It is that time of the week to report on what is going on in your life over the past week, and what is going on in your writing too. By reporting about your life, whether you wrote or not, you develop a habit of reporting, even if you did not write. Through posting that you did not write, you gain the incentive to open some work, whatever it is, just to give a positive report about your writing. Each time you do something in writing, it gives you that much more on your work than you had before. Over time it adds up to some real writing.
AS to what is writing, that is not really important. We all know that new writing is writing. Editing is also writing, even if it is the work of others. Critiquing is also writing. Poetry, technical writing, article writing, writing assignments, blogging, world and character development are writing. E-mails can be writing if they are wordy and pertains to writing or story. If you have to ask if it is writing, it is.
I am worked extra hours this past week to cover for the secretary who was on vacation. That cut deeply into my writing time. I ended up only adding two pages of text to my Waxy 4 story. Very frustrating as I should have done a whole lot more. I think I have three more scenes to plot out before I can say the end, and then I get to go back and write the story in detail. I am roughing out the scenes, telling what needs to be told in as much detail as needed, but leaving out a whole lot more. As it is, I am at page 21. I will likely double the word count when It is done being written.
I did fairly well on the story ideas. For the 31 days of the month, I posted 31 story ideas, ending on Page 34, with 20151 words of pure drivel. There are some very good concepts in there, and a few that I dug out of the compost pile that ended up being fun to write. I do get new ideas but not like I was getting them. my compost pile is shrinking. I have only 32 ideas in my compost pile. I have whittled down on the really bad ones, and a good number of the ideas in there now deserve some consideration to write well.
I Learned Crochet back in June of last year and have finished quite a few simple projects over the past year. I have a couple projects now that are nearing completion. One is a bag to hold yarn and small stuff in the truck. The other is a repair on a teddy bear dress I finished last month. Both are coming out pretty good now. I am designing these myself and learning on the job. I am getting results, even if, like on the dress, I am correcting a major design error (made it too big for the teddy bear I made it for) Other than some quick tips and tricks, I am mainly self taught on this and have not used a real pattern as of yet. There are advantages to learning with an instructor and given constant guidance. One avoids all sorts of mistakes. The advantage of learning on your own and doing your own design, is that you learn how to learn and you learn how to correct your mistakes. For the bag, I need some buttons for a button loop closure. This weekend, I made my own wooden buttons. Surprisingly, they have the appearance of being of the same set!!! that is a surprise. Rather than buying buttons, I can make my own. The project becomes completely custom.
For a story idea, He was trained in one simple manufacturing job. He was sent to an outpost mainly to be a watchman and a lookout for trouble. He found he had permission to make use of machinery and material there as long as he did not do serious waste and did no damage. He finds a lot of material and booklets for making fiber optic robots, so he decides to learn make them. He finds the supplied tools are not quite good enough, so he makes his own. after the first couple, he goes off on his own designs. He then makes parts and fittings to make the robots more effective, improving the computer processing which uses optical computers. His creations become extremely advanced compared to the ones in the books and works better too. He has a few robots that emulate the intelligence of real animals. it is when trouble starts brewing around the outpost that his animals give him warning and even drive off a few intruders. Because he built them, he can fix them fairly quickly after they are damaged. he even modifies them to be more effective in their guard duty.
As to the question of the day,
YES I DID WRITE
DID YOU WRITE?
Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :
Yes, I did. Mostly work on the queries and synopses for MAGE STORM and BLOOD WILL TELL. Also revisions on my WotF story.
A little bit. 5k words for my fanfiction, completed the second book and did a little bit on the third.
Not the most productive week for me, but I've been reading "A Dance with Dragons."
Posted by Wordcaster (Member # 9183) on :
Been revising a short story. I am spending too long on this. It is not helping me achieve my writing progress goals.
And the short story is still in shambles. I need to finish this round of revision and let it sit for a week so I can get going on my next project.
Posted by Crane (Member # 9586) on :
I wrote! For the first time in a couple of months (embarrassed). Its all to do with joining this BB, I think. Something about having a sounding board is motivating. Thanks!
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I did a little better than the last few weeks, having managed my five-hundred-words-a-day on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Some insights about the culture my characters inhabit emerged in the process; unfortunately, it also adds to the length, and what I intended as a short story will probably go over ten thousand words before I finish. Ahh, the hell with it...
Posted by KathiS (Member # 9542) on :
I wrote 3200 words on I-have-no-idea-what-but-needed-to-get-out. I should have been working on BD&L or The Other Book. Which I did a little. One chapter each.
Posted by axeminister (Member # 8991) on :
While my WotF is out for crits, (Got a good one from MBWood) I've dipped back into my middle grade novel. I'm fleshing it out, adding some scenes.
It's currently too short. Most especially after watching Harry Potter 7.5, I realized my world is way too small. It can't be HP7, naturally, but I can sure make it larger. It's been fun, just adding things. I tend to write minimalist with a focus on action/plot. Hopefully I'm making this new stuff fun/interesting.
In real life, I'm spending lots of time in my yard collecting wood for this winter. Since I now work out of my house, I want to be ready for the long, cold months with a healthy stockpile of logs.
I'm sad to see July in the rear view window. While I will enjoy August, September is the beginning of the cold. Football and Christmas are good, but I'm not cut out for the cold. I'd really love to move south, but the whole fam damily is here, so here is where I am.
Axe
Posted by Crank (Member # 7354) on :
I performed much better this past week. In addition to upping my average to just under 740 new words per day, I made significant strides on my 4Q WotF entry and two of my YSA short stories.
...except...I haven't made a new Bloggathah entry in quite some time. That's not good.
S! S!
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
Just over 5k and a first draft complete. I plotted the next story and coded a progress bar for my blog at http://pdblake.blogspot.com/
[This message has been edited by pdblake (edited August 03, 2011).]