Did You Write? 10-19-09
Many of us write in spurts, going as much as months between writing sessions. We need help to become regular writers. Of course, life does get in the way, but for many of us, we have the time to write, but don't take advantage of the time.
This note is an attempt to offer that push to write. I post this note each and every week. Everybody knows the note is going to be posted. the hope is that you post your results here, whether you wrote a lot, or did not write at all, and also to tell what is going on in your life. the idea is to get you posting every week, and get you to feel bad about reporting that you did not write. This is to get you to sit down SOMETIME DURING THE WEEK, and write something, whether it was a paragraph or half a novel. Be able to proudly report that you wrote.
Of course, there are always questions as to what counts as writing. No one is going to agree on that answer. I like to post a list of things that is writing. Some are obvious, others are not. Generally, the weaker the excuse to call it writing, the wordier it likely should be. One might get away with (and I have) saying that you wrote one paragraph of new writing on a story. One might have to write several pages of text about writing in an E-mail. it is up to you what is considered writing, as no one I know of is keeping track.
Writing new text is writing. Editing, even if it is someone else's work, is also writing, since few of us can write perfectly first time around.
Blogging, technical articles, writing assignments and exercises are also writing.
Poetry is also writing. world creation and character creation is also writing, though I prefer that things get on paper. E-mail notes can also be writing, as long as they pertain to writing or story, and are wordy.
The final decision is really up to you.
yes, I did write. I spent good time writing, I do know I did a lot of editing, but am in all new scenes right now. I am disappointed with the actual word count as I thought I wrote more this week.
I had started new scene and it came to a stop, like running into a brick wall. I described my problem to my writing partner and she gave me several E-mails with possible solutions. She gave me the solution I really needed. I was having the problem met and tried to be solved immediately. That is not the nature of the situation. I needed to take time, develop character and situation. My writing partner also gave me the real key to the situation. Waxy is following a creature that is hunting. It turns out that the creature is hunting the one she is with. She has to be a real bother for the creature, developing the personality that runs through all the stories that follow. The real key was to slow down, let the situation play out rather than have it a hit and run.
As mentioned, I was disappointed with my word and page count, but when I think about how much time I spent adding and changing early scenes to fit new information, I did not do too bad. I added two pages. 1448 words added. The story is up to page 58 now. I am writing on page 53 right now. I have at least a page, possibly two more pages on the scene I am working on now, then have to enter an all new scene after this.
I am writing about an hour a day, not every day. I am excited about that amount of time. I do get things done but not enough to really finish anything. I retain the excitement of the writing, wanting to get back to the story and continue as soon as I can.
I fell behind on my story ideas this past week. I was an idea behind, then had my turning club meeting and lost another day, then Sunday, I helped my brother with a mechanical problem that went longer than expected, and lost another idea there. I wrote and am posting two story ideas tonight, and will still be a story idea behind for this day of the month. I have to catch up that extra story idea by Saturday so I will end the month on schedule.
My compost pile count is 39. while counting them, I saw several that may never see the light of day, even under desperation. As long as I keep up with coming up with new ideas, I will never get that desperate.
As to the question of the day,
I can honestly say
YES, I DID WRITE.
DID YOU WRITE?
1 comment:
Yeah I did write this week. Besides the aforementioned email discussion, where I give ideas and point out possibilities, I pulled up two different files to work on. One is a very long poem written in anger to a situation I faced online recently. It will likely never get posted anywhere, but I did tweak it a bit, and felt good about it afterward. The other is the next Lazlo story, and I added a few pages to that in a couple of sittings, and got myself out of one scene, and through another, into the final one. I am finally getting close to the end of that. And of course there are blog entries, both those posted and being worked on. I have one in the works and am gathering pictures for a second one.
On the crafting front it is all about crochet, though I did make a pair of simple earrings. I finished the first crochet mermaid doll and have a second one in the works. I have a list of other projects I'd like to do too. Crochet is something I do in the evenings when we watch TV together.
Speaking of TV and writing, I have a pet peeve to air here. What is is with all the copycat programs and scripts? You would think there were no writers out there with original ideas. Right now the popular theme seems to be hard boiled police detectives with outside consultants of various talents, where the consultant always solves the case. To name a few you have one with OCD (Monk), a fake psychic (The Mentalist), a writer of police dramas (Castle), a forensic anthropologist working with the FBI (Bones), and though it got cancelled, a modern day wizard (The Dresden Files). I am likely missing others. I didn't say I don't like those shows, because I watch them and enjoy(ed) them all, but sheesh! Let's get some originality going. Reminds me of back in the 70s, when it was all PI dramas, and you had Ironsides (wheelchair bound), Longstreet (blind investigator with a guide dog), Cannon (zaftig PI), Barnaby Jones (retired elderly guy comes back to work), Banacek (Polish), Kojak (bald cop), Starsky and Hutch (single guy cops who live and work together), Charlie's Angels (3 fashionable gals with nice teeth and good hair), Shaft (first dramatic black American role in a long time) and digging back to the 60s, The Mod Squad (teen delinquents now working for The Man) and Burke's Law (rich guy in a Rolls with lots of sexy girlfriends). I probably missed a lot of them, but you get the idea. Give them a gimmick and a gun, and send them out on a case, and there you go.
One thing that GRATES on me is the repetitiveness of writing I see out there. How many times has the evil twin/clone/other reality body double/android replicant card been played? Every time I see a script unfolding with that I want to GROAN!!!! It's been overdone to death. In fact I have threatened to write a story that is all about the revolt of the otherworld twins, where the body doubles of famous characters decide to attack our world demanding equal status and star billing. It ought to be a hoot!
Yeah, I do write and think about writing a lot too. Even watching TV, I analyze scripts and characters to see what works and think about how I would do it differently. That is what being a writer is all about, taking things from life around you, spinning them around in your mind, and finding a way to make them work in your writing. That is writing too, because it is the writing state of mind that really matters.
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