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March 14. 2008 Did You Write? . Another week of either crying or crowing. This note is to give myself, and you, a weekly place to report one's writing activities and can comment on the events in your life. the idea is to provide a place where I must publically admit that I am a useless drag on society because I did not write so you can all throw rotten tomatoes and heap humiliation onto me. This can go for the rest of you if you are into such pleasures, I mean such tortures.... I consider writing as any new writing, and any editing, even if it is someone else's. Writing can also be blogging, articles, and poetry. If one wants to stretch it, one could say that long E-mails would be writing, but I would consider that only if it is about writing.
I will say that I wrote. I only had about half an hour because of a long conversation with my writing partner over the phone. Her voice is as nice as her writing. I dug out my newest Waxy story and edited a couple scenes. I only added 100 words, but that was a change I needed to do anyway. I now can concentrate on writing the next section. It helped. Of course, one might say one hundred words is not much, but I was editing, not writing new, so that counts....
I had two new story ideas at my keyboard to post on Friday, and, including the one I am posting tonight, I now have eight story ideas on my desk, and I posted three ideas (an extra one because I cannot post Thursday). Sunday, I came up with five ideas. I love days like that. I wish there were more. Luckily, I have not dug into my good stack of notes in months. I have come up with new ideas just barely faster than I use them. I am acceptable at that rate, but would love to come up with a whole lot more really good ideas.
I went to the doctor Thursday and he noticed some edema in both legs. I found myself at the hospital having my leg veins checked with ultra sound. It was only when he was nearly done that I found out that if they found anything, I would not have been allowed out of the hospital. That gave me a moment of surprise. I got over it within seconds. I had a clean bill of health on that point.
I set up to do some woodworking on Saturday and found the lathe would not start. After trying different cords and plugs, I figured out that it was the lathe itself. I reverted to carving, which was the woodworking I started with. Over the past couple years, I made some stylized roses on the lathe, basically concentric rings for the petals. I dug out a power grinder and carved the rings into petal shapes. the effect was dramatic. Something I also do is carve pencil heads. These are really supposed to be practice. You carve a head and put it on the end of a pencil. I decided I need to practice making faces, adding more detail than I normally do. Old men are easy. Men with bears is tough. Women are really tough. I carved an old woman and it actually looks female. Wow. Now I need to learn to carve young women. I also planned out a new fairy carving. There was a figurine I nearly purchased half a dozen times. I just could not bring myself to pay the money for her. She is beneath a flower with her hand just outside the petals, checking to see if it is still raining. The fairies I carve are adults, about twelve inch tall if standing. My fairy will be in a similar position, but using a mushroom as her umbrella. The position will be a serous challenge for me, which is what I like. That is why none of my fairies are standing. That is too easy.
For a story, An old artist has worked with the computer guided beam cutters for years. He cuts stone or glass into ornate forms and shapes. He does work that is impressive. He accepts a project to work in a soft stone like Marble. As he is ready to get started, the magic smoke escapes the box that boosts the power for the cutters. His cutting system is dead. His assistants make phone calls and it will be weeks before a new unit can arrive. they are saying that the old man will be ruined by this. The old man studies the stone a bit, drawing marks on the surface just like he always has. They are asking why he is doing that. He then opens a rusty locker, none of the assistants has seen inside it. He draws out tool boxes, sets them on tables around the block of stone, and then removes chisels and hammers. He calmly starts chipping stone away. After making some headway, he explains that this was how he learned to carve statues. He does admit it takes longer than the energy cutters. He teaches the students how to work with the tools and they start removing excess As the statue nears the finished surface, he teaches them how to finish the piece. When done, they had a bit more complex shape than the energy beams could do as they could reach inside curves that would be blocked by the rest of the form. The piece is delivered ahead of time. He receives another order. The replacement parts arrive while they are working, and they just keep chiseling and pounding. They eventually repair the system, but now they use the energy cutters to rough out the parts, and do the fine finishing by hand, His work is now better than any artist using the energy cutters.
As to the question of the week, I will say, Yes, I did write.
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I came up with a new story idea today and I'm into page 5 already after only about 30 minutes of writing.
Posts: 52 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Yes. After the boondogle last week of having the writing of story #6 slop over into a second partial week, I had a breather from Thursday till today. Today I began story #7. Haven't gotten past the opening part. I think I see the first turning point coming at me, but it's tomorrow's problem.
Posts: 1580 | Registered: Dec 2005
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Something of a slowdown this week, thanks to lingering illness. I even missed one day of the work that pays my way. But I'm sure you don't want to hear the details of Robert's Adventures in Stomach and Bowel Problems.
Suffice it to say I missed Wednesday, wrote five hundred words on Thursday, then was down for the count Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but managed to plow through another five hundred words on Monday.
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Critiqued classmates stories. Did a lot of world building and character sketches. (And a few essays, but I don't think I'm counting that).
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