Monday, February 28, 2011

2011 Fiction Word Count Week 8


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Since I only had one day this week where I didn't get any writing done (and it was my birthday), are the mind games officially over? I hope so, but week 9 is already off to a rough start this Monday. I haven't had time to do anything, not before I left for the paying job, and not while at the paying job. I have to leave early today for a doctor's appointment, hopefully this means I'll have writing time at home.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Triangulation Entry Post 12

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METRICS
New Words: 87
Total words for the first draft: 3502 – 253 = 3249
What I hate about my writing: No time management to actually do the writing.
The Good: It’s Friday!
The Bad: Didn’t get to write longhand at home, then the office at lunch out for my birthday and I didn’t get any more typing done.
Fave line: They sat in facing chairs and [Irida’s father’s name] polished his talons against his robe. She recognized the stalling tactic from painful conversations of her childhood.
What I'm looking forward to: Some quiet time to build languages.
What I'm not looking forward to: How that’s probably not going to happen this weekend.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Triangulation Entry Post 11

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METRICS
New Words: 519
Total words for the first draft: 3415 – 253 = 3162
What I hate about my writing: I really hope my word count isn’t going to be thrown off too badly when I finally name the other characters.
The Good: Another day of progress!
The Bad: Didn’t get writing time this morning before leaving for work.
Fave line: “And no one thought I would be made betah for that same reason!”
What I'm looking forward to: Some quiet time to build languages.
What I'm not looking forward to: How that’s probably not going to happen this weekend.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Triangulation Entry Post 10

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METRICS
New Words: 511
Total words for the first draft: 2896 – 253 = 2643
What I hate about my writing: I have jumpy focus today. I’m trying to work with it.
The Good: 511 words typed! And I am visualizing the story ending. Now I just need to visualize the transition I still need. And a title. :p
The Bad: Oops, let me fix that in the spreadsheet notes. I thought I had added some handwritten notes. I did write in long-hand but not on this story, and blog posts I have yet to make don’t count as fiction words either.
Fave line: “You never bothered to examine anything concerning betah, despite wanting to align yourself with one. Another example of weak judgment.” His jaw snapped together twice. “Count yourself lucky that I am prepared to care for your interests, Irida, since no one else is capable of that.”
What I'm looking forward to: Wrapping up. I’m close enough to see it now. Then it just a matter of cleaning up the details.
What I'm not looking forward to: Language creation. Oh snap, I moved outside again. That means world building and my experience with that has been “ARGH! I don’t know what I’m doing and I’m going to fuck it up and astrophysics hobbyists are going to laugh at me!” I hate that feeling and accomplish some insane mental acrobats to stay away from it. To the point, where it’s easier to roll the dice and create a planet and its solar system. :p

However, I would prefer that it be scientifically plausible. The problem is had with AstroSynthesis v2.0 is that it wouldn’t auto-correct my variables. I’d tweak the planet only to find out I moved it out of the Goldilocks zone (but I wouldn't discover this until I tried to map the planet and all the water turned to ice). If anyone knows of a planet/solar system generator that will double-check stuff, please let me know.

Monday, February 21, 2011

2011 Fiction Word Count Week 7


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And all caught up again. This weekend was a bust in the writing department. Now I need to catch up my metrics posts and see if I have any lunch hour left.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Triangulation Entry Post 9

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METRICS
New Words: 266
Total words for the first draft: 2385 – 253 =2132
What I hate about my writing: Why is it so hard to wake up on time and do it!
The Good: Moving to handwritten first draft is getting the story out of my head and onto paper where I can do something with it.
The Bad: I’m not getting the full 500 words typed daily like I want to.
Fave line: “I am not a matriarch, Cobaine, so I can’t have an honor guard.”
What I'm looking forward to: Tweaking the details of Mealte’s belongings. I thought I had added a major editing job to Stellar Gift of Death because I had established Mealte using a knife in it, but realized just how dangerous talons are in the fight scene in this short story. Then I had a brain wave about the knife. It’s a background detail, but it also means I don’t have to erase every mention of it.
What I'm not looking forward to: Language creation. *headdesk*

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Triangulation Entry Post 8

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METRICS
New Words: 248
Total words for the first draft: 2119 – 253 = 1866
What I hate about my writing: I was pretty sure I had 30 minutes when I sat down to write, so how come it ended up only being 15?

I’ve had good success with the Bedtime Help program on the computer (with the exception of every time Windows 7 shuts off, I have to remind it that yes this program can run as administrator despite all the checkmarks saying it can run as administrator), so I’m looking for an alarm clock that I can program with multiple daily alarms (12 would be nice but no less than 8) to remind me that it’s time for a different morning task. Right now, I have no idea if I haven’t allotted enough time for the tasks or if I’m dawdling.
The Good: The draft that is been handwritten is moving along briskly. I finally got to Solair’s plan in action. Typing is suffering because of poor use of time available. I’m afraid I will have to be blunt with Mom and tell her I have to go home at 6 p.m. because I’m going to bed at 8:30pm and I need the whole two and a half hours to finish daily chores.
The Bad: Is Solair’s creepy stalker factor coming through? Irida is not terrified of him, but at the same time he makes edgy and she’d rather not have anything to do with him. Only he keeps worming his way in without tripping off character’s alarm bells, but I want the readers to see past that and be concerned.
Fave line: “This moment, I am bleeding, Solair!”
What I'm looking forward to: Seeing everything as a cohesive whole, so I can see if it works or not.
What I'm not looking forward to: Creating the Erochian language. I never seem to have a good time to just stop and do that (plus finish Ttiik that I started to learn the instructions). Fear is latching onto that task to stop progress, but I’m not going to let it. Even if I have to seclude myself on Saturday with only Creating a Language and blank pages.
Other Notes: I wrote for 30minutes on Monday (the only day I got up at 3:30 on the dot too). Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday have all equaled 15—mainly due to getting out of bed late and I can’t wear my nightgown to work. But I’m not sure about the dawdling, hence looking for a computer alarm clock.

Monday: typed 492 words and would have had more if Mom hadn’t talked my ear off at supper. Tuesday: never had time to type at work and got home late running errands. Wednesday: 248 typed because I got distracted at work and didn’t have enough time before bedtime to get to 500.

Notebook Composing vs. Computer Composing: Granted with my free time in last Thursday’s class, I jumped ahead to the scene of the fight in the restaurant, which was clear enough in my head to start without notes. All notebook writing since has been from this scene. I sit down and write into the scene immediately, no warm up necessary. Writing time hasn’t been wasted staring at a blank page.

Composing on the computer screen takes much longer. More time staring and rereading and fighting the urge to get out of the seat and do anything else. That urge is non-existent with the notebook and if I have material ready to type.

This is not the first time I’ve made these observations, but the last time I did I thought I could change my habits to be a more productive and therefore more professional writer. Judging by last year’s proof of nothing getting written for days on end, I’m doing more harm to my end goal.

I’ve been a writer since I was eleven-years-old. Since 1988, I have been scribbling stories on any paper on my person at any time. In high school, I recycled the paper I used for class note-taking by crossing out the material and writing the story around it so my parents wouldn’t have to spend money to buy extra paper just for me. Once we got a computer, I typed the stories so others could read them, editing as I went to the second draft.

In college, I shifted some writing to computer first because of deadlines, but it never felt right, like I was skipping a step and the papers were less thought-out than they should be. My studies of the writing craft led to realizing lots of writers compose on the computer, so I attempted to undo 22 years of habit formation.

It’s not the first bone-headed move I’ve ever made and it won’t be the last.

So where do I stand now? Unless there is a pressing reason (deadline) not to, all first drafts will be handwritten in a notebook set aside for that story. Which will make the investment in a LightScribe pen less “oh cool toy” and more work related.

It’s easier to count what has been typed, so I may end up with some days of no progress but I can make notes on the spreadsheet of writing in longhand. I have a span of 32 days of neither but that’s only 9% of the year if I don’t add to it from now on. And I’ll probably end up doing what I’m doing now—typing what I’ve just finished writing.

Monday, February 14, 2011

2011 Fiction Word Count Week 6


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Triangulation Entry Post 7

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Progress Bar from Writertopia

METRICS
New Words: 492
Total words for the first draft: 1871 – 253 = 1618
What I hate about my writing: Jumping to a brand new scene.
The Good: Shifting back to handwriting the first draft has kept me motivated.
The Bad: I’m shifting the schedule around a bit, so getting everything done has been a bit of a stretch. Also real life family drama is threatening what progress I have made.
Fave line: Mealte pounced on a skinny Offworlder before the being dropped a chair on Solair, who was pulling the waiter off his guest.
What I'm looking forward to: Finishing this story.
What I'm not looking forward to: Making the transition between what I have done on the computer and this scene.

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Sonar3

Sonar3 is the submission tracking tool made by Spacejock Software. I just started using it, but so far I'm finding it easy to add works and markets to, and I'm pleasantly surprised when things are generated that I will probably need but hadn't considered (like automatically calculating how long the story was out before a response). It's an advantage of using software designed by a writer for writers.

The real trick will be is it easy enough for me to continue using.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Capt. Kate Short Story Post 13

*Blinks* Funny how that worked out.

Rebel Tales was the market that requested "Covenant of the Restless" in full. It has closed shop thanks to shenanigans from one bad apple.

Bad news is the death of this great idea for creating a ezine for serial fiction. The good news is that my story is free to market elsewhere. Meh news, I have to look for a new market.

Monday, February 07, 2011

Saturday, February 05, 2011

Triangulation Entry Post 6

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METRICS
New Words: 555
Total words for the first draft: 1126
What I hate about my writing: What do you mean I can’t finish?
The Good: Huzzah! I got to 500 words again. I was starting to sweat that I had lowered that bar still out-of-reach.
The Bad: Momentum got robbed by waiting two hours to accomplish something else that didn’t happen. So that’s why I didn’t end up sitting until I found the end of the story.
Fave line: “Neither of our clans believes that we should live lock-stepped in the past. If that were so, I could not breed at all.”
What I'm looking forward to: Solair’s arrival.
What I'm not looking forward to: Finishing everything I should have done over four days tomorrow.

Thursday, February 03, 2011

Triangulation Entry Post 5

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METRICS
New Words: 148
Total words for the first draft: 571
What I hate about my writing: Letting myself get sidetracked.
The Good: The shift with different scripts is moving things more briskly.
The Bad: I got sidetracked with family drama after only getting 148 words done.
Fave line: “I will always be considered a betah.”
What I'm looking forward to: A day off of family drama so I can actually see progress again?
What I'm not looking forward to: Trying to dig up my motivation. I feel like it has been batted away and I have no idea which direction to even go look for it.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Triangulation Entry Post 4

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11 days of letting my brain percolate and giving into distractions PLUS 2 days of gritting teeth and concentrated note taking in longhand to find the oomph again MINUS a 15 minutes whine into the notebook about how much I suck because there is no oomph and I can’t find the oomph EQUALS why Sol Stein’s advice about giving characters different scripts finally popped into my head where I can use it.

Stepping back once I had that brain wave, I see why my narrative went wonky. So far all that was happening was waiting around for something to react to. Not exactly riveting material and even I got fed up. So now I’ve given Mealte and Irida two different scripts and they will be in minor conflict when the action starts. *Crossing fingers* I’ll see tomorrow how it works out. I got an ice/sleet/maybe snow/Winter Storm day off!