Work In Progress Wednesday





Work In Progress Wednesday is brought to you by Kate of The Lovers, The Dreamers and Me.





Well, I really fizzled this week and only wrote 450 words. However, I did think about the story alot. Does that count? :) I was going to let this week's post slide and not say anything, but I swore I was going to be accountable to not only myself, but my fellow WIPers, so laying it out there. I didn't accomplish much.

Anyway I have to blame it on this thing


I decided to come up with an arbitrary number of words to reach in finishing "Winter's Illusion" of 100,000 words and put in it the sidebar. Must be a psychological thing. It is all that little widgets fault - yeah that's right.

I was getting ancy about not writing and working on the story. Yesterday, the books I ordered from Amazon arrived and one of them is "Zen in the Art of Writing" by Ray Bradbury. Within the first few pages of just the preface I was hit with

"We must take arms each and every day, perhaps knowing that the battle cannot be entirely won, but fight we must, if only a gentle bout. The smallest effort to win means, at the end of each day, a victory. Remember the pianist who said that if he did not practice every day he would know, if he didn't practice for two days, the critics would know, after three days, his audiences would know."

And

"I have learned, on my journeys, that if I let a day go by without writing, I grow uneasy. Two days and I am in a tremor. Three and I suspect lunacy. Four and I might as well be a hog, suffering the flux in wallow. An hour's writing is a tonic. I'm on my feet, running in circles, and yelling for a clean pair of spats." preface xiii
Great kick in the seat of the pants. That's generally the way I feel when I don't read everyday. Now it is the way I feel when I don't write everyday.

Then I read Lady Glamis's post on "The Motion of Your Novel" and realized I had missed a wave or two somewhere in my story, when I wrote the love scene for my main characters. I realized I had jumped from point A to point C and left out Point B which told you how they arrived at point C. There are bits of a little b roaming around, but not enough from keeping you from being jarred by the great "I love you." So something I will have to fix in the edit. I love her posts - they make me think and ponder and think some more, then little creative sparks going flying off and I want to rewrite everything. That's actually a good thing - I just have to remember to write those spark down, so can utilize them later.

So, getting back in that proverbial saddle. My goal is to complete two more chapters.

I'm going to take some writing advice from Ray Bradbury.

"Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces together. Now it's your turn. Jump!

I'm jumping!

5 comments:

  1. Hey, at least you got some words down - so it is progress - even if it is not as much as you would like.

    Those are great quotes too - thanks for sharing!

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  2. So glad my post helped SOMEBODY! I was afraid nobody would "get it". I have weird thoughts sometimes, but can't help from sharing them on my blog. That's what it's for.

    I really hope you can move forward with your work. But don't EVER feel like you have to completely write your work. That is a decision that should take a lot of deep pondering and thought. I've done it, I'll admit, but not without some serious reflection of my craft.

    Good luck! Let me know if I can help in any way. :)

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  3. Good for you Robin. You wrote. That's great.

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  4. What a great quote about practice -- and sooooo true. Thanks for sharing that.

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  5. "Thinking" about the book definitely counts! But 450 words is nothing to sneeze at. :)

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