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Sept 29, 2008 Did You Write? . This note is designed to give you a weekly goal to aim for, to get yourself to write something, anything, each week. The hope is that you will know this note is going up on Monday, or that you see the note, and you sit down and write so you have something to report. Of course, it is better to write all week long, but not all of us get the opportunity to do so. As usual, I have my definitions of what is writing. You can choose your own definition if it is not in my list. My list is just a suggestion in case you did not realize what you were doing is writing. Anything new that is written, is writing, of course. Anything you edit, even if it is not yours, is writing. I consider poetry as writing. Articles and blogging is also writing, along with Writing assignments. World building is also writing as long as you get something on paper. E-mails, can be writing, if they are very wordy and pertain to writing. As mentioned, there are others, but you have to justify it in your minds.
For me, I can say Yes, I did write. On a lark, I dug into my original Waxy Dragon story. What I have created used the original story as an outline. I still have not gotten to the end, but am editing what I already wrote, based on some suggestions by my writing partner, and by things we deduced since I started it. The original story was a story idea, and was 2 pages at 1277 words. Rewriting it, answering questions that were left up in the air, which could effect other stories, I am now at page 7 with 4407 words. It was fun writing, the words flowed out of the keyboard and onto screen. It is less a story about waxy dragon, and more about the person she comes to know as Bubblehead. I had a number of scenes I needed to write in the Waxy Dragon series of stories, to show how things came to be. I never had the handle to write the stories to fill in the spaces. I am answering several of the questions in this rewrite. I never did get to complete a run through on the first vacation story. The second one is nearing completion by my writing partner. I have a good start on the third story of the vacation series but did not touch on it this week either. A third member of our vacation writing team posted a story based on two characters who will be in the vacation story, but that happens before the stories start. It is the introduction of his character and the baby dragon that adopts him. He has at least two more stories planned that will happen before the vacation stories start, but he may not get them started, or done, before the vacation stories are completed.
On the story idea front, I am now caught up. I needed to post 42 story ideas this month. Tonight, I am posting story idea number forty one, and tomorrow forty two, and I will have finished the month where I needed to be. I will still be three story ideas ahead for the year.
AS to the question of the day, I can say Yes I can write.
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Gaa! Trying to finish my WOTF entry by morning. I've got the marked-up paper copy and know what I have to do, but I have to do it by morning, then print a nice clean copy and get it to the post office. So yes, I did write, but now I need to stop procrastinating and *finish* writing! Posts: 1911 | Registered: Mar 2007
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No. Well, nothing fictional of my own. I've been studying on-the-nose dialogue and trying to come to grips with a short and important bit of backstory for the short I'm working on.
Posts: 1580 | Registered: Dec 2005
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A little. I've been having back pains of late, mostly from sitting at my computer. On advice received here---you may have seen the posts in Grist For The Mill---I tried working with the keyboard in my lap, which was awkward but I managed to pound out five hundred words in the session.
I think that two or three more sessions would put me at the point where that particular story is essentially done, but I have a vacation looming and I don't know if I'll get the time beforehand to do it.
Then I have a couple in my files that I should work on some more, maybe get them to a point where I could submit them somewhere...
And my back still gives me problems. Despite this, I still spend lots of time on my computer. Just Sunday I discovered how to load album cover artwork onto my iTunes / iPod, and this fun but essentially useless activity keeps me hunched over at my computer.
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I wrote. Cranked out the last 3,000 or so of Shepherds (really struggling with a title for it). Now, I just have to get it polished up and out to the market. It will be my first submission. Got an idea for something new; hopefully I can finish it this week.
Posts: 323 | Registered: Feb 2008
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TheOnceandFutureMe
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I realized I didn't know what was happening in my novel, so I started to try the snowflake method...and then didn't. What I do have is 53 notecards with a 1 sentence description of every scene in my book. I now know where it is going.
I also wrote the last 8000 words of a novelette "Mirelia" (the title will probably change) - 6000 of them in one day.
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Wrote a bunch of the backstory/history of my novel...probably won't use it all but its good to solidify what kind of environment my characters grew up in/what influenced them, etc.
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I spent an inappropriate amount of time tweaking and fine-tuning the world-building and background info I have for my novel. There really is too much of it. If I never finish the accursed thing at least I'll have enough tangential waffling to rival Tolkien.
I have also written - more than I did last week - and I'm not done yet. I am a champion procrastinator but if I don't start meeting my goals I will really regret it.
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Yep. But it took forever. I have been stuck for so long in edit mode, I almost forgot how to write. It took 2 days of starting at the screen to write, and I knew the story I wanted to tell. But once it started it came quickly. 5,000 words. And a blueprint for the other 2,000.
Posts: 1168 | Registered: Mar 2008
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Should 'a mentioned that I won't be around next week to post my utter failure to write anything between now and then...unless my vacation founders on concerns about gas supplies and I have plenty of time on my hands to do things...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Yes, I wrote. However, I came up short of my goal and had passed up several opportunities to work on fiction. I intended to write a difficult chapter of Odal's Story, yet I produced only one of the expected four scenes. I realized the difficulty is from the dearth of dialogue and meaningful (that is, advancing) thought in the chapter. The MC spends much of his time alone, and when he's not alone, he's around others who cannot communicate well with him. The chapter is supposed to be about what the MC sees and does, as the why is explained before the chapter. I think I need to study how other authors accomplished similar scenes.
Oh, look! This week's half over, and I seem to be continuing last week's production rate. I'm hoping my drive went to some of you.
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