Monday, October 5, 2009

Did You Write? 10-05-09

Did You Write? 10-05-09

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In an attempt to keep myself writing, and to get others to write with ANY type of regularity, I post this note each week. the hope is that you will see this note coming each and every week and write something, anything, so you can brag that you accomplished something. Of course, life will get in the way of writing, I hope you admit you did not write, and also tell about what is happening in your life. To face having to admit publically that you did not write, might prompt you to correct for the next week.
The amount one writes is not what is important. The fact that you write, period, even if it is a few dozen words, is what is important. Trying to get past writer's block or to develop a good habit is the key.

There are questions as to what is writing. I have suggestions based on what was asked if it was writing. Not all of us agree it is writing, but it is more that you think it is writing, is what counts.
WE all agree that new writing is writing. That is beyond question. Editing, though, is also writing. I write more by editing, than by my actual writing.
Poetry is also writing. Blogging, article writing, writing assignments are also writing. World and character creation is also writing, as long as something gets onto paper (though you may decide that designing it in your head from beginning to end before writing counts. It is up to you). E-mails can also be writing, as long as they are very wordy and pertain to the story or about writing.
Others may also count if you believe it might be writing. We are not critical about one's definition.

This past week, I worked on my Waxy Dragon birth story. It is coming along nicely and is exciting to write. I think one key is that I am only allowing myself to write about an hour each day, first thing. I found it has to be written first, before anything else, or time expands to lose my writing time on the story. An hour also seams to be long enough to get into what I am doing, but not long enough to finish it. What happens for me is that I cannot wait for the next session. I want to continue what I am doing.
I am not writing too much each time, but I am whittling away the story. This week I added 4,392 words and 7 pages. I am in a fun section of the story and it is flowing fast. This is fun writing.
I am at page 54 f the 51 pages of the story. Some sections above where I am working will disappear as they are being bypassed entirely or done differently. I won't know until I get to them.
I will say that at this moment, I am disappointed about having to stop each day. That is fun writing.

I have been getting some good story ideas lately. I have 42 story ideas in my compost stack, including what I am posting tonight. some of the new ones are fun.
Last month I did fairly good. For the30 days of the month, I posted 30 story ideas. I landed on Page 53, with a total of 32,017 words. Some I struggled to write, but most came freely.
This month I am already a story idea behind. One good week will catch me up. Catching up is sometimes a battle between writing on Waxy or writing another story idea. Free time to write will come up a bit later in the week.

I am improving my computer system. I got my printer working again. me and printers don't get along at all. I got some learning books for some programs and some other equipment. I picked up a couple clean keyboards at a yard sale and will retire three, possibly four old keyboards. Last week I picked up a big monitor at a yard sale and this week I donated two more of my spare monitors to a thrift shop I frequent, and buy books from. The retired keyboards will be taken to the thrift shop next month.
I have a permanent model railroad layout in a spare bedroom. I started emptying all the stuff stored in the room last week and got half that stuff out. I have more to drag out of the room.
My intention is to get the model railroading ready for use within about a month or two. Much of the stuff I am taking out of the room will be put back in, but I will sort through the stuff and toss some, yard sale some, sell some and the rest will be sorted so I can find it when I need it, if I remember I have it and can remember where it is and get to it. The stuff going back in will likely take months as it has to be fitted in between life and writing. I will say that I fund and lost a dozen things I forgot I had or never knew I had.

For a possible story idea, you have someone who seams to have the best operation money can buy. It turns out that it is built up of stuff other people tossed out as being useless. He keeps adding to what he has. He cobbles equipment together. He is a programmer so he will write programs so that hundreds of slow computers work in series and in parallel to act like something much bigger and more powerful. He is always hunting for components to improve, expand or replace pieces that are failing or never worked well at all.
My thought is that he has a computer system that develops a form of artificial intelligence and posts did you write notes on bulletin boards as if it were a real person......

As to the question of the day,
I can say with pride,
YES, I DID WRITE!!!

DID YOU WRITE?

1 comment:

Nancy A. Hansen said...

The last couple of weeks have not been too good for me as far as working on my current book or the latest Lazlo story. That requires a certain mindset where I can sit down uninterrupted. I am hoping for more time on Lazlo later this week. I have written a couple of very extensive blog entries and of course there are writing discussions in emails with Roger and across the desks here with Lee. Lee and I were just talking about agents and where to go next with my first big book over lunch yesterday. He has several irons in the fire too, as well as the comic book company he is doing editing for. With the room we are occupying as an office also being his bedroom, it's not hard not to take your work home. *G*

I am still putting up veggies though it has slowed up quite a bit. Been doing more running around than anything else. I went to The Big E (http://www.thebige.com/) twice in two weeks, and also out shopping with Frank for his anniversary present. He wants a new rollaway tool chest this year. I said I wanted an entire day of thrifting. Our anniversary is on the 23rd of this month. Wow, 27 years and we haven't killed one another... yet. (Not for lack of trying... *w*)

We've had our share of excitement around here too. Within two weeks of one another, first Brian hit a deer, and this past weekend Frank hit two of them. No one was hurt but in both cases there was significant damage to each car. Brian mostly got the headlight and fender, Frank's accident crumpled the hood pretty well. Brian's car was a newer used one, Frank's is brand new. Both Ford Fusions in case you are wondering, they took the hits well. Scary stuff when you get those calls at night. Lots of deer in these parts, neither one of the accidents was more than a mile or two from home and both happened after dark.

On the craft front, it is all about crochet. I've worked on a couple of small projects at night while watching TV, now that the new viewing season has started and we are headed to baseball playoffs. That is my time to sit with family and relax. I made a small round figure based on a gingerbread boy pattern I have, the difference being that I prefer to work tighter with single crochet rather than more open double crochet stitches, and I stuffed it rather than letting it remain cookie flat. I haven't decided what it will be, so the figure is just all light brown yarn and no features. It is a thrifted worsted yarn of some kind of hard twisted fibers with a bit of a sheen and a weird feel to it; I think it might be soy, corn or bamboo. It is something different, that is for sure. One of the interesting things about thrifting is that you don't know what you are getting so you have to improvise. Kind of fun actually. The other project I am working on came out of that gingerbread pattern too, which had you working the head and torso in the round and then circling down the body, leaving a gap for the armholes. I decided I would use it for a mermaid, and so once I got past the upper part of the body I tapered it in and out, changing yarn colors from flesh to blue for the tail. It took some fiddling trial and error, but I did manage to get the entire bod sans arms done by Monday night, and started working an arm out last night. It looks good, and I will have blog pictures eventually. I have been writing the pattern down as I go along and will test it after this one is done by making another one to those specs. Crochet has a shorthand style when it comes to patterns and so it is not too hard to write once you know the lingo.

That's about it, other than cooking more often, doing some early Christmas shopping, and trying to organize my indoor spaces. So yeah, I did write, just not much on the dragon stories or the book.