Writing Update - September

Melissa:
And another month bites the dust. I made a huge promise last month, to get through the story I was working on. I'm slightly disappointed to say, it didn't happen. But! Only slightly. Between being sick for a few weeks and only sleeping and ending the month at a funeral, I just didn't do much. I didn't even get to do much with Flash Fiction this month. Now you know that's bad if I don't get my Flash Fictions up.

However, I did get an amazing opportunity I could NOT turn down. A brainstorming session at The Roundtable Podcast with three AMAZING!! authors - Michael R. Underwood, Janet Morris, and Chris Morris. And the amazing host Dave Robison. So I might have been fretting and panicking over the pitch I was to give. I think I rewrote the thing... I don't even know how many times. I don't think I've been that nervous and stressed over anything since high school. Really!

The session came and went so fast. It was amazing! I left the brainstorming with amazing notes and twists I can easily implement in the story to smooth the holes that were there. Sometimes you need that extra brain, or four, to help you along. I will share the link here when the podcast session goes live.

This is something I haven't taken advantage of before - the help of throwing ideas at someone to curve them. I need to do this more often and not try all on my own. I know this but haven't taken that step. I need to do this.

I did get some new words in rewrites at the beginning of the month:
  With writing and deleting:  823 words
  Flash Fiction:  510 words

I didn't get to the second flash fiction as life took over and I was planning for the brainstorming session.

So what does October hold? Goodness, I hope more time. lol. I want to get back to the story I want finished and to prepare for NaNo of the story I brainstormed with four amazing people. A lot to do and October doesn't seem to want to give me more hours. Bummer.


Jackie:

I can't wait to hear the podcast to see how the whole process worked! Getting the ideas to unfold enough to work with is definitely something I struggle with, so I think Melissa's recent venture would be something all writers would benefit from :)

I suppose that's kind of what's happening with me right now also, as I've delved back into the scholastic side of writing. I'm taking the intermediate prose workshop this year as well as a course that analyzes prose narrative from across the ages and different continents. I'm hoping this will help me hone my work further (and not send me off on tangents with everything cool that I read :p )

For Creative Writing, the focus is on short stories, including Flash Fictions, but also MicroFictions and Postcard Fictions, which all just fit into different word count maximums really. Between in-class work and assignments, I've actually accomplished quite a bit this month.

Here are what my totals look like:

Flash Fiction #10     824
Flash Fiction #11     440
In-class writing      1276 (includes an approximate for hand written stuff too)
1st Assignment        254
Short Story             2203
Total                       4997

Heading into October, the CW class will be reading everyone's work and offering critiques. I'm definitely looking forward to getting input from my fellow writers on how to make that final short story on the list better. I have another short due for the beginning of November, so I'll be working on that as well as weekly in-class stuff and the revisions that need to be done too. I know right now I'm struggling with coming up with unique ideas and attempting to elevate my language in my work so those are the areas I'll be working to improve most over the next few months.

What does October hold for you?