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Author Topic: Did you write? 01-09-12
rstegman
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Did you write? 01-09-12

It is another week. It is time to report what is going on in your life, and in your writing. The idea is to report here every week, whether you write or not, and hopefully, start feeling guilty for not meeting goals, or not writing at all.

As to what is writing, it can be anything. New writing is writing. So is editing since we seldom write perfectly the first time, and editing of other people's works also counts. Critiquing is also writing. so is Technical writing, writing assignments, blogging, world and character creation, synopsis. Even board posts and E-mails can be writing if they are very wordy and pertain to writing or story. In essence, if you have to ask if it is writing, it is.

How much writing is not important either. It could be one word, or it could be ten thousand words. It is the act of trying to create the habit of opening some work in and applying effort to them each week and hopefully it will become a daily habit.

AS for me, I did not do near as much as I had hoped. I worked late quite a bit during the week so had very little production. I only added little over 1300 words this week to my SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE TWO. A real pittance compared on what I was hoping to add. I did write a big blast, then went over it several times, editing it to make it a bit better, but still, my word count was not what it should be. I will say that I have a better idea of what is going to happen in this story and how it is going to happen. It is the process of getting there will be the big project.
I am completely rewriting my second story. Other than portions of a fight scene and a couple characters, the first version will not be used. I really did not have a story there. My first story had changed so drastically from what I started with. This second story had nothing of the changes. Starting over was the easy way to go. All the new story lines, characters and situations that the last version of the first story gained, has to be added to this new one. I am still surprised at how the first story had changed so much from the original story Idea I based it on.

ON the story idea front, I ran into a little problem this week. I was writing a story idea and my computer threw a fit. I lost it. I wrote it over again and put it in my saved file where I hang onto the story ideas until I post them. When I was getting ready to post, I somehow overwrote the story with the one before. THEN, I rewrote the story, and when I put it in the file, I saw it was the same idea as the one before it, the one I had used to overwrite it.
I finally go that story idea written and tonight I got caught up for the day. Sheesh!
I do have 51 stories in the compost pile not counting what I am posting tonight. I like having loads of easy to post ideas such as I have now.

I picked up some hand saws this weekend at a yard sale. they were dirt cheep so I got three of them. they had been left outside for a while. I had sanded the rust off and decided to give them a try. I cut a piece of soft wood and they did a very good job. The saw wandered a little when I changed from one end to the other on the wood and ended up having to use a power saw to finish the cut. I was quite satisfied with the results in spite of that.
I have to admit that this was the first time I had actually done some real cutting with a hand saw. I am not in the shape to want to do it too often, but it was an interesting experiment. Another nice thing was that it cleaned up the blades really well.

Using the above as a story idea, he had worked with the old time energy tools quite often. his workshop was cobbled up of tools that he got cheaply. Modern energy tools did a better job of making things, but he did well enough with what he had.
One day, he got his hands on really old technology. He got some saws where the blades were not pure energy, but instead had a solid plate to guide the energy of the cutting edge. It was so old school. He decided to give it a try.
He assumed the energy teeth would slide down the panel that made the frame to do the cutting. He quickly found that the blades just sat there and burned into the wood. He actually had to work the saw back and forth for the energy teeth to do their cutting. He had seen it on vid-image and heard tips of using these kind of saws.
He worked with it, pushing and pulling it across the wood and watched as it slowly sunk through the slot created in the wood. He knew his technique as bad as it was not straight cutting down. He finished it off with one of his more modern energy tools where the energy parted the wood cleanly.
He could see the lines caused by the old saw. His new saw showed no such lines. the actual cells of the wood pulled apart as the energy passed, making a polished surface from the cut.
He had no idea when he would need the old saw, but he hang onto it, setting it to the side for that time he would need to use it again.

As to the question of the day,

I can honestly say

YES, I DID WRITE.

DID YOU WRITE?

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Heresy
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Yes, I did. A little more outlining for Possession, the sequel to Dark Mirror. Also, on the subject of DM, I'm now halfway through editing the second draft. I'm hoping another week and a half will have me done, but it might take 2, as I think I have a couple parts to add to the latter half. Still, good progress so far, and I'm almost certain that I will be sending it off to my test readers once I'm done this edit and give it a quick read to make sure.

-Julie

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Meredith
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Yes, I did.

I finally finished BLOOD IS THICKER. Yay!!!

And I've been working steadily on the second draft of MAGIC'S FOOL.

Also two blog posts.

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Robert Nowall
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I managed to restart the second draft of the story I finished last month---cut-and-paste, write new scene, cut-and-paste, write another new scene, and so on. I think I'm about a scene and a half from the end of it, and it'll be much shorter than the last version---but, in all honesty, I'm not sure I like it that much this way.

*****

My muse can be a cruel thing. Long about Sunday, another story bubbled up out of my subconscious. It's another old story, something from twenty years ago. Three of my last four stories were something really old that came up again.

What's with it? Is my creative well so dry that stuff I didn't get around to writing years ago is being tossed up at me? Or, maybe---if I'm lucky---my muse is saying to me, "You're older now, you can handle this idea." And maybe I can...

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SuziQ
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I did write a little. 2 new scenes for my novel and a start on 2 different writing challenges/contests. I am learning I have so much more to learn.
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pdblake
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About 3K on the current project, plus outlined a short and did a couple of blog posts.
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LeetahWest
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Since I finished my piece for the Bookend Challenge, I haven't written anything!! Blah! Probably because it is the first time I have submitted my writing to anything other than an English teacher. Silly, but I'm nervous about it.

I want to write, I think I am going to start by using some more writing prompts and see what I can do from there.

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pdblake
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quote:
Originally posted by LeetahWest:
Since I finished my piece for the Bookend Challenge, I haven't written anything!! Blah! Probably because it is the first time I have submitted my writing to anything other than an English teacher. Silly, but I'm nervous about it.

I want to write, I think I am going to start by using some more writing prompts and see what I can do from there.

You'll get a lot out of the challenges here, I always do. I quite enjoy writing the odd short piece from a prompt, especially if it's away from what I normally write.
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LeetahWest
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I sent my piece to a friend and fellow writer for a quick critique and review, to hopefully calm the nerves. Instead I got a "you'll do good" from her which wasn't at all what I was looking for. Ah well, I will stick to having people I don't know review my work. It seems more honest that way.

I am sure I will learn a lot from this experience and hopefully it will let me know if I am going in the right direction or if I am even on the road at all!

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Tiergan
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Yes, I did. Not quite as good as last week, word count is twice as much, but just finished the story today, so still have to edit it before the submit.
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