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Agony Aunt
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Today I mostly wrote ... the word count thread.
Jim wrote: "they have to have stake holders!"Why do they hold the steaks, when they could eat them?
Any self respecting steak holder will have a barbecue to go with.Written a fair few words but not sure how many. About 700 I think. I've sorted one big bump in the plot so think it will flow to near the end now. Not sure how to finish it though.
Finish it by unexpectedly killing a main character in the last sentence.
Mwahahahaaaaargh. I am now imagining that done to a book written in the first person. And I said, 'grk!'
We interrupt this story to inform you of the sad death of the main protagonist. Yes. It didn't live happily ever after the way we thought.
Then the book would beep, like TV close down, until you shut it.
Mind you I'm still concerned about Will's flash mob, with a cart at the back for the barbecue.
658 today and a few loose threads gathered and tied, still a few more to go though.
I wrote nothing yesterday (except some edits to a presentation I have to give) but then I did drive nearly 300 miles so that's a bit of an excuse! Probably the same for the next couple of days but I might get some more done on Friday :)
3,284 today, and that's enough of that. Might have a think about the story competition and M.T.'s goo.
Couple of hundred then sent the novella off to be edited.
Nothing today. but I did get my tax return in, and bought a new pair of shoes. :)
I did about 800. This one's been more trouble than I was expecting. I had to get to know the characters more and I kept losing momentum when I had to wait too long between writing sessions. There's a funeral looming though. Another one I'll have to get my parents to, which is always a gargantuan enterprise. I've been lucky with both those so far in that neither has done for more than one writing day instead of two. This latest is provisionally booked for two weeks time so I'm going to try and get all the main nuts and bolts of this story in place by then. Am experimenting with the voice recorder today and I'm going to see if I can record some of today's scenes as I drive down to my parents and type them up tomorrow.
620 yesterday, mostly in the waiting room at Bronglais hospital.
Hats off to you! My brain turns to fudge in hospitals.
672 today, two of which were: The End.
Well done, David! I reckon that I'm about half way through now.
Will wrote: "Well done, David! I reckon that I'm about half way through now."Thanks.
Good luck with yours.
Well done, David! Hope it turns out better than you expected.Done my quota and a bit, 2,546, and ordered the cover from the graphic artist, so I'd better finish writing the other 17 chapters, I suppose.
Lexie wrote: "Well done, David! Hope it turns out better than you expected.Done my quota and a bit, 2,546, and ordered the cover from the graphic artist, so I'd better finish writing the other 17 chapters, I s..."
Thanks. More often than not when I come back to them for the 2nd draft they are not as bad as I feared. But this one is only around half as long as I intended it to be, so something has gone wrong in it somewhere.
Good luck with those 17 chapters.
Well done all. Not writing at the moment. Taking a breather for a while, then I'll go back and finish one of my WiPs, I suspect. Unless I wake up in the night with another idea...
Why is it I get my most gruesome ideas in the middle of the night?776 Yesterday.
Done my 2400, despite pilates and swimming.
Tallis Steelyard apparently wrote 550 words too many!
I think I did about 700 again today, although I'm having trouble keeping track.Cheers
MTM
Jim wrote: "Tallis Steelyard apparently wrote 550 words too many!"Naughty boy!
you know what some people are like, scribble, scribble, scribble
I found it hard to shut him up for our conversation.That's why I drank the wine
Will wrote: "I found it hard to shut him up for our conversation.That's why I drank the wine"
he may one day forgive you
Will wrote: "I found it hard to shut him up for our conversation.That's why I drank the wine"
You seemed to get plenty of pagetime in spite of that.
I've just done another 800. I reckon I could give Tallis a run for his money right now! I've left four hookers hiding under a bridge while being pursued by a mob of angry neighbours ... with torches because hey... I'm not copying Will, honest, it just happened.
Surely a hooker operates best in the dark?
Fresh from Rent-a-mob?
I spent the morning rereading my research on pitching movies.Why? So I don't sound like an idiot when I write it.
Verisimilitude consists of jargon.
It came to me at about 2am, after watching an episode of Silent Witness (turned out to be double length instead of the usual 2 parter!) that I've got my Socko story arse about fracas. Now I need to decide whether to start again (I'm sure some bits are salvageable), or go and write something more commercial . . .(I still keep seeing people saying "my sales are well down but still in 6 figures", and thinking "my sales are . . . 6") . . . Part of me keeps saying I can't afford to keep writing stuff that doesn't sell . . .
Alicia wrote: "I spent the morning rereading my research on pitching movies.Why? So I don't sound like an idiot when I write it.
Verisimilitude consists of jargon."
absolutely , jargon is the criminal argot of a closed group designed to impress upon the members of that group their superiority to other groups
Tim wrote: "(I still keep seeing people saying "my sales are well down but still in 6 figures", and thinking "my sales are . . . 6") . . . Part of me keeps saying I can't afford to keep writing stuff that doesn't sell . . ...."welcome to my world :-(
Tim wrote: "I still keep seeing people saying "my sales are well down but still in 6 figures", and thinking "my sales are . . . 6"..."Irritating, aren't they?
You're not supposed to feel entitled, as a writer, but these people drive me crazy.
I think it's a form of bragging, and it is unsupported by data, so I usually don't believe it.
People who are selling at that level don't haunt the boards and forums to complain about it. IMHO
Jim wrote: "jargon is the criminal argot of a closed group designed to impress upon the members of that group their superiority to other groups."A little bit of research in the right places will give you enough to get in and out of a peripheral plot point with your pedigree intact.
I've had actors tell me I must have been right there. Well, I was just once, but I've sure added to that with research. It helps to have a long history of 'monitoring People magazine' (ie, reading it at the eye-doctor's office) or doing investigation into moviemaking (ie, having a compulsion to watch every 'The Making Of...' vignette on DVDs for literally years).
Unfortunately, that last one - the extra stuff on the DVDs and Bluerays - has gone the way of the dodo with streaming movies. Haven't seen one in ages. But that database is safe in my head, which is convenient, because the WIP is heavily into movies and Hollywood, as well as actors and writers. And it was fully in vigor for my life in the time frame of the book, 2005/6.
Some things never change; others are unrecognizable.
Alicia wrote: "Tim wrote: "I still keep seeing people saying "my sales are well down but still in 6 figures", and thinking "my sales are . . . 6"..."Irritating, aren't they?
You're not supposed to feel entitle..."
I meet and know several genuinely successful writers. Never see them boasting about sales.
Tim wrote: "It came to me at about 2am, after watching an episode of Silent Witness (turned out to be double length instead of the usual 2 parter!) that I've got my Socko story arse about fracas. Now I need to..."i've seriously reduced my focus on stuff that isn't selling to switch to genres that might.
Of course, if I was better at selling, that might help!
Will wrote: "Tim wrote: "It came to me at about 2am, after watching an episode of Silent Witness (turned out to be double length instead of the usual 2 parter!) that I've got my Socko story arse about fracas. N..."Oh, hear, hear! I can't stop writing - it's some kind of addiction. If I were addicted to marketing, now, my life would be very different (and so would my sales figures).
I've had 'sort out marketing schedule for new book' on my to-do list for weeks now. Do I do it? Of course not: I write another chapter instead. I read books on marketing and they either make no sense or actively make my skin crawl. I started thinking I wished I made enough from book sales to employ a marketer, but I won't until I employ a marketer, I think!
Lexie wrote: " I read books on marketing and they either make no sense or actively make my skin crawl...."yes, they have that effect on me as well
Will wrote: "i've seriously reduced my focus on stuff that isn't selling to switch to genres that might...."
Tallis Steelyard has written horror and cosy romance but it still ends up being Tallis Steelyard :-(
I'm exploring other genres as well, not that I know what my current genre is. Or even what it isn't.Marketing - I write the things that I would like to read, which I assume means that my ideal readers will be much like me (oh, dear), and have a strong antipathy to anything that reeks of marketing and a loathing of being advertised at.
I need to find a rich, widowed marketing expert . . .
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I must slap my hand every time I want to tweak!"
Step away from the WIP ...