WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 4 -- Tuesday

[linaewen]

It was encouraging to read how many of you had a successful day of writing yesterday! I trust it will continue today!

Here is today's possibly somewhat helpful quote:

See things as they are and write about them. Don’t waste your creative energy trying to make things up.
Even if you are writing fiction, write the things you see and know.

1. How is today going for you?

• I'm writing!
• I'm researching!
• I'm editing!
• I'm taking a break!
• I'm wishing I had time to write, but I'm just too busy with other things...

2. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most positive, how are you feeling about your writing efforts today -- and why did you choose that number?

3. The "answer if you feel like it" question: Do you find experiences from real life work their way into your writing? Is this a good thing for you or bad?  Do you agree with the quote?

Comments

[linaewen]

At the moment, I'm:

1. ...wishing I had time to write, but I'm just too busy with other things! *scowls*

2. ...going with a 5 in order to keep myself encouraged and because I'm at least thinking about one of my stories as I try to nail down a couple of things that I need to decide on before actually writing.

3. I rather like the above quote, because I think Real Life is a great way to get meaningful ideas for my writing. For instance, being able to write an authentic "what it's like to not be able to breathe" bit for one of my characters, because as an asthmatic, I know how to describe such things. So I try to take what happens to me and convert it into something useful for my stories. However, there is also a place for making things up, too! Let's face it, we don't have all the RL experiences we need to be able to write authentically, so we have to be creative about it. And that's where research comes in!

[lielac]

1. Researching. Playing Fate/stay night totally counts as researching, because I need to play through all of it so I have the best possible understanding of the Fifth Grail War before I turn everything on its head by switching out most of the Servants for half a dozen Homestuck God Tiers. Making Rin suffer through Dave Strider will be frakking hilarious. >:D

2. Ahmmm... 5. Because it's the closest thing to 'N/A' I can find.

[crowdog66]

Well, if you're writing science fiction or fantasy (especially if you're dealing with alien cultures) that quote is pretty much the biggest load of codswollop imaginable, isn't it? :) A great deal of the fun and the glory lies in creating things that haven't been thought of before!

As for writing... got a ~1100 word chapter posted on a short story set, thus bringing it to a close. I'd like to write more today but am feeling rather pissy in a hormonal sort of way, so I'd give today's writing efforts a 6/10.

[lullabymoon]

I took a break from fiction writing - I created a cv and started a cover letter. All thee jobs I've applied for before have been by application form so it's been a bit of an experience.

I'm going to go with 5 - not written anything but I've been sort of thinking about the two fics I'm doing this month and keeping my enthusiasm up.

Sometimes I think my reactions to things work there way in, but I can't say many experiences have done so far.

[sperrywink]

I'm writing, and it has gone awesome! A total 10! I wrote about 750 words and finished a Teen Wolf ficlet for insmallpackages. Posted and doneski.

I definitely find my RL experiences become part of my stories. Some of my favorite writings use them and transform them into something special in my mind.

[lilly_c]

1. Had the day off yesterday and finished a 600+ word 'shippy Taggart ficlet, posted that to my comm this morning. Did a tiny bit of research for the cost of something and all I could find was the amount in US dollars, I needed it in UK pounds. At this point I'm considering using a currency convertor and winging it with the maths involved (*whimpers in the corner*) because it is only for one tiny scene.

2. I'm saying 7(ish) with posting, I'd go higher but I don't want to get too ahead of my own progress.

3. Various things from RL sneak in a fair bit, I prefer to let the more fun things sneak in but some of the hardest things from RL to write were domestic violence (and yet I'm doing it again *head desk*) and drug addiction (I almost lost someone very close to me to drugs when I was growing up).

[barbayat]

Wrote a little bit, started to beta a story for someone - but overall it was not such a good day, much headaches and felt way too tired.

If I stick to that quote I could not write about anything I am interested in. If I wanted to rely on my real life experiences, why write at all?

[linaewen]

Hah, good point! The more I read that quote, the more I actually realize how inappropriate it is for many writing situations. And I'm not actually convinced you can ever really waste creative energy, anyway. I figure it's the kind of thing that renews itself as you use it, so why not use it making things up? ;-)

[linaewen]

Good point about the quote. I'm beginning to think that quote is a bit of bad advice. There's nothing more interesting than creating something new! And it's not a waste to use your creativity to create something wholly different than what you know.

Hope you are feeling better today.

[barbayat]

Yeah beginning to my advent calender had a blindfold in it and it gave a good idea for a scene, so I am also inspired ...

Did not want to be too mean about the quote, it is just studying German literture as well as enduring the subject in school - around here there is so much emphasis on good books and writing being stories about total losers totally losing it. I hate that type of real life literature and I am generally more fond of non-real life experiences as I can make real life experiences in real life ;)

But I guess at the heart that quote probably just meant write what you know which is not the worst advice on itself.

Yes, I love losing myself in fictional worlds way too much.

[the_rck]

I wrote a little bit yesterday. I'm afraid I'll cut most of it because it's not quite right. I need to say something about the topic, but the current wording makes the character sound stupid. I'm not sure there's any way to cover that bit without making that character sound stupid. The basic situation requires that he be somewhat stupid.

I don't think much from my real life gets into my writing. I tend to write fantasy and SF, so I'm not too keen on the quotation. I think imagination is important. Characterizations need to be drawn from how real people would react to extraordinary situations, but I find situations outside the ordinary to be much more interesting. I don't think I could write a story set in the real world without adding fantasy or conspiracy or something extra. I know I've never yet done it.