It is that time again to tell about what is going on in your life, and in the process, about what is going on in your writing. Let us know what is keeping you from writing, or what is helping you to write. How have you done on meeting your goals or failing to reach them.
By posting regularly, you have an incentive to write. After posting a few times, you will start to feel guilty about not meeting your goals or not writing at all, and will try to work a bit harder to meet your goals.
We all love high word counts. It shows that you really have been writing. Word counts are not everything, though. We all have sessions where we remove or rewrite a passage and while you wrote a couple thousand words, you end up with just a small word count increase or even a decrease. Editing is also writing. One does not get the word count joy you do with fresh writing. If one is aiming for a specific publication, your word count might decrease instead. Also editing someone else's work is also writing. So is critiques. It all counts even if the word count is not there. Poetry, writing assignments, blogging, articles, technical writing, character and world development is all writing. Even E-mails are writing if they are wordy and pertain to story or writing. If the words are going on paper, it counts. If you have to ask if it is writing, it counts.
As for me. I did not touch my Waxy Dragon 4 story plot. I am still having to get her home and make it exciting. I had taken on a different type of story, a super hero story under the title of SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE and it almost wrote itself. I came to THE END at page 19 with 6787 words. On that story, I added 1483 words. I sent that off to a friend to get an opinion on it. I then had a scene for the next story in this series so I ended up writing two pages at 818 words. I have not finalized the plot to this story in my mind, I do have some concepts. That scene wrote itself. I will admit that I will have a lot of work to do on this SPIRIT story to bring it up to snuff. It is an interesting concept, though.
On the story idea front, I am up to, including what I am posting tonight, 42 story ideas. I came up with seven story ideas this weekend, three of those just today. That is a nice feeling. A couple will have to be written very soon before they start sinking into the pile.
I had taught myself how to crochet. One thing I did was to figure out how to make my own hooks from scratch out of wood. I also have the technology to make them out of metal if I had to. Anyway, I am aiming to make stuffed creatures, stuffies as they are known, but have to develop my skills before I try that seriously. Right now I am making a bag in crochet, to hold crochet and it is nearly done. I made the button that closes the bag. I just have to finish the strap and attach it for the bag to be finished. This weekend, I made four crochet hooks. I could have made a lot more but I spent too much time petting the cat.
Using the above for a story idea, She is skilled at knitting. She has made many objects and sold them to help her family. One day, she saw a family that was in dire straights. the little boy hung onto a ratty teddy bear. The girl held a forlorn naked doll. She and her husband brings the family in. The husband takes the father and older boy out and they do some work while she cleans up the rest of the family, fixing their clothing. She repairs the teddy bear and makes a few quick dresses for the doll. That evening, she knits a couple shirts for the teddy bear. The boy dresses the bear and is playing with it. Near bed time, the teddy bear and doll comes alive. The adults are shocked, but the children accept it completely. both toys hug her leg then go to the children and play. She notices that when the teddy bear gets too far, the doll stops moving. The teddy bear is the source of the magic. When the boy takes the clothes off the teddy bear, the magic stops. She is soon making knitted clothing for all sorts of toys. The clothing focuses the child's love into the toy to make them move on their own.
As to the question of the week,
I can honestly say
YES, I DID WRITE!!!!
DID YOU WRITE?
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Five hundred words on Wednesday, five hundred more on Saturday...for some reason or other, my week got quite crowded. And Saturday I had to trick myself into writing---I put it ahead of going online.
I'm a thousand or fifteen hundred words away from the end, I think. A better week of writing should do it...but there's an hurricane coming on Friday and that'll tie me down some.
Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :
Yes, I did. Finished up the first pass on the third draft of SEVEN STARS. Now, I just need to read it through one more time slip in foreshadowing for a couple of things I added later. Couple of other minor touch-ups I want to look at. Almost there.
1000+ words each day for the last seven in the mornings early on a short story. Got off schedule today so I'm fixin' to sit down now and have myself a write.
Posted by Natej11 (Member # 8547) on :
Yes.
Posted by mythique890 (Member # 8586) on :
I got a little tired of 'Sworn' and texted my sister for a writing prompt. "Elves" was all her response said, though a few minutes later she sent me, "Or chickens. A children's story about chickens." I'm about 1500 words into the elf story, which is *shrug,* meh. I have yet to start on the chickens. But the prompt served its purpose, as I am now ready to go back to 'Sworn.' Sometimes I think I'd like to toss it and start from scratch on the same story, but I won't, because I'm too lazy and a slow writer.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
mythique890, try seeing what you can have elves do with or because of chickens, or what you can do with chickens reacting to elves. You could even make a list of all the different ways you can put chickens and elves in the same story.
Things can always get more interesting if you put two totally unrelated ideas together and try to make them interact.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Addendum: I mentioned in passing that I thought it would taken a thousand or fifteen hundred words to finish the thing I was working on---but it only took five hundred and I finished it just a few minutes ago.
My immediate plans are to move back to a second-draft written and finished two months ago, and revise that. Unless I think of something else to write before I do, something original.
Posted by mythique890 (Member # 8586) on :
Kathleen, thank you, that's great advice! I need to do more exercises like that. Maybe my brain juices would flow better. I'm so tired right now they're not flowing at all. Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
You're welcome, mythique890. I'm happy to be of service.
Posted by axeminister (Member # 8991) on :
I'm slacking big time this past week. However, I've made up for it with crits and reviews.
I'm currently in editing mode for my own stuff. Not my favorite mode. I like first draft mode. That gets me up in the morning. Editing makes me "snooze".
Hopefully I get hit in the face with some inspiration soon. However, since I never leave my house, it's difficult to imagine something new.
Stimulation please!
Axe
Posted by Ken S (Member # 9010) on :
Yes. I've tried to set a concrete time for writing and then to be there for at least 30 minutes. So far I've made it 4 out of the last 5 days (tonight included). I'm not keeping track of word count because that totally distracts me during the process. For the moment, its enough to build up that habit
Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :
I can now say I wrote.
None on my novels... shame on me.
None on any stories I was doing.
But I hand wrote a 49 word story without the letter e for a contest, I finished a 56 word rejection for that contest.. it's on my blog... I finished a second rejection but I added a few words total 147 for now and used the letter e. I think I will add 25 to 50 words of description and send it to a flash market. I wrote two hundred to four hundred words on another mini story. With this one I'm using an opening I wrote for a Writing Challenge a while back. I thought I could keep it around 200 words but it will be closer to five.
Flew from Maine to California and wrote 1000 words of a new prequel KABBALIST short story (well, it will probably be another novelette) and rethought the whole tale with a new twist that I like--but will require a word or two modification of previously completed tales. I hate when that happens.
I've been participating in a collaborative short story challenge (as in write one) with author Michael Palmer. My entry the other night was a "runner-up" and I "won" a signed copy of his recent novel collaboration. This was a fun exercise. I do not know how long it will continue, but you can check it out on his facebook page.
Respectfully, Dr. Bob
Posted by Crank (Member # 7354) on :
An earthquake and a hurricane in the same week rendered me too distraught to write.
Yeah, right.
I didn't produce very many new words, but I did perform some major editorial work, so I'm quite pleased with myself.
I'm currently at 63K words on Keystone (formerly "Stab in the Front" -- the Kate and Archie sci-fi screwball comedy). Since I laid down the keel exactly 30 days ago, that means over the last month I've been adding to it an average rate of 2100 words/day. I'm aiming for around 100K words, so by brain-dead extrapolation I ought to be to rough draft in three weeks.
Of course it doesn't work that way. This is the third manuscript I've attempted, and I find it works best to write the beginning first, then the end, then major plot points in reverse plot order. That means as I approach my target word count I end up with the tedious job of filling in the gaps, largely the scenes that don't "write themselves". I'm a little concerned about going over word count.
Haven't had much writing time over the last week and a half, so mostly I've been tweaking. I have added a 4K word action prologue; I'm not a huge fan of prologues, but my tweaks to the first chapters highlight Kate's bluntness and social phobias. I thought I needed to showcase her deep-space derring-do so readers would bond with her.
I've conceived of this story as being resembling a screenplay; I've been referring to Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat" screenplay breakdown (Kathleen did a post about this a month or so back) to ensure I've got all the usual screenplay plot elements. I haven't attempted to follow his page number breakdown because I don't think it translates to the novel format meaningfully, but thus far I'm not far off his proportions so far:
Setup (1-10): Done Catalyst (12): Done Debate (12-25): Done B Story (30): Done Fun and Games (30 - 55): 80% complete Bad Guys Close In (55-75): 40% complete All is Lost (75): Done. Dark Night of the Soul: 40% complete Break into Three (85): Done Finale (85-110): 75% Final Image (110): Done
Note that the numbers are Snyder's page number ranges for a 110 page script; these don't correspond at all to the word count in a novel. For example the "Final Image" scene in a movie is described on the last page; in my story it is a 3400 word epilogue. I found this quite useful because the whole point of the "remarriage comedy" is that the couple hasn't figured out how to live together. The epilogue shows Archie and Kate after five years together as a successful couple.
Posted by Tiergan (Member # 7852) on :
Well this is actually last weeks prompt isnt it.
Nope I didnt write. I worked, and worked and worked. God I hate back to school season. A nightmare at work, and they cut my staff, then doubled my work. Then allowed me to hire someone for the next month to ease my burden. Geez, that works at well. Here is the computer system new guy, its in Italian, I wish I had time to teach you, but I have 2 containers of shoes that just came in and I have 3 hours to ship the 16,000 pairs out before they cancel. So, just there and twiddle your thumbs, because well, i dont have time to train you. And when I do, it will be the slow time again, and guess what, you won't be needed!!!! Geez, I love my job.
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
I've edited and formatted for e-publishing and written a detailed outline. I'll start writing in earnest again in the next couple of weeks.
