A Little Writing
One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to write a little every day. Oddly enough, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. So far, I’ve submitted a story to Prime Living and one to The Virginia Writer (already out). I’ve been faithfully cranking out my every-other-week column, “Peevish Advice,” to the Smith Mountain Eagle.
I’ve also worked several times a week on my work-in-progress: my middle-grade paranormal novel, Stuck. I’m four chapters in, plus I’ve got lots of scattered half-page scenes. (Ah, the beauty of computers! What did I do before copy and paste? Now, I can write the good parts first and put them together later.) Last week, I “test drove” my first couple of chapters with the young writers group I lead. They gave me some great suggestions for how to make some parts work better. For example, I had my main character—a girl of almost-eleven—push a girl who taunts her. “Nope,” the young writers said. “A boy might push a girl, but a girl would slap another girl.” I changed the push to a slap. Works a lot better!
But what if I wanted to do just a little writing? Say, a 55-word story. What! A story of exactly 55 words? Yeah, it can be done. Read some at http://www.birdandmoon.com/55words/ or see the guidelines at http://www.birdandmoon.com/55words/guidelines.html if you want to write a 55-word opus.
Sometimes writing just a little is enough.
I’ve also worked several times a week on my work-in-progress: my middle-grade paranormal novel, Stuck. I’m four chapters in, plus I’ve got lots of scattered half-page scenes. (Ah, the beauty of computers! What did I do before copy and paste? Now, I can write the good parts first and put them together later.) Last week, I “test drove” my first couple of chapters with the young writers group I lead. They gave me some great suggestions for how to make some parts work better. For example, I had my main character—a girl of almost-eleven—push a girl who taunts her. “Nope,” the young writers said. “A boy might push a girl, but a girl would slap another girl.” I changed the push to a slap. Works a lot better!
But what if I wanted to do just a little writing? Say, a 55-word story. What! A story of exactly 55 words? Yeah, it can be done. Read some at http://www.birdandmoon.com/55words/ or see the guidelines at http://www.birdandmoon.com/55words/guidelines.html if you want to write a 55-word opus.
Sometimes writing just a little is enough.
posted by Becky Mushko | 6:44 AM
1 Comments:
A little writing every day is a very good habit indeed. I do a lot of writing every day but it's all work and no play, making Country a very dull girl indeed some days.
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