This morning I've been distracted by computer troubles once again. Armed with a determination to get in here and write my 500 words before settling in to other tasks that need to be done, I was almost immediately derailed by my laptop misbehaving. I'll spare you the gory and geeky details, but I'm over here, two feet to the left, now typing on Cairns, the most recent acquisition from the local library, who donated a total of three used computers and a slew of mice and keyboards to me last year. Hopefully he'll play nice and let me get my work done.
Actually, I'm supposed to be writing my 500 words before writing in here. Distraction. Forgetfulness. Me. Anyhow, I nailed down my 500 words lickety-split yesterday, getting them done, as I had planned to do today, before I did nearly anything else (barring breakfast, of course).
Honestly, I didn't mean for the blog to turn into a constant run down of my progress with the challenge, but things got all backwards today and it's so odd to be working on a full keyboard and not my laptop and I'm just all discombobulated creativity-wise. Strange how one little change in the environment can completely throw me off my game. It's time to refocus! I do have some topics in mind for next week. Topics that aren't just about my manuscript. There are some burning questions that I intend to throw out here. There are some cool sites I've discovered recently. And other things, perhaps. So have a good weekend and I'll be back next week with ... stuff. Interesting stuff. Debatable stuff! See you then.
February Challenge Day Three: 626
Showing posts with label challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label challenge. Show all posts
Friday, February 4, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Filling in the gaps
I'm enjoying this challenge more as time goes on. I'd forgotten how much I love these characters and this setting. As I write each day I'm filling in gaps in my manuscript, places where I'd just had a summary sentence or two to remind me of where I was going during the frenzied writing of NaNoWriMo. It's a bit odd to incorporate setting details I created in the second part of the manuscript into the first part. I'm finding myself putting in placeholders for things and places I've forgotten the names for. I'm spending more time than I expected simply reading the second manuscript. I sit down to find a reference and look up ten minutes later when my screensaver turns on. Is it a good sign I'm drawn into my own writing? My words for today are accomplished, so I can spend some time putting them into Scrivener tonight along with some notes for the aforementioned setting details. It'd probably be a good thing to create a text note for each character, too. The first part characters are all named, but there is a considerably larger cast in the second part.
I realised last night that the second manuscript deals almost exclusively with the technology school and shows very little of the magic school. I wonder if that ought to be balanced out. The primary characters are equally important, so they should get equal time. Though I fear the story is going to transform somewhat if I do that. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. For now, I'll focus on my 500 words a day, filling in gaps, and tracking the information I need to keep my fingers on.
February challenge:
Day Two: 338
I realised last night that the second manuscript deals almost exclusively with the technology school and shows very little of the magic school. I wonder if that ought to be balanced out. The primary characters are equally important, so they should get equal time. Though I fear the story is going to transform somewhat if I do that. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. For now, I'll focus on my 500 words a day, filling in gaps, and tracking the information I need to keep my fingers on.
February challenge:
Day Two: 338
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
A Trickle of Stones
Okay, so my participation in A River of Stones was not as robust as I'd intended. I've never been more glad to see the back end of a month as I am to see that of January. I'm hoping February is a touch kinder. I could use some breathing room.
I did River posts when I could, sometimes tossed them onto Twitter, but basically didn't kick myself for missing a day. I had my doubts I could produce one every day even before I started. I'm pleased with what I did accomplish, and am moving right along into the next challenge.
Speaking of which, I got off to an inauspicious start yesterday. I spent a couple hours putting the current manuscript for "The Rise of Umbra" in my new Beta copy of Scrivener for Windows (c'mon, Scrivener people, build us a Linux version!) but failed to get any new words written for it. Overall, I like Scrivener. It has a few ugly spots (like document importing), but overall I think I slightly prefer it to Writer's Cafe at the moment. Scrivener for Windows is a beta release, though, so I'm not judging it too harshly. If I'd thought of it, I'd have taken a screenshot to put in here, but I may do a more formal review of Scrivener later, so I can do it then.
February challenge:
Day One: 0
I did River posts when I could, sometimes tossed them onto Twitter, but basically didn't kick myself for missing a day. I had my doubts I could produce one every day even before I started. I'm pleased with what I did accomplish, and am moving right along into the next challenge.
Speaking of which, I got off to an inauspicious start yesterday. I spent a couple hours putting the current manuscript for "The Rise of Umbra" in my new Beta copy of Scrivener for Windows (c'mon, Scrivener people, build us a Linux version!) but failed to get any new words written for it. Overall, I like Scrivener. It has a few ugly spots (like document importing), but overall I think I slightly prefer it to Writer's Cafe at the moment. Scrivener for Windows is a beta release, though, so I'm not judging it too harshly. If I'd thought of it, I'd have taken a screenshot to put in here, but I may do a more formal review of Scrivener later, so I can do it then.
February challenge:
Day One: 0
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Well, here we are, on day one of my 500-words-a-day challenge and I don't have a topic. Project. Subject. Whatever. I have a few choices.
If I choose "Prediction Center" I'll wind up with over 17,000 words at the end of the month. That's way too big for a short story. The story doesn't feel like it needs or wants to be that big. I could go the NaNoWriMo route and just carve it up when I'm finished, but I'm leery of that approach. I dislike needing to cut a story down to size (though I expect that's one of a scad of things I'll learn to do regularly, whether I'm comfortable with it or not), and short stories don't typically run over 10,000 words. Even though I'm only writing 500 words a day, it's probably better to work on that outside the self-imposed mini-marathon. I ought to do my 500 words on whatever project I choose, and then work on "Prediction Center". That should be doable, even if I don't do it every day.
I could choose to start a story for Sterling, but that would be a new project and I do, as I've mentioned, have other projects that need attention. Speaking of which...
I wrote the first 26,000 words of "Umbra" in 2005. I wrote 50,000 more in 2008. I want to get this story into shape to be printed as a proof copy this summer. This seems to be the most obvious choice, though the 'editing it at the same time' part makes me worry. Well, it'll be a learning experience, eh?
I've looked at the first section of "Umbra" so many times I get discouraged when I think about editing it or even working on it. So for the moment I'm picking up the second part that I wrote in 2008. I'll put it into Scrivener and start banging around and pray the beta version for Windows doesn't decide to randomly eat my work. Yes, I'm a pessimist. It occasionally saves me from minor disasters.
So "Umbra" it is. Why do I have a sinking feeling about this?
- Add words to "The Rise of Umbra" while also editing it
- Plot out a cohesive story for James Sterling and write that
- Dump a heap of words into "Prediction Center" and hope to trim it back to a workable short story size
If I choose "Prediction Center" I'll wind up with over 17,000 words at the end of the month. That's way too big for a short story. The story doesn't feel like it needs or wants to be that big. I could go the NaNoWriMo route and just carve it up when I'm finished, but I'm leery of that approach. I dislike needing to cut a story down to size (though I expect that's one of a scad of things I'll learn to do regularly, whether I'm comfortable with it or not), and short stories don't typically run over 10,000 words. Even though I'm only writing 500 words a day, it's probably better to work on that outside the self-imposed mini-marathon. I ought to do my 500 words on whatever project I choose, and then work on "Prediction Center". That should be doable, even if I don't do it every day.
I could choose to start a story for Sterling, but that would be a new project and I do, as I've mentioned, have other projects that need attention. Speaking of which...
I wrote the first 26,000 words of "Umbra" in 2005. I wrote 50,000 more in 2008. I want to get this story into shape to be printed as a proof copy this summer. This seems to be the most obvious choice, though the 'editing it at the same time' part makes me worry. Well, it'll be a learning experience, eh?
I've looked at the first section of "Umbra" so many times I get discouraged when I think about editing it or even working on it. So for the moment I'm picking up the second part that I wrote in 2008. I'll put it into Scrivener and start banging around and pray the beta version for Windows doesn't decide to randomly eat my work. Yes, I'm a pessimist. It occasionally saves me from minor disasters.
So "Umbra" it is. Why do I have a sinking feeling about this?
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