Write Every Day - 13 August 02019

[silveradept]

Greetings! This is the Write Every Day Check-in post for 13 August 02019.

I'm feeling a little bit nervous that the recipient for my exchange story didn't like it. I know that there are people who wait until author reveals (or just about) before they comment on works, but when they do that, it's sometimes nice to get a heads-up comment that they're going to wait or have to do some other things before they can get around to commenting on it. Then again, I've had some exchange stories where all I got was a kudo, and some where I didn't get any sort of feedback at all. Considering they hadn't exactly provided me with any map past the pairing they wanted at that point, I suppose it wasn't on me to somehow read their mind and provide them with a perfect work.

Without any kind of feedback, I don't even know if the recipient read the story and had any opinion on it at all. I liked it, I think it was a good work, but since it was supposedly written to a prompt, it would be nice to know what the person providing the prompt thought about it, y'know?

I finished up my first post of the first two chapters of the new Giving of Grief target, and it really does look like it's going to be a retread of the same story from a different perspective, which I suppose is one way to make money on books. They're always slightly displaced, though, so that they start earlier or end later than the other book, and so you feel like the story progressed at least a little from the new perspective. Considering that I'm in it for the social commentary and taking a look at how the author handles certain situations, I'm less chuffed that the plot isn't going anywhere, but I think people who are fans of that series would have significant problems with this overlap approach.

This WIP that I'm wrangling also keeps threatening to misbehave, for perfectly acceptable reasons, but I keep having to come up with reasons why not to let certain characters hare off and do the thing that they desperately want to do. Or, possibly, have already done but aren't admitting to anybody. It's good, in that I'm shepherding them along the plot, but bad in that I keep having to give them excuses to stay on the plot.

How's your writing going? Less "wrestling gators in the swamp", more "tea parties with famous wrestlers, pinkies out!"?

People who have checked in with writing on Day 1: alexcat, alexseanchai, athaia, auroracloud, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, magnetic_pole, sanguinity, shopfront, silveradept, sonia, sylvanwitch, yasaman, ysilme.

People who have checked in with writing on Day 2: alexcat, alexseanchai, athaia, auroracloud, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, magnetic_pole, sanguinity, shopfront, silveradept, sonia, sylvanwitch, yasaman, ysilme.

People who have checked in with writing on Day 3: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, magnetic_pole, sanguinity, shopfront, silveradept, sonia, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yasaman, ysilme.

People who have checked in with writing on Day 4: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, bladespark, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, magnetic_pole, sanguinity, shopfront, silveradept, sonia, sylvanwitch, yasaman, ysilme.

People who have checked in with writing on Day 5: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, magnetic_pole, sanguinity, silveradept, shopfront, sylvanwitch, yasaman, ysilme.

People who have checked in with writing on Day 6: alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, magnetic_pole, sanguinity, silveradept, sonia, sylvanwitch, yasaman, ysilme.

People who have checked in with writing on Day 7: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, boxofdelights, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, magnetic_pole, sanguinity, silveradept, sylvanwitch, yasaman, ysilme.

People who have checked in with writing on Day 8: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, boxofdelights, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, magnetic_pole, sanguinity, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yasaman, ysilme.

People who have checked in with writing on Day 9: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, magnetic_pole, sanguinity, shopfront, silveradept, sylvanwitch, yasaman, ysilme.

People who have checked in with writing on Day 10: alexseanchai, auroracloud, boxofdelights, carenejeans, china_shop, lferion, sanguinity, shopfront, silveradept, sylvanwitch, yasaman, ysilme.

People who have checked in with writing on Day 11: alexcat, alexseanchai, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, sanguinity, shopfront, silveradept, sylvanwitch, yasaman, ysilme.

People who have checked in with writing on Day 12: alexcat, alexseanchai, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, magnetic_pole, shopfront, sanguinity, silveradept, sylvanwitch, yasaman, ysilme.

People who have checked in with writing on Day 13: alexcat, alexseanchai, azurelunatic, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, magnetic_pole, sanguinity, silveradept, sylvanwitch, yasaman, yslime.

Comments

[alexseanchai]

Some words? Not many words. Possibly all about to be backspaced words? I can't remember where I'd left off…

Or, possibly, have already done but aren't admitting to anybody.

LOLOLOL

[silveradept]

Words are words, even if they eventually disappear in an attack of the editing.

You know how plots get. Characters start having already done something that they're not supposed to do for another couple chapters.

[alexseanchai]

truth

[yasaman]

477 words for me! All filling in stuff I left lightly sketched in from earlier writing sessions.

[silveradept]

Those are sometimes the easy things, and sometimes the terribly difficult ones. Yay words, all the same.

[sanguinity]

Welp, earlier in this chapter I put a character on a boat leaving Southampton for New York in April 1912. Today I was browsing the wiki article for 1912 in the United Kingdom, looking for some period details to include, and discovered that omg I had put a character on a boat leaving Southampton for New York in April 1912. Whoops!

To be clear, the boat my character is on isn't that boat -- there were maybe fourteen boats that left Southampton for New York that April -- but still, I rather will need to address that boat in the text somehow. But if I'm lucky, that boat might solve the plot-and-pacing problem I've been struggling with this last week or so. We can hope so, anyway.

Unfortunately, the contractors became very distracting right around then, so while I did get a couple hundred words written (and I count myself lucky to scrabble together even that much, given the ruckus), I didn't get far enough along to discover how that boat will change things, for better or for ill. Maybe I'll find out tomorrow, contractors willing.

[silveradept]

Hooray for words in the din. And also, yes, that boat is going to have to be at least mentioned once the news gets back, assuming that you're setting sail in the correct timeframe.

[sanguinity]

And I meant to say: I'm sorry your recip is being slow to respond to you. It always messes with me some (and sometimes a lot), when I hear nothing from my recip. There is one person I get matched to fairly often who is always slow to respond, and I've gotten kind of used to it from her -- I've come to learn that she will eventually leave a nice comment, it just takes her four or five days. But when someone new-to-me does it I rather bite my nails over worry that they hate it. :-/

[silveradept]

Yes. I realize that saying nothing is better than saying you hate it, but at the same time, I would at least like to know that you read it.

[azurelunatic]

I have not only opened Scrivener, but I have fought past the bizarre error the first time I tried it, opened two old writing projects in other file formats, and started transferring the main one over into Scrivener (and writing new bits as I go).

[silveradept]

How does Scrivener work as a tool for you? I know several people who swear by it as a tool, but they also say it's probably overkill for anything less than a novel.

[azurelunatic]

It's perfect for novels. I appreciate the notecard view for outlining.

[carenejeans]

I use Scrivener for lots of things shorter than a novel, but I write in a sort of patchwork way and revise a LOT. So I can write scenes out of sequence in little docs, then string them together (there's a handy view where you can see them as they'll be compiled) and move them around. Then I compile them when I'm done.

A sort of extreme case is a Highlander fic I wrote, where Duncan, who was born on the Winter Solstice, doesn't want to celebrate his birthday -- so his two friend/lovers decide to celebrate every OTHER December holiday with him (until he relents and they all have fun, coff). I had to research a bit for the holidays, and made a doc for each one, in order. So I could see when the various festivities should take place, and write the plot and character stuff to match up. That's a special case, but shows how you can use Scrivener to keep an episodic short story on track.

And since I revise so heavily, I like to have versions (in case I change my mind and keep stuff I've deleted, or change the structure back, etc.). These are easier to keep in a Scrivener file. There's a "duplicate document" feature, so it's easy to make a copy with a right-click. I stick the old versions in a folder, usually labeled something clever like "old versions."

Also, you can use it a sort of notebook. I've taken to doing that recently. Not sure how it will work in the long run, but so far it's been handy to have my scattered notes in one place. I've been working on several short things in one Scrivener -- when something is close to done, I copy-paste it into a Word doc and finish it from there.

This is just my quirky way of doing things. It probably wouldn't work for everyone!

[silveradept]

It's good to hear how other people use it, so that I have a better idea of its capabilities.

[lferion]

Wrestling, definitely wrestling. Still, 200+ words on the reverse bang (which will need wrestling into some kind of harmony with the other words) and 320 on a fan flashworks piece (3 linked drabbles and a coda)

[silveradept]

Oh, neat. Linked works are fun! Hopefully the gator gets a bit more cooperative with time.

[china_shop]

Ugh, waiting for your recipient to comment (or leave any kind of feedback/indication of having read) is the worst! I tell myself that life happens, and maybe they're having an emergency or something, but it never helps as much as it should!

*sends tea, chocolate and fortitude*

14th: Got beta back on kissing ficlet #2 -- basically "add more feels!" -- and have just rewritten it from its original 1083 words to 1641, so... more than half as long again! Need to read it through again before I can send it back, but first several days' worth of dirty dishes await my attention. ;-P

[silveradept]

Dishes is a good thing. Also, when I send things out to beta, they almost always come back needing more words than the draft did, even if I cut other things that don't work as well.

Sometimes life happens. Sometimes I wonder if the accounts in question are just there as exchange signups to capture gifts with (of course, they presumably also write gifts) and they don't actually intend on interacting in any way at all, which is just weird.

[cmcmck]

Fwiw, I'm a poet, so it tends to come as it comes.

[silveradept]

Nothing wrong with that. When it arrives, it's great, but it never stays for long.

[alexcat]

One 100 word drabble and 152 words on a Big Bang.

[silveradept]

Progress is progress.

[sylvanwitch]

I hope you hear from your exchange partner soon, even if it's just to say that they have read the story, because not to do so seems rude to me. I feel like an exchange is one of those virtual spaces in which certain basic protocols are necessary and are, at least to a degree, mutually agreed upon. That is, by the very nature of an exchange, there should be some transaction, right? The person requests a thing, the writer/artist/etc provides the thing, and because this isn't actually commerce, the transaction isn't completed with money or goods and services but a comment, some acknowledgment that the thing was received. Anyway, I'm not accusing the person of bad behavior, precisely, but I do wonder sometimes if there are folks who don't recognize that there is a protocol? No one wants to make responses compulsory, I'd guess, for obvious reasons, but still...responding seems the right thing to do.

Sorry...rambling. I spend a lot of time thinking about navigating social spaces, whether they're RL or virtual (or, since that dichotomy doesn't precisely work for me, maybe say "meatspace," as I've seen Seanan McGuire use recently, and virtual space).

Anyway, I'm glad the shepherding is going well, if only it means the sheep aren't dead, never mind obedient. ;-)

I edited the first half of the last chapter of the ambush project and then realized I need a new first chapter, so at least I know where I'm starting when this round of edits is done. *laughs weakly*

[silveradept]

Oh, yay. So much fun when you have to eat your own tail.

Many exchanges have their protocols in differing forms of spelled out, and are taken care of in differing ways, so maybe I'm just unlucky.

[cornerofmadness]

Oh lord I HATE that. Yeah it happens of course and you're like did they hate it? Do they have no manners? Every year there's at least one where I'm left wondering. Hope you hear from them.

Me having no internet is working out. I wrote 3418 words on Like Stone

[silveradept]

Good for the writing, then!

And yeah, it looks like they haven't even looked at it, so maybe something happened. I don't know.

[cornerofmadness]

IT's possible

[ysilme]

I'm sorry about your exchange woes. I think it's the shabbiest thing to leave no feedback or only kudos to an exchange gift; a simple "thank you" should be the least; and if you can't reply in a timely fashion you can either let the mods know in advance so they can tell the recipient, or just leave a quick "Thanks and I'll be back with more soon" or so. With those exchanges I kept writing for, it's beein either a requirement to at least thank your recipient, or the mods made sure the recipient would comment if they didn't out of their own volitions, with defaulters not being allowed to participate again (not counting people with justified cause to not react in a timely manner, but those also always seem to be able to at least contact a mod and let them know.) I've frequently been travelling for the reveals of a favourite exchange, but always left a note with the mods to pass on to my author thanking them already for writing something me, and explaining that I'd react as soon as I had proper internet access again.
I really hope you got lots of lovely feedback by others to at least make up for it a bit! *hugs*
For my tally, it's only two vs. one alibi sentences for the 12th and the 13th each. Our DSL router broke, or rather the Wifi part of it. It*s still within the warranty, but due to an earlier error of the internet company (they accidentally booked it on my father's account) and brand new laws on necessary authentification getting the replacement sent out was a tedious and draining, two-day long process which left me with nearly no energy to write.

[silveradept]

Oof. That's a terrible part of the router to break.

We'll see what feedback comes of it - when I looked, it looked like no other person had actually looked at it at all, so this one might go by the wayside until reveals by just not being anyone's cup of tea.

[carenejeans]

Alibi sentence. Argh. The whole day was a !@#$%&!!! computer-related disaster. One of those days where you spend hours on a computer and NOT in any kind of fun way. Everything conspired against me. My laptop. My internet provider. My effing bank website with the -- wait for it -- new design.

So, much fuming and no writing.

[silveradept]

Eeeek. Any not the sort of thing where you can swing a few minutes writing because you're on hold or they can't get back to you immediately, or something like that.

I hope after all the cursing and computer woes, everything's fixed.

[magnetic_pole]

LOTS OF WRITING TODAY! Awesome, productive day. A few comments left, as well. M.

[silveradept]

Excellent! Glad you had a productive day.