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Monk
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 4:07 am |
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Joined: | 19 Jun 2006 |
Posts: | 35552 |
Location: | Between the thumb and the wrist. |
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Day One: Spent yesterday attempting two entirely different stories, neither of which went anywhere. I've come to the realization that writing everyday does not always mean writing something worthwhile everyday. Still, even the dead-ends are useful, as I can see where things went wrong. I'm about to go to bed (it's 4:03 in the morning), but I'm going to attempt a last minute story. Some of my best stuff has been written with no prep and in about 30 minutes or less, so it might not be an entirely fruitless day.
_________________ Daily art blog Very Short Drawings
Pay a visit to The Writers' Block, where writers, uh...write stuff!
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Pope Krysak
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 4:54 am |
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Pontifex of the Ridiculous
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Joined: | 11 Dec 2006 |
Posts: | 27856 |
Location: | In the IMWANican |
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I don't like forcing things with writing. It tends to lead to less than satisfactory results. The best times are when I have everything right in my head and bursting to get out. Then it is a simple as can be.
_________________ I put the "mental" in "sacramental."
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Monk
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 12:11 pm |
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Joined: | 19 Jun 2006 |
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Location: | Between the thumb and the wrist. |
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I'm a "fear is a great motivator" kind of writer, so I need some sort of pressure, even if it's artificial, to produce. Left solely to my own devices, my focus is all over the place and I tend to not finish things.
_________________ Daily art blog Very Short Drawings
Pay a visit to The Writers' Block, where writers, uh...write stuff!
Read my comic strip A Boy Called Monk
Read my comic book Town of Shadows
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Monk
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 12:15 pm |
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Joined: | 19 Jun 2006 |
Posts: | 35552 |
Location: | Between the thumb and the wrist. |
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Early Day Two Wrote for about 20 minutes last night, and I think I have something that's going somewhere. My vague sort of thinking was to write something happy, or at least happier than much of what I write seems to be. I'm a pretty happy person, but I just can't write about smiling people doing smiling things in a smiling world, without it feeling like that's only half the story. Anyway, I wrote about 322 words last night, and I'm happy with most of them. Goal is to finish it up today, and not let it go completely off the rails in the process.
_________________ Daily art blog Very Short Drawings
Pay a visit to The Writers' Block, where writers, uh...write stuff!
Read my comic strip A Boy Called Monk
Read my comic book Town of Shadows
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Monk
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 12:14 am |
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Joined: | 19 Jun 2006 |
Posts: | 35552 |
Location: | Between the thumb and the wrist. |
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Late Day Two After two days of struggling to make two different stories work, I sat down and with little to no idea of what to write, came up with a third. It wouldn't be completely accurate to say there was no prep. The main character, Molly Kingsmith, has been floating around in my head for about three years now, and I have huge vague plans for her. I've tried to write a few different stories introducing her in some way (including one of the two non-working stories from this weekend), but never quite got it right. "Her Darkly-Shining Soul" nearly got abandoned right after I started thinking it through, as it started to feel a bit too much like the Sixth Sense, something I hope I was successful avoiding. All in all, a much more productive day than I'd hoped for.
_________________ Daily art blog Very Short Drawings
Pay a visit to The Writers' Block, where writers, uh...write stuff!
Read my comic strip A Boy Called Monk
Read my comic book Town of Shadows
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Eric W.H. Taft
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 9:21 am |
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Joined: | 14 Aug 2006 |
Posts: | 40002 |
Location: | Die, Marti Tracy, die |
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Monk wrote: I'm a "fear is a great motivator" kind of writer, so I need some sort of pressure, even if it's artificial, to produce. Left solely to my own devices, my focus is all over the place and I tend to not finish things.
I’m the same way. Working on deadlines has helped me develop the ability to just sit down and write when duty calls. I love to have that deadline hanging over me; thrive on it.
Of course, when I first began to write more seriously, to actually pursue the craft rather than dabble, I most certainly did the old “only when I’m inspired” thing. The rush of inspiration always feels best, yes, but over the long haul it can be a scattered, inconsistent way of producing. It was a habit I was glad to have broken, though I very much wish I had done so a few years earlier. I’d have finished a good number of projects that remain “in progress” by now had I found that discipline sweet spot.
Ultimately, though, writing is very much a “whatever works for you” kind of thing. While I do encourage people to writing something, anything every single day, you’ve got to get to that at your own speed, when you’re ready, and how you’re ready. There is no "correct" way as long as the writing is coming and it's good.
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Monk
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 12:05 am |
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Joined: | 19 Jun 2006 |
Posts: | 35552 |
Location: | Between the thumb and the wrist. |
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Day Three
Today started earlier than it should have and pretty much killed my braincells. I've got a few ideas bouncing around that I may take a pass at tomorrow. One's called "Tribe", about how we often make our own connections in the world, sometimes without even meaning to. I'm thinking it'd have shifting points of view, while essentially being a day in the life kind of thing for one of these tribes.
The other consists of an opening line, "At the end of a crooked little, shadowy, twisty little street there is a shop full of curiousities." I'm well aware of how common a story this is, but I'm thinking (hoping) I can do something unique with it, or at least something worth reading. There's also an unfinished story from this weekend, "Punk", sitting on my harddrive, waiting for me to figure it out, as well as "Money's Fool". In the case of both of these, I know exactly what I want to do, but haven't found the right voice for each, yet.
That's something I've noticed about my recent writing. The plotting (such as it is in stories this short) and the characters tend to come pretty easily, but the thing that most often derails a draft is telling the story in the wrong voice. Once I find it, things just click, and the story feels like it's telling itself.
Is it like that for anyone else, or is it just me?
_________________ Daily art blog Very Short Drawings
Pay a visit to The Writers' Block, where writers, uh...write stuff!
Read my comic strip A Boy Called Monk
Read my comic book Town of Shadows
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Pope Krysak
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 3:18 am |
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Pontifex of the Ridiculous
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Joined: | 11 Dec 2006 |
Posts: | 27856 |
Location: | In the IMWANican |
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For me the plotting is hardest. At least at this point. Reading comics all your life doesn't mean you automatically know how to write them. Working out the page by page plot slows down the process more than anything. So for each page I do I draw a rough page and see what it will look like. The comic I am working on right now I know the overall story. It's getting from Point a to Point B and beyond that requires the real effort. Once I know what each page is going to be I just fill in the gaps. Pacing needs to be watched for. That's for sure.
For straight text pieces I just let things go where they may. But most of my ideas end up needing to be told in comic form so I focus my attention there.
_________________ I put the "mental" in "sacramental."
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 7:05 pm |
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Biker Librarian
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Joined: | 26 Mar 2007 |
Posts: | 25161 |
Location: | On the highway, looking for adventure |
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Monk wrote: Day Three
That's something I've noticed about my recent writing. The plotting (such as it is in stories this short) and the characters tend to come pretty easily, but the thing that most often derails a draft is telling the story in the wrong voice. Once I find it, things just click, and the story feels like it's telling itself.
Is it like that for anyone else, or is it just me?
Yes, that happens sometimes.
Sounds like you've got several writing projects going at once. Do any of them look like a more promising place to focus than the others?
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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Monk
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 9:37 pm |
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Joined: | 19 Jun 2006 |
Posts: | 35552 |
Location: | Between the thumb and the wrist. |
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All of them were still in the "iffy" stage at the time, but today I realized I'd have a much stronger story if I combined two of the stories I was working on, since they seemed to be saying the same thing in slightly different ways. I've got a first draft written, and when I type it up I'll polish it a bit.
_________________ Daily art blog Very Short Drawings
Pay a visit to The Writers' Block, where writers, uh...write stuff!
Read my comic strip A Boy Called Monk
Read my comic book Town of Shadows
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Monk
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 1:56 am |
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Joined: | 19 Jun 2006 |
Posts: | 35552 |
Location: | Between the thumb and the wrist. |
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Day Four
Fairly productive day of writing. As I said above, I figured out the best way to handle two of my planned stories, "Tribe" and "Punk" was to combine them into one. The theme of both was pretty similar, and I went with a simple first person narrative (probably saving the revolving narrative/day in the life thing for a different story). I'm about halfway through the second draft, and at a good stopping point.
I'm a big fan of first drafts. Always have been. The main exception I make is when I write the story in longhand. "Sunset" and now "Tribe" were both written this way, and in both cases I make revisions as I type, sometimes adding or deleting whole sections along the way, and moving some things around if necessary.
"Tribe" is my first true story, with some fiction mixed in. It's also got a brief appearance by an older Molly Kingsmith, one of the characters from "Her Darkly-Shining Soul", and a character who will pop up in a lot of my stories. More about her later.
"Tribe" is also looking to be my longest Very Short Fiction so far, looking like it will wind up being between 1000 and 1500 words. I don't worry as much about the word count as I used to. It started as a tool to force me to edit. When you've got a hard 500 word limit, you eventually learn to choose your words carefully. I'm more comfortable with that, now, so I've just been letting the last few stories (Sunset, Modern Love, and now Tribe) wind up as long as they need to be.
_________________ Daily art blog Very Short Drawings
Pay a visit to The Writers' Block, where writers, uh...write stuff!
Read my comic strip A Boy Called Monk
Read my comic book Town of Shadows
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Pope Krysak
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 2:28 am |
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Pontifex of the Ridiculous
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Joined: | 11 Dec 2006 |
Posts: | 27856 |
Location: | In the IMWANican |
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I rarely like to labor over something. Generally if I've plotted it out decently before hand I don't have to do that much editing. Once it's completed I can go back and fine tune things. Possibly adding or subtracting if I notice some flaw later on. But that's about it.
_________________ I put the "mental" in "sacramental."
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Monk
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 12:09 am |
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Joined: | 19 Jun 2006 |
Posts: | 35552 |
Location: | Between the thumb and the wrist. |
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Day Five
I'm calling this an unproductive day of work for now. Started another draft of "Money's Fool" and got far enough into it to realize I have no idea what the story is about. Or rather, I have a few ideas, and really need to pick one and write that. Still where I left off in the second draft of "Tribe" because it's freaking hot in my apartment and I can't think properly. If it cools off a little and I don't fall asleep, I might take a stab at it later tonight.
And looking back at Day Three, I see that I said "Money's Fool" was a story where I knew "exactly what I wanted to do". Either I was addled then, or I'm addled now, because that's no longer the case. If past experience is any indicator, there's every possibility that an hour from now the whole thing will drop into my head almost fully formed. I love when that happens. In the meantime, I'll keep working at it.
_________________ Daily art blog Very Short Drawings
Pay a visit to The Writers' Block, where writers, uh...write stuff!
Read my comic strip A Boy Called Monk
Read my comic book Town of Shadows
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Pope Krysak
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 12:29 am |
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Pontifex of the Ridiculous
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Joined: | 11 Dec 2006 |
Posts: | 27856 |
Location: | In the IMWANican |
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I like when I don't have to work at a story. When it jumps right out that's fun. Or there was the time that I dreamed a complete story. I was going to do it a short text only tale. But it might be just as good, if not better, as a comic. Time will tell.
If I could get more stories from dreams that'd be great. But the alternative works for me too.
_________________ I put the "mental" in "sacramental."
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Monk
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 11:28 am |
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Joined: | 19 Jun 2006 |
Posts: | 35552 |
Location: | Between the thumb and the wrist. |
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Looking at the stories I've posted, "Victory", "Snowfell", "A Song of Silence", and "Valentine" just sort of spilled out as I started writing. "Sunset", "Modern Love", and the still-to-be-posted "Tribe" all took a bit of work to put together. "Her Darkly-Shining Soul" was somewhere in the middle. Coming up with a proper Molly Kingsmith story took some work, but the specific story itself came pretty easily.
Comic-wise, the A Boy Called Monk strips are always pretty easy, while Town of Shadows is something that's constantly shifting and changing in my brain, and I still don't quite have a handle on it.
_________________ Daily art blog Very Short Drawings
Pay a visit to The Writers' Block, where writers, uh...write stuff!
Read my comic strip A Boy Called Monk
Read my comic book Town of Shadows
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JohnnyJ
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 5:16 pm |
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Lactose intolerant
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Joined: | 28 Dec 2006 |
Posts: | 327 |
Location: | East Brunswick N.J. |
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Write like its a job, even a part time job. Pretend I'll kick your ass if you don't finish it.
Also,
The hardest part about starting anything is finishing it. I've only learned about that bit of wisdom in the past two years, so now I force myself to do it. (Fiction that is).
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Frank L. Sisko
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 9:58 pm |
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Emissary to the Prophets
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Joined: | 25 Dec 2006 |
Posts: | 28198 |
Location: | On the DEFIANT |
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Monk wrote: Day Four I'm a big fan of first drafts. Always have been.
Frank's Golden Rule of Writing #1:
All first drafts are shit.
(Here's the part I add when I tell my students about Rule #1...)
All first drafts. I don't care who's doing the writing. All of them. My first drafts are shit. Now, my shit is probably better than your shit...but it's still shit.
Writing is revising. Revising is a euphemism for "the willingness to kill your own children."
More of Frank's Golden Rules of Writing™ to come.
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Monk
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 10:00 pm |
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Joined: | 19 Jun 2006 |
Posts: | 35552 |
Location: | Between the thumb and the wrist. |
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Frank L. Sisko wrote: Monk wrote: Day Four I'm a big fan of first drafts. Always have been. Frank's Golden Rule of Writing #1: All first drafts are shit. (Here's the part I add when I tell my students about Rule #1...) All first drafts. I don't care who's doing the writing. All of them. My first drafts are shit. Now, my shit is probably better than your shit...but it's still shit. Writing is revising. Revising is a euphemism for "the willingness to kill your own children." More of Frank's Golden Rules of Writing™ to come.

_________________ Daily art blog Very Short Drawings
Pay a visit to The Writers' Block, where writers, uh...write stuff!
Read my comic strip A Boy Called Monk
Read my comic book Town of Shadows
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Monk
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 10:01 pm |
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Joined: | 19 Jun 2006 |
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Location: | Between the thumb and the wrist. |
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Eric W.H. Taft
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 10:09 pm |
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Joined: | 14 Aug 2006 |
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Location: | Die, Marti Tracy, die |
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I very, very much agree with Frank's Golden Rule of Writing #1.
And I'll also say that doing revisions is easily, easily the most tedious, irritating, time-consuming, joyless part of writing, and something I took a long, long time to learn.
But it's also one of the most necessary.
Damn the whole process to hell 
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Frank L. Sisko
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 11:01 pm |
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Emissary to the Prophets
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Joined: | 25 Dec 2006 |
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Monk
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Post subject: Matt's Writing Journal Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 11:58 pm |
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Joined: | 19 Jun 2006 |
Posts: | 35552 |
Location: | Between the thumb and the wrist. |
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Day Six
Much better day than yesterday. Finished the draft of "Tribe", adding some elements that I left out of the first draft, moving some bits around, and losing some things that weren't necessary. I'm not thrilled with the last line, but it's the fourth one I wrote and it works for now.
Also having a lot of fun with the Round Robin. It's a great warm-up for my other writing, it seems, and dealing with the twists and turns, as well as the slightly shifting tone (NOT a complaint) is keeping me on my toes. Thanks to Jeff, Eric, Frank, and Thomas (who contributed two great paragraphs at the same time as Jeff, and asked for his to be deleted), who hopefully will all keep contributing. I'd love to see more folks jump in, too.
Randomly, I've been reading Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut and the 2006 edition of The Best American Short Stories (edited by Ann Patchett and Katrina Kenison) both of which are highly recommended. I'm a bit of a sponge when it comes to writing and I have to make an effort not to write like whoever I happen to be reading at the time. At the same time, I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to reading and writing short stories, so I'm learning quite a bit from reading both.
_________________ Daily art blog Very Short Drawings
Pay a visit to The Writers' Block, where writers, uh...write stuff!
Read my comic strip A Boy Called Monk
Read my comic book Town of Shadows
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