ROW80-2 checkin 4/25 - Grimm
April 26, 2012
Yes - that's with two "mm's". I did a Flash Fiction a while ago that was to start with the words Once Upon a Time. I had fun with this one, as I decided to tell it from the point of the view of the suggested characters - a witch, a wolf, a woodcutter. And tell it while they were in between stories, sort of in the style Jasper Fforde uses. The next challenge was to be fairy tale related also, so I used the same characters and concept. And have continued with that approach - four short stories so far, latest one being Doubt. Another one due tomorrow.
All of which has given me an idea for doing a collection of these, based on the characters from some of the folk stories collected and edited by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Grimm's Fairy Tales actually started off as an attempt in the early 1800's to collect and document the oral folklore of the lower classes of Germany. The initial stories were quite earthy - the gossip and porn of the masses at times - so were gradually edited by the brothers as the audience of their book, Nursery and Household Tales, changed from fellow scholarly researchers to parents reading their children to sleep. Parents who wanted an entertaining story, with a good lesson at the end, more violence (kids seem to love it) and definitley less talk about sex, pregnancies, and incest.
As you may have guessed, I've been distracted by yet another sparkly thing - researching the stories collected by the Grimms. I'm reading a couple of related books - listed below - and developing my characters with each story. I'll eventually collect them all together I think, and edit the earlier ones to make them all link together better.
And now - the check in - many distractions of course. Grandchildren, laundry, spring, NHL playoff's, music at the pub, voices in my head. But supposedly that's what ROW80 is for, to help us manage those distractions and focus. I've been at this round almost a month, not doing as well as last one. I could blame the boring nature of transcribing edits from marked up paper to computer screen - but I have other objectives that are failing also. Just keep at it I guess, always forward.
I'll re-list my inital objectives and look at my progress:
- Editing my WIP - 2 hr. The actual is 1/2 hr maybe. Racing along - not! I'm on page 67 now. I was trying a target of scene by scene, but that is even slower, so will go back to setting a timer.
- Flash Fiction - 1/2hr. Exceed. I'm doing two a week, tend to spend maybe an hour total developing an idea for each one then a couple of hours getting it down, so almost 1 hr a week on this. Latest is Doubt.
- Blogs (on writing) - 1 hr. Writing to mine - check in's mainly - gets done, twice a week. Averages out to 1/2hr max. As for reading others - sometimes. Should be adequate but I never seem to get to it, so end up doing several days worth at a time and skipping things. Needs to fit somewhere into my daily schedule - such as it is.
- Social media - 1 hr. No problem. The issue is making sure I focus first on writing related things in Twitter and Facebook.
- Exercise - 1/2 hr. 4 out of 7 days I'd say. I am out at least once a day, just need to stretch some of my trips to get in that 1/2 hr.
- Reading - 1 hr fiction - No problem. Currently reading The Fourth Bear, by Jasper Fforde. It's related to my fairy tale series, I want to see how he handles it. Next is The Annotated Brothers Grimm, by Maria Tatar
- Reading - 1 hr non-fiction - Again, no problem. Right now I am reading The Hard Facts of the Grimm's Fairy Tales, by Maria Tatar. Guns, Germs, and Steel is still on the list - is a library copy though so will expire. I've ordered my own copy of it from my local bookstore. A little more than from Amazon, but "they" do say if you do value living in a community with local merchants, then you have to be willing to sometimes spend a little extra to support that belief - and them. Otherwise - move to the suburbs and shop in the malls. Bit of a rant.
- To-do list - 1hr? - A nice idea, seldom happens. Dislike starting big projects, so maybe several 15 min targets are better.
- Typing - no - just thought I'd remind myself is not going to happen, not this round.
As you can see, my objectives were many, and total up to a full 8 hour day. A scary thing for a retired person, but I'll leave them up for now and keep aiming for them. I realize being a writer means working at it - just not ready for that 10,000 hours concept. And reluctant to give up other things form my busy life.
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