PicoWriMo

I'm working on a holiday story for the Man from U.N.C.L.E. Down the Chimney exchange.
Today I worked on thinking up more ideas for my story prompts.
Tomorrow I'm going to try to write the ideas out as a story summary in broad strokes, in the way one would answer the question "What's your story about?"
On Saturday I'm going to type up all the stuff I've written so far (I'm working in a notebook) and hopefully I will have a good amount of stuff to expand on!

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Yeah, I work in a notebook first, too. Typing up is the first chance to make edits, but also a terrible bother. *sigh*

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I'm better off with the notebook at first. On the computer I wind up self-editing myself into a state of constipation. With the notebook I just keep writing, and there's no delete key:)

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Wow, good process.

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So far, so good!

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I am in awe of anyone who can have ideas! :-)

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I have the kernel of a story in mind now, so yay for that:)

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The "what's your story about" part is actually quite hard, isn't it. But it's hard to start writing without having an overall theme in your head (for me at least). May the notebook yield good results :)

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I agree - it's a maddening question, what should I write about?

The computer is not my friend. I'm back to writing in the notebook first:)

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I am reading a book on dyslexia for background. Almost done.

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Good for you! Research is important!

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Very much so. Especially since the goal is to explain it to parent types (on my blog).

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Educational!

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Yep. :)

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Good for you! You can tell when the writer really understands a subject, they're able to communicate much more effectively.

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I've finished the rewriting of the last 3 chapters of the Dwobbit story. Still not satisfied with them, but at least the structure is done. It will need some more tinkering, I am afraid. I'll have to return to them when I have won a bit of distance. Until then, I will go on with the narrative.

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It's progress. You need something there before you can fiddle with it :-)

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That's what I keep telling myself. I'm having increasing amounts of such "somethings", with dwindling hope that they'd actually become anything useful. It comes from having to deal with canon events that are extraordinarily well-known, even by casual readers. How do you make them interesting and canon-compliant without copying Tolkien's original text?

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Have you tinkered with point of view? That's so useful to give a fresh outlook on well known material.

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Yes, I'm actually writing the whole thing from the point of view of a "main" character who, IIRC, doesn't have a single line of dialogue in the books and only speaks Dwarvish in the films. I've been writing the character as female for many years (long before the films came out) and did a great deal of background work on her, which is why the first six or so chapters are good, if I say so myself. Ever since canon events have started, though, it has been a never-ending struggle.

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Distance is good.

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I just fear that I'll have to walk off the map in order to get enough distance between me and the dratted stuff.

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Ouch.

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238 words, mostly on a walk report I didn't mean to be writing - but it's a start.

For once, the fact that I ended up in a completely different place from the one I set out for was not my fault - I was at Haymarket to catch the 8:04 train to Glasgow and the 9:15 bus to the Rest and Be Thankful, only for the train to be cancelled

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Interesting...

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