Did You write? 12-28-09

Did You write? 12-28-09
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Ho, Ho, Ho! I hope Santa brought you all the toys you wanted. The best presents for writers is
1 ) good ideas,
2 ) time to write
3 ) Gumption to make use of that time.
and possibly
4 ) a little bit of ability that might make the piece publishable.
If you did not get that, then there is always this note, designed to prompt those of us who are not regular writers, to develop the habit to open SOME project and put some words down. You see the note coming and want to report your writing. You sit down and write for a few minutes, an hour, sometime during the week, so you can proudly say that "YES, I DID WRITE!"
We are not too picky as to how much you write as long as you do write. It can be a sentence, or a paragraph or as one author said. "I wrote one word. But it was the Right word."

As to what is writing, we are not picky about that either. The list I always put up, has things many of us might disagree as to it being writing. What is more important is that you think it is writing. The list is mainly to give you permission.
Any new writing is of course, writing. Because few of us are any good on the first draft, Editing is also writing, even if it is the work of someone else. Critiquing is also writing for the same reason.
Poetry, blogging, article writing, writing assignments, world or character building, are also all writing. E-mails can be writing as long as they are wordy and pertain to story or writing.
In realty, any of these are writing only as long as you agree that they are.

As for me, I did write, in spite the hectic weekend. It was not much, less than five hundred words, but it was two sessions and I really advanced the story. I am working my way into the meat of the story now that the beginning is written. The whole beginning will have to be rewritten as it is missing key information. My main purpose is to get the action of story written. I will worry the details on the next passes.

I am still doing well on the story ideas. One of my projects is to get the statistics for the year on my ideas. I will have it easy this year. I installed wordperfect 5.1 for dos, and can look into absolutely any file. I have the numbers at the end of each file so I can read them and write the numbers down without having to open each one.
I do know I am a few ideas ahead, but not sure exactly how many for the year. For this month, I am on schedule.
My compost pile is at 37 today, including what I am posting tonight. I really don't like it below 40, but the ideas have not been coming very fast this week. I did get some good ones, a couple I botched the presentation. You can usually recognize those by my telling what the note said at the bottom of the piece. One would likely never care if one is simply reading for pleasure, which I understand many do.
Of course, some of my idea listings (held on the computer rather than on paper) in the compost pile have several ideas in them. I dig out the individual ideas once in a while. They are all counted as one since they might not happen.

I found the past few years that there is a pleasure in creating gifts to give. I did not make anything really spectacular this year, but had some projects that took time.
I did paint my own Christmas cards and that turned out to be a challenge well worth the effort. They would have been a whole lot easier if I started when I knew I had to start. Instead, "I am a PROCRASTINATOR. I am not an amateur."
I also started my ornaments late. I never got all of them done but had enough made for what I needed. I will make more of them, plus a few other ornaments that I know I need copies of.
My printer decided to commit suicide this weekend. I had used the printer to print the inside and back of the cards, something new for me. I replaced the ink after the printer refused to go any farther. I had given out all the cards I needed and was finishing the last few when the computer decided the printer was not there. I was checking the wiring, get behind the printer, when it "leaped" off the shelf in a perfect swan dive from what I could see. There was some minor case damage, but the bad part happened because it was still plugged in. The socket in the case was jerked to the side and now sparks. I plugged it in and it was on, but the computer still did not see it.
I have a second printer but have to get the driver for it from my nephew.
It was fun to have a working printer while it lasted.

I already did a story idea on the angry printer concept. In that one, the printer had its own mind, had arms to feed itself, and it tended the desk, making sure everything is neat and clean. During a rush project, it gets the idea that it is being bled to death, to be trashed and stops, refusing to give up the prints it so deservedly created.
It snaps at the owner and when it is given more ink and paper, throws it at the owner out of spite. It ends up dodging what it thinks is an attempt to unplug it, and it falls to its death.
Another idea is that the old printer is on the last project. It does miracles to make sure the prints are good, even though the heads are skipping. the project is done, the printer is done. The owner wants to repair it instead of getting a new printer. the printer leaps off the desk to its death, to force the owner to get a new printer to serve him well for a lot more years.
The project could be something so special that few printers could even do it when new, for a cause that is worth perfection.

while I did not produce much writing this week, I can proudly say,

YES, I DID WRITE.

DID YOU WRITE?