No Whine, Just Champagne Writing Discussion #80

I guess I'd better do some writing or stay away.

Keep on keeping on.

I guess that's 9 o'clock in the evening. I won't be here. :-(

Okay. That was fun Pat. I just followed both your links. The first one says I'm 47, 53 and the second says 50, 50. The second one gives an auditory, visual result too, and 78, 21 means you're not the only one missing a percentage point. Thank you for giving me a good excuse to be out of focus. (But how did it do that with no audio questions, or did I just forget to switch on the sound?)

There was no auditory test. Though technically, your brain doesn't hear -- it just interprets signals, so perhaps they didn't need sounds.

Well, I did write last night, but it was utter drivel and had nothing to do with my WIP. I'm thinking I'll have to . . . gulp . . . do an outline. The story has become too complicated -- I need to figure out where I'm going and where all the pieces fit. I need to create a group with group roles and a group mentality (all part of the scaffolding of the story, though it shouldn't be apparent to a casual reader). And while this is going on, my hero has to change enough so that he will exchange relative safety for freedom with all it's dangers. And I need a constantly changing earth as a setting. Yep. Sounds like I need an outline.

I'm finding that I tend to commit that indulgence (sin in some writer's eyes) when I write. Firt I thought it was a short story thing. But it seems like I work better that way with the novels too.

I find myelf writing the outline as the story unfolds. Kinda like little sister Outline following big sister Story around like a, hmm, annoying little sister.

Ah, Pat, I didn't know we'd be doing math tonight. Just finished the tests. Very interesting.

I only posted the tests because I like the joke about losing my mind.

The dreaded outline. I call it a chapter breakdown--not nearly as daunting.

I received differences in the 2 tests as well. 1st test=53% LB, 47% RB. 2nd test=47% LB, 52% RB.

Oops, I too seem to have misplaced a few brain cells along the way.

Auditory/Vistual = 99%
Left/Right = 99%

Considering all that there is to consider, I'm probably doing well if I've only lost 1% of my what? Trillion? How many brain cells are we supposed to have anyway?

Hi, gang. I've not done any writing this week. Lots of reading and just starting editing a new ms. (Deborah, you asked a couple weeks ago about what I was editing. Nothing for myself. I'm actually freelancing now, so this is for other folks. My Web site is A Novel Edit.)

So you finally got it going, Beth! Way cool. With all the millions of writers out there, you should do well with editing.

I was a writer slacker this week, I admit. But I've had a horrific work week, and the stress knocked me for a loop to the point I've had trouble concentrating on the simplest of tasks. Hopefully, the weekend will prove to be healing.

I also took the right/left brain tests. The one test had me at 48% left brain and 52% right, and the other had me at a 50% each. I thought the consistency of the results of the two different tests interesting. Question is: If I have 50% right brain, and 50% left brain, does that mean I'm really well-balanced, or simply mediocre at everything? :-)

Hmmm, Jill. Let's say well-balanced. Logical and creative equally.

I hope so, Pat.

I'm apparently left-brained. But some things are decidedly right brained in there.

Something I've learned with the editing is that everyone--everyone--has a writing/punctuation/grammar quirk (or two) of some kind. Many use word repetition. A favorite word appears numerous times throughout a ms. I've even found word repetition in Ayn Rand this week. She likes astonish and uses it freely. If it's used enough times to be noticed in a book as long as Atlas Shrugged, it's used too many times.

Anoher reason I'm going to have to do an outline is that in addition to the group roles and group mentality and all that, I have to develop the group as if it's a character. Groups have their own stages of development.

1. Coming together and finding the individual roles
2. Defining the task.
3. Feeling unrest -- disenchantment with the group and each other
4. Cohesion -- beginning to feel like a team
5. Interdependence -- work as a team, believe in the subculture they have created.

Groups take on a life of their own, a culture that is different from the sum of the individual members.

No wonder I haven't wanted to work on this book. Seems like a monumental task. Also, by the time I've written about half a book, usually the characters are well-defined, but in this book, it's mostly been my hero contending with the environment. Now he has to contend with other people. Which means I have to create them.

Beth, I know what you mean -- decades after reading Taylor Caldwell's books, I still hear the echo of inexorable -- she used it interminably!

Hi everyone!
I'm almost all the way moved in to my new apartment. And, it's so nice!!
Since I've been busy with packing and settling in, and a long list of chores, I've got zero writing done lately.
Hopefully by next week, things will return to normal again.
Sigh.

Chores can be bad or good, I guess it depends on how you look at them. Chores are not fun (as my six year old would say), and the mind wanders.

Hi, Angela. Maybe all that moving will give you ideas for new stories.

Jill, I don't think you're mediocre at anything so you must be well-balanced.

No writing for me this week either. But I did something very interesting. I found some floppy discs and transferred the documents to my flash drive since my new computer doesn't handle floppies at all. I found story ideas, notes and even poetry that I'd totally forgotten about. It'll be fun to see what I was writing 5 years ago and if any of it is worth keeping.

Sorry to be late. I've been reading the "First Five Pages," book on editing. It's going to be really helpful. Will be sending a package out to a publisher soon. I'm excited. This seems to have taken forever.

Excellent, Nancy! Lukeman's "rules" are invaluable. So great to hear you will be ready to submit soon.

This has been a very unproductive week, unless you count in feeding our very hungry misquito farm. Okay, we're not actually farming them. But if we could trap and sell them, we'd be rich. Haven't seen them so swarming plentiful, greedily hungry, and viciously nasty ... ever. Oh yeah, and I cut the grass in the front. was going to try the back but the mower sank, then I was chased off by a crocodile lurking in the long grass next to the tiger. Anyone from Manitoba would understand. (We had about three rain free days this summer, and one of those was actual summer).

Sorry, enough babbling. I think it's the heat stroke. Can't be a red head with freckles and mow the lawn unless the vampires are out, or face the consequences.

All my big plans came to about as much as the Icelandic dollar. Yeah, you can buy it (probably about a million for a penny at the moment, but that's what happens when a whole country goes bankrupt. But, hey, at least you could claim to be a millionaire), but you can't sell it. Zip, zilch, zero, nada.

I did start today on a story, attempt one of ?? to write a flash fiction for a contest Pat posted about on Facebook. It took me three tries to write a murder/mystery for the Second Wind contest. We'll see how many it takes this time. It's more of a noir murder, so it might be easier to keep on topic. The last time, the stories kept straying off genre. Yeah, carnivorous deer, who'd have figured that one coming in a murder/mystery attempt number one.

I do have big plans for the months ahead. Aside from the household junk that is. Finish rewriting an old murder novel I abandoned years ago without finishing (chapter 7, seven or eight victims already, will this man ever stop? What the hell was I doing?). Finish, revise, edit, all that gunk my other novel The Men of Twelve. Yes, it's pretty much done, but I have to actually pick it up and lop off that ending that went beyond what the ending should have been. And a pile of other shorts to finish, short childrens to finish, start plotting out the second and final novel of The Men of Twelve.

I think I might actually have a fear of completion. After putting so much time, work, blood, sweat, and tears (really, I did get the occassional paper cut), and passion into something ... I find myself unable to just pick the darned thing up and finish it. It's there, so close, but so far away.

Wanda, that's neat. I love discovering stuff I've written years ago.

Angela, a new place sounds good for stirring up lots of fun. I hope the physical settling in takes place quickly but that the feelings of newness and excitement last a while.

L V, sending some encouragement to finish your way. It feels even better when you're done.

I hope so. I have no idea why I can't just pick it up and do it. But time finally won't be an excuse. With one kid in grade one, and the other in kidergarden all day every second day ... I can't blame the kids for not being able to finish it now. Even with volunteering at school, I'll still have a day or two kid free every week.

I decided it boils down to some weird fear. Like sending your first baby off into the world while still a baby to you, although I haven't gone that far to know that with the oldest starting grade one.

Yeah, when I've been away from composing something new a nervous tickle gnaws at me too. Just dive in, LV. The words will come--let go and let them flow.

Beth it's been weird since I don't remember writing it at all. I recognize the ideas but that's all.

Angela, I hope to never move again. My intention is to not move again, but failing that my intention is to simply walk away and get new stuff! lol

Sorry. Got a bit distracted there.

See y'all next week.

Back to say good night all.

Thank you for stopping by, everyone. Here's to a productive week for all of us.