![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Tuesday, November 4th
Nov. 4th, 2014 08:26 amThe Daily Report
Yesterday, as I said, I was taking a more reflective day. Late in it--around five o'clock--I started regretting how little it felt like I had accomplished, and I opened up ILYS.com just to do some random writing. In honor of their anniversary/NaNoWriMo/their need for funding, they're doing a fundraiser, and their front page was highlighting some user reviews, a few of which mentioned things like one or four thousand word sessions.
Well, I've never used ILYS for anything more than 500 words at a time, and that rarely. Part of this is that it took me a long time to trust a browser-based productivity aid to keep my words if I had a browser crash or a power outage. Part of it is my habit of writing in sprints and then editing the results into a story. I totally got ILYS's idea of turning off editor brain while writer brain is working. I just felt like I had a good rhythm.
Well, after I read the testimonials, I decided to set the target to a thousand words and see what happened. I didn't have any particular aim in mind, just the kind of seed I might have used for one of my flash stories. I started writing, and ended up with a 1,200 word beginning of a story that seemed worth developing. After another 1,000 word session, I realized that the story as it was taking shape would need serious restructuring, if not rewriting. It was third person omniscient with no dialogue, kind of fable style, which works best for very short pieces, which this wasn't likely to be. So I stopped that draft and used it as a sort of treatment or outline for a new version, which I started writing from word 0 in ILYS as a dialogue, with the character in the story telling it to another person.
That draft was still in third person, and it lacked any kind of context or immediacy. So I made a third draft, starting from the second but significantly rewrote it, adding a beginning and an end to set the stage and bring a conclusion, and making it first person with the "audience" character as the narrator.
The story's not quite done, it's still a bit emotionally muted because of its third person roots. As I went to bed last night, I figured out a potential way to fix that, so I'm going to be doing version four sometime tomorrow (since today's a publishing day).
So the immediate news is that I have another new short story, likely to be around ~7,500 words when finished, with the major writing happening in the course of a couple of hours. I think that longer term, the fact that I was able to sit down with ILYS and write like that is going to mean big things. Two weeks ago, I sold a poem wrote a ~10,000 word short story in one day, which I spent ten days editing and polishing and then sent off for submission. This week I started with another solid short story draft in a day. I've been working on other poems along the way, and have even submitted a few of them.
The bottom line is that right now, my life feels more like I always imagined/wanted it to be as a writer. I feel like I've figured out how to really tap the well of creativity I've known was within me all along.
The State of the Me
Feeling better than I have since Halloween, physically, after getting a good night's sleep.
Plans For Today
Todays's a MU day. I'm also going to be working on some patron stuff.
Yesterday, as I said, I was taking a more reflective day. Late in it--around five o'clock--I started regretting how little it felt like I had accomplished, and I opened up ILYS.com just to do some random writing. In honor of their anniversary/NaNoWriMo/their need for funding, they're doing a fundraiser, and their front page was highlighting some user reviews, a few of which mentioned things like one or four thousand word sessions.
Well, I've never used ILYS for anything more than 500 words at a time, and that rarely. Part of this is that it took me a long time to trust a browser-based productivity aid to keep my words if I had a browser crash or a power outage. Part of it is my habit of writing in sprints and then editing the results into a story. I totally got ILYS's idea of turning off editor brain while writer brain is working. I just felt like I had a good rhythm.
Well, after I read the testimonials, I decided to set the target to a thousand words and see what happened. I didn't have any particular aim in mind, just the kind of seed I might have used for one of my flash stories. I started writing, and ended up with a 1,200 word beginning of a story that seemed worth developing. After another 1,000 word session, I realized that the story as it was taking shape would need serious restructuring, if not rewriting. It was third person omniscient with no dialogue, kind of fable style, which works best for very short pieces, which this wasn't likely to be. So I stopped that draft and used it as a sort of treatment or outline for a new version, which I started writing from word 0 in ILYS as a dialogue, with the character in the story telling it to another person.
That draft was still in third person, and it lacked any kind of context or immediacy. So I made a third draft, starting from the second but significantly rewrote it, adding a beginning and an end to set the stage and bring a conclusion, and making it first person with the "audience" character as the narrator.
The story's not quite done, it's still a bit emotionally muted because of its third person roots. As I went to bed last night, I figured out a potential way to fix that, so I'm going to be doing version four sometime tomorrow (since today's a publishing day).
So the immediate news is that I have another new short story, likely to be around ~7,500 words when finished, with the major writing happening in the course of a couple of hours. I think that longer term, the fact that I was able to sit down with ILYS and write like that is going to mean big things. Two weeks ago, I sold a poem wrote a ~10,000 word short story in one day, which I spent ten days editing and polishing and then sent off for submission. This week I started with another solid short story draft in a day. I've been working on other poems along the way, and have even submitted a few of them.
The bottom line is that right now, my life feels more like I always imagined/wanted it to be as a writer. I feel like I've figured out how to really tap the well of creativity I've known was within me all along.
The State of the Me
Feeling better than I have since Halloween, physically, after getting a good night's sleep.
Plans For Today
Todays's a MU day. I'm also going to be working on some patron stuff.