Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I think alan should be the next kicker, seeing as he was victorious.

runner up is first LOSER. but, yeah, it's a bit of brain lubricant to garner a titch of recognition.

YOU WERE VICTORIOUS!

Sorry, what? I was too busy BASKING IN THE GLORY OF VICTORY.

All right, then.

That's better.

Priorities my asparagus. I can always re-edit the other paper on my 6-hour train ride tomorrow.

Woot! It's coming along, Phoenix!

I'm trying to work on my novel during the week and then if I feel like writing on the weekend, I can delve into my short stories and poems. So now, I've written a short story based on some of my novel and have been working on it for all of last week and thus far this week during my novel writing time, because it's for the novel, but I feel like it's turning into procrastination territory (short stories and poems are my comfort zone and I get a bigger rush from working on them because they can come together so much more quickly, where my novel is one big mountain of discouragement and I suspect it will be for a while. It will be a long time before I'm gratified by any of it. I miss the writing rush I get from really refining and polishing things and completing them.) Anyway, I really need to wrap up the short story to get back to the bigger work. But I did put my time in today, albeit on the short story. I'm putting a deadline on the short story that it has to be wrapped up by the end of the week so I can get back to the novel drudgery-with-no-payoff-in-sight.

My Act III is so messed up, I think I need to strip everything away and start from scratch. Just start with the most basic plot points and go from there, with all options on the table. Nothing I'm writing for it so far makes any sense. People aren't behaving in ways that make any sense.

Um, maybe make character sheets for them? (I'm being serious.)

I have them. (Very rudimentary ones.) But my problems are, like, why would the bad guy let so-and-so escape, and if it happened why wouldn't he then do such-and-such? And why is this guy doing X if it's important to him that he do Y?

I think my problem (here) is plot more than character.

I have such a problem with plot, too, footie. I mean, I have a very broad strokes idea of all the stuff I want in my novel and who my characters are and the general plot trajectory and so on. I have all that, I have outlined it, I have sectioned it (and then rearranged it because the problem, again and again, is detailing the specifics of all that on a scene-by-scene progression basis. It's all the finer details of actually getting there. That's my struggle!)

That's why I say, once I am satisfied that the story is pretty well forged out and I have a clear draft of that, I get to do the kind of work that I enjoy the most in writing which is craftsmanship and refinement and close editing and getting all the fine details in. That's why I enjoy short stories and poems so much, the plot is sorted out rather quickly in those and I get to do my favorite stuff for most of that ride. I have also considered writing my book short story style, but I really don't want to. I think it needs the continuation of a long form novel to work the way I want it to...

Man I'm tiredddd. But Imma force myself to type up the latest edits on my short story before I crash for the night. I've got it pretty well worked out now. I know in November I'll be more inspired about the novel because the NaNo folks will be working then and that should give me a boost. I do plan to go workmanlike myself for the next couple of weeks leading up to November and see if I can make some more progress on my own but I'm just totally lacking momentum, but I lack momentum a lot during periods when I'm writing and muddle through.

That's what you gotta do. It's not much fun.

From November 1-5th I am holing up in a cabin on a small island (generously offered to me by a friend's wealthy family in exchange for a bit of housekeeping) to finish. Not just to write, to finish. I hate finishing. I must do it. It has to happen. If you see me on the PPK during that time, feel free to send me threatening PMs. This shiitake is going to happen.

Kick! (But it sounds like you already gave yourself a kick in the pants.)

Woot!

I can't wait to read it!

Wrote two new scenes (@ ~2000 words total) yesterday on the novel and put (I think) the final polishing edits on the short story offshoot from the novel.

Whoa. You are destroying it!!

Whoo! Gave a well-received paper and managed to write on both train rides!

^Yay! @ the well-received paper. I used to edit my essays for school on the train and once, a lady read one of my essays over my shoulder as I was working on it and said she thought it was good, lolz.


It's all crepe right now but hopefully I can make it better in time. I've decided that even crepe on my topic is progress! Every draft I write is gonna take more and more shape, I figure.

It HAS to be crepe first or it will never be anything. At least, that's how it works for me. I'm getting increasingly anxious about having to actually commit to writing in November.

Just over 2000 words today. Of crepe, but still: Woot!

Yay SV!

You are the champ. You now have to do some kicking.

Kickity-kick!

I wrote almost 1700 words today. More crepe. I'm just NaNoing at this point, freestylin' freewheelin' writing at whim. My first draft was very superficial, there was not a broad enough range of characters and now I'm delving into them more closely. I know where I'm going in the larger picture but I'm foundering around in scenarios of getting there. I sit down and think to myself "imma cover this today," and then I start off with that but start digressing and following those digressions. Maybe this is how it works for me? I take heart that Philip Roth was quoted as saying something like: "Sure, I've written a novel before, but never THIS novel," which I take to mean that each novel presents its own unique challenges, and you're just a pioneer at it, in a way, over and over again, which I've certainly found to be true of other writing experiences. This is how I'm going to do this one, I guess.