It is the end of another month, and the start, in most countries, of the holiday season. For some of us, that means more time to write, while for others, it means less time to write. The rest of us won't notice much of a difference. I hope you get a chance to write. This regular note is an attempt to prod all of you, and myself, into writing at least once a week. More is preferred, but for many of us, writing once, sometime during a week, is asking a lot. This is especially for those of us who write in a burst, then go months without writing anything else. the fact that this note is going to show up each week, and you are expected to report on what your writing during the week, (No One, is keeping track. If you have a complaint about the tracking, complain to No One. He will carefully listen to and consider your request) the idea is that you will remember this note is coming and will write something just so you can report that you wrote. Hopefully, it will eventually become a habit.
We are quite loose about what is considered writing. Writing new is just part of writing. Editing, even if it is someone else's work, critiquing, poetry, blogging, article writing, world or character building as long as something gets on paper, are all writing. Even E-mails can be writing if they are wordy and pertain to story or writing. If you think it is writing, then it is writing.
I had finished my Waxy Dragon birth story and fired it off to my writing partner. Preparation for Thanks Giving and a new puppy has kept her from responding on the story, but that is all right. In case you forgot, that story ended at Page 76 with 50602 words. to bide the time, I dug into a story I had not finished, but started by editing from the beginning, adding some improvements that showed up from the birth story. This story, WAXY AND THE GARGOYLES is based on her misunderstanding of a commercial. I added two pages and 817 words in my editing. I have a ways to go to get to where I stopped writing on that story, then have to take it to the ending. This next week, I might go through a story I finished but had not done any editing. It needs it.
I finished the month's worth of story ideas. The past week or so, I was in a mood where I was not as wordy as I normally am. I did not do too bad anyway. Of the 30 story ideas I posted for the 30 days of the month, I wrote 44 pages at 25,603 words. I won't complain much about all that drivel. It got the job done, even though some good ideas ended up dissatisfying in presentation. I don't brood over something that did not come up to my expectations. However it came out, it filled a space and that is the minimum demand. Hopefully, someone will read it and see something that will spark a new story that could get published.
I am nearly done with some of my ornaments. I have two sets of swans and one set owls as Christmas ornaments. The problem is that I don't have a full set of any of them. I try to have at least a dozen of each ornament I make each year. ON the swans, I have enough blanks to make a dozen, but only have nine swans looking up, and seven swans looking down. The owls are worse. I only have five owls made and no more blanks made. That will get me going this season. I will make more. AS it is, I need to take one evening to finish up the ones made, adding some decorations and adding the eye hooks so they can be hung.
There is the joke where they say that if you take an infinite number of monkeys banging at a typewriter, and give them an infinite amount of time, they will eventually type out the entire works of William Shakespear. Then there is the joke that someone did that experiment and only came out with the entire works of Frances Beacon. My story ideas amounts to banging at th keyboard and seeing what comes up on screen. I have the basic concept and an idea of how to present it, and the keyboard takes over. consider, a monkey is given eternal life and a computer keyboard and told to just type. It just sits all day and night, hitting random keys. The secret is that a device is connected to the computer. when it detects the total contents of the works of William Shakespear, it will set off a reaction that will end the universe. The creators had decided that the amount of time for that to happen will be long enough for the universe. The monkey has the ability to scroll back through the symbols typed to see what it did before. Of course, the instant a key is hit, it is back at the end. the monkey develops its own language, then it sown math and science. Becomes nearly as intelligent as the people who created the system and then realizes what it is supposed to be doing and why.
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A little. I've not been feeling well and the stubborn drive to force myself to write has been working against me a little. So writing time is being found in moderation at the moment. But even so, my current short story is entering act 3 (so to speak) and I really want to see it through until the fat lady sings. (Now there's a thought, making the protag a fat lady...)
Posts: 921 | Registered: Nov 2008
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I took a breather from writing after the NaNo experience. I took my manuscript through the MS Word spelling and grammar check and was pleasantly surprised. Lots of errors, but not lots and lots.
I wrote a flash and started a Christmas story (Dicky the Elf is marooned in the world after stowing away on Santa's sleigh.)
Took a departure and wrote a story that is nearly all verse. That will take some work to make it palatable. I liked the concept, but it's way out of my experience zone.
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Broke 50,000 words for NaNo. Still have a lot of book left to write. Despite a good night's sleep my brain and body seem to sense that now that it is over it is time to rest. Too bad I still have to work. I may veg tonight though.
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I got some revisions finished early in the week. And started brainstorming a little. And then my computer got itself infected and my time has been taken up with that. Running multiple scans that each take six to eight hours. The last one ran all day and then crashed. I'm hoping that it cleaned at least some of the problem. I'll have to try running it again to make sure.
Posts: 4633 | Registered: Dec 2008
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I had another busy week---Thanksgiving, you know. I was hosting it (with the extra leaves, my table is larger than any other family member's table), which meant a good deal of cleaning up in here before things were presentable (I don't know why, my relatives know how I live). Then there was the cooking, of which I did a good chunk of.
But once that died down, over the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, I was able to churn out five hundred words each day. That brought me to the first sentence of what I intend to be the last scene, and probably no more than two thousand words from the end, probably less than that.
After that, December closes in, and, what with excessing at the plant, it's likely to be a busier December for me than in the past several years. I'll have to see how things go.
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While waiting on critiques on my current WOTF story, I added 200+ words to my Christmas on Mars story's first draft. Very rough. I have a glimmering of where it's headed but no idea how it reaches that ending.
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I'm hoping that it cleaned at least some of the problem. I'll have to try running it again to make sure.
