It is that time of the month to tell about what is going on in your life, projects you worked on, failures and problems that came up during the week. While you are telling about your life, mention about your writing, even if you did not write. the idea is that the habit of posting will develop, and in the process, the feeling of shame for not writing will cause you to get something on paper just so you can say you wrote. How much you write is unimportant. That you write, is. Of course, big word counts give a heady feeling, but tiny word counts can be important, especially if you are editing, or if you replace a section that was not working. In editing, one might actually be working to reduce the wording to fit into requirements of a publication so word counts can go down.
In my usual list of what is writing, all new writing is writing. Editing is also writing, even if it is the work of others. Critiquing is also a form of editing and counts as writing. Poetry, blogging article writing, technical writing, writing assignments, world and character creation all are writing. So can be board posts and E-mails if they are very wordy and pertain to writing or story. Many might not count some of these as writing, others will have more. In essence, if you have to ask if it is writing, our answer is yes, you wrote.
As to my writing I rewrote my spirit of Vengeance story, finishing last night. I fired t off to my writing partner as a second reader to see how it stands up. I am hoping. I do have clean up editing and tweaking, but I need to know if I have to make major changes before I put more work on it. I will shift to rewriting the second story of the series, based on what I changed in the first one. In this edit, I added nearly two thousand words in the process. the fun part was as I worked, I came up with new stuff to add, to change, to improve it, that I never considered before. I got a copy of my writing partner's first book early in the week and finished reading it this weekend. Fortune's Pawn - Authored by Nancy A. Hansen -is available at http://www.pulpmachine.blogspot.com/ and is also on Amazon.com.
On the story idea front, I ended last month with 31 story ideas (30 days in the month) on page 33 for a total of 19715 words of pure drivel. they can be found at http://www.xprodigy.net/board/ and go to Writer's Roost or directly to http://www.xprodigy.net/board/viewforum.php?f=9&sid=d03b94aba95815d313b694a90c4c473b . I have 40 ideas in the compost pile. I had a couple days where I got several story ideas during the day which cranked up the compost pile count. I only posted the first idea this month and am two ideas behind at this second, but at least this is the beginning of the month so I have plenty of time to catch up.
I am a believer that old information is like gold. I have POPULAR MECHANIC book sets from the 50s that actually tell you how to do things compared to later ones that are mostly full of pictures. I have Model Railroading magazines from the 70s and 80 where they tell how to make a railroad car from stock materials while modern magazines tell you to take 'this kit' and do 'this' to it. I have photography books from the 70s and 80s that actually tell you what the light and optics are actually doing so you know how to get the effect you want because you actually understand what is happening while modern stuff does not even cover that at all, just point and shoot. One of my sisters is learning Quilting and I ran across some really old magazines, 70s and 80s, that I will be sending to her. There is a lot of really good and interesting information in them and I have no interest in any kind of sewing. I got her a gold mine. I paid comparatively little for them too.
Using the above for a story idea, society had advanced greatly. Planetary travel was fairly common, but interstellar travel was found impossible unless one was evacuating the solar system, there was no need for that. All data had gone digital, where one had a "book" or "paper" that was tied to the main computer systems. One could write on the surface and it would put digital marks on the surface for you so you could do anything you could do on paper, but could also manipulate it digitally. Actual paper was nearly unknown. An eccentric asteroid was watched for several years as it passed through the solar system. the route was known almost to the inch. A very big ship landed on it to take samples and readings from the surface. An engineer on the ship slipped while doing minor maintenance and the ship detonated. The surface of the asteroid became a plasma jet for a period and the orbit changed. Now they watched the asteroid head right into the sun. the asteroid somehow survived until it hit the corona of the sun and popped into an expanding ball of plasma. That ball of plasma headed out into space again. The plasma shockwave arrived at a major space station in solar orbit just as a really strong solar flair arrived. The computer systems were fried completely. People worked to the manual and mostly mechanical systems operating, but the computer was out. This space station was built by an eccentric trillion are who had physical copies of most major books written before he died. The librarian of the collection remembered something and finds the technical manuals for the whole space station. they restart the whole system by following the old data. They thought it was a bit quirky to be loading data into the computer manually by plugging big pentabite hard drives into the system and copying the data. They get the whole space station fully operating, only data entered in the last year was lost because the librarian was making yearly copies of the data on the system according to the dictates of the will. I am using this for today's story idea.
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 wrote some on both BLOOD IS THICKER and MAGIC'S FOOL. Some revisions on SEVEN STARS.
My job is killing me. I just did a typical two months worth of work in one. September was 125 widgets where my typical month is 65. So, I'm beat. I don't want to sit another second at this computer.
I'm only sitting here now because of being buzzed on my phone that there's a problem. Sigh. I just want to put my headphones on and imagine imaginary characters doing deeds of daring do.
Axe
Posted by mythique890 (Member # 8586) on :
A little. I seem to be able to get to it twice a week. Sometimes it's hard to do it because I feel guilty, like every spare second I have I should be spending with my kids (and I'm a SAHM, so that's a lot of spare seconds during the day). I tried taking them to a park and writing while they played, but my younger one is only 17 months, and she kept trying to go to the one spot in the whole place that I considered dangerous for her (some very steep and shady stairs). To keep her from that, I had to push her on the swings. Plus my almost-four-year-old kept trying to leave with any kid she made friends with. Sigh.
I managed some edits on the flash fiction I've been working on. I got feedback from the last person I was waiting for, so I may be making my first-ever submission tomorrow! I'm so nervous! I also managed about 2,700 words on another short story I'm writing for practice and fun. No plans to submit it, which keeps the pressure off and means I'm really enjoying it... when I'm not feeling guilty.
[This message has been edited by mythique890 (edited October 04, 2011).]
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Nah. Another washout, while I'm consumed with vacation plans. Maybe I could squeeze something in this week---my formal vacation began yesterday---but more likely I won't get to anything before the end of my trip.
I'll be incommunicado, as usual, when I'm away---this Saturday through the week to the Monday after next---so next week I won't be able to post my writing woes...
Posted by Owasm (Member # 8501) on :
Lots of rewriting and editing--about 8 hours this week. Managed one story and the beginning of another--about 3,000 words.
Posted by OliverBuckram (Member # 9655) on :
They said it couldn't be done. Could one single man write two stories a week? Never! A newbie? Preposterous! And could he sustain this killing pace for two full weeks? That's four stories in two weeks, folks. And could he complete a full acceptance-rejection cycle in this same two week period? Impossible!
Yet here I stand before you. How did it happen? Funny you should ask.
9/26. Joined Hatrack. Noticed immediate change in self. Hair more glossy. 9/27. Wrote “I buried Paul.” 1000 words. After receiving feedback from Hatrack, submitted to On the Premises. 10/2. After Hatrack feedback on first 13 and total change of setting, wrote “Necrophoresis aka The Smell of Death aka Silent Treatment”. 3600 words 10/2. Received my first check in my capacity as professional author. Granted, this was a refund check returning my deposit for the writing class I enrolled in (it got cancelled), but I think it counts. 10/3. Wrote “Ink cloud” 2000 words. Also hatracked 10/7. Rebounding gracefully from the news that On the premises rejected “I buried Paul”, I wrote “Do you like TV?” at 1300 words.
Don't call me a hero. I just an ordinary Joe, doing my part to ease the world's tremendous need for short fiction. Couldn't have done it without Hatrack.
