07/13/00 -- Slowing Down

Going ... going .... gone?

We seem to be slowing down.  Yeah, we had a 24-hour moratorium on writing and that would explain that no stories got turned in yesterday morning, but we had only one turned in the day before (my "Hypothetical Beaches") and only one turned in today.  It's weird.

So we critted "Hypothetical Beaches" today... and it got some interesting reactions.  I'm not sure why.  A lot of people had a lot of arg scribbled on the manuscript, but still really liked the story.  Maybe I've had a breakthrough.

Or maybe it was just a breakdown.  I don't know.

So we had crits.  And we skipped the lecture today since we've got a reading tonight and everyone wants to write.. Or try to.  Lunch. Lunch was fun.  I blame Maureen and Greg for my nearly uncontrollable laughter through the meal.  I'd share, but, well, you kinda have to be here for it to work.

Jennifer and I wandered over to the admin building (and the cashier's office) then wandered back.  We saw a cardinal, a black squirrel, a woodchuck, a rabbit, and two dogs.  None of them stuck around long enough for honey roasted peanuts.  Oh well.  Their loss. :)

Back in my room, I searched, again, for inspiration.  I think the well is pretty dry.  And I've been pushing myself.  I'm thinking about using this weekend to work out plot for a novel.  What might be the novel, maybe.  (Oops, sentence fragment!  There's another one!  I'm not allowed to write anymore stories with sentence fragments while I'm here: in part, to see if I can; in part because everyone is fucking sick of them!  *snicker*)  But I want to try and get two more stories written before I leave.  Two isn't a lot, right?  I've got a week and a half, right?

I guess I'll cross my fingers.

Dunno how much good it'll do.  I found three cool articles (or was it four?) on the web that I thought 'd be cool for a story or something, but I have no idea what I'm going to do with them.  I don't think I know how to write hard science fiction ... science fiction with both words emphasized.  I just need a story.  Three ideas, no story.  Figures.  I think my brain has definitely been wrung out and left to dry on the line. Or maybe on one of the tables outside Van Hoosen.

We all walked to Harper's brew pub for dinner.  It was a fun walk.  Lots of different talk.  Lots of silliness.  (Looks like I've dropped back into sentence fragments, eh?)  Wound up with Greg and Gavin and I up in front of everyone.  Figures.  The three with the longest legs.

The food at harper's wasn't too bad, but it took *forever*.  Probably because there were 19 of us or something silly like that.

After, we walked up to Archives.  Very fun reading.  Greg read a story that'll be out in Dark Terrors 5 from the UK sometime soon.  Very awesome story.  Very very awesome.  After the reading and before we all left Archives, Maureen, Greg and Lister presented us with our scholarship plaques and we took our group photo right outside Archives.

Some folks walked back, some got rides back from the folks who didn't come for dinner and just came for the reading.  I wound up walking back with Greg when all was said and done.  I tempted him into Tower Records... and then the chocolate place where Jennifer and Mark and I bought candy the other night.  I resisted temptation in Tower (only because they didn't have what I was looking for), but not the candy place.  I bought truffles.  Yum.

Oh, and one of the funny things on the walk back (before Tower) was a house that'd been lifted (foundation and all) from the ground and was supported on I beams.  There was a sign on the door that said, "Please use rear entrance."  I hope the pictures turn out. :)  It was entirely too amusing.

I worked on a might-be-story (see below) then decided I'd get a decent night's sleep and crashed early!  Before midnight!  It's crazy man, crazy!

 

Okay, so other folks are talking about their productivity here.  I decided I may as well, too. This list (and my productivity) is subject to change without notice. :)
Title	Word Count	Finished	Critiqued?
"Where the Blood Roses Grow" Week one, first story.  Wahoo.  And I was worried that something wouldn't come.	5000	6/13	6/15
"Uprooting the Tree" Will probably change the title at some point.	3400	6/16	6/19
"Mockingbird Girl" I think I'm happiest with this story, so far.	2800	6/19	6/26
"Poor as Paupers, Rich as Royalty" My challenge story from Sean's week.  I hated writing it.  It gave me a toothache.	2000	6/22
That fucking first person narrative (not yet complete) - May never be completed.  Don't I feel like an idiot...	(400)
"Switched to Overload"  (That other fucking first person narrative) Actually, I like this one better than the one above it ...  Even if it did wind up being two first person narratives in one story.  o.O	4900	6/27	7/3
"Sweeter Than Honey, Stronger Than Wine"  (My Tananrive Due challenge story.  Write a story in the style of an author whose work you admire.  Aieee!  It was sort of supposed to be in the style of Tanith Lee.  I'm not sure I hit that.  But it's definitely got a Christina Rossetti influence.)	9200	7/2	7/10
"Hypothetical Beaches" I really hope it turns out to be not quite as stupid as I feel like it is.  Finished it just before Maureen and Greg's 24-hour moratorium on writing.  (In case you're wondering, it started from a free-write.)	2800	7/10	7/13
"From Time to Time" (unfinished) Fucked if I know what this is going to turn into if it will turn into anything over the next couple of days.  It's twisted.  Or at least a little gross.	(837)