From what I've seen, I'd better get busy. I was away for a week, I worked 11pm till 7:30 am, and then made the 75 mile drive home. I've now been awake for about fifteen hours, so I should go to bed.

But NOOOOOOOOOO. I'm pretty sure I'm going to work on my half-done story for a while. Oh, well, if I don't like what I have so far, I can use an idea a friend gave me to change the plot-line. Or I could modify the idea I had in my head for my next non-CAW story. Or I could maybe make an idea I dreamed up sitting in my hotel room this week.

Should I open the doc and work on it?

No, I should go to bed. I don't have to be responsible about anything for the next thirty-one hours. I'll sleep some time. ** goes to My Documents folder "Unfinished Shit" and opens document, filename "Healing". **



@horse --

You really should use this time to write a non-entry story yourself. But please, don't do a Star Wars sex story. I really don't need to think about what R2D2 might do in his free time.

 

Hey WSF good to see you back again.

Thanks for the helpful push you gave me before you left, I did finally decide on an idea for my CAW entry and I've already begun.

In starting my CAW I finally pushed through my writers block I'd been having due to some things going on at home and got back to work on TSB too.

Thanks for the good advise it helped me figure out what I needed to do.

I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with for this next CAW but it's could be the best yet.

 

I haven't changed the plot, haven't gotten further in the story.

But I've pretty much re-written it. Hopefully, my characters will take over for me now.

 

That is the best part of writing, when your characters begin to tell you the story and you simply write down what they are saying, that's when you know its working.

 

Aaaand...there. First draft is finally done.

My work has been getting notably longer of late. Stories that I expect to be short hit the 10k mark before I realize it, and often go over. And whereas in the old days (which is to say, a year ago) I could take a 10k first draft and expect it to be pared down to 9k or 8.5 upon revision by removing extraneous words and tightening up phrasing, lately even major revisions shorten story length by just a few hundred words.

Technically this is all a good thing for me, since "writing short" has long been a problem. I can never write a book because I just can't ever stretch a single idea out that long; my various attempts have all been disasters because they end up being clipped, terse, and sporadic. So it's actually quite an accomplishment for me to take a single plot and, without even having to try, run with it for...17.5k words. That's something I could never have done in the past.

Of course, it poses certain practical problems now, particularly if I expect anyone to, ya know, read it.

 

I'm not convinced that length is the issue when getting people to read a story. My longest story, 25,000 words, is also by far, by very far, my most well-read one. I think the real determining factor for readability is good writing, good plot, good characters, you see the pattern here. The final part of that equation is matching up what you write with the expected audience.

Do you think if Chaucer, Shakespeare, or Tolstoy wrote erotica here on this site that they'd achieve any higher acclaim than the rest of us? I doubt it. Want an example outside of yourself? Take Clarise. She writes high-level English, so high that despite my being reasonably well-read, I have to consult a dictionary for most every paragraph. Yet, she garners few if any votes here when she enters a CAW. Why? Her writing is perhaps too high-level for the average reader here.

Look at the lady who has won more than anyone here. She writes at a nice level, makes you feel like you are there, in the story, and her characters are quite memorable. And her sex scenes smolder. You WANT to finish her work.

Just my 2 cents, pal. I'll be reading your 17.5k.

 

i've fucked 2 girls once

 

Wow how cool when you discovered your right and left hands.
Thanks for sharing.
Way to contribute to the writing discussion.

 

Me, too. Two guys, too, but this is hardly the thread for this--unless, of course, it relates to your CAW12 story.

 

Really that's fantastic! You should tell us all about it in your story... what's that... BANNED! Oh well it was probably you and your peanut butter jar and your dog not very interesting anyhow.

 

Is that why some peanut butter is labeled as CREAMY?

 

Very well could be, but I guess that's better than chunky peanut butter

 

I can officially say my CAW 12 entry is finished. Only one last proof to go to make sure no final glitches are there; as the last CAW I entered I kind of goofed.

WantSomeFun - by the way, I was making a peanutbutter and jam sandwich when I read your post. Lost my appetite completely.

 

I'm afraid that, despite my initial enthusiasm, I'm going to have to sit this one out. I was suddenly hit with a whole bunch of real-life demands on my time, and I haven't even started on my entry yet, much less have even a prayer of finishing it.

True, I could whip something together quickly in a couple of hours, but I'm too much of a perfectionist to make a half-assed attempt.

I look forward, however, to participating as a reader even though I won't be participating as a writer.

 

Take care of yourself first. As much fun as all this is I always choose my family and my needs first, I haven't posted a new chapter in a month and a half due to real life interfering with my writing.

I hope evereything is ok with you and will miss not having you as a competitor this round as I was looking forward to reading your entry , but that gives the rest of us a fighting chance to win this time.

 

Don't worry; it's nothing bad. It's just that summertime seems to always end up busier than I had planned, with vacations, visits from friends and relatives, and all the activities that seem to suddenly pop up when I least expect them. I'm finding very little time when I can sit down and write. Hopefully by the time CAW 13 rolls around, things will be back to normal.

 

I am sorry but I couldn't help but to laugh at that. On the other hand I could go for a peanut butter and jam sandwich right about now.

 

Its kind of the story of my life; good sandwich and then something just up and kills my appetite.

Right now I am considering one last, short rewrite to my story; it involves a VW Bug, a bolt of lightning, a 20 ft gargoyle statue and a psychadelic, psychotic, sociopathic lawer turned weather reporter...oh if I could just get the scream right...

 

...well of course it does.

 

I started over.

My original idea was turning out to be too "sappy and crappy". It was a tear-jerker romance between a guy who was drafted in '69 and went to Nam, and the girl he left behind. History-based tragedy/romance/sex story wasn't working.

**sigh**

I should know better than to attempt to write a romance when ejls is competing!

So now, I'm doing an autobiographical piece about a girl I considered asking to marry me when I was fresh out of college. Well, okay, I've taken some liberties with the dates (we were together in the summer of '73, not '69), and I'm sure my failing memory has made her more wonderful than she was, but she WAS gorgeous and very good in the sack. :excited: