10:37 Went out to dinner and bought a large cat furniture tonight. Looks like I won’t have much time to write. Therefore I do so anyway. This story is a little emotionally charged, but it’s not *my* story. I probably felt something like this at one time, but it has been a long time if so. So this is not about my experience… it’s just a story.
My big problem with the “spontaneous write a story” exercise is having to come up with a plot/character idea on the fly. Any ideas on how people do this, either for writing short stories or improv-type stuff? Once I have a novel framework, outline, or other harness to work from, maybe I won’t have to worry about generating random ideas. I have a pretty good idea of the setting (contemporary) but I will still need plot and character development.
Another random idea for a partial story. This time I couldn’t decide who the protagonist or point-of-view person was, so I just left out the thoughts and reactions and wrote just the sequence of events. This seems to get more dialogue in, and makes the actual events happen faster. However, I alternated between too much detail (which makes the events happen slower to the reader’s point of view) and very little detail. Comparing the ride to the restaurant and the ride back shows the difference in style (probably just based on my boredom with the scene and wanting to get it over with). If I am writing from a certain person’s point of view (rather than an impartial observer) I could probably use the variations in “speed” to reflect whether the person is involved/engaged (and things seem to be happening slowly, lots of time to think, lots of detail) and when they are bored (which can flow a little faster.. no sense in boring the reader too. :) I guess I need to think more about how to adjust the level of the detail and speed of storytelling. Suggestions? Without a point of view, I didn’t really get across what they were thinking and feeling, mostly because I wasn’t sure, I don’t know these characters well yet, how they met (online, but not sure how) and how they feel about each other. So I took an easy way out and just wrote the events. Might be interesting to go back and put in one person’s point of view and thoughts and see how that changes the scene, and how it changes the word count.
Stolen from a chat with a friend…. According to nanowrimo.com tips: Start writing down, now, every single thing you hear every single person say. Write down every dumb thought that enters your head. You will need it. Also under tips: “Try to dream about your novel, so you won’t lose those hours merely sleeping…” Miche thinks I’m crazy. I say “Yes, I know” Remains to be seen whether I can write 2000 words in a row. Never mind doing it day after day. A Wish for Peace was 1917 words apparently. Christie was 2300 words. So, do that 25 times in 30 days and I’m set. ...
10:49 am. Today’s random writing is brought to you by the “Random” button on livejournal.com. After browsing several random entries, I began to see a pattern: most web journals (at least most of the ones connected to the Random button today) are written by girls who partied pretty hard last weekend, missed some classes last week, are worried about whether what Julie said about Kevin is really true, and are a size 3 but still want to lose weight to look good among the other cheerleaders… Writing the following partial story took like 4 hours, but some of that was research time and a couple brief interruptions. Hopefully I will be able to cut the time down a bit in the weeks to come; I don’t want to spend 4 hours a day, but I might be able to do two. If I choose a setting that is a bit more familiar, I will require less time for research.
I added myself to my own friends list. This means I get to see my own entries mixed in with the friends entries. This is kind of interesting… I don’t know if I like it. I also don’t know if other people reading my friends page will enjoy it or not, but then again, I don’t guess my friends page is viewed much by others… most everyone else has their own friends and don’t need to borrow mine :)
I have slowed down a bit on the writing about beliefs, relationships, communication, etc. I have a few more topics I want to cover, but it’s not as urgent anymore. I have received very few comments on them, on line or in real life, so I don’t really know if other folks are enjoying reading them or not. Anyway, the important thing is to write about what I am interested in, so I will enjoy writing more and do it more often. With that goal in mind, I will need to pick some other topics, but I will come back to beliefs, relationships, etc. from time to time. ...
Things to do, personal Write more Roleplay Go out with friends Exercise Things to do, household Get rid of desk Get rid of tv stand Tighten loose screws on chairs Figure out taxes Paint bathroom Install air conditioner Wish list New laptop
Tuesday: Actually rode my bike during lunch today, though I forgot my water bottle. Had to stop twice on the hill of death and cough up something that didn’t quite belong in my lungs. Showered and still had time to grab lunch on the way to staff meeting. Other stuff happened after this, probably involving another meeting and more emails. Wednesday: Don’t remember much about this day. Thursday: Did some bits of managing (which mostly amounts to talking to people about work that other people are working on). A meeting, then anime, then a bit more email and taking, then time to go take M to an appointment. Went to dinner with M… Spent most of the evening playing with the palm 3 and installing some free software called avantgo that promises to keep my palm 3 supplied with the current version of The Onion for free (which came in handy during meetings Friday). ...
In the area of friendship, I have certain expectations of a “friend” that I might not have of everyone else around me. Let me begin by describing the expectations I have of everyone, including strangers, and work forward. 1. I expect honesty and general good will from everyone. Honesty is different from openness. By honesty I mean that what one says is truthful and there is no attempt to decieve, but that doesn’t mean that the other person will necessarily tell me everything. This means that if someone asks me something I am uncomfortable with answering, I would prefer to say “I don’t want to talk about that” than to answer with a lie. In return I expect people to not lie to me. ...