June 28, 2010 Did You Write?

June 28, 2010 Did You Write?

Many write every day or several times a week, building up word counts. We like hearing from you. This post is for those of us who might write a few weeks a year, or sporadically each month.
This post is to provide pressure, a prompt, a target one can aim for. You see the note coming and you intend to post even if you did not write, but the desire is to say that you actually wrote this past week. You see the note coming and you open a work in progress and write something, anything, any amount, just so you can say you wrote.
For years, these posts helped me. I went weeks without writing, but knowing the post was coming up, I would try to sneak in a little bit of time to write, even if it was just a little. If you post, report on your week in writing and your life, even if you do not write, you will find that you will work harder on writing, than you normally would.
Lately I have some projects going so the prompt is not much of a pressure for me right now. It may change later.

We all agree that new writing is writing. People forget that editing is also writing. Many times, I write by editing. I will rush out a piece, TELLING what the story is about, then go back and edit it into shape until it is readable. Editing is writing, even if it is the work of others. Critiquing is also writing.
Poetry, blogging, writing assignments, technical writing, character and world creation, are also writing. E-mails can even be writing if they pertain to story or writing, and are very wordy. There are other things that can be writing too. If you have to ask, the answer will be yes.
The amount of writing is unimportant. There have been times where I announced that I wrote a paragraph and called that writing. When you are editing, your word and page count can go backwards, especially when you are making major story changes. Also, one could write the perfect passage and that would be enough to say you wrote. It really does not matter.
The main thing is to develop the habit writing every week. A lot of projects can be finished just by working on them a little each week.

As for me, I have written. One half of my project went backwards with editing, Another half went forward also with editing.. and then I combined the three sections, the original story, the two sections from opposite points of view, together, interlacing them into one again. With all my writing on two sections, I added six pages and about 3500 words. I need to do a heavy edit and there is a few scenes on the end I have to write as I did complete them. I am already over my word count, but I have a lot to cut out.
One day, I forgot my memory stick at home, so I wrote a new scene that the story series needs and that ended 3 pages and 1400 words.
I can say, Yes, I did write.

On the story idea front, I was running two ideas for several days, then one day behind until today. I finally got caught up. I am now in a situation where my story ideas are interfering with my story writing time. I have not brought myself to give up the story ideas except maybe the best ones, but I really need to spend more time on my main project. It is bothersome to deal with this kind of situation.
As it is, I have 58 story ideas, including what I am posting tonight, on my compost pile. I have some good ideas down deep, but I find myself wanting to write the fresh stuff. when I start to dig into the stack, I get more and more disappointed the deeper I go.

I can say

YES I WROTE!!!

did you write?