The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss

greendragon said:

1900 words today so far, and more to come. Up to 12,470 on my current WIP, Misfortune of Time. I started it 10 days ago. Not too bad, eh?

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Not bad at all!

I've been spouting off my 2k/day but they feel like crap (brown, runny, you know the kind ). Oh well, better than being constipated I guess.

greendragon said:

Tonight I speak at Cafe Scientifique in Corning - a speech on historical fiction and research methods.

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*eyes widen* *starts making inquiries*

Edit: GD, your PM inbox is full!

Friendly Frog said:

I'm having a little trouble fielding all the sympathy coming my way. It was expected. We were not that close as granma could be difficult and was an extremely private person so that even my mom cannot name one single interest or hobby of granny, assuming she even had one. I do have good memories of her and will miss her but I'm happier rather she's at peace now than suffering but I don't seem to be able to explain that to other people.

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I too can emphasize with this. Lost one of my grandmothers to Althzhimers. She was gone long before she was dead.

I'm beginning to think my first drafts are not as crap as they used to be, despite the fact I know that level of arrogance is full of it and dangerous. And yet... and yet... my planning does help. I know it will all fall apart when I reread, though.

Cafe Scientifique is all over the world, if anyone is interested. Our Corning group is run by one of my fellow Author Group people, Ron. Ron is writing a book on the history of storage for radioactive waste.

What sort of inquiries are you making, themindstream?

2700 words so far today. 13,300 total.

Repped you with my query.

Answered

greendragon said:

I wrote up outline notes for the speech. I'm happy to share. I do expand on each topic off the cuff, but these are my guideline topics.

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Thanks for sharing all that, GD. Even the guideline stuff is informative!

Friendly Frog said:

I'm having a little trouble fielding all the sympathy coming my way. It was expected. We were not that close as granma could be difficult and was an extremely private person so that even my mom cannot name one single interest or hobby of granny, assuming she even had one. I do have good memories of her and will miss her but I'm happier rather she's at peace now than suffering but I don't seem to be able to explain that to other people.

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I wasn't close with any of my deceased grandparents either. I only remember two of the three funerals, and remember crying then, but that was pretty much it. My grammy will be a different story. She's not sick or suffering, but she is very old and I am somewhat close to her, but I'd rather not think about that until it actually happens.

So, I met themindstream!!!! She came to my talk

I did have a friend record video, so I hope to upload the talk sometime soon to my youtube channel. I'll post details once it's up if it works.

Also, final word count today - 4000.

Losing my grandad four years ago was the kickstart to my writing. Coping mechanism, maybe. (The words started pouring out the weekend after his death, as I was sitting there heartbroken that I didn't get to see him before he passed from a cancer diagnosis that had come only two months before. He'd put off my visit, I think because he didn't want me remembering how he was in his final days.)

I like to think it was grandad inspiring me to finally shut up and DO IT. And to get me to laugh, not cry.

We were fairly close but in the last two years after grandma passed (whom I was extremely close to), grandad, my husband and I were thick as thieves. We'd jump in the car every couple of months and drive the thirteen hours from Minnesota to Colorado just to surprise him. I'd work out of his home, and can still remember him coming out into the garden, sitting next to me as I was working on my laptop, and then he'd launch into some story. Grandad didn't equate work with computers real well, so I usually had strange working hours those weeks. Because I never knew how much time I had left with him, so a story with grandad versus answering a coworker's email now versus later? No contest.

Now I need to go off and sniffle in a corner somewhere.

Morning Cantina. We'll have to wait and see, but my aunt may be put in the hospital today. She was told she had cellulitis in her legs two days ago and was put on antibiotics. If she's not better when she goes back to the doctor today, it's into the hospital with her, and from what she's told us over the phone it sounds like that's the thing likely to happen. This could be a blessing in disguise as she could use time to rest from everything she does for my Grammy on a daily basis (there are people who can be called to provide in-home care for Grammy while my aunt's away since neither of my uncles are capable of caring for her) and the hospital should also be able to help her with the other issues she's having, including getting some weight off of her while she's there, which she desperately needs. Maybe they can also see if she's diabetic since her regular doctor is too freaking lazy to bother checking despite the fact that she's obese, sedentary, and EVERY OTHER MEMBER OF HER IMMEDIATE FAMILY IS DIABETIC. Not that we're frustrated with her doctor or anything...

Anyway, being 8 hours away and unable to go down there, we'll just have to wait for the phone call to know what's going on. Should be a couple hours from now since her appointment is at 11. In the meanwhile, I'll be writing werdz.

Thanks for being so understanding, guys. It really warms my heart.

I was really young when I lost my grandparents. My family has a history of marrying in their 40s, so when I was a kid my grandparents were in their 90s.

greendragon said:

So, I met themindstream!!!! She came to my talk

I did have a friend record video, so I hope to upload the talk sometime soon to my youtube channel. I'll post details once it's up if it works.

Also, final word count today - 4000.

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awesome! can't wait to watch the video

greendragon said:

So, I met themindstream!!!! She came to my talk

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Diiiid. Nerds unite!

themindstream said:

Diiiid. Nerds unite!

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Hooray for nerds!

In my neck of the woods, we're having a big potluck brunch today that will include waffles, scrambled eggs, toast, and more! I heard rumors of wine as well. That's unlikely since I work on a University campus, but anything can happen, I suppose.

My father's parents (as an effect of him having me when he was 52) were well dead when I was born, and his mother was domineering by all accounts and his father a bit of a pathetic tragedy by my dad's account, so I don't think I missed much with them. My mother's are still alive and... not well, really, but we're counting on keeping them another few years.

greendragon said:

A full and well-lived life should be celebrated, not mourned.

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That's my dad's philosophy, too, he outright said at his brother's funeral that he never liked how somber funerals got, and how drawn out the speeches would be, bemoaning the deaths, so he would just say goodbye, and let's move on to one of his favourite hymns. Those lines were longer than his speech.

Damoclian said:

Say whut?? :s Why must I go!? :'o I want to STAAAAAYYYY!!!!11!!1!

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Go, hunt down the prompt of the intergalactic pizza-surfing tiger! It is your destiny!

No word from my aunt via email or phone which most likely means they did put her in the hospital. We'll wait a little while longer before calling down there to see what's going on, but yeah. She would have emailed at the very least by now if they'd sent her back home.

Just wrote a moving farewell between a magic tiger dad and his human child who kept him locked up in the basement. There is no level at which this can be explained as not "very fantasy" or "strange".

EFB - I wish your aunt good healing!

Rel - is there anything wrong with that?

Wrote 2300 words today, including a rather intense and wrenching scene involving a raging river, a washed out bridge, and an almost-not-rescue. Almost up to 17K total.

How am I 20% done with this first draft when I'm barely 2 weeks in? Yikes!

I have to work to differentiate the 'good guy' personalities involved. The husband's best friend (Cadhla) and the grandson's tutor (Odhar) must be more distinguishable. Right now they feel too similar to me. Hmm. Both are good-natured and world-wise. One is a priest about 50, the other a monk about 30 and newly arrived. All in 11th century Ireland. Ideas?

- - - Updated - - -

Maybe Cadhla could be sarcastic. Yes. I like that.

greendragon said:

Wrote 2300 words today, including a rather intense and wrenching scene involving a raging river, a washed out bridge, and an almost-not-rescue. Almost up to 17K total.

How am I 20% done with this first draft when I'm barely 2 weeks in? Yikes!

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Your productivity is both inspiring and discouraging. Mostly inspiring, but there's still that little bit of "You wrote HOW much?!? IN A DAY?!? Hey, how much have I done toda... oh. Y'know what, never mind... OH LOOK! FLYING POLICE BOXES!"

That's a mighty fine word count. I wrote...156 words today ;>.> Better than nothing, though!

I think the most I ever wrote in a day was around 2.7k. I was downright loopy afterwards, haha.

Grr. I seem utterly incapable of producing a draft under 100k. This rewrite was outlined to hit 100k as a generous over spill, (knowing my tendencies and thinking I could then pare it down to a more reasonable 90 or 80). I hit that tonight and just did a quick calculation of my outline left... probably at least 30k! Baaah! And the thing is, I don't feel like an over writer. I like a snappy sentence, I like a compact scene that has more than one plot piece. I'm terrible at description and if anything, don't do enough. When ready, I desperately need some eyes to tell me why this keeps happening, perhaps point out which darlings to kill, since apparently, I'm an incompetent murder.

Dang it, I really thought I was doing better this time around.

Mary Love said:

Grr. I seem utterly incapable of producing a draft under 100k. This rewrite was outlined to hit 100k as a generous over spill, (knowing my tendencies and thinking I could then pare it down to a more reasonable 90 or 80). I hit that tonight and just did a quick calculation of my outline left... probably at least 30k! Baaah! And the thing is, I don't feel like an over writer. I like a snappy sentence, I like a compact scene that has more than one plot piece. I'm terrible at description and if anything, don't do enough. When ready, I desperately need some eyes to tell me why this keeps happening, perhaps point out which darlings to kill, since apparently, I'm an incompetent murder.

Dang it, I really thought I was doing better this time around.

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To hear Stephen King talk, this is how you're supposed to do it, then edit down and "cut the bad parts". I have to do tons of rewriting, no matter how much I outline in advance, and I have to add a bunch of stuff in and end up with a longer draft.

I'm a weird writer. Maybe it comes from never taking any formal writing classes other than the creative writing everyone gets in high school?

I am very disciplined in my daily goals. I'm an accountant, methodical, a planner, and have Project Completion Compulsion. The downside of this is if I DO get stuck (rarely) I cannot start another project until this one is done. It drives me batty having two going at once (at least, first draft stage - once that first draft is done, my muse is free to jump to another project).

I am blessed by having a job where my workload in non-quarter-end months is VERY light. I can work on my writing during the day with little interruption. However, once busy month starts (January, April, July and October), I'm severely curtailed in that. it's coming up, and I know it - so I'm squeezing as much as I can out of my days before that hits. I KNOW I won't finish this draft beforehand. But I'll get as much as I can done! I will allow myself to cut back to a 1000 a day minimum during busy month (and will still try for 2000), as there are always 'waiting times' when I can't work but have to wait on someone else to finish what they are doing before I can do what I'm doing.

The most I've ever written in one day was 13,000 words. That was a day where I had no work at my real job to do and it was the last chunk of a 120,000 first draft. The 'light at the end of the tunnel' effect works wonders on me. I race to that finish line and damn the torpedoes! I don't smoke and I swear I needed a cigarette afterwards. It's exhausting!

Also, my edits usually ADD word count. Because I write by transcribing the movie in my head, sometimes I take shortcuts in my writing - basically, I forget to add details that I can see but readers cannot. When I go through and edit, I usually catch that and 'fill in the blanks,' as it were.

greendragon said:

EFB - I wish your aunt good healing!

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Thanks, GD.

How am I 20% done with this first draft when I'm barely 2 weeks in? Yikes!

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Yikes? How about

Thief said:

That's a mighty fine word count. I wrote...156 words today ;>.> Better than nothing, though!

I think the most I ever wrote in a day was around 2.7k. I was downright loopy afterwards, haha.

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I squeezed out 300-ish which is more than I thought I'd done. Was feeling a little stressed about the aunt situation and not knowing what was going on and that detracted from my focus.

The most story words (as opposed to outline words, which seem to come faster for me as they don't need the same amount of detail) I remember writing in one day was somewhere close to 2,000. It was, indeed, tiring.

greendragon said:

I'm a weird writer. Maybe it comes from never taking any formal writing classes other than the creative writing everyone gets in high school?

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I've never had formal writing classes either, and even in high school, there were only two or three creative writing things I was actually required to do. I know I need to be more disciplined about daily goals though, especially as I have no formal job and there's really no excuse for the level of distraction I allow some days.


Aw...They just showed a kitty on TV that looks way too much like my fluffy boy who passed away this year. Gee thanks, TV people.

Morning, Cantina. My dad finally did call our family last night when we continued to not hear anything and my aunt has indeed been hospitalized. And as usual, the medical system down there is UTTER CRAP. *fumes* For one thing, my aunt said she had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics they gave her and was getting all splotchy so they said they'd bring her benadryl. Keeping in kind she'd been in the hospital most of the day by the time we got her room's phone number and called her for her to tell us about this, she'd yet to see any benadryl. They were also supposed to put her on an IV for part of her treatment, but couldn't find a vein in her arm, so rather than find a vein in her hand (like the hospital here does when they've had the same problem with my dad) or give her oral medication they were giving her...nothing. Oh, and to top it all off, the toilet in her room is so low she almost fell in the floor trying to use it and no one was in there to assist her. So, my dad got to do his thing and start calling the appropriate numbers to kick the hospital people's butts into shape and make sure my aunt is actually getting the treatment and help she needs, because, as usual with the medical system where that part of my family lives, having someone to advocate for you is just about the only way you're going to get decent treatment, especially when they're busy as they currently are. It's utterly ridiculous (and also not the first time it's happened) and is one of many reasons my parents never moved back there once they left. *more fuming*


I think I'll go try to pour my annoyance into writing. Might be a good time to write a villain scene, yes? Yes.