Did You Write? 08-09-10 . In an effort to help myself, and many others to write with more regularity, I post this prompt. While many will write every day without the prompt, many of us are lucky to write more than a few weeks a year. This note is a prompt to get those kinds of people to write each week, hopefully to become a habit. Some habits are worth developing. We all agree that new writing is writing. Editing is also writing, even if it is someone else's work or one is critiquing the work. Poetry, writing assignments, technical writing, blogging, article writing, world and character development are all writing. Even E-mails can be writing, if they are wordy and pertain to story or writing. We are not concerned with how much one writes. When writing new, one loves to get production, but if one is editing, especially for publication, one's word count might actually go down, on purpose.
As for me, I had sent my work in progress to my writing partner. I had cut a 25,000 word story down to 15,000. My writing partner said it was choppy and needed a different ending. I decided to try a different tact. I took the best version of my edits (When I completed a pass, I would save it as a file with the date in the name so I had different versions to dig into if needed). I lopped off the whole beginning that my writing partner said slowed the story down and have worked from there. That lopped off six thousand words right there. I started close to my target. I have gone over the story, changing scenes and sentences as I had learned during my previous edit attempt. I have added two hundred words to the piece, going the wrong way, but I am improving the piece. Once I finish this pass, fixing the piece, I can then cut out some of the fluff and bring it down to where it needs to be. I am at a point where a major change in the story has to happen to get the ending I am after. I have the basic concept to the change, but have to work out some little details to make it plausible and interesting.
On the story idea front, including the one I am posting tonight, I still have 53 ideas in my compost pile. My story ideas are staying short, just getting onto page two for most of them. I used to have a lot of pride in them being as long as possible, but I don't have time to write like that and still write on my work in progress. I have given up some on line time used to post story ideas. I will write them, and then post them the next day. I learned that my on line time eats into writing time. it takes just a little longer to post two or three notes as it does to post one. I still get those ideas that I just have to write and now, but have dug into older ideas more recently.
I got my truck back last week and it is so nice to be able to move around on my own. I am about to the end of that period where you listen for every noise, feel any change in how it runs, sniff for smell in case something else is going on. It is doing well. Last week I mentioned about the idea of whether you could survive in any of your stories. I can now say absolutely not. I clocked the total distance I walked last weekend when I walked part way home from work. Humiliating! At most, it was two and a half miles. I thought I had walked over three. I could never live in a place where walking was the only mode of transportation.
On the wood working front, I have a demonstration in wood turning to do next week. I had a wonderful practice session this weekend where nothing really went right. I had one practice come within a short time of being finished, but two others barely got started when I had failures. People involved in knitting and crochet talk about how yarn somehow appears in their baskets at the stores, or they leap into their hands. This weekend, I went to pick up a board I needed for my demonstration. A four by four board leaped out of the rack and started hitting me. the only way I could keep it from hitting me was to hold it down on the cart with the board I was after. It calmed down only after I paid for both boards. then I was stuck bringing it home.
To use that as story idea, consider a maker of magic items. there is a magic around him that is supposed to catch his attention to stuff that will be useful in the varied magical items he needs. The spell was not quite made right and he cannot turn the spell off, and cannot change it either. The spell does not want to be ignored in the suggestions and it looks at things he might need years from now, for anything he might use, even if it will go bad long before he can get to it. He walks through a story and objects literally fly off the shelf into his basket. larger, heavier objects will tap him to get his attention. In some cases, the tapping will become abuse if he ignores them hard enough. He walks into a hardware store and knows he needs some heavy boards, but wants to save his money until he needs it as he may have to use the money for some thing else first. he grabs the board he needs right now, and a large beam lifts up and starts hitting him. It is floating in the air as it bangs on him. it hurts to block it. He finally catches it and pins it down on his cart. He knows that burying it in a stack of the same kind of board, will simply be an invitation for another board to rise up and attack him. He holds the board down, figuring he can let it go near the cash register. Each time he lets off the weight, it starts to rise. It also tries to bang his hands against the other board or against the metal of the cart. He ends up buying it, even though he cannot really afford it. His spell defeated him again.
As to the question of the day, I can honestly say,
YES, I WROTE.
DID YOU WRITE?
Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :
Yes, I did.
Finished the first draft of MAGE STORM. Worked on various revisions. Two updates to my blog.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
A little more than last week, but not that much. Two sessions of writing up revisions on that page-a-day story...then another session involving putting together some notes on a dream that seemed like a complete story.
I'm happy to be having ideas for new stories, dream or otherwise, but I don't know how much further I'd take this one. Seems to deal with a military matter, which, because I've never been in the military, I know nothing about, and can't lend an air of realism to. (That wouldn't have stopped me in the past, but it does right now.)
Posted by tchernabyelo (Member # 2651) on :
No. Took possession of the new house, so a bit busy with that; will be for at least a couple of weeks.
Posted by genevive42 (Member # 8714) on :
I finished the PITA WIP I was working on and discovered it wasn't very good. That or it's literary, I'm not sure which. But I started a new project I'm very excited about and wrote 1700 words on Sunday. I can't wait to get back to it.
Posted by Osiris (Member # 9196) on :
Yes, I wrote earlier today just a bit, and I am sitting down now to write as well.
Posted by Merlion-Emrys (Member # 7912) on :
Bit of revision, bit of blogging. Nothing big. Between projects.
Posted by Lissa (Member # 9206) on :
I am LIVING for next week when my twins GO BACK TO SCHOOL(!) and I can return to some sane writing time...
Posted by Tiergan (Member # 7852) on :
Yes I did. Not only did I get editing, and polishing on some scenes, but Finally got that beast of a scene down. And man, I tell you it came out better then I thought. And I still dont know what the holdup was as i knew the scene and it was building to action, which I love to write. But long story short, yes I did!!
Posted by PB&Jenny (Member # 9200) on :
I couldn't help it! Had a great dream about a steampunk idea and got up too early to write it down. I hate when that happens and I love when that happens. So sue me.
So yes, I wrote.
PB
Posted by Owasm (Member # 8501) on :
Started a re-draft of a novel Flashed Worked on a rewrite for WotF Worked on a novel outline
So I guess I qualify for writing this week.
Posted by shimiqua (Member # 7760) on :
Owasm, who (or what) did you flash? I think that's a felony.
And yes, I did write.
Posted by bemused (Member # 8465) on :
For the first time in a long time, yes I did write! Better yet, I had one of those wonderful "brain struck by lightning" moments and a short story that I was having trouble finishing decided to explode as a fully formed novel length plot in my head. I missed my subway stop because I was scribbling it all down so fiercely. I guess I was having trouble with the end of the short because it wasn't actually the end.
[This message has been edited by bemused (edited August 11, 2010).]
Posted by axeminister (Member # 8991) on :
Rstegman, Cool idea. A little violent and dangerous, but fun.
As for me, I've been furiously working on my WotF entry. Seeing as how the deadline for 2nd drafts has passed (the group deadline, not the contest deadline) I'm a wee bit behind.
I've decided to write strictly sci-fi for WotF from now on. If I want to get out of my comfort zone (which I love to do in writing) I can do it all I want for other contests or a novel, but for the biggun I've decided to stay where I am strongest.
This is a good feeling.
In fact, I can thank OWASM because it was after I read the first paragraph of his entry that it hit me. "Write sci-fi, you dope!" Fortunately an idea hit me at the same time. Well, not an idea so much as a character and I've been having a great time making him suffer.
So, yes, I've been writing as much as possible within my small time allotments.
Axe
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I'm posting something again 'cause just yesterday I found another great timewaster. The Cars DVD I've got has this game on it where you watch the movie and identify the cars; I'd noticed it before, but not that it lets you hear little backstories of various characters, some of which proved to be extremely funny and extremely interesting. I worked my way through the game once and only missed some twenty or thirty cars.
Since my fascination for Pixar movies and Cars is extreme right now, there's another thing that'll tie up my time and stop me from writing. Maybe...
