Did You Write? 08-23-10

Did You Write? 08-23-10

This is a place to brag about accomplishments, cry about failures, and otherwise talk about what is going on in your life. It is to prompt those of us who do not write regularly, to be shamed into writing. The note comes each Monday and one gets down to write something, anything, just to report that you wrote. Hopefully, it becomes a habit, to write every week, maybe even more often. Eventually something might be finished.

In other notes, I have mentioned about what is writing. Due to time restraints, I will skip the list this time. One can check previous DID YOU WRITE notes to be reminded of possibilities.


I have worked nearly every day this week on my story. I started a new hacking, getting the story down to 16066. I realized I needed to get it below 15000, not just into the 15000s, I then got good word that the publisher was able to take a LITTLE longer story, so I restarted my pass and am cleaning it up, rather than decimating it. I am still cutting it down, but not like I was. Other than some corrections, it is about the best story I have ever written.
I think I have learned that to make the best story, write it with all the description you can add, then cut the word count down to where it is really tight, leaving just the right descriptions, actions, and scenes to be good. Cutting a third out really helps. I am not finished with this pass, but it is on page 25, I had to remove one return to get it there. It is at 16003 words. I started at 16385. I expect it to be less when done, but I am not expecting a whole lot less. I will finish this pass, then do a new one, with critical thought into mistakes and sentence structure, and then fire it off to someone to look it over.

I am still going on the story ideas. They are one page, possibly getting onto page two if it is really good. Time is more important than page length right now. Before I got into this writing project, I was more after three and four pages. At least I am getting them written.
I had a week of a lot of new ideas. At this moment, including what I am posting tonight, I have 59 story ideas in my compost pile. The top ones are post-able without giving them a thought.

This week, we had a wood turner's club meeting. I did a demonstration of how to make platters. This was my first demonstration, ever. I carried signs and we chanted.... Oooops, wrong kind of demonstration...
I was to demonstrate a new technique of how to make a platter (plate) so others might try my technique. I had seen others who did demonstrations, who had examples of different stages of the process so that they could skip removing loads of wood to speed the process. I did the same thing. I expected some form of failure in the process so I had steps already made just in case.
The lathe I was to use had a problem which caused me not to be able to actually do the project. I used my examples and pieces in different stages, to explain what I was doing, why I was doing it. Several people said they learned quite a bit from my demonstration. I am surprised. If I have something to demonstrate, I will do it again. The first time is always a challenge.

One great way to get ideas for stories, is to watch the news. The more outlandish the story you hear, the better it is for a story idea.
Figure on what could possibly cause such a situation to happen, and try to make it believable, but do so from a fantasy, or science fiction, point of view.
Got a random killing? have space aliens or people from the far future, hypnotizing the people to do that. Have a murder suicide family? have them attacked by demons and the father has to kill them to end the demon's chances of rule over the world.
Have a person do something really stupid, like get stuck in some spot he was not supposed to do? Have him using these as a portal to another world and this last time, it did not work.
Consider if all the people in government were really space aliens. What would happen if they all returned home? Take the worst politician and create a story where everything he is doing is to save the world, or the nation, from taking over by something worse.
Take something that happens here, a highway blocked up by an accident. Now place it in the far future where ground cars are rare and people fly everywhere. What can back up the traffic, how to people cope, how do officials get the problem cleared up.
You have a politician caught taking bribes. Now consider a government were corruption is the norm. What would be the equivalent? A politician refusing bribes and doing exactly what he says he was going to do? I did one story idea a few years ago where the political creatures were expected to lie. It was part of the job. One guy did everything he said he would do and everybody was outraged. He was accused of not telling lies. He counters saying that he did lie. He lied about not doing what he promised.
A crime spree? aliens rebuilding their ship to leave. they have to make spare parts and gather materials, and will take all sorts of things to get it done.
What about a war between two countries, as an attempt to attract an interstellar government to intervene and take over the world, bring pure peace. What about someone who knows about this and is trying to stop it. How?
If something is silly, explore it. Make it plausible, believable, something that was logical from a strange point of view.
One can have loads of fun, and get lots of stories from the news, if one adds a little imagination.

As to the question of the week, I can say

YES, I DID WRITE.

DID YOU WRITE?