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Writing Goal for the Day?

beatrice_dreams said:
That and I kept getting interrupted while I was trying to write it - drives me crazy. Ever feel like you need to sequester yourself in a soundproof room somewhere with a 'Do Not Disturb'sign
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All the time. In fact, I had an argument just yesterday about this. Seems DH couldn't grasp that 30 minutes of "writing" punctuated by an interruption every five minutes does not equal 30 minutes of writing. If he kept it up, I was heading to the library.

sr71plt said:
So, PennLady, how much snow did you get on your visit into Virginia? (The Valley, right?) And do you even have electricity?
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Looks like no.
 
SydneyBlake said:
All the time. In fact, I had an argument just yesterday about this. Seems DH couldn't grasp that 30 minutes of "writing" punctuated by an interruption every five minutes does not equal 30 minutes of writing. If he kept it up, I was heading to the library.
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My husband writes, but somehow when its his writing time, it is sacred and shall not be disturbed!

If I write, I am 'ignoring him', spending too much time 'staring at that laptop' and 'neglecting' him!

I suppose it's not so bad to be needed :D
 
lance gt said:
Here's a problem I always face and I'm sure many of you do too.

When starting a story, how do you get by the 'Once upon a time' beginning and pick a plausible point in time to start? Do you start at daybreak? A moment in a person's day? An event happening?

What do you feel is a good beginning to a story?
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I used to start with pithy little introductions that more or less summarized the theme of the story, but after a while I decided those were just wasted words. Now, I just dive right into the story. A telephone ringing, an argument, a knock on the door, backing out of the driveway--anything that gets the story started immediately.
 
lance gt said:
Here's a problem I always face and I'm sure many of you do too.

When starting a story, how do you get by the 'Once upon a time' beginning and pick a plausible point in time to start? Do you start at daybreak? A moment in a person's day? An event happening?

What do you feel is a good beginning to a story?
Click to expand...

soflabbwlvr said:
I used to start with pithy little introductions that more or less summarized the theme of the story, but after a while I decided those were just wasted words. Now, I just dive right into the story. A telephone ringing, an argument, a knock on the door, backing out of the driveway--anything that gets the story started immediately.
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I'm with soflabbwlvr, Lance - start as close to the "real" story as possible and start with action; but I struggle with it, too. I pay attention to openings in everything I read, often re-reading it and examining how it moves from opening to story.

I struggle, too, with announcing characters. How many times do I have to call someone by their name before I can switch to pronouns? My theory is three, but I've never seen a suggested rule to follow with that. I just know three is pretty magic number. (If you don't believe me, I point you to this proof. )

Another opening I see used quite frequently feels like a wide shot that keeps narrowing down until the view lands on a single person - doing something.

For me, without a good opening, my story feels lifeless.
 
BuckyDuckman said:
I'm with soflabbwlvr, Lance - start as close to the "real" story as possible and start with action; but I struggle with it, too. I pay attention to openings in everything I read, often re-reading it and examining how it moves from opening to story.

I struggle, too, with announcing characters. How many times do I have to call someone by their name before I can switch to pronouns? My theory is three, but I've never seen a suggested rule to follow with that. I just know three is pretty magic number. (If you don't believe me, I point you to this proof. )

Another opening I see used quite frequently feels like a wide shot that keeps narrowing down until the view lands on a single person - doing something.

For me, without a good opening, my story feels lifeless.
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I usually start right off the bat and jump in,

Looking up from the portfolio on her desk, Allison rubbed at her eyes etc....
 
I try to think of it as a fade in from black. The opening is a major priority to get right and sets the pace for the story. It's trying to match the right moment in time, with the right action into the story.
 
BuckyDuckman said:
I'm with soflabbwlvr, Lance - start as close to the "real" story as possible and start with action; but I struggle with it, too. I pay attention to openings in everything I read, often re-reading it and examining how it moves from opening to story.

I struggle, too, with announcing characters. How many times do I have to call someone by their name before I can switch to pronouns? My theory is three, but I've never seen a suggested rule to follow with that. I just know three is pretty magic number. (If you don't believe me, I point you to this proof. )

Another opening I see used quite frequently feels like a wide shot that keeps narrowing down until the view lands on a single person - doing something.

For me, without a good opening, my story feels lifeless.
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Read some Cormac McCarthy, he rarely uses identification tags as his characters are so distinct there's no confusing them.

I like to open stories with action that captures the readers attention and imagination immediately. Like the Chester Himes tale where 2 muggers stalk an old man they wanna rob. They follow the old man, till he passes thru an isolated spot, and the larger thug makes a lunge. He grabs the old man and gets an icepick stuck thru his eye. The companion flees, the old man disappears, the guy wearing the icepick, now blind and dazed, staggers into the street and is hit by a car.
 
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"Training month" for one of the characters in my story, so I'll be writing that. I'll be adding to my Non-human story, and I'm tossing an idea for a Horror submission.
 
In a dark place. Been working on a couple BDSM stories and hate them both. Have been noticing how my stories hover around the 4.50 level. In general, as soon as one is marked "hot" for a day, it gets voted back down beneath that magical number without any extra comments being made. Been thinking I should organize stories with alts, depending on content, but unsure if it matters. Realizing I'm getting too caught up in minutiae to write. Will feel better if I can just get another 1000 words into this latest story, so that's my goal.
 
BuckyDuckman said:
In a dark place. Been working on a couple BDSM stories and hate them both. Have been noticing how my stories hover around the 4.50 level. In general, as soon as one is marked "hot" for a day, it gets voted back down beneath that magical number without any extra comments being made. Been thinking I should organize stories with alts, depending on content, but unsure if it matters. Realizing I'm getting too caught up in minutiae to write. Will feel better if I can just get another 1000 words into this latest story, so that's my goal.
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I'm going to advise against alts for submissions. I've done some and I've regretted it. I enjoy having all my work under my name. The only alt, I don't regret is the combined name of TheDarkness and myself for our Cherry Hill series.

I have 2 other alts that I've submitted work here under and really want to just delete them and bring my stories back under my name, but I'm not going to. I had a reason for each alt., but they weren't because of readership or bad scores/low votes, they were personal and now no longer important.

If you do decide to go with an alt., and then you advertise who your alt. is like some folks do, what is to say those stories want be voted down too? Not to mention this year wouldn't be a good year to do it, because of Survivor. You'll spread your stories thin.

Be the writer you want to be, and post your stories in all genres you feel compelled to write in - but again, that's only my opinion and my advice, others will of course offer you something different.
 
sr71plt said:
So, PennLady, how much snow did you get on your visit into Virginia? (The Valley, right?) And do you even have electricity?
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We were in the Shenandoah Valley from Sat-Mon, and had no problems. Not even a flake of snow until Sunday night, and that amounted to nothing. We had no electricity problems. Thanks for checking in -- the lack of response from me was because we were at my in-laws and they don't have internet, let alone wifi. My SIL, who live nearby, does have wifi and so we usually make a stop or two there to check email, etc., but it was such a quick trip I only got to check in once.

lance gt said:
When starting a story, how do you get by the 'Once upon a time' beginning and pick a plausible point in time to start? Do you start at daybreak? A moment in a person's day? An event happening?
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Well, I'd say a good beginning is whatever hooks the reader. Personally, I find I start a lot of my stories with dialogue. It's not really intentional, but it seems to happen quite a bit. I guess my thinking is (or hoping is) that the reader will want to know who said that and why. Hard to say about the time of day. I don't think about that too much, I guess, unless it plays a part in things. Most of my stories start at some time during the day because well, that's when people are usually awake. My nonhuman stories are more likely to start at night.

RedHairedandFriendly said:
I'm going to advise against alts for submissions. I've done some and I've regretted it. I enjoy having all my work under my name. The only alt, I don't regret is the combined name of TheDarkness and myself for our Cherry Hill series.
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I am debating an alt. I have a story in progress that is very different from my usual and when I post something out of the nonhuman or hockey romance, I think I tend to get voted down a bit. Then again, perhaps those stories just aren't thought to be as good. ;)

However, I'm wondering if this new story would get a fairer shake if I posted it under another name.
 
BuckyDuckman said:
Been thinking I should organize stories with alts, depending on content, but unsure if it matters.
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If you write in very distinct different categories, that may be a good idea. And, yes, you may see a difference in rating pattern. (I have with mine.)
 
Today while waiting on the nephew, who was filling out job applications, I wrote a few pages on a new Horror story idea. As I was writing, I was thinking - Wow, Dee Dee (nickname) you're kinda sick in the head. :eek:
 
BuckyDuckman said:
In a dark place. Been working on a couple BDSM stories and hate them both. Have been noticing how my stories hover around the 4.50 level. In general, as soon as one is marked "hot" for a day, it gets voted back down beneath that magical number without any extra comments being made. Been thinking I should organize stories with alts, depending on content, but unsure if it matters. Realizing I'm getting too caught up in minutiae to write. Will feel better if I can just get another 1000 words into this latest story, so that's my goal.
Click to expand...

I feel you, BD. I haven't posted in months, but probably have a half dozen or so new stories started. The latest one has sparked the muse a little, but it is different for me, and I'm thinking about an alt, too. I also still have a big editing job hanging over my head that I should have finished by now, but RL got in the way of that and writing. I've begun making progress on both fronts, tho, so maybe my momentum will pick up. We'll see.
 
I have an anthology almost ready to go to the publisher, but now I think I need to backtrack and take three Incest stories out of it. With the flurry of anti-incest in the marketplace, I've decided I best replace them with something else.
 
The new Lez story is really taking shape and the characters have a good connection. Now it's time to get some intimacy going and see what they do. I almost feel like a voyeur in my own story. :D
 
Listening to 80s music and videos, seems that I'm stuck back in my youth. Called up a couple of charcaters I created back in high school, non-erotic people, and am working on some "unfinished business."
 
lance gt said:
The new Lez story is really taking shape and the characters have a good connection. Now it's time to get some intimacy going and see what they do. I almost feel like a voyeur in my own story. :D
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The lezzies next door weigh bout 300 pounds each, and quarrel all the time.
 
Finally edited DM3. I cut it from 15,000 words to 9000. Now I just have to decide what to do with the debris.
 
JAMESBJOHNSON said:
The lezzies next door weigh bout 300 pounds each, and quarrel all the time.
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Thank gawd mine are the sexy lipstick lesbians and not the butchy bull dykes who look more like a man than you or I do. :D I have an average widowed housewife in her early 40's and a young woman in her mid 20's joining up. Their first intimate touching comes when they are discussing the older's cellulite on her thighs and ass and the younger is touching her. Innocent to start, but it takes them down the road I want. Something for them to think about and act upon later.;)
 
Did a little research and would dearly love to do some writing, but now... I have a cold. The left side of my face has felt quite uncomfortable a lot of the day -- overstuffed sinuses, I guess. However, soon Mr Penn will be done work and I can turn the kids over to him.
 
I was bitten by a rather large, ferocious plot bunny last night! I pounded out an outline draft before work and can't wait to get started. I listen to books on CD all night while I work, and I found myself missing parts of the story because I was writing in my head. I love it when that happens! I just hope I remember I need to sleep and go get my paycheck today :rolleyes: Hope everyone has a great writing day, and I hope you feel better Lady P. :)
 
Editing some work today, adding more to a few pieces, and answering an SRP - while considering starting another based off an Incest story idea that came into my head yesterday/last night. We'll see what writing gets done - hopefully something so erotic happens to me, I have to leave Lit. to take care of it. :rolleyes:
 
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