In hopes to push myself, and others to write, I post this note to give everyone a chance to brag about their accomplishments, cry about your failures and to otherwise tell what is going on in your life. I know all of you would love to brag about all the writing you have done this past week. When you realize this note is coming and you have not written, the hope is that you sit down and write something, even if it is a paragraph, just so you can say you did write. The hope is that writing at least once a week becomes a regular habit, and then you don't have to depend on this note to get some writing done.
Everybody considers new writing, as writing. That is obvious. REWRITING and editing, even if it is someone else's work, is also writing. AS to the type of writing, it can be anything. Poetry, blogging, article writing, technical writing, character or world building as long as something gets on paper. Even E-mails will count if they are very wordy and pertain to story or writing. It really depends on what you personally decide is writing.
As for myself, I have been busy on my writing. I did not add a lot of pages but can see the ending approaching have to get my characters from where they are to where they have to be, and then I can end it. One thing I see is that there is a bunch of character development I need to add through the story. I basically need to show how the attitude of one character changes toward the other. I have two motivations to show. One is where he decides he wants Waxy to be with him from now on, and Why he wants to retain this world they are in. I have said it in the story, but I have not "shown" how he changes in his attitudes. I will "finish" the story first. I will end it with a setup for the second story. One of the fun things about this is that as I am writing this, I am seeing where later characteristics, seen in stories I already wrote, are developing. This is fun writing, though getting the relocation between worlds will be tough writing. I will do what I usually do, get it on paper then correct it. I added only three pages and about two thousand words but made good headway. The story is on page 75 now. Once I get it written, I will fire it off to my writing partner to see what needs to be changed plot wise. When I am satisfied with the editing, I will then send it to her for a serious examination. One thing that happened was that I mentioned Waxy being told a bedtime story and I ended up writing it as a story idea. It was so "bad" it had to be written. It was fun to write and I now know how to make it even better if I ever decide to rewrite it.
ON the story idea front, I am staying up to where I need to be right now, but that may change this week. I have some meetings and activities that could cost me a day or so. My latest count is that I have 46 story ideas in my compost pile, including the one I wrote today. This past week, I wrote all new story ideas except yesterday when I was running late and had to steal an idea posted at the end of one of these notes. The fun of these story ideas is that I have the excitement of imagining a brand new story. I get the exhilaration of staring on a new piece. I get the satisfaction of finishing the rough draft, and if it is horrible, I don't have to worry about spending any more time on it. If it is good, I always have the opportunity to dig into the idea again and develop it fully. Also, if I cannot get back to it, not a loss. It is still there for me if I want it.
My mom had a yard sale this weekend (tag sale to some of you) where you sell usable, but unwanted stuff. You set it out near the street or in your garage and people will come by and purchase it from you, sometimes haggling over the price. I usually do my wood carving outside so I can keep her company. I worked on my Christmas ornaments this weekend. I usually do twelve of each kind I make, hand carved. I have till the end of the month to get done. I have only five of each kind, I have to get to work. I had changed my eating habits two years ago and have lost over fifty pounds since then. This year, I lost about ten pounds. My weight loss stopped last month and stayed put. while I expected that, it is frustrating. My system of eating is easy to stay with, which is why I lost the weight I did. I needed to change something in my diet to regain losing weight. I did not . This past week, I finally broke free of the plateau that I was stuck at and lost two pounds. Based on the joke, At the rate I am losing weight, there will be nothing left of me in fourteen years.
Using the above as a story idea. She took a new medicine guaranteed to assist in losing weight. It was experimental so there could be problems. She was desperate. She took the pills. Her weight slowly started to drop. She had only taken them once, mainly because they were checking for toxicity. She came in for tests. She had lost more weight since she had done her tests. She was excited. The doctors kept track of her, checking her periodically. With just one pill, she was still losing weight. They do extensive examinations of her, trying to find out why the pill is working. They deduce that it changed an enzyme in the body, causing her to use more energy. Years pass and she is at the figure she wants, but she is still losing weight. She starts pigging out, eating as much as her belly can hold, but she does not even slow her weight loss. She is soon skin and bones, and her bones are pencil thin. They don't know how she is still alive or how she has not broken a bone. The medicine is banned, at least until they can figure out how to reverse it. They have no idea how. At the rate she lost weight, there was nothing left of her after ten years.
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In hopes to push myself, and others to write, I post this note to give everyone a chance ...
And we certainly appreciate it.
I managed some writing this week. My current short story is progressing with regular writing sessions, but maybe not as fast as I'd liked. But it is progressing, and that's the important thing. In amongst that I also critiqued a short story or two, and finished a critique of a 140K novel.
What I'm happiest with is that I could do this and not sacrifice living life. We had the eldest's 4th birthday party, I found time for some mindless relaxation, and got in some exercise. Plus the usual work week. So I guess I have no excuses for no writing next week...
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Got to 30,000 words on my NaNo project. Not really trying to work on anything else but I'm having loads of fun.
Posts: 1993 | Registered: Jul 2009
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Nope, nary a word! (Well, okay, a bit of real-world stuff and few Hatrack posts, maybe, but that's it.)
Posts: 715 | Registered: Nov 2007
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I kept up the thousand-word-a-day pace till Friday, when I was just to busy...took it up again Saturday...then, somewhere, my muse deserted me and I did no writing on Sunday or Monday. I reached fifteen thousand words...I figure I've got five or six thousand more words to the end of it...the ending grew kinda indeterminate in my mind, and maybe the scene I reached would be a difficult one to write...
Or maybe I was just tired. I was pretty busy Friday, Sunday, and Monday, or so it seemed. And work was particularly hellish. Sorting the mail got busy, because of what is best described as a "word well-known to every English speaker" hyphenated with "up."
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Very little. Today is the first day off from work I've had in the last 13. I did get a bit done here and there though.
Posts: 2626 | Registered: Apr 2008
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Yeah, first time in a long time. Work has been a bear. And then they sent me to Italy for a week. 12 hour work days then dinner then sleep. The only thing I saw was the factory, the walk to the winery for lunch and dinner, then back. Too cramped to write on the plane, but, for some reason I feel ready to write again. We will see what this next week holds.
Posts: 1168 | Registered: Mar 2008
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Yes, I did write this week! I finished Chapter 5 in Shield Mage. I finally settled back on my old working title for it. Working on Chapter 6 this week.
Posts: 125 | Registered: Feb 2004
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Pretty much a washout this week. My last child is preparing to leave Sunday for a six-year stint in the Air Force. I can't seem to get anything much done. Waiting on a few more critiques of my WOTF story and moping about the house. Next when she's gone promises to be worse.
Posts: 1580 | Registered: Dec 2005
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Oh...I also got a bonus jolt of adrenaline last Saturday: a SF short story, which was in the hands of a mag for over 270 days, finally came back to me with a rejection slip...and crit comments from FOUR different readers! Looking past the fact that they declined to buy my story, the editors and readers confirmed its believed strengths and illuminated its suspected weak points. Within minutes of reading through every word they wrote, I rattled off notes on how I wanted to rework certain aspects of the story. To my surprise, the notes took up only one small corner of the page; this might be an easier edit job than I thought. I know I said I was focusing my energies on novels for the foreseeable future, but there's no reason for me not to have this short story ready in time for the next WotF deadline.
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