Catch up time again yesterday. This time revising a pop-up workshop on when things don’t quite go the way the readers/viewers expect and how to build that into your writing. It’s one I’ve watched three times now, and I think the penny is finally dropping. One day soon, I hope to put it all into practice.
Despite starting my diary several times this week already, I finally did start it and I caught up on that too. First of all I had a look at ClickUp and rearranged my week based on what I think I can realistically do when I have another massive proofreading job. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I transferred it to my diary and then settled down to watch my videos.
But when I went to tick it off in my diary, I’d mixed up a pop-up workshop with a motivational Monday workshop. Now I’ll do the motivational workshop later in the week, and this time it won’t be a revision. I’ll be watching it for the first time.
Another assignment came out of yesterday’s pop-up, although it’s already on the list in ‘percolating’ because, as I say, I’d already watched these videos before. I’m a bit stuck for ideas with this one, so I’ll leave it at the back of my mind, percolating.
I turned to this week’s story assignment for 12 Stories in 12 Months. It’s only 750 words, and I know I can rattle that off in less than an hour… once I know what I’m rattling off. And I must admit that this month’s prompt baffled me as well. I didn’t even know how to apply it to something in the ideas bank that would work at 750 words. I did try a brainstorming session on it, but I couldn’t come up with anything suitable.
I looked at my power board just to make sure there wasn’t something in ‘percolating’ I could try, even if it means only writing the opening 750 words. Nothing piqued my interest. Then I looked in my ‘outlines’ exercise book to see if there was anything there. Nope. Then I looked in my ‘ideas’ note book. There are some good ideas in there, but I couldn’t tie any of them into this month’s prompt.
The dog needed a bath, so I did that quickly. On my way back into the office I spied a pile of plectrums of the poet’s. He doesn’t use any of them, they’re ones he’s had as free gifts with purchases. I picked a psychedelic looking one and put it on my desk and that, at least, gave me a title: Take Your Pick. So I removed the pink Post-it note from the power board that just had the prompt on and changed it for one with this new title.
And then I put it back on the power board.
I had a look in my Maypoles, Martyrs and Mayhem almanac and found lots of ideas that started a spark or two off, but nothing that would fit the assignment. And I looked at my inventory to see if I could fit a short story in with one of my series stories. To no avail.
It was a real struggle and as a last resort I turned to one of the writing prompts books on my Kindle, and as I was scrolling through, I had a brain murmur, and quickly made a note before I forgot it again. It’s a theme I’ve used before in successful stories, so I hope it doesn’t feel too stale. I created a book cover, so I can use it in my magazine if I don’t sell it before releasing it as a standalone, and I rustled up an outline.
And that was it. I ran out of time. More of the same today. Only today I need to do some of that proofreading, and I need to write and submit Take Your Pick. I might also owe a couple of comments from last month too for 12 Stories in 12 Months…
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Wow, that was a lot to do in a day. Percolation and idea sparks are always fun, aren’t they?
There are so many of them! I need to work out a better way to catch them before they fly away.