This is an attempt to embarrass myself into writing something by reporting to the whole world my accomplishments, or lack thereof. It does not always work, but it is an effort. With this message, I am also offering you the opportunity to embarrass yourselves the same way, hopefully forcing yourself to get down to writing also. Whether it works, is something else. Remember, editing, even if it is someone else's work, and planning, are part of writing, even if they are not the fun parts of writing.
I must say that I did not write this week. I had a club meeting on Thursday, and Wednesday, my laptop started acting up. Friday, it was in essence dead. I think the fan is shot but don't know what else is there. Saturday afternoon, I shifted to a 500 MHZ desk top I had sitting nearby. I found I could not transfer data some previous backups, from my drive to the desktop computer. Sunday, I sent the portable hard drive to my nephew so he could transfer data from my main computer he has had since March to the portable. A chip was bad on the housing for the portable hard drive!!!! He found out that one of the big problems with my main computer was that the second drive, which has some of my important writings, is dead!!!!! I have backups for most of them, but finding the complete sets of disks or getting the backup tapes or zip disks to work. My nephew is checking to see if there is any way to rip the data off the hard drive right now. My nephew has another of my computers to fix. it COULD have the data, but I am not confident of it. Maybe I will have him transfer the data off those hard drives to the auxiliary drive for me. Who knows, it might save me. I am making do right now until I get my data back.
I am caught up with my story ideas, by writing three of them on Sunday. I have until Sunday to stay caught up, possibly ahead for the month. I have had fun with some of this week's stories, a couple were ideas from my writing partner. The ideas I love most to write is where I get home and cannot wait to write it, or when digging through the pile, I instantly know it will be easy and fun to write. With those, I just put my hands on the keyboard and the story writes itself. I have times where I struggle to write the story idea. I will look through the stack and nothing looks good. I will pick one and it does not want to come out of the computer. Of course, most are somewhere closer to the easy to write, as the others are in a different compost pile, slowly ripening...
In my wood working, I am trying to match my projects to the stock I have at hand, trying to use up my stock as much as possible. This weekend, I looked at the pile and recognized that I had cut it down quite a bit. One project I am doing to use up wood is to try to make a toy cannon. The wood turning part is easy, but making the carriage for the barrel to fit on will be a bit of a challenge for me. I want this to be an art project, something one would have sit in the house just to look good. Of course, it should be something kids can play with too. They did make working cannons out of wood, but they were small bore for the size of tree they used and had metal banding to hold the log together. Mythbusters tested it and it worked quite well. It launched a projectile quite a distance with no problems. I don't think they ever did find the projectile they shot at that abandoned airport. If I was to use this in a story, I would have it where a little toy cannon is made and pulled around by a group of midgets. They act slightly childlike, overemphasizing the "play soldier" aspect. When the time comes, the midgets go through the motions of loading the cannon, and then it fires, by magic, with the same power as a real cannon. I think I will make that my story idea tonight.
So the question is, DID YOU WRITE?
I am sorry to say, No I did not.
Posted by LauraAustin (Member # 6485) on :
I researched quite a bit. Not nearly as exciting as actually writing, but it's something.
That sucks about your laptop AND desktop!! I hope you manage to get your data back!
Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :
Hm, let's see how well I did with my goals...
quote:I will try to get one of my pieces ready to submit to WotF. I will try to submit another story, period
Eh, no, did not do either.
quote: I will write chapter 2 of my 2nd draft of my massive WIP, and will try to eek out 3000 more words on my other WIP. And I will try to write one new story
Well, I wrote almost 4,000 of my 2' WIP, and I started a new story (though I have no idea where it's going). I didn't write chapter 2 of my MO (magnum opus), but I _did_ sort of hit my stride outlining and I at least have a scenario to work out, though i'm still tweaking it.
This week: Work out at least two scenarios for MO. Work out potential outline. Finish story. Rewrite story.
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited September 24, 2007).]
Posted by meg.stout (Member # 6193) on :
I'm doing better, so I tossed off a 1300 word story to be told at an upcoming church campout/retreat. Thinking about reshaping it so it would be accessible to a wider audience.
And I'm having crazy 'oh my goodness won't that be a cool scene" thoughts about my novel that I an rewriting.
Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :
I critiqued a couple of short stories, fulfilled my work obligations, worked on organizing an outline for a collaborative effort with another Hatracker (and friend) , so, yeah -- a little.
Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :
It's revision week for me. I have been in major rewrites on one story for far too long. It will get put to bed (and submitted) this week come hell or high water. It shall be done. And since I have a crazy end of the week, that will probably all happen by Thursday. EEP!
I have another story I just got some new and helpful feedback for, luckily it's mostly things I can change easily...no gaping plot holes or character issues. I hope to do that rewrite and send that one out.
I need to send my clone story out. I gave it a few final tweaks. I want to see what potential it has. The only thing holding me back is the first deadline above.
I led the exercises in writer's group this last week. That was actually nifty - I haven't done that before. I prepared two and only got to one, but the one was on critiquing and rewrites and I got really good feedback from the writers about it, so that's good news. I'm going to back-pocket the other exercise for next time.
OH! I did write something in response to an NPR story I heard, and sent it in. Just felt compelled. It might turn into something else, it's on a topic I've wanted to do a non-fiction parenting article about. So there was some original writing on a new project this week.
Other activities include a whole lotta critiques, and a bit of back of the mind thinking about a novel project. Turning over ideas in my head. Starbase/identity issue or post-apocalypse suburbia one...eeenie meanie...
Posted by Leigh (Member # 2901) on :
To answer your question, yes I did write, but not very much. Life got in the way Posted by I am destiny on :
I joined a write a book in a month thing and was doing about 1,500 words a day in my 1-2 hr goal or 1 chapter goal. Thursday I had a massive creative groove and I wrote 7,400 some pages in a day. Wow I love days like that.... ~Destiny
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
No, again. My production is still shut down pending a vacation, plus I'm rethinking certain aspects of my work, with the aim of seeing if I am capable of coming up with more sympathetic characters. I've got some thoughts, but no time to try them out.
Posted by JeffBarton (Member # 5693) on :
Yes, I actually did write. I got through most of a chapter of a novel and did a 1000-word a new short story.
I also got my first rejection.
Posted by meg.stout (Member # 6193) on :
quote:I also got my first rejection.
Sorry to hear about that - was it a form rejection or an encouraging rejection?
Posted by lehollis (Member # 2883) on :
quote:I also got my first rejection.
Congrats! So did I! Well, my first in a long time.
I didn't write, and it felt good. I planned to start yesterday, after taking the weekend off, but homework and other catching up things--and the premier of Heroes--prevented it. I'm going to make sure I get a few pages in today, though. I don't want to lose the habit.
Posted by Tricia V (Member # 6324) on :
I felt I would benefit from working on organizing my house for a week, and even though it's not very organized still, I think it was fruitful for me, in that I woke up on Monday realizing I was starting my story in the wrong place considering I changed Main Characters.
I also couldn't help working on my story during lunch breaks.
[This message has been edited by Tricia V (edited September 25, 2007).]
Posted by Wolfe_boy (Member # 5456) on :
I am 320 odd words deep in my next descent into the Kingdom of Flash. Cogitated, manipulated, edited, and, in the end, transported.
, so, yeah -- a little.
