It is that time of the week again, where I make a fool of myself, bragging about my lack of accomplishments. the purpose of this note is to give myself, and the rest of you, a weakly goal to write for. To be able to say that within the past week, you actually did something in writing. What I consider writing is quite loose. It could, of course, be adding new content to your work in progress. It could be editing the work in progress. It could be editing someone else's work. One could be world building, as long as something gets on paper. Poetry, articles are also allowed. I really don't know too much about what is not allowed.
I had another one of those weeks from hell. I did edit a bit on my Waxy story. My writing partner and I discussed the situation and we decided that I had the wrong tone to the story. I edited to the point where the wrong tone really starts. I ran out of time so I had to put the story away. I never even bothered to do a word count to see if I added anything.
ON the story idea front. I had a pretty good month. I ended up with 31 story ideas for the 31 days of the month. I had run out of my new story ideas near the end of the month. I was looking at digging into my compost stack, then the flood waters broke open. Including the story idea I have to write tonight, I have four story ideas in my new idea stack. I pulled the month's story ideas into my wordprocessor (I prefer to write in notepad, then copy it to Word Perfect to do my spell check) and came up with 30,766 words in 50 pages. Some months I will do as many as 70 single spaced pages of ideas, but this is not bad. I have had some good ideas, some ok ideas, and some bad ideas. They are fun to come up with. Now I am into a new month of ideas. Will see how this goes.
Prescription medicines are not fun things to play around with. The doctor gave me an antifungal cream for a problem on my foot. It said to use it for two weeks. When two weeks were done, the problem still looked like it was there and I had a lot of medicine left, so I kept using it. At around three weeks, an itch appeared in my hand and waking at night, scratching was removing the tops of bumps. It took me a day to figure out that I was having a reaction to the antifungal medicine. I then went onto the internet and the HIVES that developed, was a reaction to the medicine that the instructions never noticed. I stopped using the medicine and am suffering for using it longer than needed. I itch all over, at times to distraction. Where I dug in, it stings at times, especially when I perspire. It is dying down, but not fast enough for me.
This weekend I got my hands on a whole lot of wood I have wanted to get for several years. This is normally a scraggly tangle of trunks and branches, but also can grow as a tree. The wood is called SEA GRAPE and is usually found along the ocean almost like a mangrove tangle, but the highways have it on the sides of the embankments on the on and off ramps. It is a hard, dense wood. I used it several years ago, but was not skilled enough to get all the good out of the wood. When my mom saw the stack, she said "You must have gone overboard." I said "He has more and this was just the stack he had set up for me."
I painted the Chicken to blend the filler with the wood of the head. It really looks good. One of the best pieces I have done. I have a lot of finishing to do on it, but it is already my prized piece. I painted the head of the duck, did not like the results, so I sanded most of the paint off and will repaint it. I made a new bowl for a duck out of the sea grape. I went thinner, lighter, and it really looks good. I have some sanding to do, but it looks pretty good. I started on the head, but ran out of time to complete it. The head is out of the same wood. I may have to hollow the head out to keep it from being front heavy.
For a story idea, consider a jeweler who would love to get his hands on a rare precious stone. It is quite available at its home, but not where the jeweler is. One day a trader arrives with a load. It turns out that the "ballast" is a whole bunch of the rare stones. The jeweler is suddenly overwhelmed with the material he drooled over for years. He does not have enough storage for what he has, but has the opportunity to get more.
AS to the question of the week, I could say that I did write, but I will say NO, I did not.
Did you write?
Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :
On the 2nd, No--I was very busy catching up from taking the 1st (our 12th anniversary) off. I had to work an 11 hour day. This morning, however, I blasted out a thousand words. So, if you're asking about today...Yes.
[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited February 04, 2008).]
Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :
I wrote my WotF entry this week, and critted some other folk's stuff. My WotF entry came in at some 8200 words... the longest short story I've ever written. Weird, either I truncate my stories at under 5,000 or they blow up into full blown novels.
Anyway, pounded it out in like three days straight. I don't think I've ever worked on one single piece of fiction for so long in duration. Afterwards, I really needed a break, so I haven't looked at it since. By the time the rest of my crits come back I hope I'll be ready to tackle it again.
Posted by snapper (Member # 7299) on :
On the second? No, I didn't write. Instead I bask in the glory of making my second sale. Woo-Hoo.
Posted by gobi13x (Member # 6837) on :
With exam coming around the corner, I have not been able to write as much as I have wanted to. I have churned out about 5k words over the last week. On the plus side, my streak is now up to 35 days in a row of writing something. Of course some days it is only a few hundred.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Still down for the count with the lingering effects of this cold and the ratchasing and, well life, I'm sorry to say...I hope to start (or restart) something fairly soon, but, then, I usually think I will...
Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :
I am very pleased to say that this past week I completed the first chapter I've been able to write since undergoing radiation therapy last spring. Radiation brain fried my ability to be creative, and I'm just now getting the juices flowing again. It was a big milestone for me. I rather like how the chapter came out, too.
Posted by LCastle (Member # 7363) on :
Not so's you'd notice. Getting pushed around by life at the moment.
Posted by Tricia V (Member # 6324) on :
Welcome back, Elan!
I am doing some writing right now.
Posted by Crank (Member # 7354) on :
It seems as if, every time I send something out for submission, my subconscious gets the impression I can take a week off. That's what this week seemed like.
Web development and the young adult novel got the bulk of my artistic attention this week.
I also write three business contracts. Not the most enjoyable writing I've ever done.
S! S!...C!
Posted by MrsBrown (Member # 5195) on :
A very modest amount, but in my world any forward motion is a plus. Did an exercise where I wrote my characters' thoughts in first person to get to know them better. And recorded new notes for plot ideas on my WIP.