Category Archives: Writing in Public Challenge

Writing in Public: Day 05, Month 01

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Much of today was spent either working on the rough draft of “Listening Post” or coming up with a new schedule for writing that should be of great benefit:

Several writers I follow all say that it’s best to work on multiple projects at once, and I agree with that.  It’s something I’ve done as a tactic rather than a long-term strategy.  I would write until stuck on something, then switch to something else, then go back to the first item, so on so forth.  There was never a plan involved.  It was just something that happened on the spur of the moment.

Starting Monday the plan is to have a rough draft to work on, a revision to work on, a research/outline project to work on, and my novel “Into the Wastes” to work on, with a set amount of hours devoted to each as the day progresses.  I’m not entirely sure which hours will be devoted to what yet, but for now the rough draft will be worked on first, followed by the revision of something previously written, then on to the novel work, and finishing with researching the next project.  I’m hoping to have a flow that will eventually go like so:

Short Story Writing:

Day One:

  • Rough Draft: Story 1 (In this case, the already planned “A Gentle Breeze”)
  • Revision: Story 0 (A previously written tale, such as “Ninja Mama”)
  • Research/Outline: Story 2

Day Two:

  • Rough Draft: Story 2 (Planned the day before)
  • Revision: Story 1 (Rough draft written the day before)
  • Research/Outline: Story 3

And so on, so forth.  Will it always work out like this?  Probably not.  Some rough drafts and revisions will take longer than a day to work on, especially tales in excess of 5,000 words.  It’ll be an interesting experiment, in any event.

Anyway, on to the numbers.  Hopefully early next week we’ll start seeing some “salable” numbers as revisions from this past week get finished:

  • Nonfiction: 315
  • Planning and outlining: 250
  • Fiction: 900
  • Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 4,368

Total Salable for Month: 000

Writing in Public: Day 04, Month 01

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Today was another day marked with more planning, outlining, and research than with actual writing.  I was able to begin the rough draft of “Listening Post.”  The first page is written, and I have a pretty good idea of where I want to go with the tale, at least from the perspective of the first draft.  Revision is where the story’s framework really coalesces for me, so I’m looking forward to getting started on that as soon as possible.

While out shoveling snow I spent a good bit of time thinking about “Listening Post” and “A Gentle Breeze” and I’ve come to the conclusion that “Listening Post” stands a better chance of fitting the more traditional superhero mold that I’m assuming Penumbra is looking for.  On the one hand the main character, Listener, is not going to be your typical superhero who’s capable of duking it out with a volcano despite never having been to the gym nor having any kind of flame retardant clothing.  He’s more of a desk jockey, his abilities tailored less to combat and more to behind-the-scenes intelligence gathering.  On the other hand, he is part of a team that does include the more rough-and-tough superheroes we all know and love, such as Pugilist and Shootist (He’s a John Wayne fan, as you can probably tell).

Anyway, on to the breakdown:

  • Nonfiction: 240
  • Planning and outlining: 825
  • Fiction: 300
  • Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 3,468

Total Salable for Month: 000

Writing in Public: Day 03, Month 01

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Today was not very productive from an actual fiction-writing standpoint.  I spent a good bit of the day reading articles on writing technique from Superhero Nation, a website devoted to the writing of superhero novels, short stories, and comics, and also writing in general.  I had gone with the intent to look up some common tropes of superhero stories to either play off of or avoid entirely, and ended up reading a bunch of articles on general writing techniques.  It was well spent.

The reason for the superhero interest has to do with Penumbra‘s superhero theme this month.  There were a few different ideas floating around in my head, and two coalesced rather nicely today.  The outlining is ready to the point that I should be able to get rough drafts for both finished tomorrow.  They’ll be sloppy (Rough drafts always are for me), but they should be finished and ready for revision Saturday morning.

It’s obvious that all of my writing goals won’t be met for the week, but there should be five stories finished.  And the number of stories I wanted to write was five, so…

Anyway, today’s numbers:

 

  • Nonfiction: 206
  • Planning and outlining: 2,806
  • Fiction: 000
  • Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 3,168

Total Salable for Month: 000

Writing in Public: Day 02, Month 01

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Started my writing at 12:00 PM today.  Normally I like to get writing started at 10:00, get a solid two or three hours in before lunch, and then hit it again until dinner.  The “hit it again until dinner” also didn’t happen.  With the bad weather rolling in, it’s been a busy day of running more errands and gathering firewood.  No excuse for someone trying to make a career of writing.  Writing time is something I need to guard jealously and insure that only writing is done during those specified blocks.  That is something I will implement first thing tomorrow.  10:00 – 12:00, then 1:00 – 5:00, or something to that effect.

With that said, there was some productivity.  The rough draft of “Alien Concept” is finished, clocking in at approximately 1,050 words.  The rough draft of the Kazka “Journeys” theme story is also finished.  It’s another flash fiction piece, and it will need quite a bit of work to get it up to where I’m satisfied with it.  On the planning and outlining front, I’ve figured out a starting point and protagonist for the “Songs of Fate” story that I’ll begin actually writing on Friday.  That is for the Crossed Genres‘ music themed issue.

  • Nonfiction: 211
  • Planning and outlining: 481
  • Fiction: 1,218
  • Salable words: 000

Total Fiction for Month: 3,168

Total Salable for Month: 000

Writing in Public: Day 01, Month 01

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Well, today turned out to have less time devoted to writing than I had originally planned.  I started writing at around 10:00 AM, and at Noon I was slammed with a seemingly endless supply of errands that had to be run.  The good news is it has freed my day up for tomorrow.  Once I sit down at 10:00 AM tomorrow I should be clear to write well into the afternoon.

The other good news is the two hours I was writing fiction turned out to be fairly productive.  I finished the rough draft of “Fallout Ariel” and came up with a plot for another flash fiction piece with the working title of “Alien Concept.”  I’m hoping to get a rough draft of that out tomorrow.

Here is the breakdown for writing today.  Note that both the “Fiction” and “Planning and outlining” categories will likely be edited tomorrow, as I tend to write just before bed.

  • Nonfiction: 840
  • Planning and outlining: 353
  • Fiction: 1,950
  • Salable words: 0

Total Fiction for Month: 1,950

Total Salable for Month: 0

Update: Wrote another 300 or so words, the opening page of the “Alien Concept” rough draft.  It’s been added to the numbers above, bringing total fiction for the day up to approximately 1,950.  Note that these are estimates, as my rough drafts tend to be written by hand.  Once I get into the typed revisions and final drafts, the numbers will become more exact.