Again that time has come to brag about your accomplishments or cry about your failures, or otherwise tell about what you are up to. The idea of these notes is to give you the opportunity to set short term goals in your writing, to say "I will write something by the time I see the next DID YOU WRITE note. I use these notes to embarrass and humiliate myself into not being a drag on society because I was too much a bum to get to the keyboard and write. It usually does not help, but there is always some hope. I consider writing as any new writing, editing any writing, even if it is someone else's, articles, poems, world building if you are getting something on paper, blogs, nice long E-mails or notes. If you think it is writing, it likely counts. As for me, I must hold my head in shame and say no I did not write. Life had other plans for me this week. I am preparing for an art show so some of my spare time has been digging through my stock and figuring out what I want to display and what is not up to the right level. The time change this weekend really threw me. Friday night I set the alarm half an hour early. I figured getting up a bit earlier than normal will make the shock less bad. Saturday night I set the alarm to the full hour. the problem was I forgot to pull the pin. I woke by body time which was my normal waking hour. I did not have time to post my story idea and a woodworking diary entry on Saturday so I did that Sunday I then had to leave the house earlier to make several stops before going to my mom's house to do some wood working. I got home late because of an event I went to so I did not even have time to write the day's story idea. Between all of that was no time to write on my story. I want to cry but that won't do any good. I am the only one who is at fault and I am so cruel...... The event I went to was the dedication of a brand new National Cemetery here in South Florida. National Cemeteries are like Arlington or Gettysburg Cemeteries. Those who served in the military and those who are ranking in government are buried in these Cemeteries. The SOUTH FLORIDA VA NATIONAL CEMETERY was opened in April 2007 and my dad was buried there back in July. The dedication was to make the CEMETERY official. My mom got the notice so I went with her. It was a lot of fun and very moving. They had two cannons give a 14 gun solute and one jammed after about three or four rounds so the other one had to fire the rounds. They were very fast. While there, we talked to several ninety year old people who were very sprite and chipper, moving around easily. One parked in the wrong parking lot and had to walk about half a mile to get to the site. I am glad I went.
On the woodworking front, I was making a bowl. I had the outside the shape I wanted, I was working the inside perfectly. As I got near the bottom, I accidently cut at the wrong angle and cut right through the bottom of the bowl. That happens. I decided to make use of what was left. The remains of the bottom became a weird bowl that has wide flanges with a small cup in the middle. I then took another piece of wood and made a new bottom for the upper bowl. I don't know if I will actually be able to save it, but decided to have fun and try. The way to use this in a story could be where a chemist is trying to make a special ink that will survive on the surface that is bathed with a caustic solution. In the process, the chemist messes up and develops an artificial sweetener and a drug that causes temporary changes in hair color. It was not what the chemist was after or wanted, but was useful non-the-less.
So, as to the question of the day, I must admit, that No, I did not write.
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Yup. Not today but I got a few days of writing in over the last week. Still not as many as I wanted, though.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Mar 2008
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For the first time ever, I feel like a writer. I recieved my first rejection. I found out later that it was slushed due to a kink in the format. I fixed it resubmitted to another publisher, then two days later heard from the editor. She asked me to develop the antagonist a little more then send it back to her. Promising?
I wrote alot. I still have trouble closing though. I have five stories in various forms of draft. My goal is to finnish and submit at least one this week.
I also offered some feeble attempts at critique--I'm trying to improve that endeavor.
Lots to write--three comptetitions, finnish stories, lots to read also.
[This message has been edited by Bent Tree (edited March 10, 2008).]
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I'm trying (right now, even!), but coming back to the white page after so long is a tad intimidating. Posts: 46 | Registered: Aug 2007
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I managed to sustain my momentum from last week and write something every day---except today, which isn't over yet. One story, idea conceived in a dream last Sunday afternoon. I stuck with my usual five hundred words at a shot, sometimes taking two sessions to write another five hundred that day. I passed five thousand words yesterday.
However, I decided my completed first scene, about two thousand of those words, had a problem I needed to correct right away. I switched the scene from third-person to first-person, which introduced other problems that had to be dealt with in revision. And the above revision is included in the above total.
I'm glad to be working again...after a whole bunch of nothing from early January, and only stuff that came out mean and slow and painful since, oh, since the last time I worked on my novel last August. This one isn't without its pain, but it's got some sympathetic characters and seems to be coming well.
(Not that there's no problem---I have a big hole in the middle where the plot is supposed to be resolved. Maybe a miracle will happen and I'll figure out something to put there when I get to it...otherwise I'll type "Then a miracle happens" and go on to write my currently conceived aftermath...)
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I wrote about 400 solid words. Not great but i'm keeping it. Broke the 30k mark on my novel and outlined a solid ending finally. It was also the fifth month (lunaversary?) since I was given permission to call myself a writer. Posts: 340 | Registered: Jan 2008
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I wrote about a dozen false starts for a story, and finally owned to myself that I'd not given the story enough time on the back burner to really do it justice. Which is a relief, because now I can focus on a story that has been on the back burner for years, and writing is going a lot better, this week.
Posts: 80 | Registered: Feb 2008
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I'm getting sidetracked - even though I've only taken up writing as a hobby and not as a means for making money or publishing, I still want to make progress on my one story, and it's not happening.
I have a solid idea of the story and the characters, but once I start writing, it starts feeling all wrong and I have no idea how to 'fix' it. Do I add more, or edit things out? Do I keep writing, even though it feels wrong, or do I figure out WHAT is wrong before continuing? Should I write from beginning to end, or should I go in and write important scenes first and then go back and connect them together later?
I just feel like a novice, and don't know how to get back into the process.
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I wrote some. I added an extra page of single-spaced text to my story in MS Word. I had to fight depression as I did it because my mind wanted to go back and edit the first 3,000 words.
I just kept seeing all the changes that had to be made in order to make the story better, or to make it REALLY work, ya know? Is that normal? I used to edit as I wrote (which was probably why I've never finished anything longer than a short story) but, after reading Stephen King's "On Writing" I'm attempting to adopt his policy of "first, just finish the story, THEN do your editing."
Does anyone else write like this, or am I some aberrant writer who's polluting the profession with my rebel ways?
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akeenedesign, I just read your post and realize we have the similar issues. I'd give advice but...the blind leading the blind and all that....
Posts: 135 | Registered: Feb 2008
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No. Still having a hard time getting motivated to write in the face of an ongoing personal crisis.
Posts: 100 | Registered: Dec 2007
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quote:Should I write from beginning to end, or should I go in and write important scenes first and then go back and connect them together later?
akeenedesign, there are probably those here who thought, as soon as they saw you ask this question, "Oh, no! Kathleen's going to start talking about how you don't have to write the story in the order in which it will be read, again."
And they were right. I am a strong proponent of the school of "write what excites you while it excites you," and that means writing scenes out of order, if necessary.
1--Your excitement will come through to the readers as you write, just as your boredom would come through to the readers if you were writing stuff that bored you.
2--If you wait to write what excites you until you get to it in the order of the story, you run the risk of losing the excitement by the time you get there.
3--You will be rewriting at least once, and in the rewrite you can smooth over the transitions between the scenes that you didn't write in the order they should be read, so that shouldn't be a problem either.
4--Do whatever works for you. If it feels wrong, then your subconscious is probably trying to tell you something. Listen to it, or it may not keep trying, and you'll really be stuck.
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P. S.: The miracle did happen and I did fill in at least part of the blank. Now at least I know what happens in the middle...the rest is detail work...
P. P. S.: My writing slowed and I didn't get any in yesterday because Tuesday I bought an iPod, my first, and have spent most of the time trying to figure the damned thing out. But this is a writing forum, not a general comments forum, so I'll withhold the details of "Robert doesn't know squat about how to make modern technology work," as well as the details of why I bought it. I expect it will tie me up for some time, but I hope to get some writing done in between iPod sessions...
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Thanks Kathleen! I hadn't gotten that bit of advice yet and I wasn't sure if writing out of order would create problems later. And thanks to the people who offered to help me out by reading the story!
Posts: 89 | Registered: Feb 2008
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Kathleen, Thanks for that bit of writing advice. I haven't read your postings on that before so it's really going to help me out. I'm at a point in my story where I'm stuck...I don't know how I'm going to get my characters from under a tree to a place where they'll be attacked and nearly killed. My sneaking suspicion is that they somehow expect my ambush and are preventing me from taking them to it.
If I do like you say, and just write the attack scene we'll all (me and the characters) be surprised and I'll be excited.
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Well, they film movie scenes out of order all the time, so I figure, why not write story scenes when my muse is ready to write them? I've done a whole novel this way, and I think it worked. (Haven't sold the novel yet, though. <shrug> )
Of course, you probably need some kind of outline to write novels this way, but there is more than one kind of outline (and that's a different topic anyway).
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Gosh, its been a while! More idea generation, wrote lots of thoughts for what will happen (but no actual story text this week). I have to totally rewrite my completed chapters now, but the new direction looks much better.
Posts: 785 | Registered: Mar 2007
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Nope. I haven't written a bit of story this week or last week. Cruise time interrupted my one story a week drive.
I promise myself I'll start Monday morning with a new short story. Right now I'm looking over and trying get a little polish on one of the three stories I wrote in the past three weeks. I want to get it in the mail somewhere under a pseudonym. None of these are up to my standards, but I want to send them out, give them a chance to see print. A chance to fatten my folder of rejects.
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I've been kind of letting writing be my hobby and not my "one thing" lately, so it has been sliding. Ah, the foolishness.
Well, I've decided I should cut myself some slack. I have been regularly blogging on my Bible in 90 days reading. Though it's amazing how quickly all the history I read twice (in Kings and Chronicles got erased by the Psalms and Proverbs.
[This message has been edited by Tricia V (edited March 21, 2008).]
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It's now March 21st! I'm through with the cruise (sigh) and back to work this week. Fourth week of my goal of 12. Fourth story just about to the climax. Somehow have to drag the unicorn into the big bang climax then tie up all the loose ends.
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...since "rstegman" didn't post one this week, here goes...
I had a little slower writing week than before---mostly from working with that new iPod mentioned above (took from Tuesday to Friday to get working, but it works great now), plus a couple of bouts with something I won't bring up here (scatological humor tends to offend people).
But the story's growing and going great, with a number of delightful details popping up as I go. I think it'll be a novelette, minimum, before I'm done with it...
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For the first time in a while, I feel excited about my writing. Not being excited about it doesn't keep me from writing, but it does keep me from enjoying it much. Suddenly I think I can see where this novel is going and the characters in it. And suddenly that passion hit.
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I don't think you need to have an outline to write a novel out of order, Kathleen. I never outline but frequenly write scenes and chapters out of order.
Posts: 1588 | Registered: Jul 2007
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I'm glad to hear it, JeanneT, because that tends to be one of the arguments against the idea.
I agree that it is possible to write scenes that are in different places in a story without knowing how they might fit in an outline, and it's good to hear that someone else has actually made it work for them.
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I do frequently write in order too. But if I get stuck about what's going to happen next, I have no hesitation about writing a "candy bar" scene further in.
Posts: 1588 | Registered: Jul 2007
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