It is another time to check how you have done this week in writing. Hopefully, if you have not written, this might be an incentive to report in next week with a positive result. This is supposed to shame you into writing..
I am keeping even on my writing ideas. some good, some ok, a few just to get something posted. My original intention on the story ideas was to get them visible so others can turn them into something publishable. Even in the beginning, I could not write that many stories myself. I knew of a few writers who wanted to write something and had no idea what to write. What my story ideas are for, is to give you something that will spark your imagination. Find something interesting and dig into it. I work from the belief that if twenty people write from the same story idea, they would end up with twenty different stories.
I was finally able to dig into my latest Waxy story. I wrote four pages Saturday, which takes me to page ten. I am skimping and jumping in the piece so whatever I end up with, I will still have to do a complete rewrite on the story. I will likely double the length before I send it to my writing partner. Right now, I need to tell the story, get the scenes on paper. the way things look, this likely will be thirty pages when done. I just remembered, I have to rewrite a couple scenes I wrote last as they are not getting me to the situation I need to be. Easy rewrite, if I ever get to it again.
The question comes back to Did you write? I did!
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I did my usual five-hundred-a-day, all on my novel. I may pick up the pace today---as in my last post the last time around, I want to break the hundred thousand mark before Anniversary One rolls around, and, barring unforeseen events, I think I can make it. Then I'll get some rest and work on something else.
I managed to avoid "unforeseen events," in a way. I got called for jury duty, starting today. But on checking in last night, I found I'd drawn high number and didn't have to go, or I'd be there right now. (Wouldn't even have missed any work, darn the luck---it's one of my days off.)
Posted by debhoag (Member # 5493) on :
wrote a short this weekend and sent out one story. Also did about 20 more e-queries on my novel. Hey, are you ever going to post a Waxy story? You mention them, but I have never seen one. Do you have a site where you post them?
Posted by Balthasar (Member # 5399) on :
Well, I took some time off to read the HARRY POTTER books. Hadn't read any of them until the day after DEATHLY HALLOWS came out, then read all seven in two weeks. Love it.
But I started writing again yesterday.
I've found that writing to a kitchen timer works best for me because I don't have to worry about anything except working on what I'm doing -- not on word count or page count or anything like that. It's a goalless form of writing, very relaxing, and when the timer goes off I'll wrap things up within the next five minutes.
Posted by Wolfe_boy (Member # 5456) on :
I haven't written anything short-wise, but I've been completing my honeymoon journal - for those who don't know (which should be everyone) I just got back from a 20 day trip through Europe, and I tried to keep a journal the whole way. I'm polishing it and completing it, and putting it up on my blog as well.
So, yes, and no.
Jayson Merryfield
Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :
what a great thread. I wrote another draft of one of my short stories, worked on an outline for my novel, and started to try to think about how i might possibly attempt to approach a plan for a design to conceptualize the process of rewriting my other novel. ahem.
Posted by autumnmuse (Member # 2136) on :
I had severe migraines this week, and an ER visit because of it. As a result I couldn't concentrate enough to do the story revisions I planned. I did however create a list of changes that needed to be made, so I wouldn't forget them after the migraine. Unfortunately, the document doesn't exist on my computer for some unknown reason (perhaps in my pain haze I neglected to save it?) so I'll have to figure out what revisions I need all over again.
In the good news department, I did flash at LH Sunday night, so at least I wrote a thousand + words on a new story.
My upcoming goals are to revise and complete existing stuff, rather than start something new.
Posted by Lynda (Member # 3574) on :
Yup, I wrote, between bouts of tidying up my (art) website, working on some publicity stuff (art and book), and trying to find a new jewelry caster (art biz again), and negotiating with someone about a commissioned portrait of their horse (art biz). The art biz has been very busy for me lately, but I managed to write some on my latest novella pretty much every day.
Lynda
Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
I added a bit to the aforementioned chapter, and then I started a second, but then I decided I didn't like where things were headed. I had a major insight yesterday, and I think I might be in the middle of having another one.
Let me think. I need to write to my muse.
Posted by Snorri Sturluson (Member # 5807) on :
I wrote, though not as often or as much as I would like (but will it ever be?)
On a turn of good fortune, it looks like in the fall I will have at least one dedicated night (and by night I mean 90 minutes) every week to work on writing. Combined with the amount of time I currently have specifically set aside for writing during the week, that will bring my weekly total to 90 minutes.
Posted by debhoag (Member # 5493) on :
I was thinking of you the other day, Snorri, when I was reading a Peter Whimsey book. One of the characters said something to the effect that "If only there were more chairs, we'd have more great works of literature. Because every other person you talk to says they could be a great novelist if only they had a place to sit and write." Or thereabouts. I'm at work now, and don't have the book in front of me. But it put my writing career in perspective - If I never get a Pulitzer, it's all because there's not enough chairs, gosh darn it!
Posted by I am destiny on :
I finished chapter nine. I had left it unfinished with out remembering. And I am working on rewriting chpt 26, yes that dreaded chpt and I just revised 14. As I work on 26 I am trying really hard to fix sentence length. Howeveer to me it is coming across rather boring to me and i dont know what to do..... We shall see I guess.
~D
Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :
debhoag, that's hilarious! Particularly because my husband is staying at a hotel in Greensboro, NC tonight and pinged me the website. I pinged back and said "I wish I could go there and just WRITE." it's one of those beautiful wood panelled 2 story lobbies with tons of cushy chairs and couches, tables conveniently located for all my writing detritus. Oh, I could WRITE if only I were THERE.
Did I write? Yes, I've had a great week so far! I did a LH flash challenge and managed 2316 words in 90 mins. Some sort of record. The story just continued to roll, I was surprised myself. Apparently all the typing tutor games I used to play when I was younger (which led to a fast typing rate) have paid off. Now there's plenty of work to be done, since 2k words in 90 mins (which is only 25 words per minute, really not all that much, LOL) didn't leave much time for revisions, but I'm just excited. That's one more story I don't have to procrastinate writing or make up excuses for not writing or think about writing but not write... And bonus - it was an idea that wasn't already milling around in my head. I get the crazy notion sometimes that my imagination is limited, at some point the story keg will just run dry and I'll be left sputtering, with very little to say. Ha! As if!
In addition to that, I put more work into a personal memoir thing I'm writing about my decision to stay home with the kids. I also started another non-fiction piece on kids and sleep - thesis being what a privilege it is to accompany kids off to dreamland. I journaled a bit over the weekend (I've been lax in that department, I think maybe if I journal about what I'm writing, I might be more motivated.)
I also worked on my suburban warfare story, finally got a few more ideas working for it that will help me write the beginning. I am picturing short-story 5k length right now, but the more I play with the ideas the more I see this as the first chapter or two in a longer work. Toying with a NaNoWriMo project, and maybe this would be it...
I had been on a couple weeks-long break, so this was a big writing week. I'm looking forward to vacation in another 10 days, during which time I hope to have a lot of time to write.
Oh, and, LOL, I wrote some process flows. For some volunteer work I do, since no one else was writing them and therefore no one knew the steps to follow, I got irritated and just started diagramming and writing it out. Am I the only one who sees the world in flowchart format?
Posted by Kakichi (Member # 5814) on :
I didn't write so much as do more revisions on my "Misfortune's Child" short story. Working on getting all the fat trimmed and rewording, etc....
Also been thinking about the next part of the story and what it will be including. I'm eager to start on it, but I want to get Misfortune's out the door before I do. Don't wanna leave unfinished business.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Addendum to my above comment: I did cross the hundred-thousand word line, making it just about the longest thing I've written. (The rough draft of my last novel may have been longer, but thanks to primitive word processing I never had a full and reasonably accurate word count.)
So I embark on a brief rest---nothing today, followed over the next week or two by work on a couple of things I've got well-visualized but un-written-down. Plus I'll try to sit down and read my novel---after a hundred thousand words, I think it's time to see where I should do some revising.
Posted by HauntedShirley (Member # 5974) on :
I did get a short story finished and sent away. Lately I've not been finishing what I start so I have about a dozen stories in various stages of completion. My goal next week will be to work through some of those.
Right now I have several stories out in limbo, waiting for word from the almighty editors. Better to put those out of my mind
Posted by debhoag (Member # 5493) on :
I have been editing a short story, which somehow had gotten longer in the process instead of shorter - from 5,200 to 8,000, with the big finish still to go. I have no idea what I'll do with it when it's done.
Haunted Shirley, I read the post where you talked about your name, and am completely clueless about the author and her famous work. Hint, please?
KayTi, maybe we could go there together and sit in comfy chairs and write, leaving hubbies and children at home. It sounds like a lovely place!
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I'm inclined to think "Shirley Jackson," though the title of the novel I think it derives from eludes my memory at the moment. In any case, try "The Lottery," or "One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts" by this writer. (Unless my memory has played me false with these, too---I'm sure of "The Lottery.")
Posted by debhoag (Member # 5493) on :
The only thing I could come up with was Shirley McClaine's Out on a Limb, so your idea is infinitely better!
Posted by HauntedShirley (Member # 5974) on :
Yes, the Shirley in my name refers to the one and only Shirley Jackson, whose novel, The Haunting of Hill House, is one of my favorite books
The story just continued to roll, I was surprised myself. Apparently all the typing tutor games I used to play when I was younger (which led to a fast typing rate) have paid off. Now there's plenty of work to be done, since 2k words in 90 mins (which is only 25 words per minute, really not all that much, LOL) didn't leave much time for revisions, but I'm just excited. That's one more story I don't have to procrastinate writing or make up excuses for not writing or think about writing but not write... 
For some volunteer work I do, since no one else was writing them and therefore no one knew the steps to follow, I got irritated and just started diagramming and writing it out. Am I the only one who sees the world in flowchart format?