I’ve been trying to write everyday. At least something. Blogging helps because it gives me a schedule of weekly topics. My main writing project, a continuation of one of me short stories into a full length novel, moves ahead like a sputtering car, slow but sometimes jumping ahead in spurts.
If I’m stuck, I will often just write the dialogue, then go back and fill in the thoughts and descriptions. I go back to previous chapters and see where I can elaborate; I am in no danger of having to pair down my word count.
I try to keep track of details, so that I don’t contradict what happened or repeat myself. You would think that since I am writing it, I would know what has already been said, but things slip by.
I had a good writing day yesterday, not on the novel, but on a short story. I saw a writing prompt for a contest on Reedsy and I instantly had an idea. I actually took one of my NaPoWriMo poems and reworked it into a story. I almost got in 1000 words, which is the minimum length. OK, about 70 words were from the poem, and I used 10 words from a line from one of my lyrics, but I’m counting them.
I also came across a fun prompt (see Fibbing Friday below), so there’s a few more words for the tally.
playgrounds and graveyards / poem-hubris – Shawn wrote 2 poems in response to the discovery of the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in Kamloops, BC.
Quick! How many days in May? August? What about March? Can you instantly recall that information? You are lucky. I sure can’t. If you are like me, you had to start to recite: “Thirty days, has September, April, June…” and once you eliminated those ones, you came to the answer of 31.
Did you know if you put your fists together with your index fingers touching, starting from the left, each knuckle is a 31 day month and the dips are all 30 (except for that weird February which I can never remember what year is a leap year). Sure you have knuckle left over, and you have to point with your nose, but hey, it works.
I can recall many facts when I watch Jeopardy, many more if I have recorded it and press pause (not to Google, just to think). When I comes to math, I wish I was able to recall certain facts without resorting to tricks. I suppose mathematicians and scientists have a good memory and are able remember and recall what they learn instantly. Same goes for musicians. There’s an upcoming post in there – if I remember to write it. Now where was I…?
I was able to get get back to my weekly blog schedule this week. I would like to plan out my posts better, but I’ll admit, most of the time, it’s a night before or morning of routine. Like right now…
I do keep a running Word doc with my ideas and thoughts to build on. Recently I had tried out a program called Shaxpir which I wrote about here: Tuesday Tune-up: Writing Tools / Programs. I was having some difficulty logging—Oh. You’re not done reading the linked post yet? Sorry. I’ll grab a coffee then…
Done? Great!
As I was saying, I was having some difficulty logging in and accessing my work, and the support that I was getting was substandard. Finally, Someone on a community board offered a solution that worked. Now the task is to remove my content—which thankfully did not have much new material—and delete the program.
Speaking of support, here is an update on my Wattpad vs. Inkitt experience (see this week’s Free Book Friday for context). I was having difficulty in Inkitt creating single spaces between my lines of poetry because each ‘Enter’ key stroke created a new paragraph.
After posting on the support forum, I received a response a week later, which did not work, and I haven’t heard anything since. Several other writers in the community offered solutions, with the same result.
I had abandoned Wattpad many months ago, but decided to give it a try. Experiencing the same issue, I emailed their support staff, and received an answer the same day, which worked! Want to create single spaces? Shift + Enter. Ta-Dah!
Wattpad: 1 Inkitt: 0
Have a great weekend! Here’s something else to read:
