Sunday, March 22, 2015

Writing in Public - Year 1, Month 4, Days 16-22

Michael Salsbury
My adoption of Dean Wesley Smith's Writing in Public challenge continues.

Monday was a long day at work without a lunch break.  I was burnt out when I got home, so I did less writing than I wanted to do.  I managed notes for the Immortality story (1,118 words), a post for this blog on Brainswarming (267 words), a journal entry (481 words), and a tiny addition to the ASL Ark story (37 words) for a total of 1,903 words for the day.

Tuesday, I wrote some posts for BeginBrewing.com (3216 words), a short post for ColumbusBeerScene.com (91 words), and a journal entry (541 words).  The day's total: 3,848 words.

Wednesday I had to spend part of my evening doing work for my job, and only managed a journal entry (431 words) and a post on brewing with wood for BeginBrewing.com (573 words), for a total of only 1,004 words for the day.

Thursday was another fairly busy day at work, but the evening was quieter.  I spent some time thinking about the Immortality story.  This resulted in a few new words (xx words).  Also did a small journal entry (506 words).  I keep having the They Might Be Giants Song "XTC vs. Adam Ant" going through my head this week... no idea why.  Maybe it's because I like all three (XTC, Adam Ant, and They Might Be Giants)?

Friday began with a 4am tech support call from work, so I didn't have a lot of energy for writing.  I managed a single post for Columbus Beer Scene (372 words).  I watched the movie Transcendence because it resembles, distantly, a story I'm brainstorming and I wanted to be sure I wasn't unintentionally writing more or less the same tale.

Saturday I managed only a journal entry (740 words) and an article for How To Write Fiction (492 words).  That gave me a total for the day of 1,232 words.

Sunday I slept in.  I wrote two posts for Begin Brewing (205 words and 852 words) and one for Columbus Beer Scene (456 words).  I went out for Indian food, then came home and fell asleep.


Here are my notes from this week:
  • Things I Accomplished This Week That I'm Proud of:
    • Rebuilt my malware scanning tool at work to provide more information on suspected malware, and rebuilt the scanning script to scan up to 50 machines at once instead of a one-at-a-time approach.
    • Did two software deployments that went off without a hitch in the evenings.
  • Inspirations:
    • One of our IT Security guys is a really good writer.
  • Meaningful Quotes: 
    • "Inspiration is for amateurs—the rest of us just show up and get to work." - Chuck Close
  • What Didn't Happen and What I Can Improve for Next Week:
    • The stress of on-call weeks, interruption of sleep, and work activities impacted my energy for creativity this week, and it shows in the numbers.  Less than 11,000 words this week, or under 1,500 per day.  I won't be on-call next week and life should be closer to "normal" so there will hopefully be more energy for writing.
  • Biggest Outcomes I Wanted for This Week:
    • At least 10 opening lines, 1 opening paragraph - Not Done
    • Brainstorm more of the world for the "immortality" story - Done
    • Using Weiland's and Lofquist's ideas, work out a skeleton of the plot for The Ark that covers beginning, middle, and end, at least 5,000 words long - Not Done
    • Using Weiland's and Lofquist's ideass, come up with a least five possible stories that could be told in the "immortality" story universe - Not Done
    • Write 5 beer reviews or other posts for Columbus Beer Scene - Done
    • Write at least 1 post for the ASL Series blog - Not Done
    • Write at least 1 post for the Begin Brewing blog - Done (6 total)
  • Biggest Outcomes I Want for NEXT Week:
    • At least 15 opening lines, 2 paragraphs
    • At least two posts for the ASL Series Blog
    • A plot outline for The Ark story
    • Continued work to flesh out the Immortality story universe
Below is how all the above activity turned into word count.
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THIS WEEK'S WORD COUNTS
  • ASL Story - The Ark:  37 words
  • BeginBrewing.com Blog: 4,846 words
  • Columbus Beer Scene Blog: 919 words
  • How To Write Fiction:  492 words
  • Immortality Story: 1,118 words
  • Journal: 2,699 words
  • Opening Lines Written:  0 lines, 0 paragraphs, 0 words
  • This Blog: 950 words
TOTAL WORDS FOR THIS WEEK: 11,061 words (avg. 1,580.1 per day)

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MARCH 2015 WORD COUNTS

Novels:
  • Fully Invested: 0 words (notes and backstory)
  • The Alliance (series): 0 words
  • ASL - The Ark: 3,878 words
  • Alien Love Story: 0 words
  • Driven To Kill: 0 words
  • Local Gods: 0 words
  • The Black Eagles: 0 words
  • The Old Hotel: 0 words
  • Thief of Police: 0 words
  • Immortality Story: 1,118 words
Short Stories:
  • The Mimas Object (a story in the Alliance universe): 0 words
Non-Fiction:
  • Introduction to Application Repackaging: 0 words
  • Troubleshooting Windows Applications: 0 words
  • Amazon Product Reviews:  0 words
Blogging and Journaling:
  • Alliance for Sentient Lifeforms (ASL): 1,595 words
  • Begin Brewing: 4,846 words
  • Columbus Beer Scene:  4,338 words
  • How to Write Fiction: 2,736 words
  • Introduction to Application Repackaging: 3,566 words
  • Windows Desktop Administration: 2,980 words
  • This Blog: 2,752 words
  • Guest Posts for Other Blogs: 0 words
  • Comments on Other Blogs: 0 words
  • Journaling:  12,333 words
Opening Lines, Paragraphs, Pages:
  • Opening Lines Written: 22 lines (714 words)
  • Opening Paragraphs Written: 10
  • Opening Pages Written: 0

MARCH 2015 - TOTAL WORDS: 40,856 (avg. 1,857 per day)

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CHALLENGE: YEAR TO DATE RESULTS


Month of ChallengeWords Written
December 201420,754
January 201516,018
February 201547,660
March 2015 (to date)40,856
TOTAL WORDS
125,288

About the Author

Michael Salsbury / Author & Editor

In his day job, Michael Salsbury helps administer over 1,800 Windows desktop computers for a Central Ohio non-profit. When he's not working, he's writing, blogging, podcasting, home brewing, or playing "warm furniture" to his two Bengal cats.

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