The auditorium fell silent as the two teams set to work. On the left, the “Spring Dodgers” were quietly discussing the question. On the right, members of the “Babbleshop Quartet” were staring at each other in silence, sometimes looking around the room hoping to find inspiration in the familiar curtains of the high school stage.
Robbie, a Dodger, glanced up from the team’s chatter and was hopeful, seeing the expressions of their opponents. She returned her attention to the team’s planning, hoping to come up with an answer to the question posed to the teams by the moderator of the competition. When she looked up again, however, her mouth gaped, her eyes opened wide, and she began to pressure her teammates in a panic to hurry.
“Come on, we have to hurry. They’re going to get the answer first!”
“I thought they were spacing out!”
“They were, but now they know what they’re doing.”
“How do you know?”
“When Hope knows the answer, she vibrates. I can just about feel it from here!”
The team returned to the question, but were too late. They jumped when they heard the bell from the other side of the stage, rung by Hope, the Quartet leader. The moderator prompted the team to respond.
“Is it 107x squared?”
The moderator checked his card. “Yes, it is. You are correct and you win this round! Congratulations!”
(This writing prompt took 5 minutes to conceptualize and write. 233 words = about 46 wpm)
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
NaNoWriMo 2009 Outline
Rather than going in to work today, I spent some time at the house waiting for the person who provides official measurements for carpet installation. He called this morning and told me that my two-hour window for measurement was between 12:15 and 2:15, so I took a late-morning breakfast break around 10:30, going out in the cooler weather to The Egg and I.
After eating, I was listening to classical music and sipping tea, thinking about the possible directions for the story I am considering trying to write in November. I scribbled a page of notes on it, and turned that into what is basically an outline to a story with some HUGE, GLARING HOLES in it. I'm okay with what is missing at the moment since the overall story has taken on a pretty interesting shape. Now the challenge becomes seeing if I have enough time to commit to writing at least 1667 words a day next month!
Along with this, I feel a nagging need to find or write a tool that will take what I write and check it for word and phrase proximity. That is, I obsessively worry that I'm using the same phrase too many times in a row, or too close to each other, and I would love to have a tool that goes through my work and checks that for me, letting me know where a synonym might be a good idea.
After eating, I was listening to classical music and sipping tea, thinking about the possible directions for the story I am considering trying to write in November. I scribbled a page of notes on it, and turned that into what is basically an outline to a story with some HUGE, GLARING HOLES in it. I'm okay with what is missing at the moment since the overall story has taken on a pretty interesting shape. Now the challenge becomes seeing if I have enough time to commit to writing at least 1667 words a day next month!
Along with this, I feel a nagging need to find or write a tool that will take what I write and check it for word and phrase proximity. That is, I obsessively worry that I'm using the same phrase too many times in a row, or too close to each other, and I would love to have a tool that goes through my work and checks that for me, letting me know where a synonym might be a good idea.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Keeping Pace with Priest
NaNoWriMo is beginning to loom once again, and I'm trying to get geared up for writing. I was able to keep an average pace of about 2,250 words per day during last year's event, but I have proven that I'm not a writer. I'm not talking about the story that came out of my last NaNo attempt. I just re-read my story, and for a first draft, I'm actually pretty happy with it. I'm referring to the fact that since NaNo last year, I have not written every day. I have not written consistently week to week. I've not written much of anything story-wise, really.
I read a lot, between books and blogs. Several of the blogs I read are about writing. One such blog, written by Cherie Priest, keeps frequent track of how many words she has written on her stories in a given day. She posted a blog back on April 15, 2008 (http://www.cheriepriest.com/2008/04/15/april-15-2008/) in which she explains her word count scale. It looks like this:
1000 words - Marginally acceptable
2000 words - Fair
3000 words - Good
4000+ words - Glorious
So on this scale, I had seven days that were too low to count, three that were marginally acceptable, five that were fair, six that were good and one that was glorious. My average pace of 2,250 words a day is just north of Fair.
Or is it? I ask because often, Cherie also makes a little comment about how she feels about her word count. I think the scale she actually holds herself to is a little more strict than what she quoted in April. Based on her blog word count comments, I came up with this Real Cherie Priest Word Count Scale:
Under 1,000 words: Boo. Not good.
1,000 to 2,000 words: Meh (though I've seen Meh range as high as 3,211, I'll consider that an outlier.)
2,001 to 3,750 words: Now we're in the Not Bad to Pretty Good range
3,751 to 4,050 words: Very good. It's a small range because over 4,050, she gets a little more excited.
4,051 up: BOOYAH! HUZZAH! GLORIOUS! RAR! HELLS YEAH! SWEET!
On this revised scale, my average NaNo pace is Not Bad. I had one BOOYAH day (at 5,986 words), a week of Boos (three of which were total non-writing days), three Mehs and eleven Not Bads in my 22 days of writing before my trip to Dallas. I wonder if I can get my average up to the Very Good range this year. I'm competitive that way sometimes.
As an aside, I have to say that I have consistently enjoyed reading Cherie's blog, including the stories of her cats, costumes and steam, as well as the links she shares. One of these days, I will have to pick up one of her books to read. Time and money being what they are, though, I don't know when that will be.
I read a lot, between books and blogs. Several of the blogs I read are about writing. One such blog, written by Cherie Priest, keeps frequent track of how many words she has written on her stories in a given day. She posted a blog back on April 15, 2008 (http://www.cheriepriest.com/2008/04/15/april-15-2008/) in which she explains her word count scale. It looks like this:
1000 words - Marginally acceptable
2000 words - Fair
3000 words - Good
4000+ words - Glorious
So on this scale, I had seven days that were too low to count, three that were marginally acceptable, five that were fair, six that were good and one that was glorious. My average pace of 2,250 words a day is just north of Fair.
Or is it? I ask because often, Cherie also makes a little comment about how she feels about her word count. I think the scale she actually holds herself to is a little more strict than what she quoted in April. Based on her blog word count comments, I came up with this Real Cherie Priest Word Count Scale:
Under 1,000 words: Boo. Not good.
1,000 to 2,000 words: Meh (though I've seen Meh range as high as 3,211, I'll consider that an outlier.)
2,001 to 3,750 words: Now we're in the Not Bad to Pretty Good range
3,751 to 4,050 words: Very good. It's a small range because over 4,050, she gets a little more excited.
4,051 up: BOOYAH! HUZZAH! GLORIOUS! RAR! HELLS YEAH! SWEET!
On this revised scale, my average NaNo pace is Not Bad. I had one BOOYAH day (at 5,986 words), a week of Boos (three of which were total non-writing days), three Mehs and eleven Not Bads in my 22 days of writing before my trip to Dallas. I wonder if I can get my average up to the Very Good range this year. I'm competitive that way sometimes.
As an aside, I have to say that I have consistently enjoyed reading Cherie's blog, including the stories of her cats, costumes and steam, as well as the links she shares. One of these days, I will have to pick up one of her books to read. Time and money being what they are, though, I don't know when that will be.
Monday, August 31, 2009
"The speaker was on fire"
This is a writing prompt, the first I've done in a while. Only 200 words came out in something like 6 minutes, and it describes much of what went through my mind when I read the prompt itself, wondering which direction it should go. The subject of this post was supposed to be the first line of the story.
“The speaker was on fire.” The words, printed across the top of the report, left Rod unsure what he was going to read. At first, his mind flashed to a speaker in the back of a souped-up Chevelle, a discarded Zippo burning into it and starting a car fire. He imagined a couple of stoned guys sitting listening to music when suddenly the balance was thrown off by the flaming speaker. They would “dude” each other obliviously as the flames climbed higher in the back.
His next thought was political, where some otherwise innocuous person suddenly lashes out with gasoline and a match inside the House, setting the Speaker of the House on fire. “Much screaming and running around would ensue, but at least the same amount of work would get done as usual,” he thought darkly.
Finally, he began to read the contents of the report, where an enthusiastic fan reported on a guest speaker at a local church function. He was a real “fire and brimstone” preacher, working the congregation up into a yelling, cheering frenzy about the Lord.
Disappointed, he cast the story aside, knowing it wasn’t going to be good enough to print in today’s paper.
“The speaker was on fire.” The words, printed across the top of the report, left Rod unsure what he was going to read. At first, his mind flashed to a speaker in the back of a souped-up Chevelle, a discarded Zippo burning into it and starting a car fire. He imagined a couple of stoned guys sitting listening to music when suddenly the balance was thrown off by the flaming speaker. They would “dude” each other obliviously as the flames climbed higher in the back.
His next thought was political, where some otherwise innocuous person suddenly lashes out with gasoline and a match inside the House, setting the Speaker of the House on fire. “Much screaming and running around would ensue, but at least the same amount of work would get done as usual,” he thought darkly.
Finally, he began to read the contents of the report, where an enthusiastic fan reported on a guest speaker at a local church function. He was a real “fire and brimstone” preacher, working the congregation up into a yelling, cheering frenzy about the Lord.
Disappointed, he cast the story aside, knowing it wasn’t going to be good enough to print in today’s paper.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Possible story idea?
This is awkward.
I came up with a premise that I think could make a good story for NaNoWriMo 2009, but it's only June! I have to put this on ice for another 4 1/2 months. The most I should let myself do is come up with an outline for the overall story before the month starts.
I used an outline for my NaNo story last year, and it worked out pretty well for me. Really, the only chapter that I wrote out of order was the very first chapter. Everything else fell into place, regardless of how much I abandoned the "robbing a store" scene.
I came up with a premise that I think could make a good story for NaNoWriMo 2009, but it's only June! I have to put this on ice for another 4 1/2 months. The most I should let myself do is come up with an outline for the overall story before the month starts.
I used an outline for my NaNo story last year, and it worked out pretty well for me. Really, the only chapter that I wrote out of order was the very first chapter. Everything else fell into place, regardless of how much I abandoned the "robbing a store" scene.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Want to write again
Since the end of NaNo, almost six months ago, I haven't really written anything, and I'm starting to get the feeling that I would like to write again. The trouble is how much school is interfering with my ability to do anything but schoolwork. That ends at the end of June, so I just need to hold out until then.
On the other hand, once the 2009 NaNoWriMo rolls around, I have no idea what I will be writing about. I have lots of different ideas, but nothing that I think would make a good novel-length story. I don't want to do a sequel of my '08 NaNo novel, even though it's probably open to one. The other stories I have in my head (or in my notes folder) don't seem to quite have the potential to flesh out enough.
In the meantime, I should probably get back into the habit of writing a little something every day, maybe a few hundred words. There's something called flash fiction that fits this pretty well, but it's a different style than the wordcount explosion that is NaNo. But it's better than nothing, right?
Now watch - now that I've said this, I won't write again until November 1.
On the other hand, once the 2009 NaNoWriMo rolls around, I have no idea what I will be writing about. I have lots of different ideas, but nothing that I think would make a good novel-length story. I don't want to do a sequel of my '08 NaNo novel, even though it's probably open to one. The other stories I have in my head (or in my notes folder) don't seem to quite have the potential to flesh out enough.
In the meantime, I should probably get back into the habit of writing a little something every day, maybe a few hundred words. There's something called flash fiction that fits this pretty well, but it's a different style than the wordcount explosion that is NaNo. But it's better than nothing, right?
Now watch - now that I've said this, I won't write again until November 1.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
TWE weekly task - Jan 7
There is a blog called The Writing Endeavor (http://thewritingendeavor.blogspot.com/) that seemed like a good idea, if only a little nascent and non-secular. The request for the first week was to "have your character give a reason why he or she likes (or maybe even dislikes) the end of the week. It could be something trivial or something huge (there's free lattes at the coffee shop on Saturday nights, or your character gets a break from work school, etc)."
While I have not written anything on the story I have in mind, I do know what the character is like to some extent. With that, I was able to formulate a response, though it is quite short:
The end of the week means the weekend is nigh, and schedules change. Expectations are different then, and excuses become far thinner. Maybe I should just change my work schedule. People don't notice when you're not there on a Tuesday when they're busy with their own lives. Yes, that's what I shall do.
While I have not written anything on the story I have in mind, I do know what the character is like to some extent. With that, I was able to formulate a response, though it is quite short:
The end of the week means the weekend is nigh, and schedules change. Expectations are different then, and excuses become far thinner. Maybe I should just change my work schedule. People don't notice when you're not there on a Tuesday when they're busy with their own lives. Yes, that's what I shall do.
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