Writing Roundup

[przed]

So, my word count on the story first thing this morning was 10,247. And now it's 6,395.

In spite of the retrograde word count, I think I've made progress. I've excised a bunch of scenes I quite liked but could never get to fit in properly. (Those of you who've seen the story thus far in various stages of disrepair can probably guess which scenes. I've kept them in a separate file, though, in case I manage to work out how to use them in this story or elsewhere.) And I've got a general idea of how the rest of it will go, though it's a much vaguer idea than I usually have when writing. I'm finding with this one I discover things as I go. Freaking terrifying, but interesting. Probably helps that there's no deadline and no definite destination for the story, so letting it be done when it's done is absolutely okay.

And now, I'm off to bed, so I can be up early to resume my mom-ish duties.

Comments

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a pretty productive day - I suspect pruning may be tougher than it looks from the outside! Looking forward to reading when it's ready ..... (hoping for many more productive days soon!).

[przed.livejournal.com]

I've been suspecting I needed to do some heavy cutting for a while, but it meant losing some scenes I really like. But it had to be done, so I got ruthless.

Given how long this has already taken (which is ridiculous) I'm not counting on finishing it any time soon. But I can now see the ending, which is an improvement.

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Trimming is tough, isn't it? But looking at a story clear-eyed is such a useful thing to do. It's like pruning plants--being ruthless with them is a good thing. Good luck with this! It sounds very promising.

[przed.livejournal.com]

Trimming was very hard. Especially as it meant losing at lot of scenes I was rather fond of. But the through line is much clearer now, and I think I may be able to re-integrate the excised stuff when the main part is finished. (I'm keeping my fingers crossed, anyway.)

[ancastar.livejournal.com]

Good on you! That's such a tough thing to do--cut back on what you've written. I had to do something similar with my zine story, though not to the same extent. I think I went from something like 60K to 48K, and then started building again from there. Remember I'm available if you need another set of eyes.

I've spent the last three days vidding like a maniac. I owe Zoe a vid from Sweet Charity, so I've been glued to my dining room table, asking myself time and time again why I thought it would be fun to vid to an ultra-fast, nearly four minute song whose refrain repeats something like eight or ten times throughout the song.

Think very carefully about that bloody six minute trip hop song of yours.

If you'd be up for it, I'll probably have something to show tomorrow night late. I've got less than a minute to go with the piece, and I think I know what direction I'm going to take. If I could steal a bit of your mom-ish time, I'd love your beta eye.

Let me know.

[przed.livejournal.com]

Cutting was a difficult decision, but it was a bit of a mess and I needed to refocus. Now that I'm back on track, I think I'll be able to re-integrate the excised stuff in a way that makes sense. Though if it still doesn't work I'm willing to lose it for good.

Good luck with the song. Ultra fast and four minutes, huh? Yeah, that trip hop song is gonna kill me.

If you have something to show, send it along. We're getting ready for Rosalind's birthday party on Saturday, so I can't guarantee I'll have time to look at it, but evening's are when I have some free time.

[ancastar.livejournal.com]

Oh, my gosh--is she already one? What a big girl. Are you going all out (cake, decorations, pressies, food for the adults), or is it going to be mostly family?

No worries about the vid. If you're too busy, I totally understand. I'll give you a heads-up when it's ready and if you get to it, you get to it. Zoe has the final say on this one anyway.

[przed.livejournal.com]

We're accidentally going all out. We've got almost no family local (I've got a couple of cousins; Don's got zip) so we invited a bunch of friends at the last minute figuring a lot of them wouldn't be able to make it on short notice. Except most of them can. So currently we've got 22 adults and 15 kids showing up. Yikes! Have I mentioned we've got a skinny little urban townhouse with no yard to speak of? At least it's three stories. And we can always send the kids to one of the local playgrounds with an adult or two to supervise. (In a bid not to have to cook for that amount of people, I'm getting Chinese buns and Indian samosas, not to mention a bakery ordered cake. Which I really need to order today!)

Definitely give me a heads up on the vid. I'm dying to see what you've done.