about the final project. She gets caught up in a paying project. That takes up most of the time she needs to develop her final project. She keeps looking at her test projects, improving the finishes on them, trying to see what could be used and not used. the time for the contest comes faster than expected. She suddenly realizes she is not going to have any master piece ready for the show. Looking at her experimental pieces, she decides she will do some final finishing on them and enter all of them as a set. She is not going to get the right to do the master's test but she will have something to show off. The show comes and her pieces are on display. She is relaxed, quite, not excited like everybody else. She walks along the display tables and realizes how insignificant her planned piece would have been in comparison. She hears about a set that is mind blowing, but she has no idea what that is. She does not ask or even look. She is comfortable with the knowledge that she has to wait at least another year to learn the trade better. She is finally called up and she finds out that she is the winner. No one even can figure out how she made them. She is set up to show how she did a few of them. She realizes she has a trade secret and should be compensated for it. She places a very high price and the room is full when she does her demonstration. She demonstrates several of her methods, people are gasping at how simple it is. She then tells about the other methods. She is given her master's licence right there. Her demonstration proved she was a master.
As to the question of the week, I can honestly say YES I DID WRITE.
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Yes, I wrote. Not much, but I tinkered on my entry for our flash contest. Still researching my historic novel...and trying to come up with a pesky element called a plot.
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I spent the day marking exam papers with a splitting headache, but I did at least manage to post comments on a gardening board, and one on ancient coin board.
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Oh, wow...did I ever come up with a great idea for a new short story...! It's essentially the sequel to a story I've sent to a grand total of one publisher before deciding I don't really like it after all. Perhaps, on a subconscious level, I wrote the first story so I'd have an excuse to write the sequel.
Much work got done on the young adult novel.
One of my old SF short stories began getting a minor plot change, and is already reading much more coherently.
Oh...and, starting tonight, I begin putting the finishing touches on the story I'll be sending to next quarter's Writer's of the Future. I'm definitely psyched!
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A little through Thursday, then busy-busy-busy through to Monday, where I squeezed a little time out at the end of my day to write---which finished my current project.
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A little. From the number of responses this week I'd say I'm not the only HatSlacker. I seem to have stalled a bit on my novel and chose to write a short that has been sitting in my mental files for a while now.. I wrote 2500 wds and can probably finish it around 3k-- a new low for me. watch for it. I also began a flash for a contest; wish me luck.
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Yes. I wrote, finally. Has taken me forever it seems to get back to editing my novel. Installed ywriter, i think 2 weeks ago, and now can tell where the scenes are I need to work on. And I have been working on them. So this last week has been a good week, nearing the 1/2 way point of editing the book. Well until my crits get in, and then i can start the process again.
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I have not written or done anything but lurk in ages. I've enjoyed watching Merlion feed everyone, though, and bake wholesome cybersnacks. If this keeps up I may have to start offering my guests something besides sweet tea and Cheetos.
As for the not writing, I have many excuses, the best of which involve trips to the doctor, a sporadically dying laptop, and a cat's troubling addiction to power cords (or perhaps self-administered electroshock therapy; I'm still investigating), but they're not good enough to let me off the hook completely. On a positive note, I finally finished a critique this weekend and am getting back on track.
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I am on a reading retreat. I feel it has helped me more than writing junk that I will end up rewriting or leaving unsettled in the "underdeveloped" file folder.
I read three novels and a cubic ass-ton of short stories over the last eight days. It has really helped me see some major flaws in my own writing and something substantial to work towards. I did revise and edit my Return to Luna piece and sent it off for judgement.
Due to some self analysis and revelations regarding the misapropriated use of my laptop, I have tried a new aproach and put pencil to notebook instead of computer and filled several pages of character development, and sketching out with more detail, the outline and morals in a new Horror piece I have been thinking of recently. I feel it has given me a more holistice view of the story. Perhaps it will mean less revisions and edits to procrastinate later.
Next week I go on vacation and have pledged it a "leave the laptop at home" event. Hopefully there will be some more creative and productive things in my lacy cursive to translate when I return.
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I am on a reading retreat. I feel it has helped me more than writing junk that I will end up rewriting or leaving unsettled in the "underdeveloped" file folder.
I read three novels and a cubic ass-ton of short stories over the last eight days. It has really helped me see some major flaws in my own writing and something substantial to work towards. I did revise and edit my Return to Luna piece and sent it off for judgement.
Due to some self analysis and revelations regarding the misapropriated use of my laptop, I have tried a new aproach and put pencil to notebook instead of computer and filled several pages of character development, and sketching out with more detail, the outline and morals in a new Horror piece I have been thinking of recently. I feel it has given me a more holistice view of the story. Perhaps it will mean less revisions and edits to procrastinate later.
Next week I go on vacation and have pledged it a "leave the laptop at home" event. Hopefully there will be some more creative and productive things in my lacy cursive to translate when I return.
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