It is that time of the week again, where you can report your accomplishments, cry about your failures, and otherwise tell about what is going on in your life. By reporting each week no matter what happens, you get a prompt to try to write, at least something during the week. this is to help those of us that write once a month or less, to write more often. the idea is that you will feel ashamed that you did not write, so you will open something during the next week so you can proudly say that you did some writing. Even if it is just a few words each week, over time, it will add up to some writing. We are not concerned about how much writing that might be done. It can be one word or ten thousand words. If you are editing, your count might go backwards.
As to what is writing, it can be anything. If you have to ask, the answer is yes. If in doubt, the answer is yes it is writing. New writing is, of course, writing. Editing is also writing, even if it is the work of someone else. Critiquing another's work is also writing. Poetry, blogging, writing assignments, technical writing, article writing, world or character development, are all writing. E-mails can be writing as long as they are wordy and pertain to story or writing. Of course, many of us don't count some kinds of things we do with words as writing. It is strictly up to you.
I had a number of events and projects came up to reduce my writing time this week. That is frustrating. I expected to have my story edited down to size back in November. I did lop off the entire ending and that will be the start for a third story. That cut my word down count quite a bit, but not enough and that ending will have to be expanded to be worthy of being an ending. I added about thirty words to my story by combining two scenes and making it an action scene. that helped on the story but not on the word count. I did try to change a scene to cut it back. That was not working. I got a suggestion of how to fix it, but I will have to re-write it completely, AGAIN, to make the change. I hope it cuts down the words by a lot. I doubt I will really get close to my target when all is said and done. The closer the better, though.
Including what I am posting tonight, I have 55 story ideas in my compost pile. they have been coming in about the same rate I have been using them. They come in groups though, so I will go a couple days without anything, then get three. As of December, I had been posting these story ideas for thirteen years. I have to dig some of my records out of backup disks in order to get an exact figure, but I have posted nearly 5000 story ideas. I have great doubt that any or many were repeats. I am still in awe that I keep coming up with these ideas. My intention of these story ideas was that I had more ideas than I could possibly use, and did not want them to go to waste. I cannot write 365 finished stories, most of them are really telling about novels within a year. They were posted so someone might find one that was interesting and after writing it in full, publishing it. I While I like to know when one is used, just for the pats on the back, they are free to use. I do dread the time when the ideas stop flowing. I do have a stack of ideas to dig from. Somewhere in my shelves, is 180 story ideas that might never come out of the baggy they are in. I have a couple dozen story ideas attached to these notes. over the years that I have not used. I might be able to stretch it out to a whole year more. Of course the last ones are going to be a royal pain to write. Of course, if that happens, I can go back and start writing my story ideas that I have accumulated over the decades.
I had one of those weekends where everything went right in my woodworking. If every weekend was as good as this one, I would consider getting into woodworking as a profession. I have been making some vases that look like dresses. I use naturally shaped wood as the flair of the dress and then shape the upper torso and have the straps free. No girl inside. I had seen ceramic vases like these and really wanted one, but just could not come up with the money to get one. I decided to make my own. I found they were fun to make. They look good too. I carved the strap on one I made last week, and made a strapless gown this weekend from start to finish. Both need heavy sanding, but they are basically done in the main woodworking part of the project. My brother got me a drill bit extension. Years ago, I was making a wood cannon and could not drill it out more than a couple inches. I dug it out and drilled it out to almost a third its length so it gives the impression that it was drilled out all the way in. I started making the carriage which will be sanded and polished to a high gloss. I nearly finished the body of a fairy I am carving. The scene I will set her in will be the big job. I have to paint her and then add the wings so she will be able to settle into whatever scene I make for her. She looks good. I also made a ramp for my friend so he can be wheeled out of his bedroom that is four inches lower than the main house. In all, I had a very good woodworking weekend. Productive, easy, and pleasurable.
Using above as a story idea, He worked slowly and made a lot of mistakes which slowed him down even more. He got good results when done, but he was not efficient. He had to do other stuff so he really only got a limited amount of time on a project. No one dared give him a job with a deadline. He came into work and found he was alone. No one to bother him, no one to give him other things to do, no one to move his stuff. He set up and got to work on the project he had fought with all week. He somehow found the completion of it and made no mistakes. He looked at the job board where all the projects were listed and got to work on the most complicated one. He took his time and worked efficiently as he was not looking or tools that usually seemed to walk away. He double checked his information before he was about to add the finish and made a little correction that ended up improving the quality, and then set it in the finishing room. He started another project, the second most difficult and it came together fast. There were some parts missing but he made it so anybody could install them. He left real late in the day, having completed a week's worth of work of one of the other workers. He cleaned up the place, making sure everybody's tools were where they belonged, even borrowed tools. The next day, everybody came in. he found out that it was a walk out against the boss. he selected the simplest job on the board and got to work. There was a lot of discussion about the missing jobs on the board and the tools that either appeared or disappeared. He simply got to work and then within a short time, was searching for tools as someone walked out with them. The finishers, who were not part of the walk out, but did not show up as they did not expect any work to be done, were surprised at all the completed work for them to handle. They got to work while the rest of the shop was talking and lounging around. By the end of the day, he finished half the project and had to remake two parts over again, and replace a third that someone took as it was close enough to what they needed. No one could figure out how the projects got done and at that quality of work. He was not about to say anything as they would expect that of him all the time and they were not going to let him do that quality work. At least he had his one day of really fun, quality work.
As to the question of the day, I can honestly say,
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I write the first draft of what may or may not be a complete short story. It needs a first polish and will then go out for critique. In fact, thinking about it... I might go and put the first 13 lines up, something I haven't done in ages.
Posts: 1469 | Registered: Jun 2005
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A fantastic story idea came to me at 5:30 this morning, while I was rocking my little girl back to sleep. I spent most of the morning scribbling out notes and ideas. Also, I've done some blogging and critiquing.
Posts: 968 | Registered: Sep 2008
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That novel that I was writing without much outline? Well, I'm starting over. But right now, I'm going back and worldbuilding and adding more layers and complications. I'm not sure how deep my outline is going to go, but I know what I want to accomplish with it. I've also decided to make my MC an alien, so that's another new dimension. It's also a new challenge I'm looking forward to.
So yes, I wrote about 3000-4000 words of worldbuilding information.
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Another week, but I didn't quite hit my quota, getting only 850 words in yesterday and 760 today. Some late nights have thrown things out, which I will have to remedy that asap. So yeah... short. (Ah... I need to revise that... I wrote and edited a flash piece, so my WIP might be short (8,950 words instead of the 9K plus on my schedule) but overall wordcount was higher... /shrug).
[This message has been edited by BenM (edited January 24, 2011).]
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I worked mostly on my new young adult series, but some of my science fiction stories received attention, too. My big accomplishment, however, was finishing one cover art project, and getting halfway through two more.
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I finished one thing Wednesday and did some nitpicky revisions on another thing Thursday and Friday. Then things ground to a halt Friday night with debilitating illness...lost a day at the job-that-pays-me-money, too...and I haven't gotten back to any writing since.
Doesn't matter much. The "nitpicky revision" thing is done, and was just awaiting printing out, which was just awaiting a new printer---which I got on Friday and plugged in Saturday. I plan to go over the "nitpicky" thing one more time before printing it out, and then I plan to send it around. (Not much hope for it, actually---it's long, and it's got a peculiar narration---but I thought I would anyway.)
After that, I'm going to start work on something else. I've got four stories in rough draft, that I like to revise by taking a printout of it and retyping each thing, word by word---this forces me to consider each word in the story. Which story I work on, I haven't decided...
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This week is the last week of an online workshop for me. Today I submitted the second chapter of the story I've been working on in the workshop. Only one crit from one of the other participants yet and I'm anxious to see what the "facilitator" will think of it. The "it" being my story and not the comment which made no sense to me at all. My day job takes up most of my time but I try to write something each day even if it is only a couple of well placed tweets. I've come to the place I have way to intimate knowledge of. I call it the "I'm-bored-with-this-story-and-I-have-a-much-better-idea-so-I'll-start-writing-something-new-right-now!" place. I HATE that place but I find myself there consistently. Anyone else ever visit this favorite place of mine?
Posts: 4 | Registered: Jan 2011
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Finished up a story, am trying to finish a novel, and have another novel due Feb 15th. So yeah...writing is happening here. Meep.
Posts: 96 | Registered: Nov 2010
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Just going to mention...my printing-out reached a pause before printing out, because I realized I had absolutely no idea what final title I wanted to put on it. Do I leave the zippy Planet Stories kind of title I used as my working title? Do I come up with something more straightforward? Do I make a bad pun on an old self-help guide? What to do, what to do?...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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