The offical EE2 bitch and procastination thread (5 Viewers)

[glitterfairy]

lol! No, it's a good thing. The first full draft is possibly the hardest bit of ee2. Reworking can be equally as challenging, although this greatly depends on personal factors (eg how happy you are with the first draft - mine wasn't very solid and required *a lot* of fixing up). That being said, reworking is a great deal more satisfying because you can *see* the improvement - plus, working with the major work as a whole is an entirely new ballgame (as I'm sure you've discovered, Sweets) and it allows all your ideas to finally emerge clearly and smoothly.

A big congrats to both of you, and I hope the reworking goes well.

 

[jhakka]

hahahaha i hate journals their soo yukkk!! dear journall.. "todai an idea popped into my head, but i dnt think its a good one so i wnt bother researching it i'll leave it till another one pops up" WUDA WASTE, buh its good to see u peeps arnt as lazy as meeeeee!! and sorri justin!

My journal wasn't my best friend, either. I just threw all my old drafts and a bunch of whiny entries in there.

Why are you sorry? The teacher comment?


For those of you who are up to drafting, go with Lynn's advice. But I can't stress enough how important it is to be constantly reading, editing and redrafting. No matter how sure you are that you have gotten all the bugs out (story-, spelling-, grammar- or structure-wise) there will almost always be something. Reading over my own major work, I can still find a couple of sentences that I'm not completely happy with, and wish that I had just read my work one more time.

Work hard, work consistently. If you need to study for trials (that is just as important), I would suggest studying for an hour, reading over your draft and making appropriate changes with a pen, taking break for half an hour or so, and then restart the process.

 

[glitterfairy]

Just to add to Justin's awesome advice (but then again, he is always awesome ):

Another of the reasons why you should try and work consistently rather than leaving everything to the last minute is the fact that there's a greater risk of missing things when you're rushing. I'm sure we all know the story - one day we write something we think is great, but when we come back the next day to review it, we can see all the holes and areas where it needs refining. Writing + not reviewing it later = not good.

This is also a very good reason NOT to plan to work past midnight on the 23rd of August and even late the night before itself (ie intentional last-minute-working). I only did very very minor editing last year the night before handing in, and there are two typos in my major work.

 

[monique66]

Did the wish come true?

Lamentably, no.

 

[ameh]

i'm more consistent in my journal entries than I am with my major work. with journal entries, they're done in 3-5 entry chunks.

 

[glitterfairy]

^^ sounds familiar.

Sometimes rambling in your journal hits you with flashes of random inspiration though. I love it. Almost all my better ideas last year were random...

Rambling on about the Journal now, but I was taught to document pretty much everything in there. Thanks to having a record of all my drafts etc, I discovered that I sort of went around in a circle in regards to my major work concept... 'twas a lot better the second time, though

 

[Alimoe_KG]

I've decided to retitle mine to something more appropriate.

Namely: "The Neverending Story"

I'm 4000 words over the limit and counting.

 

[glitterfairy]

Whoa... is the story almost finished yet?

Be very, very careful. If you're not a natural short story writer (such as myself) you have to almost write "YOU CAN ONLY HAVE 8000 WORDS!" in fluro on your forehead to remind yourself that it can't go on forever.

It's not just the word limit that is the difference, however, but also the structure. The short story tends to be a lot more succient as it doesn't have the time to draw out descriptions/minor plot references etc.

I'm not saying you *are* crossing the line (as I haven't seen your major work) but I do warn you to be careful. You already have at least 4000 words to cut down...

*concern*

 

[fleepbasding]

i'm more consistent in my journal entries than I am with my major work. with journal entries, they're done in 3-5 entry chunks.

Unfortunately they don't read the journals. I've heard they hardly bother opening them unless if there are questions about originality (plagiarism, cheating etc...). I find this dis-heartening since I've spent a lot of time on the journal, and others have done nowt... yet it seems the marker aren't going to give a shit any way. Damn bitches.

 

[ameh]

'my journal got marked for the last viva voce so yeah I had to improve my handwriting as my teacher insisted...i find writing in my journal improves my terrible handwriting, [btw each of my entries are at most 1 page long and when the teacher can actually read my writing, well it's pointless drivel basically, not much reflection really - reflection happens in the head!]

glitterfairy: yeah I find completing the first draft a complete pain in the tucus. currently trying to seperate each scene and work on each individually, then link it by some metaphor or flashback...speaking of flashback are there any other narrative techniques which have the same effect"?

I copied a few lines from waiting for godot, do u think i should footnote it? [n.b. im doing a short story not a script/crit analysis]

 

[Tish_88]

heyyyyyyyyyyyy peeps, i currently have writers block. i took ur advice n went nuts writing today, but its sooo blahhhhhhhhhhhhh,
you gotta be in the mood to write to write good yer??

 

[tez0r]

Tish_88: The mood comes into play a heck of a lot, try journal ranting as they all said.
Airness: You should so hi-5 me, i'm 2000 over the word limit. My precious children must be cut down

 

[Tish_88]

tezor - haha only problem with that i hate journals!!! yuk yuk it has no structure, but u prolli have a point ive been sitting at my computer for 5 hrs written bout 7 pages n scrubbed it, ive lost the skill to sound smart!! *tears* sound like a bloody yr 8 kid rambelling on bout jak. where do u find inspiration?? any ideas

 

[tez0r]

Here's a tip for what i did. This might sound absurd but listen up. I realised i wasn't moving forward in my story because i kept going back and editting. So i wrote in normal black font, and when i was done, i changed it immediately to white. Even when you highlight it you can't see it. i found that pretty helpful. Editing is for later. Getting it on paper right now is the most important thing!

 

[fine ambiguity]

*drumroll...*

FINISHED!!!!

It's overwhelming realising that even if the due date was tomorrow, I could actually submit something that would resemble a major work. I could even throw together a reflection statement, because I ACTUALLY HAVE SOMETHING TO REFLECT ON.

My only downer is that it's only ~6500 words. Glitterfairy, you were talking about having to restrict yourself if you aren't a 'natural' short story writer -- I think my laziness kicks in and makes me a fantastic writer of SHORT stories I had to come up with a second story because my first one wasn't even half of the word limit!

So, this editing thing... can I skip it...

 

[Tish_88]

heyyyy sweeeeeeet sounds like an idea!! whats the limit for shortstories?? i think mine is 6000 hmmmmmm critical? lols help?? arghh i swear ive concentrated on every other subject and let this slide

 

[jhakka]

Short stories must be between 6000 and 8000 words with a 1500 word Reflection Statement.

 

[glitterfairy]

glitterfairy: yeah I find completing the first draft a complete pain in the tucus. currently trying to seperate each scene and work on each individually, then link it by some metaphor or flashback...speaking of flashback are there any other narrative techniques which have the same effect"?

I copied a few lines from waiting for godot, do u think i should footnote it? [n.b. im doing a short story not a script/crit analysis]

Freaky... that's what I did too!

I tried the motif thing - dream sequences, references to it in the next section etc, but it ended up a little too piecey for me and I ended up reworking it with more obvious links (teacher didn't approve of my love of subtlety. Wish I'd listened to myself a bit more last year).

Not sure about footnoting in the major work itself - should definately refer to it in RS though. What does Justin think?

 

[glitterfairy]

*drumroll...*

FINISHED!!!!

It's overwhelming realising that even if the due date was tomorrow, I could actually submit something that would resemble a major work. I could even throw together a reflection statement, because I ACTUALLY HAVE SOMETHING TO REFLECT ON.

My only downer is that it's only ~6500 words. Glitterfairy, you were talking about having to restrict yourself if you aren't a 'natural' short story writer -- I think my laziness kicks in and makes me a fantastic writer of SHORT stories I had to come up with a second story because my first one wasn't even half of the word limit!

So, this editing thing... can I skip it...

lol!

Survey says you can probably still work on it and make it better

PS: The word "Survey" is interchangable with the word "Lynn"

 

[fleepbasding]

interesting idea. Though I'm afraid I'd probably forget that I did that, and then delete my whole major work, confusing it for a series of blank pages.