I post these in hopes that it will shame me into writing. It does not work, but there still is that hope. It is also giving you a place to brag about your accomplishments or cry over your failures, and mention anything else in your life. Hopefully, If I keep posting this each week, you will get to the point where you are saying to yourself "Oh, I have to write something or I will have nothing to report in the DID YOU WRITE note.
Editing is writing, much as we don't like to admit it. I opened my latest work in progress and changed a dozen words through the piece and one paragraph, removed a sentence I added half an hour earlier, and closed the file down. That was the grand total of my "free" writing for the week.
I am an idea a head for the month at this moment, but Thursday I have a meeting so will not be able to post that night so I will be back to normal again, if you can call me normal anyway....
I spent some time with a mentor with my wood turning club. I asked him to show me how to use a tool I have no real clue on using. I spent about three hours with him, embarrassing a piece of wood with several variations of the tool. I can now write a story about how not to use the tool, stupid things a person could do to make it not work right. This tool is dependant on feel and finesse. I am like Godzilla with the finesse, and like the mummy when it comes to the feel. Now that I have had a couple days away from the tool, I realize I was doing things all wrong. The tool is shaped like an angled cold chisel, at least to give you a picture to work from. I was told to RUB THE WOOD WITH THE BEVEL OF THE TOOL BEFORE YOU BRING THE EDGE INTO PLAY. I realize now that I was rubbing the side of the tool, not the bevel. It does make a difference. A big difference. I now have to come up with some story situation where a similar, though not exact mistake is going on. I then worked with my brother to make some wood working tools out of metal. He would dig out the drills and the bits, but I had to do most of the real work. That was a challenge. What did I have to do, how was I going to accomplish it, try not to mess up. Consider a farmer or soldier who has done some maintenance type repairs, who goes to a woodwright, cooper, or blacksmith, to do some major repair or to actually make something. The expert gives some guidance, but lets the character struggle through the process of making it. Another idea is someone wanting to learn the trade and is given this chance to make something on their own to show their knowledge or skills, which they have little of. That is what I felt like, and would love to capture for a story, if I had one with that type of scene.
Anyway, I barely wrote, but will say I did.
What have you done this week? Did you write?
Posted by Balthasar (Member # 5399) on :
Yes, I wrote. I was able to keep my schedule and write for one hour a day. Doing that, I got in about 36 pages this past week.
Unfortunately, the story I was working on fizzled out on me, so I started another one. I like the new one very much, so all is good. Too bad that it's a sword and sorcery story; not much chance of getting it published. Still, it's a story I want to tell.
Also, I've decided to try a new method of plotting a novel -- by using poster board and post-a-notes. Nothing too elaborate. Just enough of a shape so that I'm not going on a goalless journey.
Posted by Wolfe_boy (Member # 5456) on :
I believe my attempts and utter failures as a writer were sufficiently detailed in other forums here at Hatrack that the shame of it does not lessen in the retelling. Suffice to say, I did indeed write this past week, and I did indeed fail.
Simultaneously, as a matter of fact.
Jayson Merryfield
Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :
Why yes, I did write. I continued plotting on my new novel, and in an odd burst of inspiration, went back and did some plotting on my magnum opus, which has been sitting untouched in a box for the last year or so.
For some time I've recognized the first draft has fatal flaws--a passive, two-dimensional protagonist, slow slow beginning, that sort of thing, but have felt lost on how to approach it largely because by tinkering with one thing, I was afraid the whole thing would fall apart. So I avoided messing with it entirely. Recently, though, I decided if I have to rewrite the whole bloody thing, so be it; at least i'll have a better story because I see now how I can do it, and I'm less afraid to change the parts that I once remained convinced were vital to the story. Amazing what perspective time gives, eh?
So I sat down and worked out some scenarios. That was my main accomplishment. I also did some brainstorming for new story ideas, and worked out some main events for a new novel I'm working on.
I'm trying a new method using a timer. Essentially I set the timer for 30 minutes (the longest I can usually work before my mind and attention start to wander). I write for that long, and when the timer goes off, I give myself permission to do something else--get a drink, check out the hatrack forums, whatever. Then I set the timer for 30 mins and go again. It's helped a lot to focus me. For some things, like brainstorming, I set the timer to 10 minutes--short and sweet.
My goals for this week are to try to pin down some of my ideas for my second draft, to the point where I feel comfortable starting to write it. And to get some bloody short stories going. Got at least two rewrites I want to do.
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited August 13, 2007).]
Posted by The G-Bus Man (Member # 6019) on :
quote:Did You Write?
Nope.
But I wrote 2,000 words yesterday.
Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :
Yes.
The end of last month, my mother passed away. I made a promise to finish the one story that she had so often tried to. That has been my sole project since. It's much more difficult than the normal writing processs, however, she gave me the main idea and challenge.
Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :
Yes. I did another LH flash challenge - another 1700 word story out in the clear, no excuses, no procrastinating. It wasn't anything like I intended other than setting (which I changed at the last minute, so, er, even that was different) but it's showing me that I desperately want to explore a couple key themes in my work (things like what is going to happen to our food supply in the short and medium-term future, how transportation technologies will evolve, computers that are smarter than we are, the fact that even with a lot of technologies, fundamentally the way humans relate to each other is the same, etc.) Soooo...that's leading me closer and closer to a novel project that I've been playing with, and that's cool.
From here I have a lot of editing and polishing to do, and some first 13s to offer up. Hoping to do that this week.
Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
I think thursday was the last day I really wrote, but I did examine my outline today and try to figure out some sequencing of events. I better get to bed so I can be more productive tomorrow.
Posted by Bill (Member # 5646) on :
I wrote some...well, actually rewriting and editing...learning about characterization.
IAB - My sincere condolences. I wish you great success in your present writing.
Bill
Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :
Are you serious, Wolfe_boy? That is sad if you have been made to feel that way. I hope you're joking.
I always write every week. So, yes, I wrote this week.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Well, I reached the hundred-thousand-word mark in my novel on Friday, took a two-day breather, then Monday started a short story. All at five hundred words a day.
Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :
Bill, thanks. I hope you achieve what you're trying to in the characterization department. What I've written amounts to sheer drivel. It's hard. Very hard. I'm learning that I should hang up the dream; stick with my day job.
Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :
InarticulateBabbler
"If you write, you are a writer. If you are not talented, you will not get published as often, or at all." -Orson Scott Card
Are you a writer? Then write. Being published is a secondary perk.
Posted by debhoag (Member # 5493) on :
you sound depressed to me; i've read your work. Pantros (don't remember how to spell his name) is a good character, and that piece that Oliverhouse cut was beautiful. You just don't want to keep working on getting better, because you're emotionally worn out. Take care of yourself, then get back to it. THE MOM HAS SPOKEN! And don't forget the ice cream Posted by Bill (Member # 5646) on :
IAB,
I can't believe the reason for your comment above comes from an accurate assessment of ability - I don't believe it is true and you have too much going on to make that kind of evaluation. Do what you have to, but I think you are too talented to quit.
