In January I write!

[Butchern]

January 1 to February 2 is five working weeks. I'm going to write three short stories during that time. Each story will be at least 5,000 words. I already have the outlines, and the bulk of the raw material is written for two of them (see below), though it all has to be thoroughly rewritten. I don't care if they are good; I just want them done and this idea out of my head. 😁 I am posting this here and on the discord to put it out into the world, to increase the chances that I will follow though. I am not taking any side jobs in January so I can use my mornings (5-8am) to write. I have no immediate plans to do anything with the writings once they are done.

The Stories

(working titles):

"Mariana in June" - lightly fictionalized autobiographical slice of life piece written as a story. Most of this is already written in one form or another. I just have to rework it.

"Slab" - a "true crime" write up (with some names and details necessarily changed), written as if it were a chapter from a professional memoir. This is also mostly written in my journals in some form or other.

"Count Backwards from Five" - a short horror fiction piece based on some true (and some incredibly untrue) events. I'm hoping to get this done in three weeks, but it mostly has to be written from scratch.

The Material

I started keeping a personal journal in 2013 to try to get a handle on my life. I have written in that journal—now many journals—virtually every day for the last decade. In late 2020 I started keeping a professional journal as well (mostly for mental health reasons), where I write up everything related to my work. In summer of 2021, I took the time to rewrite a case that I had just written in my journal as a narrative story in the third person. I found this very cathartic. I wrestled to put it on (digital) paper, and it was gone from my head. Now, I try to do that as often as I can. So, needless to say, I have a lot of written material. I have 22 hand-written journals and 542 pages of typed work journal stuff, most of which is just rambling crap. 😁

Edited December 23, 2023 by Butchern
typo (see edit history)

[Bartmanhomer]

6 hours ago, Butchern said:

January 1 to February 2 is five working weeks. I'm going to write three short stories during that time. Each story will be at least 5,000 words. I already have the outlines, and the bulk of the raw material is written for two of them (see below), though it all has to be thoroughly rewritten. I don't care if they are good; I just want them done and this idea out of my head. 😁 I am posting this here and on the discord to put it out into the world, to increase the chances that I will follow though. I am not taking any side jobs in January so I can use my mornings (5-8am) to write. I have no immediate plans to do anything with the writings once they are done.

The Stories

(working titles):

"Mariana in June" - lightly fictionalized autobiographical slice of life piece written as a story. Most of this is already written in one form or another. I just have to rework it.

"Slab" - a "true crime" write up (with some names and details necessarily changed), written as if it were a chapter from a professional memoir. This is also mostly written in my journals in some form or other.

"Count Backwards from Five" - a short horror fiction piece based on some true (and some incredibly untrue) events. I'm hoping to get this done in three weeks, but it mostly has to be written from scratch.

The Material

I started keeping a personal journal in 2013 to try to get a handle on my life. I have written in that journal—now many journals—virtually every day for the last decade. In late 2020 I started keeping a professional journal as well (mostly for mental health reasons), where I write up everything related to my work. In summer of 2021, I took the time to rewrite a case that I had just written in my journal as a narrative story in the third person. I found this very cathartic. I wrestled to put it on (digital) paper, and it was gone from my head. Now, I try to do that as often as I can. So, needless to say, I have a lot of written material. I have 22 hand-written journals and 542 pages of typed work journal stuff, most of which is just rambling crap. 😁

Cool. I'll look forward for your stories. 😃😈👍🏿💪🏿🥰🐲🐉

[Butchern]

We drove for 10 hours, 6 up to VA then 4 down to NC. I sat in the “way back” with the baby and wrote 3,600 words of mostly garbage. But words were written.

[Bartmanhomer]

4 hours ago, Butchern said:

We drove for 10 hours, 6 up to VA then 4 down to NC. I sat in the “way back” with the baby and wrote 3,600 words of mostly garbage. But words were written.

Ok, fair enough. 😃😈👍🏿💪🏿🥰🐲🐉

[Butchern]

So, here's a painful exercise for all aspiring writers:

Open up a ChatGPT session and post a large swath of your writing with a prompt like: "Rewrite this fictional scene using plain language in half the words."

You likely won't like the way the writing sounds, but it will show you just how many words you waste on imprecise, self-indulgent drivel.

Your mileage may vary of course. 😁

[Butchern]

I finished the horror short yesterday and hated it. This morning I woke up at the crack of dawn and removed all the supernatural elements from the story. Now it is a sad story of an unhinged woman who murders an illegal immigrant who might have been a criminal. It's very disturbing. I kinda love it. Which doesn't mean its good

[cailano]

On 12/31/2023 at 3:57 AM, Butchern said:

So, here's a painful exercise for all aspiring writers:

Open up a ChatGPT session and post a large swath of your writing with a prompt like: "Rewrite this fictional scene using plain language in half the words."

You likely won't like the way the writing sounds, but it will show you just how many words you waste on imprecise, self-indulgent drivel.

Your mileage may vary of course. 😁

Friendly if unsolicited advice: Do not ask ChatGPT for writing help. It will ruin your prose. Even if you think it sounds good immediately, it will sound disjointed and soulless when you go back and read your work later. I found this out the hard way on a longer piece where I would write 1000 words and then ask ChatGPT to help me clean up a few things. It would offer more than I wanted, and I thought it was an improvement. It was not.

ChatGPT has its uses. I find it helpful for brainstorming and quick research. But as far as prose goes, it can mind its own f**king business. Grammarly is my tool of choice for that.

[cailano]

As an example, here is a passage from A Farewell to Arms:

“If people bring so much courage to this world, the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”

Here is another version in half as many words:

"The world breaks everyone; afterward, many grow strong at the broken places. But those who don't break, it kills – the good, the gentle, the brave, without bias."

The second version isn't bad writing, but I would posit the original is better.

For the record, even Grammarly ruins the original. Here is the damage:

“... It impartially kills the very good, gentle, and brave. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too, but there will be no special hurry.”

[Butchern]

I finished "Mariana in June" this morning. I feel good getting it out, but I think it needs to be substantially rewritten. I'm going to start on "Slab" first though.