WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 14 -- Saturday

[linaewen]

It's Saturday!  I trust your weekend is going well for you, whether it involves writing or some other activity.

Today is a good opportunity for sharing general comments about our writing, ask questions, request beta help (or offer it!), or share a snippet of something you are working on.

Have a great weekend!

Comments

[linaewen]

I sat down to write today, but have gotten sidetracked in doing some research. Whether or not that research is vital to the outcome of the story is questionable, but at the moment it seems absolutely vital for me to determine whether rice is grown in a certain part of the world my characters inhabit! :-D

I'm a bit of a stickler for realism, even if it is a fantasy world, so I like my "facts" to be accurate -- or as accurate as possible given that sometimes there is just no way of knowing one way or the other. This kind of research is a challenge to my librarian heart, however, and I'm having fun doing it, even if it delays actual writing. It seems to me that while I'm doing such research, the story is gelling in the back of my mind, and so the time spent in research is never wasted. Even if I don't end up using a fact I've researched, the work I did to find out about it seems to somehow add to the framework of the whole tale, and that makes it stronger somehow.

Even so, I'm going to try to wrap this research up soon, because I have a limited amount of uninterrupted writing time left today!

[crowdog66]

~1400 words written today, and Chapter Eight posted of "Solstice and Equinox" (Julian and Garak fence over lunch, and Julian deceives the great deceiver... he hopes).

It's been an excellent week in terms of output, but I really want to shift focus to work on "Ovum" in the next couple of days. The main characters are having a discussion concerning abortion that I want to wrap up, although I suspect that some of my readers don't like the fact that the subject has come up at all.

In the meantime, here's a 280-word snippet of some work I did on a future chapter of "Solstice and Equinox". If it looks interesting, you can read the full 658-word scene excerpt here.

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[News has gotten around that Bashir recently offered Garak a betrothal bracelet (which Garak is holding onto pending a decision one way or the other), and while he’s received his share of congratulations some people aren’t so happy for him…

[So there’s Julian and Garak, having lunch in Quark’s bar on their usual weekly schedule, discussing literature as is their wont, when out of the crowd strides a spectacularly angry Major Kira, who responds to Julian’s greeting by hauling off and punching him squarely in the nose. Julian goes down, Garak leaps out of his chair, and Quark comes running while Kira and Garak trade some choice words. As Julian struggles to his feet Quark tries to defuse the situation…]

"Whoa, come on — we're all friends here —"

"'Friends?'" Kira's eyes were afire. "Is that what you call it?"

"A perfectly accurate term." Seeing her glare still fixed on Julian, Garak narrowed his eyes and quickly stepped between the Human and the enraged Bajoran. "Don't," he told her in a silky voice that sent a cold chill down Julian's spine. "Don't even think about it."

Kira's shoulders stiffened, her fists clenching again, but before she could move or speak a small cluster of Bajoran and Federation security officers hastened into the bar, led by Odo. "What's going on here?" he demanded, taking in the scene — Bashir leaning on a table and holding a napkin to his bloody nose while Quark nervously hovered, Kira and Garak facing each other down, the rest of the bar's patrons watching avidly — with laser precision.

"Ah, Constable!" Garak's tone bounced back to something closer to its normal vivacity. "I've never been happier to see you! Doctor Bashir was just assaulted by Major Kira — without provocation, I might add — while we were enjoying a quiet —"

"Without provocation!" Kira stared at him and at Julian behind him, almost quivering with outrage, before turning to Odo with a nearly pleading cry, half-laughing. "You've heard what's going on! I'd say that a Federation officer taking up with a —" She bit back what was clearly an epithet and settled for gesturing savagely in Garak's direction. "That, is plenty of 'provocation'! This is a betrayal of everything Starfleet promised us when they came to this station!"

Odo's gaze dwelt on her for a long moment, then shifted to Garak and to Julian before coming back to her. "You assaulted him? Is this true?"

[sleuth]

I've been quite busy lately. Busy to the point when I sit down my brain feels like mush and can't handle anything that's not superficial. :( I hope once the weekend is over I can get my brain back.

[sqweakie]

Writing time is awesome while on hold with the phone company, no joke. Tthe first half of my chapter is done (mostly while I was waiting on hold). Working on the last half before I jump back up and finish filling in the small middle scene.

[jagnikjen]

Decent progress at last on my original WIP! Just over 900 words written and just under 400 left on my goal of 1348 more words by the end of the month. Looks like I'll blow that goal out of the water. (Uh, I hope anyway.)

I am enjoying alone time, doing writing and cleaning sprints with a friend via chatzy.

Have a great weekend all. :)

[haruka]

Now that I finally have a day off I've been trying to write and my wrists are giving me hell, so it's going way too slowly. -_-; I'm behind in my writing commitments now, gah.

[dhae_knight_1]

Really haven't been writing as much as I'd like to these past few nights. Between early mornings, a cat insisting on playing all night, and serious rounds of petting before bedtime, it's been tough going. I'm getting closer to the finish-line, though. Only three more parts to go! :-)

Here. Have a snippet of what I wrote last night. This is after a case where a young gay man was beaten by his strictly religious dad into assuming the identities of other gay men who he killed along the way. But that's only marginally important to this snippet:

Reid finished his report in record time, as usual annoyed only at the speed with which his fingers could type. It slowed him down.

Finished, he looked around the office, locating his team with a practised eye. JJ was in her office, no doubt already looking at the next case-files. Their date had prompted Reid into learning a little more about what JJ's work was, and he'd been duly impressed at the amount of files and cases she managed on a daily basis.

Morgan was chewing on the end of his pen, teeth-marks already grooved into the plastic. Reid knew he hadn't made it back to the hotel until just before they were to leave to get to the airport, but he showed no signs of missing his date. Knowing Morgan, it was unlikely he would. Morgan liked to love his ladies, but with the exception of his entirely platonic relationship with Garcia, he really didn't do relationships.

Prentiss was sweating over her own report, hair unusually mussed, and Reid remembered the idle talk suggesting maybe Prentiss was bisexual. Maybe the case had hit her harder because of that, maybe it was a reaction to seeing JJ openly happy with her boyfriend.

Rossi wasn't in his office, but chatting with one of the pretty agents who shared office-space with the team. Reid glanced back at Prentiss and caught the tail-end of the glance she'd sent Rossi. Interesting, and possibly more likely to be the reason for Prentiss's frazzled look than any of Reid's other theories.

Through the windows and the half-closed blinds he could see Hotch, head bent over his desk. He'd hung his suit-jacket on the back of the chair and rolled up his sleeves. Reid felt the slow burn of lust settle into his soft tissues, but he was getting used to the attraction. What threw him off balance was the visit fron Aaron.

He'd figured they were colleagues. Good colleagues, who could spend time together after work-hours. He'd thought those times were Hotch being a kind boss and mentor, and they had been. He'd known he lusted after Hotch. Trying to make yet another box for Aaron Hotchner, to hold all the things that belonged to Aaron, Reid's friend... well, it was threatening the stability of his entire system of compartmentalization.

Maybe it had been a one-off. One of those freak things that people sometimes did for no discernable rhyme or reason. And Hotch had had reason, that night.

Reid's thoughts were interrupted by the buzzing of his cellphone.

"Would you like some company bearing pizza, tonight? Aaron."

For a few long minutes, Reid just looked at his cellphone. Even after the screen dimmed and went blank. He was knocked out of his fugue-state by Rossi passing behind him and clapping him on the shoulder.

"Done already? You're making us all look bad."

Reid didn't later remember what he'd replied, which was rare for him. It prompted him to wake his phone up again, and stare at it some more. Consequently he almost threw it with a girly shriek when it buzzed in his hand, not three seconds later.

"If you're done with your report you can take an early day. Hotch."

Red looked at the phone, then felt a smile begin to take shape on his face. He replied with the greatest economy of phrasing.

"Great. I have a friend coming over with pizza tonight. Spencer."

He could hear Hotch's startled bark of laughter through the door, and the entire bullpen seemed to turn to look at his office simultaneously.

[lea_hazel]

I wrote a bunch of stuff and lost it in a crash. Luckily it's not exactly a masterpiece, but if anyone has advice for bluescreening PCs, I'll take it.

[dhae_knight_1]

Autosave; if possible to Dropbox. It's saved my bacon more than once. :-)

[crowdog66]

When it comes to fight/confrontation scenes, I tend to write physical action in an impressionistic way (see the fight scene at the end of this chapter for an example) rather than getting bogged down in the blow-by-blow details. I find it makes things easier to manage.

I'd offer to be a cheerleader, but I'm afraid I'm not at all familiar with FMA. What I could do is read the fight scene purely from the POV of "how well does the action come across?" rather than "is everybody in character". Would that be of any use to you? :) If so, let me know.

[pinstripefedora]

I'm not sure I'm going to get any writing done tonight, because I'm pretty sure I'm getting sick. I keep trying to sit down at the computer to write, but within fifteen minutes I have to go lay down again. This is probably the nail in the coffin for me as far as reaching my goal goes (I was being pretty naive optimistic anyway). Oh well, I'll still be happy if I can at least finish this one chapter by the end of the month. Here's hoping.

[bay_alexison]

Got some editing done on my help_japan fic. Not sure if I mentioned this already, but got stuck over the next half of my story so for now I'm editing what I have so far and then will send it to my beta reader for her to look through and perhaps have her give me some ideas over where to take the story next.