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Hmm, somehow I was inserting an ‘e’ in there, somewhere. I mentally say “Kai-LORE-ee-ack”.
I’ve been using SWQ’s pronunciation.
I thought it was Kai-lore-ack. Darn.
Ditto…
My name has caused some rather unexpected controversy. XD
Now, to get back on topic, I’m almost finished Chapter 3 of a project which I have not touched in almost half a year. I like how it’s coming out, and it has revived my interest in the project. :D
But I already have too many projects… >.>
I bought my gorgeous notebook and my multicolored pens and am now inspired.
Try to use your multicoloured pens to write in new and interesting ways!
Yay!
write every type of word a different colour! (Vowels can be always red, for example, nouns blue, articles yellow, pronouns orange, adjectives green, and adverbs purple.) It’s fun, it really makes you think about what you’re writing, too.
That sounds like a bit too much…also, it would make editing in color a bit problematic.
I’m at 26,746 words, and I’ve been working on this, though not consistently, for almost a year. I wrote a lot at the beginning, and then I sort of tapered off. I’m trying to get back into now though.
I wrote a 200 page WORD prompt thing for the creative writing club I’m in…I don’t know how faithful it was to the prompt, but it was nice to write again.
200 page
How can you write so much so quickly? I am envious.
...
Whoops.
Going to fix that right now.
I thought it was Kai-lore-ack, since in some other thread she was referred to as Kylie.
She’s a GIRL???
Didn’t you update the Gender thread with her yourself?
She’s a GIRL???
Only when it’s convenient. At all other times, I am quite happily an it. Or a he. Only not so happily a he.
Didn’t you update the Gender thread with her yourself?
Not since I last checked.
You’d think the Lust picture and the fact it says you are female on your user page would be something of a tip-off.
You would think that.
For the first time in a while, I wrote a poem that didn’t involve someone suffering horribly.
@ Marquis – Yay?
I’m taking a hiatus from a novel. It’s likely I’m doing the whole bit where you write a thirty-page beginning and run out of steam.
Oh, proper planning. How much work would you have saved?
Well, I expected a plot to come out if I wrote enough. cough Couldn’t really write a book about Finding Yourself.
What’s funny is that, in my case, if I plan something, it quickly dies if it’s anything longer than 5K words. Those projects I do not plan (like the novel that I’ve been working on for 3 years) are the ones that turn out the best and that I stick with the longest.
@ lookingforme – Have you seen the Nostalgia Critic’s video on the film “Teen Witch?” She mentions all of these 80s movies that were sort of plotless with the universal theme of “Finding Yourself.” Just needed to add that.
bq. You don’t have to plan down to the tiniest detail,
It’s generally strongly discouraged, but going to that extreme seems better than going in with no plan.
@ Kyllorac – I just… can’t do things even with a general idea. I hoped something like “develop the characters and have them create subplots” (an idea from No Plot? No Problem) with an abstract idea.
I am rewriting the history of my world. I’m up to Year 290, and just onto the third a4 page. Not bad, in my opinion.
@windy – I’m the exact opposite. I usually start with just a character or a basic premise/event/subject I think would be interesting to write about, and it just spirals from there. My novel project started out as a 212-word experiment, but the main character took on a life of his own, came back from the dead, and refused to leave me alone. Everything else just fell into place plot- and character-wise as I began writing a continuation. XD
I need to work on the worldbuilding, but I’m saving that for after I’ve finished writing the first draft since new aspects of the story are constantly cropping up in the most unexpected of areas, even as other things are dropping out. It’s very interesting, seeing how the story keeps shifting and changing even as I’m writing it.
I’m the exact opposite. I usually start with just a character or a basic premise/event/subject I think would be interesting to write about, and it just spirals from there.
Unfortunately, that’s half me. I get the premise and flip out, start sketching the characters, getting a basic idea, and boom. Maybe I’ve started writing, maybe I haven’t. The project dies soon after.
For the record, I thought Kyllorac was pronounced Killer ack.
Also, I’ve been misreading TakuGifian as TakuGriffin.
Book.txt: 317kb.
I have also spent a lot of time messing around with language, managed to get enough words for a Swadesh list with the aid of this handy site but have also had a decent amount of story output this week, which is better than I could say for the rest of this year to date.
I should set myself some artificial deadlines to get more stuff out. Even if it all turns out to be crap that way, crap can be edited later!
Swadesh? You’re constructing a language?
There’s a literary magazine cropping up at my school, and I want to submit a short story, so I think I’ll take an extension on my extended hiatus from my main novel and work on something. I saw a pretty interesting article in TIME magazine that might turn into an idea.
Last night I wrote the first 676 words of a Batman fanfic. I haven’t figured out what the whole plot is going to be yet, but what I’ve written so far has Bruce Wayne proposing to a woman he’s been dating.
Current writing a story in which death plays Candyland with a kid, because the kid doesn’t know how to play chess.
That’s an interesting concept, Inspector. It sounds kind of awesome.
Yeah…
So far, my avatar narrative for my school has collected some fans, to my surprise. I wasn’t expecting people to pick up my 16 pages of writing and read it while I’m out of the room. And my teacher complimented on my work. Whoohoo.
That’s an interesting concept, Inspector. It sounds kind of awesome.
Thanks! It’s sure to be full of Cuteness, which is a depature from my norm…
No One, you have been talking about this piece of fanfiction in every thread for two weeks. Are we ever going to see it?
See it? You guys want to see it?
Yeah sure, when I get my second draft back. And then, you may rip it into pieces. dangles steak over a pack of hungry raving dogs
Go DWest!
Current writing a story in which death plays Candyland with a kid, because the kid doesn’t know how to play chess.
I am intrigued.
I’m involved in my school literary magazine now, and one of my submissions is being considered for publication! (This might just be because we’re still a very small club, but I’m still happy!)
Also, the prompt for the creative writing club (it’s kind of the same thing as the magazine) this week is to write a short story inspired by a song, which promises to be a ton of fun.
I’ve turned my narrative into a sort of book form and will post it later.
Haha, my friends and teacher said it looked like an A4 book.
Except I forgot the blurb.
Are authors suppose to write their own blurb or do someone else do it? (e.g. editor, publisher)
I think the publisher handles the blurb, cover, and basically everything about the presentation.
Huh. Ok. Thanks for the information.
Absolutely!
Everything I write feels really crappy right now. Encouragement would be appreciated.
Don’t worry SWQ! You’re one of the best writer I know! Just keep writing, you’ll get there! After all, victory always takes hard work.
I have faith in you, you can do it!
Just keep writing, you’re never going to get better if you just stop. Success can come out of failure, so just keep going. Plus, in a few years time you can look back on all of it and see how much you’ve improved.
Thanks for the words, guys. Studying for exams has put me in a really bleh place right now…maybe I should channel it or something. Between that and getting sucked up in stupid stuff, I really am not using my time that well. I will have to improve on that.
UPDATE: Instead of actually writing and advancing plot, I’m taking a day to step aside and really think about a main character who’s been kind of been getting boring lately because I’ve been neglecting him. It’s really helping me, actually, in terms of actual writing as well.
I’ve been lazypants lately about writing. Just can’t get into Redemption at the moment, and I’m not sure what I need to solve the problem. I think I’m going to focus on other stories, I think. I’ve scribbled out a couple of short stories, although they have very little plot. One of them was just about an arsonist watching a building burn.
Diamonte, the best shorts always have little plot.
And, SWQ! I haven’t read much of yours, but what I have read is pretty damn awesome, so keep going and God bless :)
what I have read is pretty damn awesome
Really? Wow, that just totally made my entire day, and maybe my entire week! Thanks, Steph!
On the progress note, I wrote short story I actually like! Which is surprising, considering I’m not very good at them. It’s a fractured fairy tale, and I had so much fun with it, I think I should write more of them.
A NEW QUESTION: I’ve been looking at a previous draft of a WIP that I got rather far in, but then abandoned. I’ve been having trouble getting through the plot in my new draft, so is it worth it to go back to the old one, get through the plot, and then revise that one with the bajillion changes I have in mind?
Hmm. If it’s awesome enough to make Steph swear, it must indeed be awesome.
I’m not sure that I deserve such high praise.
@ lookingforme: Well, the issue we’re producing now is the first one ever, so basically we’re just trying to blunder our way through the process right now. The idea is that we accept art (photography, computer graphics, traditional art, etc.) and creative writing. As part of the club, we review submissions and pick by vote what ends up in the magazine. Anyone (including club members) can submit, but apparently we’ve been getting a lot of submissions out of the club, which is great!
In reality, the club is kind of split into two- there’s a creative writing club and an actual literary magazine club. The creative writing club is more about sharing ideas and constructive crit, while the literary magazine is about putting it out.
So, are you editor-in-chief of your school’s newspaper or what? It sounds really cool that you got to interview a Pulitzer prize winner. I’ve never heard of this particular poet, but it sounds amazing.
Basically, we have a prompt every week and then we share what we write once a week during lunch. It’s kind of chill, but fun to see what other people come up with. Actually, I wouldn’t have gotten involved with the club if it weren’t for a lucky coincidence. And all our marketing is slips of paper taped to classroom doors and stuff, but it seems to have worked.
Ink sounds like a really cool title for a magazine…we’ve been having trouble coming up with one. ‘The Lexicon’ was bandied about, but it makes me think of ‘Dragons Lexicon Triumvirate’. Unfortunately, nobody else has heard of it. XD One way I would recommend reaching out to students is through English teachers. It’s possible that they might know who’s a really good writer and be willing to spread the word.
I guess this would be the most appropriate place for this…
I know this was started a while back by Devin and it kinda died away after only a few weeks, but, I think it had a lot of potential, not only in improving one’s writing, but in forming a closer writing community for II.
So, here’s my proposition, we start a II Writing Club. I know a lot of you are probably busy with life, homework, other more important things in life, so I propose that once a week, we post a chapter of a WIP, or just some other story you need critique on. The chapters shouldn’t be too long or too short, we can decide on a agreed word range if any interest in this develops.
For posting, you could email it to certain people who are willing to critique it, or you could just start your own thread, “Puppet’s writing thread” or something along those lines, where members of this forum could critique it at any time. So, if you’re interested, I’ll take down your names and consider you part of the “Club”. You have to have been a member for at least a while, this is mandatory I’m afraid. Part of what brings this all down is a lack of trust between people. So, each member has to at least post one chapter once a week, we can take maybe a week break every month to brainstorm and edit if needed, or if you just need to work on other more pressing issues IRL.
Now every member has to post a chapter every week, and on top of that they have to provide critique on one other member’s story once a week. You can provide critique for more if you have the time. But every week somebody different critiques your story, and it goes in a cycle, this ensures that you get a wide diversity of opinions to make sure that your writing appeals to a wider audience.
Again, if you have issues of trust, you can just 1. email it to the member who’s turn it is to critique your writing, or simpler, 2. just start a private topic on this forum with that member. If you don’t mind members of this forum viewing your writing and offering their thoughts you can just start a public topic in critique wants (this way guests can’t see it). This way will probably ensure you more reviews and opinions.
Another idea I have is whether to have “Critics” on top of the members of the club, they would just be people who make a promise of trying to the best of their ability to provide critique every week. Now remember, this is just a proposition, I want to stress that things that happen IRL are far more important then this. Getting your schoolwork done, family matters, etc. come first. That said, I would like a certain amount of reliability. You will also need to be able to take critique, it may be harsh at times, but if you have a positive mindset and just think “I would rather have them tell the truth instead of dressing up lies” then it’s a lot easier to take. And in the end it all helps you improve.
Now, the reason why I’m bringing this up is, II originally started as a site for creative writing, if you look back on the Main Site you can see that there used to be a closer community that was a lot more focused on writing. I feel like II has a lot of potential for that, now some of you may say “Why don’t you just wait for WW?” Well, you could, if you wanted. I’m not going to force anybody into this, it’s still a developing idea, feel free to add suggestions or constructive criticism.
Now, I congratulate anybody who has made it through this giant wall of text. You deserve a cookie.
I deserve a cookie. And I really like the idea, I’d definitely be willing to get behind it. This, plus starting up a writing group of 5 RL friends should help to motivate me. =]
I would be interested, Puppet. Time has always been an issue for me, but if I force myself to make it work, I can make it work.
Out of curiosity, how exactly would this work? Would this writing club thing be reviving the Impish Writing forum, essentially, but adding a few new members?
Out of curiosity, how exactly would this work? Would this writing club thing be reviving the Impish Writing forum, essentially, but adding a few new members?
Somewhere along those lines. This group can be bigger if we draw enough interest, part of the problem with the old one was that there were only 5-6 members so it eventually died out. I would like it to take place more on this forum, it just makes it a lot simpler and easier. And that’s the trust issue I was talking about, if you want you can do what Sansafro has been doing, which is just emailing it to certain people who are willing to offer critique, or you could just start a new topic.
See, the good thing about this is that size doesn’t really matter, because every member will only be posting one chapter and one critique, so even if there are 30 members your workload won’t change. Hopefully this will ensure people have enough time to write a chapter and post a critique while keeping a steady pace.
Of course, this only works with an even number of members.
Also, what about WaylaidWriter?
I may be in. I’m a bit busy/lazy, but I think this sounds like a good idea.
What about WaylaidWriter?
I’m not in Sly’s book of connections, but I suspect it may be a while before WW is fully operational. Although Puppet would probably know best…
I’m all for this idea. I need the motivation.
Caveat: but I probably won’t be able to get anything done until the 2nd/3rd week of May (I still have two weeks of classes, then finals. Plus, I’d probably want to build a buffer)
That’s fine, Apep. Everybody can sue the time until then to get higher priority things done and plan and plot out their story so you won’t reach any writer’s block when the time to actually get critique comes.
I’m not in Sly’s book of connections, but I suspect it may be a while before WW is fully operational. Although Puppet would probably know best…
I know that Sly’s trying to work on it as much as he can, but I don’t exactly know how far along it is.
I’ll think about the writer’s group thing; I’m unsure if I’ll be able to write consistently and come up with a decent amount of words every week. On the other hand, being in something like that would definitely force me to be consistent…
^ This.
I am having trouble with my progress. I’m halfway into a short story and I’ feeling a bit stuck.
It’s a transitiory scene, that’s why.
I don’t write that fast. D: But I do like the idea, and I’d definitely be up to the critiquing half. Maybe, instead of full chapters/short stories, we could have the option to post completed scenes of such?
Sure, that would be fine, too, Kyllorac. The key is commitment and consistency.
In the process of editing / lengthening a very short piece I wrote.
When do you think this will start up, Puppet? I’m highly intrigued by it and could use a good kick-in-the-butt to get my writing again.
I’d be interested, if only to get myself to be less of a bum.
ANyway, back to general progress, guys.
I wrote a research paper. As in I did the research and wrote a paper on it. It was surprisingly easy once I got off my butt and stopped procrastinating about it. And now I am kicking myself for stressing out over something so easy.
What we learned from this: do not procrastinate.
Will we apply this lesson: probably not.
Currently doing a poem about an old man who gets candles shoved into his eyes for his birthday.
I approve of that.
2,016 words on my latest project. I think it’s a decent start.
Now up to 3,502 words, and progress on the third chapter is underway.
I have nearly 24k on a project I started mid-April. :D HA! I can commit to something, and I do have some self-discipline.
Over 5,700 words, and I finished the fourth chapter. Probably the furthest I’ve ever gotten for a story. I must have the ability to commit to a project after all, too!
high-fives Brandon
After three hundred words, I will have 25k. Halfway there. :D
I have a new story idea and I’m going to abandon my previous way of thinking about writing (plot basically everything out, never end up getting real words to describe it) and just go with the flow. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a few thousand words by the end of this week if I don’t have too much Life getting in the way. :D
Now I’m almost up to 7,000, and the fifth chapter has been completed.
Congrats, Brandon.
I wrote a few pages of my usual idea in a completely different tense and style than normal. I don’t know if I prefer it this way or not.
I accidentally wrote 1400 words of filler. “Accidentally” meaning I meant to write 1400 words actually moving the story forward. But I fail too hard and now I can’t be bothered to write actual substance.
Almost 8,700 words written now. Sixth chapter completed.
@ Northmark: I wouldn’t do such a drastic thing. I’d have a basic idea of at least two scenes in your story as well as how it’s going to end. In my experience, no planning at all when you’re used to planning does not work.
@Steph: I already have more than that planned purely by accident. I just decided I’m going to have a cutoff point for such things until I start writing.
10,100+ words written, 7 chapters completed.
Cougar Eye?
Cougar Eye?
No, that was just for practice. This is something different. In fact, it’s a rewrite of an older project of mine.
Not that I won’t return to Cougar Eye once I finish this…
I have done nothing.
I will post something up here for critique today. So I tell myself. >.>