WiP Meme

[liv]

There's a meme going round inviting people to post sentences or short excerpts from stuff they're currently writing. And I thought, why not? Cos even though I'm not really a writer, I'm spending a great deal of my time writing at the moment. I've mostly stuck to the one-sentence original requirement, but I only got away with it cos my sentences are way long and I overuse semicolons.

1. Thesis: results section. This is the bit I wrote ages ago, and it's been reworked to something close to its final form:
When cells were treated for 16 hours with the test compounds at a 2µM concentration, and β-gal activity was assayed in whole cell extracts, 30 compounds of the 2000 screened caused a significant induction of β-gal activity compared to untreated controls.

2. Thesis: discussion section. This is a first draft, and I tend to be quite rhetorical in first drafts, and rewrite later to sound more formal and objective:
Many conventional chemotherapeutic drugs were discovered on the empirical basis that they successfully blocked tumour growth in animal models, and their mechanism was elucidated only after they were in clinical use.

3. The paper I just submitted this week:
Further novel small molecule activators of the wild type p53 response may thus provide new therapeutic approaches.

4. The letter aimed to persuade the journal editor to publish my paper:
Reviewer 1 argues that our strategy is not novel; however, we are not aware of any reports which combine screening for inducers of transcription with measurement of genotoxicity and specific cytotoxicity.

5. A journal entry I'm working on in my head:
My first encounter with feminism consisted of rude women coming into my house and making my mother cry.

5a. And a different journal entry:
Forty years ago this month, a synagogue in London was contacted by the Czech government with a very unusual proposition.

6. A personal email I'm writing, also in my head:
You have nothing to be contrite about; either ignore him completely or make it clear that you're prepared to be friendly if he lays off the emotional blackmail.

7. This is the opening line of a story that I may just possibly be writing. I mean, probably not, cos I don't write fiction, and even if I did I don't have time to be doing so right now, and even if I did have time I probably wouldn't be able to make this story work (there's a big huge gap in the middle where I can't figure out the practicalities). Anyway, as far as I am writing a story, which is really not very far, rysmiel is mainly to blame.
They say I awoke into death. You could say they're right, but not in the way you probably think.

Comments

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Anyway, as far as I am writing a story, which is really not very far, rysmiel is mainly to blame.

Umm.. how did I do that ?

[liv]

Well, I probably shouldn't entirely blame you. It's one of those awful punning titles that you sometimes donate for the general public good that started it. And I'm talking about absolutely ages ago; if I ever do write this story I shall have to really hunt through your old posts to find it to link to.

So really it's my fault for thinking that I could do something with the title. And then for continuing to come back to the idea and play with it for months when it's clearly not going anywhere by this point. And more globally it's my fault for giving in to twinges of envy towards all the people around here who write and do creative stuff.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

It's one of those awful punning titles that you sometimes donate for the general public good that started it. And I'm talking about absolutely ages ago; if I ever do write this story I shall have to really hunt through your old posts to find it to link to.

Oh, right. Well... best of luck with it, anyway, and I shall look forward to seeing it should it come to fruition.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

When we imagine Mala Kline, we like to believe that on October 2nd, 2049, she woke before dawn. We know that in her final decade she woke before many dawns, and we know that particular dawn was fine and clear; and so it pleases us to believe that Mala Kline began her last day in the appreciation of beauty.

We visualise her sitting at her battered kitchen table, cradling a hot, full mug in both hands, watching as the sky changes from blue to grey to pink to blue. Maybe she has the radio on in the background, maybe she doesn't. Many of us would like to believe that she did not hear the early news, and that her morning was free of betrayal, anger, and depression; but most of us think such belief would be inaccurate. The uncertainty about the radio, of course, should be extended to the other elements of our portrait. Maybe there was no hot drink, and maybe she walked out into her garden rather than sitting at her table. Mala Kline liked fresh air and outdoor activities, so this scenario is not unlikely.

Maybe another, unconsidered situation prevailed. Maybe she did not wake early at all.

It's a work in progress. And for once, I actually know where it's going...