I can honestly say Yes, I did write this week. Not a lot, but the answer is yes.
First thing is that I ended the month two story ideas more than the thirty days of the month. Posting thirty two story ideas last month places me three ideas ahead for the year to date. I go by each month's count for the year. If I put my mind on it, I could get a hundred or more ideas ahead, but I am lazy and have other things to do.
Second, today, I posted my fourth romance story idea for the year. I write action adventures. My romance story ideas tells the action adventure that puts the couple together, and point to bits of the romance that would be involved, but that is about it. A dozen a year is a good year for romance story ideas.
My writing partner, Nancy and I finished up the last of our Waxy and Lazlo Vacation series and have that posted. We got 14 stories out of a five day vacation. Of course, several of the stories had to be split in two because they got long, but still. Most of the stories were written within a month of the end of the vacation, but the last few took longer as we got into the swing of real life. Nancy wrote this last story, and I edited it since it happens in a world I created. I then passed it back to her to check my edits, and then gave it one last edit before I posted it. I have not touched my newest Waxy adventure. I hope to get a chance to add a few pages to it this week. This is a more of an adventure than the vacation series.
I dug out my wood pile, something I have not done in two years. There was a nice ant nest in there. I threw out some wood, but mostly small stuff that the bugs loved. I have twenty two pieces in that stack, which amounts to a year's worth of woodturning. I have three more stacks, amounting to another four years of wood turning and carving. I find that in every hobby I've been in that uses supplies, One accumulates far more than you can possibly use. This is something you don't hear much about in stories. A blacksmith might have a pile of metal laying around or in boxes, bins or shelves. A woodwright might have stacks of wood near his shop so he has what he needs to work. Bakers have grain or flour storage, horsemen will have bales of hay. A seamstress might have loads of cloth, and a knitter will have plenty of yarn. One will always accumulate a lot of different things. A little problem is that one never has the stuff you need, or enough of the stuff you need, to do the project you want. I would decide on a project and suddenly realize I did not have the right wood. This year, I decided to try another tact. I look at the wood I have, and decide what project I can do. I immediately went from not having enough wood, to having five years worth of supplies. Luckily, other than disk space, which I have plenty of, Writing does not acquire much in the way of supplies, though I do have a nice stack of papers next to my keyboard with story ideas scribbled on them.
So the question to you is, Did You write?
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I got my novel restarted June 30th, as planned, but still at five hundred words a day, my usual rate. Right now I'm still stuck in a lengthy complicated internal monologue---things are going on outside the character's head, but she doesn't see them---but it's reaching the end of that and I should be able to move on to more semi-action scenes.
Posted by dee_boncci (Member # 2733) on :
Yep, furthered the two new shorts I'm working on, and have continued working on the outline revision of the infamous novel draft. Also dusted off an older short story I plan to revise soon.
Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :
Interesting point about the "more supplies than you could possibly need" and the way you've changed your mind about how you look at it. That's excellent. I have about 10 notebooks right now. And lots of nice pens.
Did I write? Yes. And, gasp, I submitted my first short story for Writers of the Future. Eek! There, I said it. It doesn't matter if it wins or is all that good, fact is I started and FINISHED a story. Finishing them is the hard part for me. As much as I wanted to keep in the trick ending, I was able to come up with something else that had some of the elements of the trick ending without being such a complete cheat, so I feel good about that, and feel that I learned something about the temptation of trick endings (and why, at least until I'm a more successful writer, I need to avoid the temptation.)
I'm working on some less-interesting writing for a talk I'm giving later in July, but finding that the rigor of writing stories is translating to writing better Powerpoint slides, making my points more succinctly, realizing where I can cut (at least from the text of the slides, putting any details in notes pages for myself which I will then ignore completely during the talk) and things like that. I'm not done with that, but more satisfied with where the slides are than when they were just in my head.
From here, I have to decide which project next. Probably another short that I have started, maybe just to have in the hopper for the next WOTF contest. And then...maybe, just maybe, it's time to start outlining and planning the YA novel that was in my head 6 mos ago when I started writing in the first place.
Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :
Yes. I wrote about 3,000 words on my WIP. I'm hoping that I can finish it up today, so I can give it a sweep for misued words -- the ones MSWord tends to throw in when you omit or add a letter -- before tomorrow. Then it's off to my valued first reader. Then, as you may have guessed, I'll post the first thirteen...
[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited July 03, 2007).]
Posted by debhoag (Member # 5493) on :
Oh, I want to be a valued first reader! Pick me!
I came up with two good short story ideas today while I was tooling around work. I have an idea for a series of books, and I am thinking about doing some shorts about ancillary characters to build up the backstory and develop the setting. I am hoping to get at least one nailed this weekend. Wish me luck?!
Posted by RMatthewWare (Member # 4831) on :
Yep, almost done with my first draft of the new novel.
Posted by Lynda (Member # 3574) on :
I don't understand the "dated" question - I've been off here for a while getting several projects finished (some writing, some sculpting), so maybe I missed the initial reference? Anyway, I usually write some every day. I may spend the entire day writing, if the sculpting's caught up or I need a break from it. Or I may just dither around in various of my writing projects, which seems to be what I'm doing today. I started a new short story, re-read my revised chapter 1 of my novel, worked a bit on a longer story, did some research for a couple of things - and that's just today. Some days I write in my blog, other days, I just spend the entire day editing (ah, the joys of writing novels - you wind up spending WEEKS editing, polishing and revising!!), but pretty much every day, something to do with the writing biz happens, whether it's actual writing or research or correspondance about publishing or whatever.
Lynda
Posted by RMatthewWare (Member # 4831) on :
Lynda, someone just started asking once a week if people have written. I think it's supposed to mean if you've written in the last week.
And lots of nice pens. 
It doesn't matter if it wins or is all that good, fact is I started and FINISHED a story. Finishing them is the hard part for me. As much as I wanted to keep in the trick ending, I was able to come up with something else that had some of the elements of the trick ending without being such a complete cheat, so I feel good about that, and feel that I learned something about the temptation of trick endings (and why, at least until I'm a more successful writer, I need to avoid the temptation.) 