Things

[brigdh]

I have finished my last paper of the semester, given all the presentations I need to give, and graded all the tests I need to grade (though undergraduates have not yet stopped emailing me to ask when I will be in the office so they can come make things up). Yay!

My Yuletide story is not yet begun, nor do I have an idea for a plot, and I suspect I rather drastically need to revisit the canon. I have 32 and a half hours to write it. Ahh!

Also, people should leave me their address for holiday cards here, even if you've given me your address for cards in previous years. Because I am not good at keeping track of things like that.

And how is your day, everyone?

Comments

[childofatlantis.livejournal.com]

Oh, good luck with Yuletide! I shall be sending inspirational thoughts your way. :)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I think I will need them.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

Soooooo, that means you will be around tomorrow if you get a Yuletide story flung at you precariously close to the deadline with "SKIM NO INVOLVED BETA REQUIRED OMG AM GONNA DIE" attached to it.

'Cause, yeah. Just sayin'.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hahaha. Yeah, that's fine.

[doire]

nor do I have an idea for a plot,
That makes me feel so much better. I have an opening, and a conclusion, and a gaping hole between the two. If the opening gets much longer it may have to stand on its own.

Re: Yours is a popular boat

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee. I really hope that whatever I start writing doesn't want to grow into an epic, since that seems to be a common problem this year.

Yours is a popular boat

[weirdquark]

One of my roommates is doing Yuletide. As of yesterday, she had a 1200 word extremely sparse outline, and was kind of freaking out about how long it'll take to expand it into a readable story, which she was estimating finish at least 10,000 words.

Re: Yours is a popular boat

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Heh. That, at least, is certainly not my problem. I keep trying to come up with very short scenes that have enough of a point to qualify as a story, rather than having something too long.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'd be writing to ask whether you were going to be in town and wanted to try to have coffee or something, were I not in a similar position myself.

I know my canon, and I have a plot. But I have too much plot to force into words in the time remaining, even if my brain doesn't crash at all between now and tomorrow night; and my lack of easy fluency is as much an issue as ever. I may have a thousand words before dawn, but they aren't going to be a thousand words that add up to a *story,* and what I'm going to do I do not know.

But I feel less like a pitiful failure knowing I'm not the only one struggling with the deadline.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

There seems to be quite a few of us with this problem. Particularly your brand of the deadline panic, that of too much story to manage in the time left. I can only hope that I come up with something small and simple. I don't need plot, right? Vague scenery, some character description, maybe a line of dialouge or two... that could be a story! Or so I tell myself.

(I am in town, though! And will be until early afternoon Friday, most likely. Just, you know, sayin'.)

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

That could totally be a story! And I will be so jealous when it is.

If we're not both dead by Wednesday midnight, it sounds like there's some chance for a rendezvous on Thursday. Or on Wednesday itself, if you have any hope of making the KGB thing. I keep irrationally hoping I'll be able to do it, even though that means having uploaded something by the time I'd have to leave the house.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I'd love to make the KGB thing, since I keep meaning to go to a reading of Novak's, and I keep missing her. However, I think it is unlikely to happen, as I've now come up with a plot for a story, but still haven't begun actually writing. Thursday might be good.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

And once again I nod and flail in a companionable sort of way, because right now I'm not sure I'm going to make it myself. I'm at the computer trying valiantly to cobble together an opening and closing few paragraphs for mine. Which doesn't sound like much, I know -- but I'm losing the distinctive voice I'm channeling, I can feel it; plus, I hate transitions with a bitter passion. I've been writing these paragraphs all day now; you'd think they'd be done. As for done well, I've long since given that up as a goal.

As you say, Thursday might be good. Right now I look forward only to trying to upload some version of this thing before midnight.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I hate transitions. Particularly the very beginning and opening of a story; I can never come up with anything that doesn't feel unnatural, like a form imposed onto the characters only because, well, the story has to begin or end somewhere, or else I could never stop writing it. I think that's why I like drabbles and other short pieces so much- you're pretty much obliged to start and stop right in the middle of a scene anyway, so you don't have to bother with formal resolutions.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

OMG several hours later and so exactly in the same place am I.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh! I've got 7 hours left. That's totally enough time to write a whole story, right? Right?

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

7 and a half. (35 minutes even!) Don't take time away from me!!!!!!!!!!!

And um, yes. Totally enough time.

[cellophane_ria.livejournal.com]

And how was your writing? Hope you're safely finished and resting now:)
Good night. (I feel like it's sleeping time in all time zones:-p)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee, sadly, not quite done. I'm 3/5 of the way through, though! And I've still got, um, four hours. At least it's not quite sleeping time here. *grins*