Author Topic: Accountability, author's timecard, word count written, feeling lonely out there?  (Read 51257 times)

Offline Reil

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Are you writing daily ?


Not aimed at me I know but no, I haven't...  I, um... I'll get off the internet now.

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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Not aimed at me I know but no, I haven't...  I, um... I'll get off the internet now.

Oh, I'm sorry; that was very much not meant as a critique. I do not write daily myself.
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline Reil

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Oh, I'm sorry; that was very much not meant as a critique. I do not write daily myself.

And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that it was.  I understood it in the original context, it's just that it happened to highlight consistency, one of my major weak-points.

Offline prophet224

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Amen brother (or sister, as the case may be).  I really have a consistency problem.  Much of that is not because I don't have lots to write, but because I feel guilty doing so.  If I'm writing than I am not: cutting the grass, doing dishes, washing laundry, fixing the stinking downspouts, etc., or even just organizing the office, so I can feel like the area is uncluttered.  If life is cluttered and my surroundings are cluttered than I feel cluttered and don't get much done. 

When the wife was studying for her personal training exam, we would work at the same time, so neither had to feel guilty. :)

On a related note, I was re-reading Good Omens recently and read through the afterword(s).  One note was that when Terry Pratchett wrote "The Colour of Magic", he did it at 400 words per day.  This tells me that 'any momentum is good momentum'.  Unless perhaps it is associated with a large slug of <insert any object type here> going at relativistic velocities towards your home world.  But anyway...
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Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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On a related note, I was re-reading Good Omens recently and read through the afterword(s).  One note was that when Terry Pratchett wrote "The Colour of Magic", he did it at 400 words per day.

I've seen Pterry at conventions. You leave him alone for thirty seconds and he's writing.  Ability to be productive in so busy a context is a great gift, but it's definitely not one I have.
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline Starbeam

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About 2 1/2 handwritten pages, mostly revision, but a helluva lot better than I've been doing.  I'll take it.
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." Ray Bradbury

Offline prophet224

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I'm getting a bit better... done about 1500 words in the last couple of days.  It's not for lack of material... just can't (read: won't) make time for it over other things that need to be done.
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Offline Reil

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My big problem is I'm still near the beginning of the writing process.  I've got the basic plot, I've got the characters, and I've got an ending, but I still don't really think it's THE ending yet.  The basic pieces are all there, but the details are fuzzy and I just feel like its missing that emotional gutpunch I look for in my favorite books.  I'm working on drafts of my opening scene at the moment (just finished the second draft of version three) but I'm not sure on how to proceed from there.  If I just continue writing progressively from there, I may end up at the climax and still find it lacking necessitating a complete rewrite.  Also, experience has indicated I might not be one of those authors capable of writing scenes out of order and still manage to end up with a cohesive narrative whole.

It's frustrating, but right now I'm thinking the best thing to do is work on some short stories about these characters outside of my current story for character and worldbuilding purposes as well as a way to proactively procrastinate.  Frustrating as hell since I'm really excited about a lot of aspects of this story.

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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2300 words last night.  On the wrong project, but we take what we can get.
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline prophet224

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2300 words...  man, that is beautiful. :)

Reil, many authors write scenes and short stories that interest them, then put them away.  Later on you may find that that particular story or scene is just what you needed, or close enough.  Or you just take it one block at a time and do the first part, then move to the next.  You will learn more about the story as you write it, so maybe you will have more inspiration for the ending you are looking for.
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Offline Reil

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Reil, many authors write scenes and short stories that interest them, then put them away.  Later on you may find that that particular story or scene is just what you needed, or close enough.  Or you just take it one block at a time and do the first part, then move to the next.  You will learn more about the story as you write it, so maybe you will have more inspiration for the ending you are looking for.

I completely agree, but let me clarify, I'm at the beginning of the writing process for this particular story, but I'm not a beginning writer. I have whole workbooks full of "interesting scenes," "did I really just hear that" dialogue from real life, reading notes and memorable turns of phrase as well as more notebooks filled with general story and character concepts.  This is more about trying to implement many of these loose-leaf ideas in an actual story, and tweaking set story elements to raise the emotional stakes at the climax.  The primary plot arc is fairly set, but my protagonist's character arc is lacking emotional payoff for her choice during that defining moment.  Some of that will come with the fleshing-out process inherent in writing, but that's no excuse for ignoring a flaw in the skeleton.

Offline Starbeam

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And the 2 1/2 pages typed up comes out to around 760 words.  Huh.  Looking at the earlier version, I've apparently cut out about 550ish words.

No, wait, those extra words just got moved to a different bit.
« Last Edit: July 01, 2010, 10:04:27 PM by Starbeam »
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." Ray Bradbury

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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Today was a 5000 word day.

Still on the Wrong Project, Gromit, but even allowing that I have cut off the original chapter 1 and start of chapter 2, and taken out the events of what was Chapter 5 and will on my shiny new all-the-nest-of-vipers-are-pointing-in-the-same-direction plot be chapter 9, I think that's closing on a quarter done at a mite over 20kwords.  

(Mind you, forgetting until 9 pm that I'd not eaten since breakfast ? Not so good.)
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline belial.1980

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Not up to neurovore's awesome word count lately but I pulled off 2100 words today. I've been averaging over 1000 words a day for weeks now and I'm pretty happy with that.

Today was a 5000 word day.

Still on the Wrong Project, Gromit,


5000--way to go! If you don't mind me asking, why is this is the Wrong Project? Do you just have something else that you'd rather be working on? 

Love cannot save you from your fate.

- Jim Morrison

Offline Starbeam

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Got distracted last night, so I only wrote 3 sentences.  But I'm at the point where I'm loving that instead of beating myself over the head because it's just good to be at it again.  Plus I watched a movie for a bit of idea inspiration for one of the world building thingies.
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." Ray Bradbury