Some here write every day. Others write every week. There are those among us that will go months without writing. Those are the authors this note is aiming at. You see this note coming every week, and feel obligated to tell whether you wrote or not. it is better to say you wrote. With Monday approaching, you dig out some work in progress and do SOMETHING to it. Then one can say to the whole readership, YES I WROTE.
We don't care what you write. Blogging, technical writing, articles, writing assignments, world or character building, poetry. Even E-mails can be writing if they are very wordy and pertain to story or writing. We do not care about word count. My writing this week is to reduce the word count for publication, rather than build it up. If you wrote one word, it would count if it were the RIGHT WORD. We all know new writing is writing. Editing, though, is also writing, even if it is the work of others. I write by editing, blasting out the basic story, then filling in details, scenes, action, dialog until I have something that one might like to read. Critiquing is also editing. Just about any word activity is going to count here as writing.
I have worked to cut down my Waxy Dragon story. I had hacked at the story and there was little left to it when I was done. I decided to start over again with a different tactic. Usually when I finish an editing pass, I would save the file with the date in the name. I took my best edit and lopped off the entire start of the story, and started my edit from there. I have since done three editing passes. the first added to the story, rather than cutting it down. My second one cut it down to where I started. It was a tighter, better story. I just now finished a third edit and cut it down to about a third of the way I need to make it, which is not all that much. It is reading good, though. My next cut will require some harder cutting, but it won't be as problematic as my first attempt to cut the story back. One would think it was easier to remove a page..
On the story idea front, I am keeping up. As mentioned before, what I am posting is short, just over a page each. I have 57 story ideas in my compost pile, including what I posted today, but I added four to them just today. two are juicy, look like fun to write. I have several in my stack that would be great for writing out, not just as story ideas, if I had the time.
This week, I will be doing a woodworking demonstration on making platters. I have never done a demonstration and there is a lot that can go wrong with this technique so it should be a lot of fun. I know I will mess up as I have no nervousness at all. One of the experts in the club had heard of this technique, but had never seen it used, which is why he wanted me to demonstrate it. I have pieces ready at each stage just in case something goes wrong, and could do the demonstration without any real wood working, JUST IN CASE. There is fun in trying something you have never done.
For a story idea you have a hobby worker who came up with an interesting idea on how to do something. He gets with a big name professional in his hobby and does a simple demonstration of what he does. the professional decides that the entire profession should know how to do that and arranges for the hobbyist to do the demonstration at a big council. The hobbyist practices and prepares for the demonstration which he expects to just be some locals in the hobby. Behind the scenes, the professional has built up his reputation, saying the hobbyist is a super master who has figured out how to do the impossible. The time comes, the hobbyist recognizes the names and faces of the people there. He is stunned as there are thousands of them watching. He is not dumb, so he goes up to do his demonstration and speaks first. "I am just a hobbyist and I do not know what the professional has said about me. I just came up with a new way to do one thing while not yet having mastered other skills." The audience laughs, thinking he is joking. He then starts his demonstration.
As to the question of the day, I can say YES, I DID WRITE.
DID YOU WRITE?
Posted by Merlion-Emrys (Member # 7912) on :
Started some novel-related groundwork. Character notes, created a new race. Started on a short story re-write.
Posted by genevive42 (Member # 8714) on :
Worked on the new WotF short; ran some practice scenes for novel; edited several short stories and sent them out; did a number of crits.
So in short; Yes, I wrote.
Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :
Yes, I did. Mostly revisions at the moment, and a couple of blog posts .
Posted by PB&Jenny (Member # 9200) on :
Nothing so far. Too many appointments. I should be getting to it tonight.
Posted by satate (Member # 8082) on :
I'm excited about new plan and I've already written more this week than I have all summer.
Posted by Osiris (Member # 9196) on :
Yup, I wrote. I did some revision and sent out a story to some folks for critique. I also tried my hand at a short political opinions essay I may submit to a newspaper.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
A little bit of retyping at the beginning of the week, with the rest of the week busy with this activity or that. (Saturday I mowed the lawn, which wiped me out till Sunday...Sunday I went to a union meeting, which tied me up for the rest of that day...)
That plus this-or-that odd little thing. For instance, I've been going through my iTunes files trying to put together a new playlist to make a CD for my car player...I've tried to avoid picking anything I've already put on other CDs or tapes, which proved to be harder than I thought. (You would think with 3800 different songs on my iTunes I'd have enough---well, I do, but just not enough to put on a CD.) Even buying a few new tracks from the iTunes store hasn't helped much---'cause a lot of stuff I'd like to hear just isn't available.
I'll track them down...and, meanwhile, it's a timewaster, bigtime...
Posted by shimiqua (Member # 7760) on :
After a series of brilliant critiques from chaulkdustfairy I realized something crucial to my work in progress and redirected the middle of my story.
I know what I'm doing now, which is always helpful. ~Sheena
Posted by Lissa (Member # 9206) on :
I need help. LIFE keeps getting in the way! I am currently casting my latest production, starting a part-time job, supporting two kids in college and am raising semi-recently adopted twins. EGADS! (Yes, I am the Master Whiner...)
Posted by axeminister (Member # 8991) on :
I've been furiously pounding away on my WotF entry while simultaneously working and re-working my Warcraft entry.
Last night I decided to give up on the Warcraft contest. I have too much to do in one week. Plus, I realized while it's a great story - it's not gripping. It's a gentle story of a lonely goblin.
This morning I finished my WotF entry and mailed it to the group.
So I went from having two stories to work on, to none...
What ever shall I do?
Axe
Posted by Merlion-Emrys (Member # 7912) on :
Start on another one. Or revise a previous one. Or something like that.
Posted by bemused (Member # 8465) on :
Axe, I would suggest taking a deep breath... then what Merlion-Emrys said.
As for me, yes I did write this week, though I did not write as much as I had hoped. My short that decided it had a bigger story to tell keeps stirring in my mind and I have managed to add some body to the plot (still in road-map form). However a secondary character can't decide if he is going to let me kill him in the opening or not... which needless to say makes the starting a bit tenuous. We will see how it goes.
