. Spinning .

While I was writing a story each day for the project, I was also taking pictures and using Photoshop to mold what I interpreted from the video prompts. So it’s not just writing that’s stopping for a breather after over three months.

The project for me was an exercise in not only taking the time to write, but to develop insight and imagination to take something further, or into another direction in a chain of creative outbursts. In the writing I tried to stretch myself into areas I hadn’t really tried before, such as magical realism, humor, mystery. I liked the concept of trying out different points of view, of reflective versus social statement; looking outward instead of inward. Luckily, a few editors took the time to view some of the pieces here or elsewhere and so far, five pieces were slated for publication. Some of the others will be selected for editing and submitting in the next couple of months. (There’s a Tinderbox map of the organization of the stories at Hypercompendia.)

But another thing I was practicing was focusing with a camera to grab an image that would reflect what the story had become. Better still, I got into Photoshop and finally started learning some of the fantastic tools that are available within its powerful platform. I’ve used the program for many years but never really played around too much beyond the basics and relied heavily on the effects gallery. But 126 images in as many days demands a lot more than that. I started fooling around with merging photos and using the layers. I learned about opacity to create ghosts and multiple images. What I couldn’t figure out for myself (or find in simple language from one of my books) I found within a newly-ordered Photoshop for Dummies book. This series is really one of the best for quick answers in easily understood instruction when you’re wanting to accomplish something but your life and livelihood doesn’t depend on it.

Didn’t get any more feedback on my attempts on the images than on the stories except from the fabulous Dorothee Lang of the Blue Print Review who chose two of them for publication in the last issue. What I’ve learned though is to practice, play, explore.  Two of the participants in the 100 Days Projects, Fran Forman, and Steve Veilleux. did some phenomenal work and I studied their work to learn. I’m still very rough around the edges (literally!) but it’s something that I tried and will continue to develop as a result of this experience.

Today was the 100th day of the 100 Days 2010 Project and it’s truly amazing how many people hung in there till the end or caught up. Out of the 40 plus that started, over half of them crossed the finish line with a phenomenal effort of creative output.

Led by timely postings of video clips by the super-talented John Timmons who offered some revealing yet questioning and thought-provoking scenarios in 30 to 45 second bits, the participants had little trouble finding their own paths of production by picking up treads of concepts, obvious or metaphorical, and running with them to make it their own. The multi-talented Cathryn Esten followed John’s lead with many well-produced film clips of her own along with poems, stories, and photos.

Tremendous work by Carianne Mack Garside (who’s working on finishing up a 9-month-long project any day now) as well as her mom, Carol Mack, and her aunt Barbara Laucius to channel the family genes into some extraordinary pieces. Janette Maxey was involved this year, stretching into some new forms in her painting, and Mindy Bray surprised us with some amazing paintings as well–Mindy did photography last year.  Sam Haskell joined this year to create a fantastic gallery of portraits. Claudine Metrick produced an outstanding array of work, mainly landscapes, using unusual colors and textures to offer the world in a different way. Sabreen Aziz entered the challenge nearly halfway through and yet managed to catch up and complete an extremely skilled and creative group of typographic pieces.

Our writers also had some family ties that proved the theory of art within the generations. Steve Ersinghaus, now on his third year of the project–he and Carianne Mack Garside were the original two artists to undertake this effort in the summer of 2008–produced some wonderful and wonderfully interesting fiction this year. His wife, Susan Ersinghaus created some of the most reader-friendly and honest poetry I’ve ever read. Their daughter Kendra Bartell appears to have the mix of both styles, the down-to-earth and the scientific precision and wonderment. Poetry by Neha Bawa, also on her second year of participation has been honed to encompass her delightful imagery within the twitter restrictions of 140 characters.

We have the thrill of photography produced by Jessica Somers, who last year worked in tintypes and this year has focused on color images that have the expert eye for composition required by black and white. Newcomer to the project Steve Veilleux has produced some wonderfully deep images layered into story and true art. Another amazing artist with film is Fran Forman, whose work holds that mystical appeal that invites one to look beyond the initial image to seek the details.

Kelli Newton Costa had chosen to present an image each day that told story within character. Heather Lochtie (daughter of Maggie Ducharme) has not only managed to show us 100 different sides of herself, she also played a part in many of John Timmons’ films. Maggie Ducharme photographed her creations–each day’s meal presented to appeal both visually and to the sense of taste.  Colleen Richard photographed her creations as well–her garden as it bloomed throughout the summer.

More fascinating photography from Billie Williams, covering a wide array of subjects. Catherine Sanger’s photography brought us all over the world meeting exotic people.

There were a score of others who did some outstanding work, and for one reason or another found it difficult to continue–our loss. From poetry to coding organization to art, photography, and writing, we saw some great starts. Their work can also be seen on the main site for the project here. It’s an undertaking that requires dedication, but some planning as well. I hope to see them all available and ready to complete the project next summer. And hopefully, some new people, inspired by the amazing body of work that has been produced in just over three months, will choose to join in what’s becoming an international artistic undertaking.

My own participation of 100 short stories is linked to the right. A post on the organizational side of it, using Tinderbox, has been posted on Hypercompendia. Thanks particularly to John Timmons for his handling of the project besides his awesome video clips that have inspired so many.

It’s Day #87 of the 100 Days Project. Day #16 of 24/7. And, Week #16 I believe of the 52/250 Challenge. So I’ve been writing my fanny off this summer.

Meanwhile, I’m putting together an essay on Magical Realism using some stories by fellow Fictionaut writers. It’s been one of my favorite genres to read and with all the writing of flash fiction the past couple of months, I’ve dipped my own pen into the inkwell to practice this whole new world of story.

A few of the stories out of this effort have been selected for publication, and one just came out today at the Blue Print Review, Issue #25. My story is called “Descriptions” and it was one of my favorites that Dorothy Lang happened to read and snap up. I’m excited that one of the Pittsburgh images is up on the Author’s Notes page, and another will be included with one of the other stories by many talented writers in this issue.

Also focusing on going back over my years of postings and presentations on hypertext in Storyspace and Tinderbox to help clarify a writer’s position on using this fabulous form.

It’s been a busy, productive summer this year and it’ll likely be a busier fall.

So here we are at Day #75 of the 100 Days Project. I hate it when what I might consider a landmark day produces less than top quality output. I was thinking of waiting and marking off day #76, or #83, or whatever came up again as a good one but I’m just too rigid for that, so I’m stuck with what came to mind. More on this later…

The first image is of a main folder file called “100 Days 10″ meaning, the Summer 2010 project. It holds each story file along with an Image folder and the Tinderbox file that organizes the whole project for me (more on that at Hypercompendia).

This next shot is of the Tinderbox file itself, and the organization by relative theme, genre, word count, along with some terrifically helpful Agents that I’ve already used to sort stories by submission and publication.

I’ve committed myself to joining a weekly story project (for 52 weeks) and another for the first 24 days of August (with the final week for editing). All told, I believe I’ll be writing about 140 flash fictions between the last week of May and the last week of August. Just to keep them together I’ve double-posted at my 100 Days those extra 24 stories, keeping the theme of the day as offered by John Timmons’ videos. So there’s a #71 and #71B, etc. up through #95. And here I’ve sort of run into both good and bad as a writer.

On the one hand, practice truly does help the mind conceive ideas and plots more quickly, and with flash fic, learn to put it down concisely and make best use of every word. If possible. And here’s the down side: while I realize that some of these stories are the best writing I’ve ever done, some of them revert back to a traditional storytelling style that I just don’t like anymore. With these, the whole story probably sucks, and that’s why I didn’t work them harder–though I have thrown many away and started from scratch.

Once I had the format down of posting the daily stories on separate pages here, I started adding in images with each story just to break up the text a bit, even with ten stories to a page. I’ll note here that I also started Password Protecing the pages after a group was done because I noticed Google grabbing the images. I’ve always felt bad about an image I posted once of my Dad years ago, driving a new lawn tractor. There’s no way of keeping Google–and others–from making images part of their public collection. They cover their asses with “may be copyrighted” as if people pay any attention to that.

Anyway, what this got me doing is playing in Photoshop and today, when I was grabbing a file image to post here of the Image file, I discovered Mac’s “cover flow” view and love the way it came out:

Ain’t that neat?

And this:

And this:

It’s neat to be getting some photography in, though I roam the house to find something that will suit the story and even the cellar stairs have been photographed. I’m using my little Vivitar 3.5 megapixel digital that I got years ago and it’s doing the job. What I’m learning is to explore Photoshop’s capabilities. Layering, adding in images, pulling out sections of photos and dropping them against other backgrounds, playing with opacity in the layers.

So not all the stories are literary marvels and not all the images are expert manipulation. I’m learning. And I have twenty five days left to go.

Well it’s Day #71 on 100 Days, and tomorrow will be Day #72. It will also be Day#1 of the 24/7 Challenge.

Will I be able to keep up? What I’m going to try to do for the next three weeks is use the John Timmons’ video of the 100 Days Project to develop two different stories if I can. If only one comes through–so strongly that I can’t see another concept out of it–then I’ll fall back on some photo sites, perhaps Jessica Somers’ since I do love her work and an image can often spark a thousand words with no problem.

Oh, I forgot that I’ve been including an image with each of my stories for 100 Days. It’s been a lot of fun experimenting with Photoshop and not always depending on their Filter Gallery alone to make something from a photo I’ve taken. It’s been a learning experience and for today’s, when I needed a puddle I was able to make do with a glass tabletop and some fancy footwork in the program.

Oh yes, and I’m still keeping up with the 52/250 Challenge as well, which (thank God!) is a weekly submission.

I’m now very glad to be participating in this year’s 100 Days Project since I’m writing all different types of story. Today’s was magical realism and humor, and it’s not something that I normally would write. Though a couple have been picked for publishing and I intend to start sending out many of the others come September, most of the stories are not particularly great or special, but every one has given me a chance to grow in some new way.

On top of the stories I’ve been including an image. This was started just to dress up the page and separate out the stories more visibly on the pages the way I had them set up. It’s led to not only learning a bit more about my camera–a dopey little 4 megapixel digital that came free with a printer or vice versa, but playing with the images in Photoshop has given me the opportunity to learn a lot more about how to use that program. I’ve just barely scratched the surface but today’s (#65) gave me the opportunity to fiddle and mix together three separate images.

August will be the real show of what I’m made up of. I’ve registered for the 24/7 Challenge thrown out by Folded Word so that means TWO stories each day for the first three weeks of August (the 24/7 is run by writers who are clever enough to allow the final week for editing!). And of course, I’m doing the 52/250 which is a once a week story for a year.

Out of these, some good shall come. Though I’m not sure dinners will still be on the agenda…

Sometime last year something snapped in me and I started writing a lot. I mean, a real lot.

After last summer’s 100 Days hypertext stories, I thought it’d be a long time before I wrote quite so prolifically again. But then I joined fictionaut, and that spurred me on because I got excited about writing. It’s such a good group of serious writers, most of them published already, that I tested the waters and was met with such support and camaraderie like I’ve not found in any groups prior. The next best thing about fictionaut was that I could read the type of stories that were getting published and step up my own writing under the influence of contemporary style.

So now I’m doing this summer’s 100 Days, but with traditional text style flash fiction daily. Now on the downward side of the mountain, I’m already getting antsy about what will I do when it ends in August. With the spotlight held by Dorothee Lang of Blue Print Review and Daily s-Press, I’ve finally looked into the 52/250 site that offers a theme as a prompt to write a flash piece under 250 words every week for a year. Jumping in on the deadline of this week’s theme, I just sent them an entry.

I guess this means that I’m now committed for the next 41 weeks, since they started in May and that sounds just fine to me. Looking around the site at the contributing writers I can see I’m in among friends, and Michele Elvy is the editor putting the whole thing together. The only thing that makes me a bit antsy: I really, really feel that I must write the first 9 that I missed.

I haven’t been keeping up on the weblogs as I used to, but then, thank your lucky stars for Facebook and twitter so you don’t have to read my rants and feel the cosmic waves of my temper tantrums like you used to.The beauty of tweets and FB is that I can let off steam and go back–usually within a half an hour–and delete the stream.

Just noticed when I came on to post that it’s somewhere around 5,750 blog posts here, with 4001 comments! That doesn’t include Hypercompendia’s posts nor the blogs I’ve started and let die in the past seven years.

I’m not slowing down to a stop here though. The drop-off is mainly because I don’t post as much personal stuff anymore, haven’t read as much in the past year, and have been concentrating a lot on writing. Funny thing though, even though my goal was to get published, now that I have been, each story of mine that I see under a heading other than my own, while thrilling, doesn’t mean any more than just writing.

Yeah, the writing’s the big thrill.

I’m having great fun with the 100 Days Project, now up to Day #35. What I’m noticing are the patterns that emerge from a dedicated and sustained effort.

For example, in daily writing, even when given a starting point or impetus such as John Timmons’ video clips, the initial reaction determines whether it’s going to be an easy write or a labored one. I’m delighted when it leads me to an immediate opening sentence because that usually indicates an edgier piece, one that sings with magical realism or sarcasm in the guise of story.

The tougher ones are more traditionally structured. More woven by the elements of narrative arc, character, dialogue and setting at the forefront and often calling for the fun meter to be bypassed in favor of story. That’s when I’m glad I chose to include images in the works. Photoshop is extraordinary good fun, like recess or play time in school.

Today’s piece (#35 A Night at the Opera) had me hot on the trail using metaphors and a bit of the magic of the absurd in the writing, but just as with Jesus who’s impossible to photograph, I had to break down and draw something to suit story. That wasn’t so fun, but since I’ve had visual art published before, I overwhelmed my embarrassment with reminders of deadlines and went at it with pencil and paper then turned it over to Photoshop for a small effect addition that covered a lot of the flaws.

While some may have found the daily commitment too grueling when the summer sun beckons them away to foreign beaches and dreams, most of the participants have stuck with it and you’ll find some tremendous writing–Steve Ersinghaus can always kick me out of the normal world into an odd place where imagination can really tell story–including a terrific bunch of poets–Steve’s wife, Susan Ersinghaus, is producing some amazing work–and artists such as the baby-heavy and nature-inspired Carianne Mack Garside, who started this tradition off in 2008, Janette Maxey with some beautifully executed paintings, Jessica Somers who has an incredible eye for composition, and just too many others to name. It’s well worth checking out: 100 Days 2010.

Wow. Just learned something that maybe I knew but forgot or forgot that I knew: the importance of placement, of spacing, of a simple paragraph break.

Example:

“He said she just wanted a shoulder or money or something like that and that most likely she was pilled out or drunk. He said he’d take care of it and call her back.

Now he felt bad that he hadn’t.”

versus

“He said she just wanted a shoulder or money or something like that and that most likely she was pilled out or drunk. He said he’d take care of it and call her back. Now he felt bad that he hadn’t.”

This is the ending of today’s 100 Days story “Reaching Out a Hand” and while the paragraph is longer, I think these three sentences represent the point. In the first draft, there is an expectation of some monumental conclusion, drama, explanation based on the importance that a new paragraph instills in a reader. The simplicity here of the conclusion diffuses the impact of the ending. It doesn’t measure up to the build.

In the second case, what (so far) is the final version, It flows into the ending, does not require a pause for a punch line that falls flat. Before you know it, the story is done and that is the impact.

While I’ve been weaning myself off of Facebook and twitter to concentrate more on keeping up on the weblogs, I’ve also gotten myself busy keeping up on the sidelines with the 100 Days Project.

There are some thirty or so folks involved in the project this year, artists, photographers, writers, cinematographers, poets, cooks, coders, and more all of whom are dedicating some part of each day to producing a work inspired by John Timmons’ film clips or something sparked by another artist’s interpretation of the piece.

I’m finding the early morning kick of viewing the short bits of film, the freedom to interpret, and the discipline of a deadline to be an excellent incentive to keep the imagination active and the words spilling out into mainly flash fiction–all flash fiction so far but I’m open to poetry, short story, or hypertext should that be the best path for the story.  What’s been fun to do is either find an image from my personal file or take a photo to fit the story. Maybe because of last year’s hypertext stories that I produced in the summer project it just seems strange to be done with each before night-time. That’s probably what drove the addition of images.

Some of these stories may be submitted, most I intend to hold onto and do some thinkin’ on. Not all have excited me, but there are a few that I particularly like as a more polished form of the narrative. For right now, and to prove that I’m still here and busy, they’re available here: 100 Days – 100 Stories.

So I have a dozen stories started and sitting on my desktop unfinished now for over a month, maybe more. But give me a deadline (and an inspirational prompt) and so far, I’ve kept up with the 100 Day Project with nary a pause. True, some of the stories come slower than others, but in my usual way, if I find that opening line, I run with it. Or more the case, it runs away by itself.

One of the things I don’t like about such tight deadlines (a story a day for 100 days) is that if it comes easily, that may be good or it may be telling of necessary editing. On the other hand, if it’s painfully pulled like brain taffy, then I wonder if it’s not human nature to just post it anyway and be done with it. This is not normally a habit of mine and not one I want to pick up. So far, #5 is still my favorite as far as story, subtlety, and humor within a short fiction. I hope that more of them will strike and stay with me that way.

So here they are at the 10-day mark, and there have been some wonderful pieces of art, stories, poems, videos, photographs, meals, flash, and other work that were if not for the commitment to this project, might not have been done. I’m sure they each have their favorite pieces and each piece was likely produced in a way not quite the same as the others. This is what’s good about participating in an effort that can only help one grow as an artist. Check them out here.

I’m glad I decided to start each morning out with a story–throughout the summer but maybe beyond that if I’m still of the mind.

Today’s subject was “perspective” and for me, that just conjured up all kinds of things since it’s the topic I most love to consider, to ponder, to argue, to use as an answer when I just don’t agree with the rest of the world. Even though it came a bit more slowly, though I didn’t have a clue where it was going, it started out as usual with the opening scenario, the opening line. From there it progressed scene by scene until the characters waved their goodbyes.

But what fun! To go back and see things that are double entendre, or reinforcements or metaphors that I simply didn’t realize I’d written! Today’s story, #5 In The Eye, is my favorite so far and I tend to like the lightness of it that belies the statement it makes.

The thing about writing on a regular basis–and personally, I need a deadline, real or imagined, that has something or someone stricter than me as an overseer–is that the ideas will come, the words will roll themselves out, and with the opportunity comes not only practice but improvement.

Well yes, I do go back and edit throughout the day–it’s just a habit that tears me between the rush of a story completed and the knowledge that it could have been better. #3 is based on a roadtrip, #4 on change–or the perception or hope of change. Or, the unexpected change of self rather than other.

Still have to work something out about the setup, WordPress Page not being an update-able link, yet I don’t want to put the stories into this weblog as posts as I did with the hypertexts of last summer (as well as listing them on a single Page). So the technical, even in traditional text story, still influences presentation–neat!

Watched Timmons’ starting video this morning and knew exactly what my story was going to be. Started once again with the opening line and trusted it to stay strong all day while I was away before I wrote it down. It was still there when I came home. Story #2 Lies, is based on a film clip of a beautiful woman primping in the mirror as a voice muses the concept of face transplants.

Because I hadn’t really planned this whole thing, I simply put up a page (permanent link to the right, 100 Days – 100 Stories 2010) and the top entry will be the newest, just as weblogs work. However, since I’m writing the stories in Tinderbox, I may just attempt to put up an html template for each so that perhaps if I get into hypertext or images with text, it’ll be more consistent. So the format may change. Or not.