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Did You Write? 02-23-09 . This is an attempt to draw you into a regular habit of writing each week. The concept of this note, is that you will remember that this note is going to appear on Monday (or whatever day you have selected to respond to this note), and that you need to write something. You settle down and get to writing, something. I hope that it becomes a regular habit, writing each and every week, even without the prompt. There is also the hope that you respond to this note even if you did not write, even if it is to tell what is going on in your life.
AS to what is writing, that is pretty much up to you. I can make suggestions, some of which I don't even follow in my own work, as an idea for what might be thought of as writing. Any new writing, of course, is writing. Editing, even if it is the work of someone else, is writing. Poetry is also writing, along with article writing, blogging, writing assignments, world building if one puts something on paper, E-mails, as long as they are wordy and pertain to writing. There are more, or less, as long as you consider it writing.
I did write. I wrote two pages, 1032 word scene involving the vacation stories of the baby dragons my writing partners and I are writing. This involves a place we visited twice. I wrote the action scene and fired it off to my writing partner and she said it was best in the second visit to the place involving the story. I am writing more about the second trip, than the first visit. They are to have different activities, the first one is exploring the place, while the second one is activities that are planned. This was a fun scene to write as it exploded on screen, my evil keyboard placing the words up as if I had nothing to do with it, which is what my evil keyboard loves to do. Just for those who do not know, my keyboard is evil. It does not matter what I try to write, what appears on screen is not the same. I am a master story teller, world class author and what appears on screen is drivel. I have no control over the difference so I figured out that my keyboard has to be evil....<g>
On one of the boards I frequent is having writing and poetry assignments. They are quite a bit of fun. I am not much on poetry, but do try the best I can. The last poetry assignment was a Valentine's day assignment that listed the words you could not use, and my offer came out pretty good. ON the writing assignment, I wrote a story idea for it, getting double duty out of it, and then completed what someone else wrote as their assignment. It showed the story setup and mentioned where it might go, and I took it to some ending. That was a bit of fun.
I am keeping up on the story ideas. I have 44 story ideas in my compost pile right now, less than it was, but not as bad as it could have been if I did not come up with several story ideas over the week. A few never got written on paper, being written directly from memory. We are in the last weeks of the month so I am working to make sure I get at least the proper number of story ideas written for the month.
I had a wood turning club meeting last week. They had lots of wood available, and I was able to avoid getting any, which is really difficult. I was not totally good. One guy was getting rid of two encyclopedias. These are the POPULAR MECHANICS DO-YOURSELF ENCYCLOPEDIA. I got two issues. One, the 1979 is not too bad, but the 1955 version is like gold. The 1955 version actually tells how things are done, in detail. My brother and I went through them this weekend. He read selected articles beginning to end, and I flipped through the pages, reading here and there, studying the pictures, looking to see what all is in there. All I can say is WOW!!!. It was a set of books written during a time when doing it yourself was about the only way it could be done. The later issue is more just to let you know what it is you are looking at so you can explain it to the repair man intelligently. My nephew finally got my main computer back to me, after over two years of hanging on to it, promising to fix it for me. I now have to get it set back up, install programs and transfer data. The hard part is finding the time to do so. That is a 2000+mhz processor with a 56,6 modem and windows 2000 pro, and right now I am on a 500mhz processor with 28,8 modem and windows 95. It will be a big difference when I finally swap over.
As a story idea, a guy has a couple star ships. He has one that is a super ship, possibly a cargo fighter. He runs into a problem with it and leaves it at the repair shop. He has to use ships with outdated technology. He gets the ship comfortable, but it is nothing like what he needs. The repair shop cannot seem to fix it. They even strip it down to the frame to work out exactly what the problem is. After many years of struggling to keep his business going, he finally gets his main ship back. It is stripped out, none of the equipment, supplies, even creature comforts, are in there. He will have to re-fit the ship to make it useable again. Until then, he is stuck in his old ship.
As to the question of the day, I will say I wrote two pages of story, and am not counting the poem. I did write.
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I had a opening line to a story (but no story) that kept running through my mind yesterday...I thought: "wow what a neat line!"....then I figured a way to incorporate it into a story in my Taran series so yups I did write. Here's the line btw:
quote:
What happens to dreams when they die? Is there a mausoleum tucked away deep inside ones mind where dreams lie down on stony biers and cross their arms across their breasts and sleep a final sleep?
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I've got just over 900 words today for Tale Spinner's Witch o' Words (plus those I haven't typed in yet). As well as the editing I've done on my novel. All in all, I think I'm up to about 1200-1300 for the day.
[This message has been edited by Denem (edited February 23, 2009).]
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Yes. Last week I wrote two new chapters plus some extra material in book two. I'm much happier with it now. I've also got notes for more stuff to add or change when I go through for the next revision. But first it needs to sit a little while.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to get started on book three. The tricky part is that I've allowed a couple of years to elapse between the end of book two and the start of book three. So, right now, I'm looking for ways to incorporate the things that have happened in those two years without just a lot of explanation.
I've also got an idea for another story that I'm starting to outline. I don't know how that one's going to turn out, yet, in terms of length.
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I realized I haven't responded to Did You Write? in a few weeks. Oops.
As for last week: I wrote, edited, and critiqued.
Odal's Story expanded by one whole page. I think I need to break the novel-in-progress into pieces and look at each piece for what's wrong. Maybe I can also identify what's right. Right now, I'm not sure of how to feel about that story.
My short story titled "Guardian of Love" improved from edits, though it needs another round.
I critiqued several people's stories, mainly for the Trigger challenge.
A cold kept me from accomplishing more. Fortunately, I can no longer use that excuse.
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A washout. Spent some time on the ins and outs of playing with a broadband connection. Actually I'm hopeful of turning up some time to write later today, which'll just be revision work if at all...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Chapter 1 complete of an as yet untitled novel (The first 13 is up in Fregments and Feedback).
Chapter 2 is well on its way, and has taken a slightly different turn than what I expected. I saw a thread here the other day pointing to a blog article talking about how to make good characters, saying each character needs to be the hero of their own story. It got me thinking about some of my background characters and how it would help to flesh them out more, so one actually is poping up unexpectedly and is even getting named.
Very interesting.
At first he was just in 1 scene in the original (short) version of the story but has already poped up twice in the first 2 chapters, and hasn't even gotten to his original scene yet.
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Did I put actual words down on the screen? No.
But...I solved (I hope) the final battle scenario that has been nagging me for two months. I read deeper into THE 3RD ACT by Drew Yanno, and, as I was reading, my mind sorted through ideas finally coming up with one that will/may make my story rise to its full potential.
A reader will probably read through that part and just finish thinking "that was a good story." It isn't groundbreaking awesomeness. Just making everything fit together perfectly. The way stories are supposed to.
I'm so proud of myself today. Next week I may think instead -- now THAT was a bad idea! Sigh.
[This message has been edited by arriki (edited February 24, 2009).]
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I wrote about two paragraphs of a 3rd rewrite of my first 13 lines of a story called "Bewildered Witch." My evil editor will not get off my shoulder, and keeps me revising my first 13 lines. Any suggestions how to cast a mute spell on her so I can get on with my story? Carol
Posts: 11 | Registered: Jul 2008
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I've had this problem myself. I made myself a rule when I starte Book One of the trilogy. In the first draft, if I have moved on more than one paragraph, I CANNOT go back and revise anything. I can make notes about what I want to change. But I can't go back and make the changes until the first draft is DONE. Worked for me. I'm starting Book Three just as soon as I shake this cold.
Posts: 4633 | Registered: Dec 2008
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Yes! I finally finished a full draft of what will probably be my WotF entry for Q2. Now it's sitting in the hands of some trusty critiquers, and then one more revision before I mail it off to California.
And not only that, but I already have a new story idea that I'm raring and ready to go on. This is rare for me, usually I have to brainstorm for a long time after finishing one before I can really get started on the next.
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finished a chapter that had been giving me a serious headache. needed to introduce the "mentor" figure and couldnt figure out how to. finally settled on the (somewhat cliche) scenario of the mentor getting the M.C. out of a bind.
Posts: 240 | Registered: Oct 2005
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I am just starting a regular writing regimen. I have a blog that I used for political ranting. I just re-purposed it to document my efforts at becoming a real writer. Probably posted a thousand words today in a number of posts.
I do a lot of business writing for work, but my blogging is in an easier style. I intend the blogging to act like stretching before a run... clear some cobwebs, get the mind flowing.
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