PicoWriMo

I have given up on the Safeguarding policy until after Easter. I have scripted and made a six minute video for the church children for Palm Sunday and then, no longer having to think of those things for now, I went for a walk.

Whilst walking I ruminated over the next chapter of my fic on and finally knew what the opening lines of it would be — and I have written the grand total of 200 words of it.

But I always find the opening words difficult, so I should get a bit more of the chapter done by the end of the month now :)

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200 words is great! Good luck with the rest of the chapter!

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Thank you!

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Oh good work! Good opening lines are so important.

A six minute video is quite a task, you've obviously been very busy.

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It is such a good feeling to have that line.

The video is 'how to make a palm palm.' Basically drawing and cutting out the shape of your hand 3 or 4 times and attaching them to a 'branch' made from cardboard. And then waving the furiously :)

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First of all, I'm glad for your sake that you're able to put aside the Safeguarding policy for awhile.
Congrats on the vid! That sounds like a fun project. I hope it was.

And wow! Isn't it just a wonderful feeling to have those opening lines come to you like that. Good for you, that is great.

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adafrog.livejournal.com

A walk sounds nice, though.

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It was a bit of a blustery day — so it blew away the mental cobwebs!

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Still nothing for me. I'm considering the idea of putting aside from the actual story and write some mindless smut, just for the heck of it. It might even help... or not.

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That's not a bad idea. Anything that gets you writing is a positive. And you'll always find readers for mindless smut :D

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A couple of months ago I started something called "Harkness' Heroes — The Pre-Gwen Years": a story that was supposed to take place before the "Torchwood" series. There were snippets of it in a notebook that I've rediscovered today by accident. In some of those Jack tries to explain his hopelessly backward 21st-century-colleagues how his people related to sex... or rather will relate, since he comes from the future.

"Sex, for us, is a form of connection," he explained. "We sleep with our friends to show that we care for them; or to cheer them up when they're sad; or to celebrate. It's always an expression of love, joy and caring. It isn't about promiscuity or collecting trophies; it's about sharing."

And so on. I tried to get into his completely different, 51st-century-mindset. It was an interesting exercise, although I'm not sure the story will go anywhere any time soon.

Sorry, I posted this comment to the wrong place first. Just so that you know what that deleted comment meant.

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Jack's 51st century attitude reminds me of my elves :)

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That's immortality for you. *g*

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That's a good idea. Just write, for the fun of it, on something else. And it does sound like fun!
Odds are, it will help, because it's writing:)

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I've tried. It didn't work — not even in the planning phase. OTOH I got an idea how to start Chapter 18, so not everything is lost.

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That's very good news!

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adafrog.livejournal.com

Mindless smut is fun. :)

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Jack would think so...

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adafrog.livejournal.com

heh

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Sometimes it really does help — and sometimes you realise it might come in useful later :)

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Whenever I get to write Jack Harkness. *g*

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I've been pretty unhappy with my story the last few days, so I fiddled around a bit with an old WIP instead to see if it would clear my mind. It sort of did by making me think more about what was and wasn't realistic for these characters. I've now decided to start all over on my "Easter Egg". The original was getting too dark for this sort of an exchange and I couldn't find my way back to where I thought I was headed in the beginning. So I have a new idea, one that's pretty simple and maybe not all that original--but it's something I can do in 1000 words or less and it has an unforced happy ending. I've got an outline with four distinct sections, two of them very rough still, two of them already coming together. It's due end of next week, so there's time to get it done.

I'll save the dark stuff for a story that's not supposed to be a gift.

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It couldn't have been an easy decision. But at least now you'll have two stories instead of one — eventually.

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Oh, geez. I feel your pain. I think you made a good decision there, as hard as it is at this point to start over.

Good luck with the new idea. It sounds like you have a good start, if two of the sections are already coming together.

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Not only did Waverly turn out to be the main character in the original draft, It ended up revolving around his missteps regarding the future of UNCLE. How did I get here you ask? Damned if I know. It started out as a minor peptic episode involving rabbits :D I blame the plague year.

It’s for blondie; she’s very understanding but it would have been a bit much!

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A story about Waverly's missteps regarding the future of UNCLE sounds great to me:)

It is amazing how a perfectly good minor peptic episode involving rabbits(!) can go completely in another direction.

Mine started out as a comedy, a mash-up of See Paris and Die and Casablanca, complete with clickable Easter Eggs that would take you to different scenarios.

Uh Huh. I just said that out loud.

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That is actually a perfect idea for an Easter Egg, so much fun! But I can see where complications will start to set in. I think we both probably get too ambitious with our stories--but I don't know how not to want to be ambitious, I hate settling, even though I have to at times.

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I am feeling conflicted about settling for less with this story. But I bit off much more than I could chew, tried to make it work under a straight-up story format, and the comedy just did not work that way.

So I have a rather boilerplate thing going instead, and it's bothering me, but it's all I've got at this point. Hopefully I can improve it in the week left.

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Sometimes the story takes its own path — and letting it pause on that path, going back to the starting point and taking a different route is a big decision, but when you know it's for the best...

Good luck with getting the new Easter Egg boiled and painted!

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Day 25: Another day of slow plodding, plonking away at it. 3 hours today.
Uninspired writing. I have to write my way through it and hope I will find something better about it tomorrow.

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You’ll get there. The ideas do come as you sweat over the words...

It’s a weird time in general, very hard to really concentrate imo

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It's been really hard writing. The ink is dry, the muse is weeping in the bottom desk drawer.

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Oh dear, poor muse. I hope you both have a good day today :)

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Things did begin to go better! Thanks:)

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Good luck!

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Thank you! It's coming along slowly.

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candidlily.livejournal.com

So, after spending let's not mention how many hours on my first idea for my original5k assignment, I finally acknowledged that my idea was way too complicated to explore fully in the timeframe I have before the deadline. So I stored it away, hopefully as a future idea, and picked a different prompt/idea from my recipient. Happy to report that I wrote 2462 words of notes on the new idea and I'm definitely feeling good about meeting the minimum and also writing a fun, complete story before the deadline. Feeling much better overall. Definitely feels like I made the write call.

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You are the second person today to do that ! I have done it in the past, and it is like a weight lifted once you do it, even though it looks as if it will be more work.

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Woo-hoo, that's great!

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