Watcha Writin'?

[Valka D'Ur]

July Camp NaNoWriMo started a couple of days ago; my usual thread will be up soon.

 

[Zkribbler]

For months, I have written nothing. I cannot get motivated.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

For months, I have written nothing. I cannot get motivated.

Writer's block? Or just don't want to write at all?

NaNoWriMo is coming in November, and I need to keep my daily writing going.

 

[Zkribbler]

...just don't want to write at all?

First time in my life I have the time to write and ideas to write, but I just don't wanna.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

First time in my life I have the time to write and ideas to write, but I just don't wanna.

Time and ideas, but not the desire.

Are the ideas any that you'll miss if you forget them? If so, you will need to sit yourself on whatever you usually sit on/in, take at least a piece of paper and a pen, and jot them down. You'll thank yourself later, because I know from experience that it's very frustrating to have ideas, not write them down, and later wish you had them.

Some writers have to force themselves to do this when they're in your situation. It's part of being a professional writer, when the going gets tough(er). It's even part of NaNoWriMo. There have been days when I just didn't want to, but my desire for that win or hat trick was stronger, and I forced myself to write.

Or if writing/typing is the problem, maybe try what Kevin J. Anderson does: He dictates his prose into a recorder.*

I loathe KJA, and have openly mocked his "dicta-hiking" style of "writing" but only because he claims he is able to write "perfect prose" while dictating novels into a recorder while simultaneously climbing mountains in Colorado and rescuing young women who get into trouble on mountaintops. Some day I'm going to ask him where he keeps his extra arms and legs and respiratory system, because I don't believe a word of these claims. Any mistakes he makes are blamed on the secretary who "didn't transcribe them correctly." And that's what gets published.

Your writing is better than his, but using a recorder if you don't want to physically write might help. That way you could go outside (weather permitting), and even if you don't end up with anything usable in a story, you will have tried.


*He's posted photos of himself dicta-hiking in the mountains, and I captioned a few... in not-very-flattering ways...

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

First time in my life I have the time to write and ideas to write, but I just don't wanna.

Meanwhile, I want to write, but literally all my drafts are still trapped on the hard drive that crashed back in April.

*He's posted photos of himself dicta-hiking in the mountains, and I captioned a few... in not-very-flattering ways...

valka gibe MEMES ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Meanwhile, I want to write, but literally all my drafts are still trapped on the hard drive that crashed back in April.

Is there any way for a computer tech to retrieve them?

This is why I now write my NaNoWriMo stories in longhand, on looseleaf now. It takes four times as long and my hands and finger ache abominably, but at least nothing electronic is going to eat it.

valka gibe MEMES ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

Hm. I have a couple of them stashed away on Photobucket, but since I originally did the captioning on Cheezburger, I'll look for them there.

I'm planning to start a Dune thread, btw. Call it a long-awaited continuation of the old social group we had before the migration wiped it all out.

 

[Zkribbler]

Is there any way for a computer tech to retrieve them?

Prob'ly so. It's usually just the index that gets scrambled. A tech should be able to bypass the index to get to the data.

I now write my NaNoWriMo stories in longhand, on looseleaf now. It takes four times as long and my hands and finger ache abominably, but at least nothing electronic is going to eat it.

Or you could email portions of the story to yourself as you finish them.

 

[Zkribbler]

Kevin J. Anderson ... dictates his prose into a recorder.*

I tried that method once when I was in high school, and the product was
I should try that method again now that I'm older and wiser. I'm only allow into Tagbilaran supermarket/shopping malls on Wednesday and
Thursdays. I usually just sit in the car doing nothing while my driver shops, so I have the time.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Is there any way for a computer tech to retrieve them?

Should be. It's still technically readable, but when I ran a backup it kept hitting read-errors so I want to try to fix it properly in case too much rooting around damages something permanently. A colleague was supposed to mail out a boot drive with repair tools back in May; I'm double-tapped and in a few days will be taking the first proper mental retreat since the pandemic started, so I'll have a chance to wrangle it out in person.

I tried that method once when I was in high school, and the product was
I should try that method again now that I'm older and wiser. I'm only allow into Tagbilaran supermarket/shopping malls on Wednesday and
Thursdays. I usually just sit in the car doing nothing while my driver shops, so I have the time.

Granted it's comic dialogue rather than full prose, but during commutes I'd narrate the scenes to work out rhythm and flow.

 

[Zkribbler]

I should try that method again now that I'm older and wiser. I'm only allow into Tagbilaran supermarket/shopping malls on Wednesday and
Thursdays. I usually just sit in the car doing nothing while my driver shops, so I have the time.

This was a big nothing. The glare in the car was so great, I spent at least 15 minutes searching for my cursor. IIRC, it was Windows 8 in which a user could change the cursor to black. This made things so much easier to work with.

 

[Varde]

Stubborn pen, volley black line and then cut round, to fount, and repeat. A b.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Stubborn pen, volley black line and then cut round, to fount, and repeat. A b.

Welcome to A&E, and especially to the corner inhabited by the writers.
The hardest part of any writing project is getting started.

Two weeks and three days until NaNoWriMo.

 

[Zkribbler]

For months, I have written nothing. I cannot get motivated.

That was in August. I'm finally starting to write again slowly, very slowly. In the last week or two, 750 words. I'm hoping to have a short story done by the end of the month so I can submit it to the Writers of the Future Contest.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

That was in August. I'm finally starting to write again slowly, very slowly. In the last week or two, 750 words. I'm hoping to have a short story done by the end of the month so I can submit it to the Writers of the Future Contest.

I didn't do a November NaNoWriMo thread this year. It was hard enough to get through my own writing, never mind talking about it here. I've been working on the same project for 3 consecutive years, which means 9 consecutive NaNo contests. That's gotta be some kind of record, unless some of the fanfic authors I read have also submitted their work for NaNo.

I'm still writing every day, though, but have been considering going back to my Vacation Adventures stories for a break. I recently did a 4-game blitz of replaying the Collector's Edition of Park Ranger, taking lots of notes, and am now trying to convince the game developers (who are being defensive <pack animals> about it) that releasing a game for North American audiences that includes "Red Neck" as the name of a campground is really not a good idea, since that's a slur in some regions.

If/when I write about that game, I am definitely going to have the characters complain about it.

 

[Zkribbler]

Four days later, closing in on 1,000 words.

It's a fantasy spinoff of Casablanca. Just introduced my Elsa Lund character, who is an Amazon. The Nazis are portrayed by orcs. There's no plane to Lisbon because this is a medieval fantasy. I'm not sure about Viktor; I think he might be in a coma/under a spell. My "Rick" still lives over a saloon/casino. No appearance by Louis, Urgarte, or Sam yet. I do have a guest appearance by Scylla & his whirlpool from the Iliad.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

There's no plane to Lisbon because this is a medieval fantasy.

Did someone say

A I R S H I P S ?

 

[Zkribbler]

Mmmmm maybe. But I'm already using airships in my stalled "The Word of World is Water."

 

[Valka D'Ur]

In my own project, the issue of flying will be resolved when King Randall discovers that griffins aren't as extinct as everyone thought, and his ancestor, Edwin Griffinrider, wasn't exaggerating.

Now I just need an enemy hard enough to fight that will require griffins to beat, and have them become rediscovered in the first place.

But that's quite a way out of the way both in time and place compared with what is currently going on. In the time it's taking me to plan the wedding, they could have been married and had a kid on the way.


Of course there's always dragons, but that's cliche.

 

[Zkribbler]

...there's always dragons, but that's cliché.

uh oh [Zkribbler covers over his opening line: The refugees came stumbling down out of the high passes of the Dragonlair Mountains, bruised, filthy, torn, and exhausted. ] Move along. Nothing to see here.

BTW Airships won't work here because they need engines. In The Word for World is Water" folks have electricity. Here, not so much.