This is another time to brag about your accomplishments and cry about your failures, and otherwise tell about your life. Last week's date error was caused by the several time traveling story ideas I wrote last week. I got the time frames mixed up when I posted. This note is an attempt to give myself, and you, a short term goal to am for, to get yourself to write each week. It is intended to make you feel ashamed to not write anything during the week so you will push yourself the next week to make up for you slovenly procrastination. At least that is the theory anyway. Whether it works, or not, is up to you. I consider writing as any new writing, any editing, even if it is someone else's. It is also poetry, articles, world building as long as you are getting something on paper, Blogging could also be thought of as writing. Basically, if you think you wrote, I guess you did...
I actually wrote!. I sat down at my computer today and realized I wrote nothing. I forced myself to take half an hour to write on my Waxy Dragon story. I took the story from 2455 words on page 4 to 2869 words on page 5. It was only 414 words, but it was all new writing. I was getting into the flow of things when I was forced to stop. Darn!!! At least this note got me to write something. Thursday I had a club meeting so that story idea I was ahead got "used" so I was even again. Friday had a doctor's visit and I got home late and only wrote my story idea. Saturday I went to visit my sister-in-law at the hospital I got home so late I could not write anything that evening. Sunday I had to write Saturday's woodworking diary and story idea. No story writing.
I am on schedule on my story ideas. Several of the ones I posted recently are not spectacular, but having something to post is always good. I just have to keep up with the days for this week and I will end the year to this month, even. I would love to get a dozen story ideas ahead, but I still have to get
I spent the week getting some pieces ready to show off at the club. I had the fairy I carved, presentable, and also my rooster bowl and two duck bowls. The rooster and fairy got a number of comments. I took them to work Friday and the rooster got a whole bunch of comments. The friend who gave me some wood selected the older of my two ducks, not the one made from his wood, as an agreed payment for the special wood. I was happy. Saturday I made the first of some additional pieces to make the fairy complete. I also made some disks of wood for my mom who was helping a friend make stands for dolls. As mentioned above, I went to visit my sister-in-law in the hospital. She was doing extremely well, improving faster than the doctors expected. Sunday, I finished making the pieces for the fairy. She was supposed to be holding something. Flowers was the easy idea. My fairies are carved life sized and would stand about twelve inches tall, if they were standing. I decided to make some mushrooms to go around the base of the big mushroom she is sitting on. I also decided to have her holding a worm. When I told my mom that I was going to have the fairy holding a worm, She said "Yuck! I showed her the upper half of the carved worm which had a hat and a face, and she said it was cute. I made my first mushroom from real worm wood where a beatle larva ate its way through the wood. The rest of the mushrooms I made were from other wood and I bored out the worm holes rather than depend on real holes. Not bad. The mushrooms are in place around the base of her big mushroom, and she is holding the worm, and she is now stuck to the big mushroom. It is a nice scene. I have some touch up painting on the worm, since I glued it before I painted it and missed a bunch of spots. I have other touch-ups to make the whole carving ready for showing off. I consider my results are quite acceptable. You can see the fairy before the additional work, and my bird bowls (and me) at http://www.xprodigy.net/board/viewtopic.php?t=3067
My thought on how to use the above in a story idea, is that you have a wizard/smith who makes magical items for some powerful people, possibly gods, or possibly the magician leadership. He has to show his work for a partial approval before he has to give them up. He works hard to get them ready for presentation. At the time the powerful ones arrives, he shows off his handiwork. The powerful people find that his work more than meets their expectations. They look right, they do the minimum expected of them. He lets them know he has some finish work to do on them yet. After they leave, he gets to work. When the time to deliver them arrives, they are far advanced of what the powerful people had seen. Not only do they do the work expected, they do other things that was hoped of his work.
As to the question of the day Yes, I did write this week.
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Finished the first draft of "Sweetums Saves the Day." Added to my list of story ideas. Felt very accomplished doing those two things. Tomorrow I will begin a new story and do some polishing on Sweetums.
Posts: 1580 | Registered: Dec 2005
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Those are some nice looking bowls, rstegman!
I did a lot of critiquing, not so much writing. I also met up with a fellow writer to start a writing support group--no critiquing, just writing, deadline assistance, and general whining about our WIPs (okay, that's mostly just me). I really should be working on my WotF entry. What is it with me and revisions?
Starting a new job next week... It's a writing gig (non-fiction) and I'm worried it's going to sap my creative and writing energy. We'll see.
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I wrote only about 1k for my novel, but I got several thousand on other projects. I got my first rejection letter, so that was something. I am up to 56 days of writing something, so I only have 300 more to complete one year of writing.
Posts: 80 | Registered: Oct 2007
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Inkwell ------------------ "The difference between a writer and someone who says they want to write is merely the width of a postage stamp." -Anonymous
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*Sitting with my laptop in a hospital bed, nursing a formidable bout of recurring pancreatitus*
Yeah I wrote another series of first drafts-- three this week. I need to make a goal to finish one, and make a submission. I am not sure what my problem is. Separation anxiety?
So my goal will be not to start another until I submit one. It is just so hard not to open a new word doc when I get struck with a new Idea.
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I went ahead and got up this morning and did a little writing. It felt good. I think not writing has been making me grumpy the last couple of weeks.
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I wrote the second draft of a story . . . but I didn't write nearly as much as I did the week before.
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My children took a two hour nap at the same time, and i wrote two thousand words in one sitting. I also started a fun Idea drawer file for all my story idea's, and finally figured out magic paramaters for my novel. Great week! ~Sheena
Posts: 1201 | Registered: Jan 2008
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I looked at my work load chart for the past week, and was astonished to see that the vast majority of my writing involved poetry. I did manage to post the first 13 lines of my latest SF short story, "Exhaust", but all my other writing projects were nearly forgotten.
For good reason, as it turns out. Plenty of family business to attend to...including helping my oldest son with his 6th grade science fair project. This year, he's timing mice in a maze, after they've been subjected to various types of music; one mouse has been listening to classical, one has been listening to hip-hop and rap, and the third gets to listen to metal. Suffice it to say, my son and I have been having a blast with this experiment.
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I should say that weighing over my "not writing" is a good deal of middle-aged angst about what I should be writing---should I stay with SF and fantasy, which I hardly ever read anymore, or move on to something else, though I don't particularly want to write anything else? This also weighs down on me, maybe more than health problems or being busy...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I know what you mean, Robert. I love SF but the current crop of sf novels leaves me cold. Is it because I've read so many murder mysteries than I expect that level of..writing(?)...in sf?
Most sf seems pretty dreary. I want fun, rip-roaring adventures with an upbeat at least some of the time.
And, to brag, I just reached my daily minimum of 500 words on the story I'm writing this week. Poised to write the climax of the space ship Outcaster's narrow escape. Fun, fun, fun! This story IS serious. The crew and Captain Aran are in deep doodoo.
Next week...I have a list of ideas posted over my desk. Have to see what appeals Monday morning when I sit down to start next week's story.
I don't know how long I can keep up this pace, but I'm aiming for 12 short stories in as many weeks.
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I do reread some SF from time to time, either through reprint volumes or digging through my disorganized files for something...right now I've been doing some extensive browsing through James Blish's Cities in Flight, which turned up during a room cleaning...the most recent book I read for the first time was Robert Charles Wilson's Darwinia, which caught my eye, but is, right now, several years old. I hardly ever read what's new when it's new, and I'm about fifteen years behind on the main SF magazines...
But all that is more appropriate to the Hooks and Books forum.
Well, I think I'll have some free time tomorrow morning, so maybe I can squeeze out something, and maybe follow it up with something again during some free time on Sunday, and maybe...well, you get the idea...
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