wayfaringwordhack | Entries tagged with writing challenges

Wanna help me fill my well?

gakked from

pjthompson

Give me the title of a story I’ve never written, and feedback telling me what you liked best about it, and I will tell you any of: the first sentence, the last sentence, the thing that made me want to write it, the biggest problem I had while writing it, why it almost never got submitted to magazines, the scene that hit the cutting room floor but that I wish I’d been able to salvage, or something else that I want readers to know.

“What are you trying to do to me?” is a thing I whiningly asked my mind on a regular basis these past few days as I fought to come to a decision. You see, my brain has taken an idea and literally gone wild with it. The idea is huge, too huge for this small brain, I tell you. If brain thinks I can pull this off, then brain is going to have to be super cooperative and be willing to learn, to grow, to question more deeply, to...study and Research. Yeah, Research with a capital R because if I go along with the mind’s latest schemes and machinations, this isn’t going to be a project where imagination trumps facts. Yes, well, imagination will win out--I'm a fantasist and write fiction--but to make use of the brain’s twisty turns, there have to be a lot of veracious details.

Because of these developments, I am going to have to stop NaNo. There is just no way I can write this novel right now. I have lots of Research to tend to first. Another option has occurred to me, but I'm unsure of it. I could write on another project for a few hours a day (I can usually get my NaNo words in 1-2hrs), and use the rest of my time to dig and poke at the Big Story. I'm afraid of not being able to maintain momentum, though. I tend to get sucked into one thing and go at it whole hog. Nevertheless, part of me just hates giving up something I've started. *sigh* In this case, I think I need to do what is best for me and that means removing the pressure. But something else is bothering me: I can see the new project taking a loooong time to get finished. It would be nice to have something "lighter" in the works, too. Could it just be a matter of discipline and acting like a professional, a matter of better organizing my time?

What to do, what to do? Has anyone else ever been in a similar situation? If so, how did you handle it? Anyone have advice?

I had decided that I wasn't going to do NaNo this year. Then an idea swamped me. Okay, it barely dribbled on me because I still don't know what the heck is going on with it. It doesn't matter. I have a month to figure it out and just ramble around a bit. So what if I have another Extremely Rough Draft? At least I'll have a draft. After spending so many years rewriting TTD and wasting I-don't-know-how-many days--months--by polishing prose that didn't make the cut, I've come to realize that, for me, it's better to at least have an idea of the complete draft before worrying about prettiness.

So, this morning I wrote the first 1677 words. I got the opening scene down (funny how most of my books occur to me in the form of the opening scene). After I work on my TTD query a bit more, I'm going to see if I can't cobble together a hook and blurb for the new WiP, the working name of which is Tatterdemalion (many thanks to all of those who answered my question the other day).

Been more active on the writing front these past few days. Dispelling the indecision about the ending has really help re-ignite my desire to push on.

53,435 / 60,000
(88.0%)

I'll probably post another meter later in the day just because seeing silly little things like this makes a difference to my trickable writer brain.

Current Mood: creative

Not making much headway on my WIP on the new word front, but I have had some good discussions about it with writer buddies that have lead me to some much-needed solutions. I realized that I can't write a truly coherent, much less resonant, ending to the story as it stands. I have to go back and put in too much, build up character, etc for it to be worth my while to stress over the ending now. However, finish this draft I will. And before the end of December. It will take me less words than planned though because it needs must resemble a glorified outline more than true narrative. Not that I plan on writing crap (uh, yeah, Miquela, what have you written so far?); I just know that sparse is better when the thing has to be gutted anyway. Forward motion, O Spartan Drafter!

There have been a few words, so I'll do a meter (notice I've dropped my expected total from 80K to 60K):

52,020 / 60,000
(86.0%)

Current Mood: accomplished

Not as much progress as I wanted to make today, but we are having dinner with J's cousin tonight, so I have to call it quits.

*steals pinkness from May*

51,107 / 80,000
(63.0%)

Current Music: Enya - Sacred Spirit - Indian Chanting

I'm participating in FiReNoMo. This is just what I need to help me get this first draft finished. I'm such a sucker for writing challenges. Unfortunately I only found out yesty and I had been taking a few days off to play with TiddlyWiki. Fun, fun!

As things stand with the WIP, I have 50,275. I'm thinking I have five major scenes to show in order to finish this skeleton. So, I'm going to say I need 30K more. That's the number I'll be aiming for to make concrete progress reports, but my true goal is to finish this ~~ugly~~ first draft.

Can I just say how much I hate LJ sometimes? Good. I hate LJ sometimes.

NaNoWriMo is over. For me, at least. So I give you:

Can someone tell me why, even though I've written almost a complete first draft, I feel like I've done nothing all month? Must but the copious amounts of S.U.C.K. in said draft.

Roll on December.

ETA: This sounds like I'm down and depressed. I'm not. I'm just tired. I need a nap. I need to vary my sentence structure. I need... *zonk*

Lots of people have been commenting on how they love their stories. I wish I could say the same about mine, but I don't think writing a rough (and yes, I do mean rough) draft at lightning speed is conducive to lovey-dovey, googley eyed, ooh-ah feelings. I have no desire to pet my story nor to cuddle it. More like keep it at a distance with the toe of my boot--if, of course, I were to wear such ridiculous footwear in the sweltering humidity that is Mayotte.

I don't necessarily think story hate is right either, though, and there isn't something with the story itself that bothers me. It is just that I'm a word person, a fleshy person. I know that the skeleton is part of my baby, but it isn't fun--or maybe even mentally stable--to cuddle a pile of bones. Call me shallow, but appearance counts for a lot, and at the moment, what I have bears a striking resemblance to a mess.

Still, that pile *is* shaping up to be a normal-looking skeleton, and lengths of tendons and a few tiny, tiny muscles are starting to appear, hinting that when it does come together it just might be something worthy of affection. Possibly love.

*"Do not despair," she mutters to herself, returning to her writing*

Very tired, but in a good way. Lots of words happening to make up for the slow start.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/NanowrimoUtils/ProgressReport/74783.html

Unfortunately, I still need to clean the house and plan an English lesson before I go to bed. And shower. I really should shower.

How are my fellow NaNo-ers doing?

Current Mood: exhausted

Being in the middle of passing my second level in scuba diving and trying to do NaNo makes for a busy me. My NaNo totals haven't been as impressive as I would like, but I knew they wouldn't be at the beginning of the month with so much else going on. Let's just get the stats out of the way, shall we?

Progress.

Now, things have slowed down a tad on the diving front, and I'm sick (extreme fatigue, sore throat, some congestion, funky dark red patch on the back of my left hand). Seems like life and my body are always out to get me in November.

On a more positive front, yesty, J and I did our first "deep water" dive--down to 41,2m (135.17ft) Guess what we saw? Our first SHARK! Woohoo! Well, it wasn't the very first we've ever swam with. There were baby ones in the lagoon around the island we stayed on in the Maldives, but this was the biggest at about four feet.

I hope I'm well by Saturday, seeing as how we have a double dive excursion planned. And if things go to plan, we should get our level two validated.

ETA
Being the selfish shellfish that I am, I haven't been keeping up with LJ. If you need to get my attention or pull my focus away from my navel, email me or comment on one of my entries.

Current Mood: sick

Today I committed NaNo. There was much wordage. There was little cooking and no cleaning. I ~~might have to~~ must recitfy the last now.

J is already moaning (playfully, of course) about my new lover, NaNo, and my salacious NaNo friends, though I did not point out that

frigg,with whom I had a chat, is not participating in the debauchery this year.

slmcgaw is though, and she better get her rear in gear, as folks say back where I hail from.

NaNo Progress:

Current Mood: accomplished

It's been awhile, hasn't it? Let's see, what's been going on on my writing front?

Well, first there was a loooooooooooooong spell of Nuttin' Much. Then came two lovely writing-help offers from two lovely people. (*hugs

frigg and

kmkibble), which encouraged me to get back into wordslinging, albeit by dribbles and drabbles.

frigg's comments have led me to trim some of the fat from the chapters she read, and yes, there was fat to be cut--5015 words of it, all without breaking a sweat--in hopes that it would help me tighten my focus and increase my momentum. Can't say, though, that I'm feeling rekindled passion for the project. Not yet.

So, what did I decide to do? Tackle NaNo. Yeah, that should be a ~~torture~~fun-filled month. I have no direction, no set plot, no inkling of an ending; just a character and an incident that destroys her life and puts a price on her head. Throw her in the water--boiling, no less--and watch her swim, that seems to be plan for this one. I hope she's a swimmer and not a sinker.

Current Mood: groggy

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The Wayfaring Wordhack

Valises in Lebanon

Entries tagged with writing challenges

Let me tell you a little tale

When a brain goes wild

Let the insanity begin...Again

Doing better

Am I there yet?

Update

FiReNoMo

Fin

Story Love

T.I.R.E.D.

Coming up for air

Commencement

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