als - minor deadline? yeah, right!

so we're running a schedule.

one friday is a minor deadline, the next a major one.

so if you wanted to write a story for yesterday, you could, but, hey, the MAJOR deadline is next week.

and it's easter, so family stuff, blah blah blah

well, there are seven stories up there, ready for critting.

minor deadline?

that means seven of us managed to write something (they're all over 2000 words, i think) for what is supposed to be a deadline that doesn't really matter.

i wrote in here the other day about the importance of writing all the time, not waiting to be inspired.

well, the story i wrote yesterday (the story i forced out yesterday, over a 12 hour period, intersperesed with having family fun, mowing the lawn - and blowing up the lawnmower - watching some footy, reading the novel i'm halfway through - bloody crime and punishment, would you believe? - seeing a friend, going to the park) is up there now, getting crits, and i know it's not great. it's based loosely (very loosely) on a memory, which sparked off an opening, which then led to characters, which then developed into a plodding kind of plot, with an ending that comes across as too thought about, too planned, not organic enough. and there are some bits of it - most of it, actually - that i know don't work.

to be frank, much of it sounds like stuff i was writing before i joined bc

(but not all of it)

so what was the point of forcing it out? maybe i should have just spent more time in the sunshine.

but there are some parts of it i like, really like, and then by writing it i made myself look at what i wrote in a critical way, and hopefully i learnt some stuff ( i know i did)

and it also means that i'm going to get eight other people's comments on it - detailed, comprehensive, usually very perceptive - all in the next three days.

so there was a real point to writing it.

i wasn't inspired when i sat down and started typing.

but i got inspired as i went on.

and the result isn't going to win any comps as-is, but that's not the point.

and i've read five of the other six stories up there - in the middle of typing up the crits now.

i read them last night. enjoyed them as stories, but the process of critting them has really made me think about some things.

i'm really looking forward to reading what others think of them.

so, for a minor deadline i've written an okish 2000 word story, i've read another five (one more to go) and critted them, thinking about story-writing, the craft of it, the skill behind.

oh yeah, and on the way back from town in the car i wrote a poem.

a bloody poem!

that only happened because i was thinking about writing a bloody story!

one minor deadline out of the way.

bring on next weekend...