Many are busy during the holiday weekends, others are able to use the time to do extra writing. For the rest of the us, our writing time did not change.
this is a note where you can brag about your accomplishments, cry about your failures, and otherwise tell about what is going on in your lives.
Many among us write every day or every week without prompting. There are many among us who will write a few times a year with some push. The plan is for you to write about your writing in this note, whether you write or not. The idea is that you will see this note coming and will get into some project just so we can say yes, I did write. The hope is that you will start to write each week, and develop it into a habit, and hopefully, more importantly, actually finish some projects.
As to what is writing, we all agree that new writing is writing. We pretty much agree that editing is also writing. Editing of someone else's work is also writing, along with critiquing work, which is a form of editing, is also writing. Also as writing is poetry, blogging, technical writing, creative writing, writing assignments, world and character development. Even E-mail can be writing as long as it is wordy and pertains to story or writing. If you have to ask if it is writing, it is.
How much writing is unimportant. A famous author was asked how much he wrote yesterday. He said he wrote one word. He said it was the Right word. I am editing right now and my goal is to reduce the word count. If I am doing my work right, I should be working backwards. I have gone over some key, big scenes several times ane each time, I have found something to cut out to reduce the word count. I started this edit at 53 pages and 33442 words. I am now down to page 47 at 30090 words I had removed 1430 words this week. I need to get within reach of 15000 words for it to be the right length. I know I am going to have to remove some scenes to get there, but want to tighten up everything and remove as much fluff as I can before I bolt on my courage and really cut. I am not sure exactly what scenes I will cut, as all seem to be needed for the story.
ON the story idea front, I have 43 story ideas in my compost pile. It tends to balance out over time, where I will get some ideas, use them up and dig into the pile, then get new ones. I still prefer to work with new story ideas. They are always more fun. It is really the top ten story ideas that I am excited to write. anything below has a reason for not writing it, including being a bit more complex or too good to write in a fast blurb I am writing these ideas as. I am on schedule for the month on my posts. A good day or so could give me an extra story idea for the year. Things will be going on in the past few days so I don't know what my actual schedule will be. I will have the requisite 30 story ideas for the month.
For those who need to prepare for the holidays coming up, most won't be even starting yet. I am happy to say that I just about have all my presents together. With a little touch up, I will have more than enough ornaments to show off. Most will end up being presents, though there is the hope to sell a couple. I have made most of my presents and have a couple in the last stages of preparation. I am proud of these. Last year, I would never have considered some of these possible. I have purchased some presents, but did so over the past year. I really only have a couple people to buy for, and they will get money. I still have to paint my cards, which will not take too much time, depending on how many I make. One thing about making presents is that there is the pleasure of creating them, and a pleasure of giving them. In some ways, I feel like the little old toy maker.
One could do a story about some wealthy person who runs into trouble, possibly having physical problems, losing the wealth. the person has to do therapy, which involves making things. The person gets pretty good at it. Either a holiday, or birthdays come up and the person gives away the crafts made as present. At first, the people are almost insulted with what they get. After a while, the person starts making a name in the crafts and people start bringing out the early work to show what the person did during therapy. If this story has magic involved, or super technology, the items might have something special made into them, clothing to stay warm/cool, toys that record what is going on, good luck charms. If I was carving magical items, because of the sloppiness of my carvings, One could expect that they would turn out to be evil, creating problems for people eventually, such as figurines that come alive and do mischief.
As to the question of the day
I can proudly say
YES, I WROTE
DID YOU WRITE?
Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :
Yes, I did. Still mostly revisions. And two blog posts .
Posted by genevive42 (Member # 8714) on :
Frustratingly yes.
Posted by Owasm (Member # 8501) on :
I did. I did, indeed.
Posted by MikeL (Member # 9138) on :
No I didn't write....sigh.. Well, I did make some notes; so I guess I almost wrote.
I hate the holiday season, all the extra work.
Posted by Tiergan (Member # 7852) on :
Yes I did.
Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :
Yes, I wrote.
Finished the 50,000 words for Nano, and today worked on two other WIP novels. I also did one crit and some posts here and on the Nano forum plus three blog posts.
I had to catch up on where the Two MCs for my other two WIPs were doing. One was in danger in a dark, abandoned church's sanctuary. Dark as in no lights. There were two assassins after him, one had a crossbow. Half of the pews were missing because since it was abandoned someone was taking out the furniture and carpet. I got him out of there. The other WIP has my MC joining up with the bad guys even though she doesn't know they are. They will be tempting her. and the body of a neighbor and some time friend was discovered. She looked the body over and knows it wasn't natural causes. But I may stop there-chapter 3- for now with that novel. I know the ending but not the middle.
I have another WIP I want to finish that I now have time to work on again, now that Nov is over. And of course revise and lengthen the novel I just finished.
[This message has been edited by LDWriter2 (edited November 29, 2010).]
Posted by coralm (Member # 9274) on :
I wrote!
Working on a new story that I got the idea for while I was writing my NaNo story. Still no title, which is a bummer. I was really afraid that it was going to derail me but thankfully it waited for its turn. Right now it's an SF short story, but I might be able to work something longer from it.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
The only literary activity I had was taking the time to quickly write up two statements for filing grievances with the union at work...dull, precise work where a substantial amount of restraint has to be exercised in both inserting autobiographical elements and making descriptions of people and things. (For example, you have to refer to somebody by name or job title, or both, and not refer to anybody by what you actually call them.)
Aside from that...well, I just buttoned up the last of Thanksgiving---my family meets and cooks at my place because I own the biggest table---and now I have to begin unbuttoning Christmas. I've also got to mow the lawn soon as the sun comes up today. So I'm pretty busy, still.
Posted by Crank (Member # 7354) on :
I edited. I critiqued. I researched. But...writing new words? Not nearly as much as I wanted.
That will change soon. I have too many new ideas bouncing around in my head.
S! S!
Posted by sojoyful (Member # 2997) on :
I wrote!
The first 13 of a story hit me out of nowhere during my lunch break, so I wrote it down. It's fun. It's got tension and a good character. The only problem? I have absolutely no idea what to write next. No story to go with the great opening. Oh well. Maybe it will come to me today.
