Monday, October 10, 2011

10-10-11 Did You Write

10-10-11 Did You Write.

Well, we survived another week. Tell us about all the stuff that went on in your life so you have some reason to post here regularly. Then include what writing you did or not did and why. Hopefully next week, if you did not write or did not meet your goals, you will realize next Monday is coming up and you will open some project and do something so you can say you wrote.

We all agree new writing is writing, but editing is also writing, even if it is the work of another. Critiquing is also editing and therefore is also writing.
Poetry, blogging, technical writing, article writing, writing assignments, world and character creation are also writing. E-mails and board posts can also be writing if they are very wordy and pertain to story or writing. If you have to ask if it is writing, the answer is yes.

Many who post here have mentioned some accomplishments such as writing THE END, or submitting something, even if it is declined. I make a pont to never post again to these notes so I wish to say congratulations.

As for me, I did not write anywhere near as much as I wanted to or needed to. I had sent my latest piece for reading by a first reader and the suggestions stung a little but were completely valid. I then talked on the phone and gained some more insight.
I realized I was trying to write too short, leaving out a whole lot of key information, explanation of what was going on. As a result, I added 1500 all new words to my work, nearly all of it in pre-story scenes. What is going on will make more sense, though It may be telling too much. I will have to see later. Many of the scenes ahead of me will change dramatically. I have developed a better feel for the world I am writing in. It expanded quite a bit. I also found out that I did not understand what I was writing as well as I thought. these things are good to know.

On the story idea front, I am up to date for this day of the month. I have 39 story ideas in compost pile. There were several days where I had a number of story ideas, and then there was time where I had nothing new come in. some of the new ideas look like they are fun to write. A few I wrote failed to live up to what I imagined. An example is there is a joke that says, "What keys o children carry? Cookies!" I thought that an idea would be great about where children can pick any lock as long as they have a cookie in their hand. they always had a decision as to whether to eat the treat or pick a lock. the idea fell short of my hopes.

Because of the weather, I spent my time working metal this weekend. The metal working lathe has a point on the tail stock that sticks into the metal and does not spin. I decided to make a new point just for the fun of it. I have not put it to use but it looks like it will work nice. All sorts of projects I planned to do did not happen because of the weather.

using the above for a story idea, his work involved some very large machines. Each machine had to be taken out of the barn to be used. He had a small machine shop he stuck onto an old boat since it was a comfortable place to work.
When the weather got bad, he would get onto the boat and work on small projects since he could not pull the big machines out.
One day, a really bad weather approached. He went out onto the boat and got to work. It was not until the boat was shaking that he stopped to look outside. Water covered the ground, too deep to wade and the wind was really strong. The trailer was the only thing keeping the boat from floating away. His wife waved from the second floor. He somehow heard that it was a bad flood coming.
He raised the support of the trailer tung as one would do for traveling, and started the boat's engines. He used the propellers to move the trailer backwards with the boat still on it since the water was still a little shallow for the boat. he got it up to the porch of the house and his wife got the kids on board and then piled in supplies.
Once she finally got on board, the water was deep enough for hm to disconnect the trailer and motored away from the house.
They tied up to a tree as the water kept rising, having to change their tether point several times as it rose. While waiting, he sat and worked his craft. His wife and kids did not like the space it took up within the boat, but he could not put them away without damaging something.
when the water subsided, he had made it back to his yard. Everything in the barn was ruined. most of his possessions in the house was lost. He was still able to do some work because of the equipment on board the boat. His wife even admitted that his equipment on the boat saved their lives. If he had not been on board the boat, they likely would not have survived the flood.

As to the question of the week,

I can honestly say,

YES I DID WRITE

DID YOU WRITE?

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