Well, I did not complete the next Great American Novel. I don’t think that was ever possible, especially with the non-existent free time I’ve had throughout this year thanks to classes and clinical practice. While my Pulitzer may still be a few years off, I did learn a lot about the writing process and how I can improve as a writer. I found a variety of resources that allowed me to hone different aspects of my craft, from character depth to avoiding passive voice and overuse of adverbs (thanks, Hemingway!). When I set out on this journey at the start of the term, I sought to answer a few questions, and I think I’ve learned a lot to help me do that. (Click "Read More" to continue) |
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Word Count: 18409 Mood: Wired This week has been insane. After finally getting through the bulk of my work in other classes, I have been able to really focus on putting the new things I have learned to use in my story. This week was crazy productive, as the jump in word count shows, but it also made it clear that I bit off more than I could chew. In this much time, it’s certainly possible to complete a full story, but I have found that my writing style struggles to condense narrative into that frame. I prefer to tell longer-winded stories, and the weaknesses in my writing I’ve tried to address- my descriptive pieces, as I learned from some of my NaNoWriMo sources, and my writing's transparency, as Hemingway has shown me- have led to a further ballooning in size of my story. While I may not in fact be able to achieve my full goal yet, I’ve gained a lot in my skill as a writer, and I think I’m better equipped to keep pursuing this goal in the future. Word Count: 12047
Mood: Anticipatory Being this close to the end of my coursework, I have had a chance to finally decompress a bit and get started working on this project with a bit more focus. Of course, going back into it after that time away, I found that there were a lot of pieces of what I had already written that I no longer liked as much as I had originally. So, while I did add a fair amount to my writing, I also spent a lot of time going back and editing pieces of what I had already created. Some of this was going back and deleting or re-wording passages that I wanted to take a second look at, but I found myself adding a lot to those sections as well. Word Count: 7222
Mood: Harried This week, I've been kept pretty busy with TPA stuff and designing materials for each day of lessons at my school site, but I have been able to make some good discoveries about the world in which my story is set. After researching and reading columns from NaNoWriMo (here and here), I have made some significant strides toward fleshing out the world in which my story takes place. It’s been really helpful to me to think my way through making sure the setting for my story really feels alive and moving. (Click "Read More" to continue) (This post is going up well after Week Two of my project because I hadn't been able to polish this update due to TPA work and designing my unit, which started today. The next few posts in this vein will also not be done in real time.) Mood: Stressed. Word Count: 7222 This week, I changed focus away from advancing the main story and into building some background. With so many other things going on between designing my unit and working on other class assignments, I didn't have time to steal a several-hour chunk of time, which I have found is my preferred style for generating more of the core narrative. Instead, I have focused on building up my core cast of characters, using a survey provided by NaNoWriMo (accessible here) to attempt to ensure that my characters come across as realistic people who exist even when they aren't in the narrative. (Click "Read More" to continue reading) Mood: Optimistic
Words: 6300 (somehow) This week, I really tried to get going on my writing, which was helped by my post-TPA fugue. Like a lot of my writing in the past, this story has been heavily influenced by the media I’ve been consuming lately. In particular, this story seems to be influenced mostly by science fiction/superhero media (both films and television shows) and a couple of short stories I read for inspiration. I seem to be very interested in the idea of an origin story, tracking the beginning of something that will end up being far more than it initially seems. (Click "Read More" to continue) Initially moving into this project, I have been struggling to identify a passion. I have a wide variety of interests, but none of them really seem like the kind of driving force this project would call for. I'm interested in music, but not to the point of being willing (or fiscally able) to learn another instrument. I'm interested in politics, but this is the year between a midterm election and the next presidential one, so there's not much going on there either. I guess the closest thing I have to a passion in terms of long-term interest is writing fiction.
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Drew SpillerTeacher candidate working toward single subject credentials in social science and english. Gamer. Writer. Lifelong learner. Archives
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Access the Diigo Outliner I am using to collect tools for my 20% Project here.
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