WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 5 -- Wednesday

[linaewen]

Here's a wee quote to start things off on a fine Wednesday in December:

Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing.
It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting.
As a writer, words are your paint.
Use all the colors.
-- Rhys Alexander

1. How did you spend your writing time today?

• 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: If you are a writer who likes to include a lot of details, what kind of details do you favor? Scenery? Physical descriptions of your characters? Sounds, colors or expressions?  Do you feel that details are as important as this quote suggests they should be?

Comments

[linaewen]

1. I haven't written yet, but I just had a change in my plan for the day that frees up my morning unexpectedly. I'm now trying to decide if I should spend my time on some Real World writing for a project that has a looming deadline -- or actually do some writing for one of my WIPs. I've got a lot going on in Real Life here, but the opportunity to do some creative writing is too good to pass up!

2. I'm feeling like a 6 today, just because my heavy load for the day got lightened considerably! I'm hopeful I'll have something to show for my little bit of extra free time.

3. I tend to wax eloquent with the details when it comes to describing the setting, especially if it is outdoors. I usually have a strong picture of the place I am writing about in my head, and I try to describe it in the same way I see it. I tend to not be as specific when describing people, unless it's their expression or tone of voice.

I've been writing - and goals for 2013, Part 1?

[theresa_ramseyer]

1. I'm writing today :).
2. Feeling around 6-8, I guess. So far, I am writing what's coming out of my head, not updating anything. On the other hand, both long scenes are coming along nicely, and I am feeling emotions behind them.
3. Never really thought about it. I don't think details are quite as important as the quote makes out. That makes it sound as if details are pretty much everything! :).

As for next year, I'm finding several challenges I want to participate in besides the monthly wrimos and wriye and so forth. Going to have to tweak some, since I want to clear out the backlog of fanfics I have promised to write.

Here are the main ones I have found:
Write 1/Sub 1 (based on a Ray Bradbury quote): http://www.write1sub1.com/p/details.html, http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=207624, http://absolutewrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=221 and http://writeeverydaytips.blogspot.ca/2012/10/link-of-month-write-1sub-1.html

Then there's The Race: http://www.everydayfiction.com/flashfictionblog/are-you-subbing-try-the-race-score-challenge/, and several links off of that. Thinking of adapting to my fanfiction, adding points when I post the stories, and then taking them off my points when/if someone comments.

Would be nice to have others join me, but not sure how I would keep track. I think I will also post the stories in my journals, and keep a running tally there? Concentrate on the writing, Theresa, there will be time for the details!

Hope everyone else's writing is going well. :)

Theresa

[crowdog66]

Today I wrote and posted a new ~3500 word story in the "KnightFall" Future Knight Rider AU, "Matters of Cleanliness, Godly and Otherwise" (NC-17, future!Michael/future!KITT, future!KITT/OMC).

And my stars above, I do love me some description! There are, however, places to paint with painstaking realism and places to use an impressionistic brush. :)

[barbayat]

Yesterday was pretty okay in terms of writing, wrote a little bit about each 200-300 words for three separate fanfics. Unfortunately, I had to stop being too tired - so I gotten into the writing mood a bit too late. Let me rate that with a 6.

Details are my biggest handicap. I am always sensing I do not put in enough but I am helpless as to figure out where I might put in more. After all I want to tell a story and not bore the reader by describing a location too much. Assuming they want to know what is happening not shopping for a new place to live in ;)

[lilly_c]

I have some unexpected time off from uni (my lectures got cancelled because of the snow). I wrote around 2000 words last night on Mechanics Of The Heart, a one-shot and I'm going to try and get that finished tonight, I also found a way around the maths issue I was having on one tiny scene. I also did some research on infertility treatments for a this fic and a much bigger fic that I've been considering on and off for a long time.

About 6 for yesterday and so far today.

I often forget the details even though I use ~ to remind myself to add more here.

[lea_hazel]

This is where my advantage lies. I've cultivated my description skills more and for longer than any other writing skill I have. I like to use descriptions to make realistic scenes more vivid, to emphasize their advantages over visual media. Smells and heat/cold/dry/damp take precedence, but also the physical feeling of the body, which is an important tool for empathizing with the protagonist that visual media can't use. Taste can also be useful, but in very small doses and never for describing kisses. This is my ironclad rule.

When writing fantasy you can do amazing things with "indescribable" magic. This appears a lot in some of the older stories, and some renditions of fairy tales, like "a dress that looks and feels exactly like a cloud". More modern works veer strongly towards the literal and visual, which gives an added bonus, because the abstract is that much more surprising to the reader, and it makes magic feel more metaphysical and less technical/mechanical.

[elistaire]

1. Wishing it weren't so dark. For whatever reason, I need more sunlight to write, and I'm at work the entire time there's daylight.
2. 1...ugh.
3. Oh, I'm terrible with details! I gloss like a glossing thing.

[barbayat]

Yesterday was also successfull wrote a little bit over 500 words for my Matrix fanfic and a little under 500 for the Red Skull one!