55 Word Fiction

The other day at work, got talking about writing. I gave an assignment for everyone to take a few minutes and write a 55 word short story.

Got some interesting results!

I'll post mine next time.

More Time Writing...

...less time writing about writing!

Minutes spent updating this blog (and the other ones) are adding up. I'm going to update weekly for a while to see how that goes. I'll still post " *** The 38 *** " if people are following it (let me know by commenting). From the start this has been a way to keep me honest and to have a record of my writing habits.

I'm in a routine now, so it's going well. I should have no problem finishing two stories by the end of March, for example.

I'm also excited about a new project. I'm writing scripts for short videos on motorcycle safety tips. I intend to film them however I can and if they air somehow, great. There's always YouTube if it comes to that - I can link them up to my motorcycling blog at the very least. It's a good off season project. We'll see how it goes.

I will now be able to devote some blogging time to "Across the Miles" and "On Riding and RiderCoaching". I'm way behind on the latter. I have 22 drafts just sitting there that need to be finished, and new ideas and topics keep popping up all the time.

Time...there's a limited supply!

Edit>Revise>Revamp!

I started doing some editing on "The House". I stalled right out of the gate. I have to better establish why the character is doing what he is doing. Without that, it's not believable. Have to think more...

Changed gears to story #9. It also needs some revamping. There is too much background info. I did some editing, but I think I need to go back to my outline and do some major work plotting the action of the story, then work from there.


Today: 1.1 hours/editing, some rewriting, outlining

Finally Finished

I have completed the first draft of the story I've been calling "The trouble."

It took a while (about 1.6 hours) and I rewrote and edited some.

I'm sure there's more work ahead, but it feels good to have a complete story with beginning, middle, end.

A number of others are in the works and, if I remember right, I wanted to have two stories finished by the end of March.

Still going............

Reprieve!

As my "publishing office" was closed today, I took the opportunity to do some more rewriting. Deadlines, shmeadlines! I'm using the short outline I described in the last post. I think my draft of "The Trouble" will now come out more compact and better.

I'm close to finishing it (even if it is just a first draft).


.7 hours/.8 pages plus editing

Sunday...

...was a busy day, for sure!

Did some good thinking and editing on current story. Let's give it a hint of a title: "Trouble".

Anyway, I tried to reduce it down to the bare essentials - the minimum I needed to arrive at the payoff at the end. I was getting into little subplots and side streets - too long for a simple short. I thought back to the 55 Word Fiction Project more than once. I also focused on how simple the idea was originally. So I trimmed the fat and made an outline of things the story must contain, then began to rewrite the whole thing from the start to see how compactly I could hit all those points.

So far so good. I'm feeling better about the story already
, even though my deadline is tomorrow!


2.2 hours/ pages? minus 2?

Saturday Hodgepodge

Today I reviewed some of the comments and entries on writing. It was good to review that stuff, to process what others are saying, and to comment back on a few. Helps me get my thoughts set.

Did some blogging on other places as well.

Today: blogging about writing, editing, minor additions to current story. 1.5 hours