picowrimo | November 2018, day 28

Well, I was going to write on Monday, but started watching the live stream of the Mars Insight probe--which was totally worth it; history being made; and I love seeing how nervous, then excited the engineers and scientists are as they check off the stages of the descent!

Put in a good hour yesterday on the new story, it's going slowly, but it's moving. I'm not really concentrating on it the way I should though, it's still very amorphous in terms of how I get to where I plan to go and my ideas are all over the place. Of course that probably describes my general writing habits...

Only 30 minutes or so of wriing today, but working on dialogue and a real scene.

We're getting electrical work done so the power was off for a few hours today and I figured it was a good time to start clearing off my desk and some overflowing file boxes. I found operating system floppy disks and instructions (a massive book!) for my first home Mac, way back in 1991. I'd had one at work for a couple of years by then and talked my company into getting me one to use at home. We were still living in Manhattan then--I have no idea what made me drag everything to this house when we moved. I was probably at the point were you throw everything that's left into a box because you just don't have time to sort anymore :D

Sounds like how I'm dragging my stuff home from school. In my study - all 7 square metres of it - the floor is covered with paper bags and boxes, full of craft material and the likes. I think the first weeks of my retirement would go to sorting out stuff and trying to find room for what I decide to keep.

So many times its things you haven't looked at for years so you don't really need them, but it's hard to throw things away!

30 minutes is 30 minutes more than you had yesterday.

I like an optimist :)

Slow but steady work on the new story is good. No need to concentrate until a week before the deadline:)

you throw everything that's left into a box because you just don't have time to sort anymore

Yup! I've got several of those:D

Did concentrating use to be this hard? On the other hand I've never been one to bear down early.

We still have a couple of boxes of books that we never managed to unpack. I'm waiting for our next move to see what's in there ;)

I am always torn between the idea of doing a proper clear out, and the sad idea that if I do, I won't be able to make these kinds of (re)discoveries in future ;)

It sounds like the story is on its way!

No writing today, due to excessive crafting and baking. Check out my journal for visual evidence. I think I'll have to give up on the rest of November as a lost case. The next time I'd have the time to even think of writing would be Saturday, and that's already December 1.

excessive crafting and baking? sounds like some niche endurance thing that one stumbles upon late at night on tv channels that have gone off the air, y'know the ones, the ones with the exuberant guru that's like reeeeeeeeeeeaaaallly intense

noooooooooooooooooo i can't believe there's nomornov

Excessive crafting and baking is my way of life. *g*
When I come home and head directly to the kitchen to fire up the oven, Mum tends to ask: Well, did they piss you off at school again?

y'see, this is how sweeney todd got into all that mess........

Crafting and baking sounds heavenly. I'm looking forward to a bit of both in December!

But your crafting and baking is so nice! Definitely among the best activities for the season.

These are also good things to do!

i failed to produce anything of worth again today, mostly because coming off the meds is truely sending the ferretgreymatter wibbly. steroids, such a joy.

aaaaannnnyway, i shall try to settle down to something in the next few days and perhaps pop out one more ferretlecture, but who knows. this doesn't mean i'm going on hiatus until next year, oh no, i'm far too ferrety for that. i already have a list of offerings i have to get down, such as the teach yourself series:

the writing course - a step by step "teach it to yourself" guide on writing, from putting the first word on paper right up to the structural framework of writing a 'biggie', and which takes a day by day approach to discovering the writer within

character development - from initial idea to fully fledged and fleshed personae building, including improvisation techniques, breakdown, technical, and movitations to help round out and 360 that beastie, physical presentation, voice work and techiques, breathing, somatic support and states of not-not-me.

the story generator - how to take any piece of informataion and create a story, literally, out of thin air - oooohhh out of thin air, good idea for a story about a person who, having had a mysterious piece of information given to them, becomes capable of creating things out of thin air, including their worst nightmares............ *scribblyscibblestoryworywriteywritey*

narrative voice - techniques for editing one's own work, and all the other nasty technical stuff that comes with narrative styles, presentation, and mise-en-scene

world building - how to deal with the most difficult character, the very world other charactes live in.

somatic practices - developing one's own somatic language as an aid and support system to creative endeavour - yeah okay, sounds prissy, basically it's about looking after your body and mind because hey, a bad back or a brain meltdown is not condusive to making anything, so a compendium and overview of physical techniques, practices and rituals to keep oneself orangetip-top. channelling all that creative energy takes it's toll - you think that's air you're breathing??? wait, you forgot to breathe?

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, that's what i'll be doing, eventually, hopefully, because it's about time i got all of my 'boxes' of stuff unpacked and put in the right places. perhaps next year i shall be writing different things - and the publishing house that has been sat there gathering dust for the past x number of years, having been dusted off, will have a few more titles under its belt. who knows.

for now, onwards. onwards and upwards.

hope you all are having a productive day - btw, do the words we write here in this lovely little blog not count as words????

The next pico session is coming up in March, assuming we keep the new schedule, so you won't have to wait a whole year. ;)

oh that's not too bad. i think i could actually manage one bout of flu in between now and then!

I'll be keeping a lookout for the ferretlectures!

Yes, all words count as words because they're words and you wrote them and if you count them you have a wordcount:)
Which means the letter I wrote to the teacher about The Incident in the Lunchroom gave me a 500 word count two days ago! \0/

These are words, and hey, they're really interesting words. Technique can definitely be taught (up to a point), I always think solid technique can give the writer's voice the confidence to blossom.

It sounds like you're rounding back into form :)

Sounds like you're full of ideas!

You can count any words you like :-)

Much knitting frustration, and no writing except a journal post. But I have dry toes!

November 2018, day 28

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject