WIP challenge: day 2 check-in!

[littlebutfierce]

The second day of the February challenge -- how's everyone doing?

Poll #9378

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 17

View Respondents

How many words did you write today?

View Answers

None
4 (23.5%)

1-249
3 (17.6%)

250-499
2 (11.8%)

500-749
1 (5.9%)

750-999
5 (29.4%)

1000 or more
2 (11.8%)

How are you doing on the priorities for the week (that you may have indicated in yesterday's poll)?

View Answers

Making good progress!
6 (37.5%)

Moving slowly
4 (25.0%)

Not moving much at all
4 (25.0%)

FAIL
2 (12.5%)

For discussion: How do you pump yourself up to sit down & write? Do you have certain music that gets you going? A little habit or ritual you do? Or something else? Is it foolproof, or do you struggle to find new ways to get yourself psyched?

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

It's one of those weeks where I'm doing really badly in terms of getting enough sleep -- even when I try to go to bed at least a little early, I've been woken up by one of the cats having an accident on the carpet or something like that. >_< So by this point in the week I am losing coherency. By tomorrow night I hope I have enough brain left to post the check-in post, heh!

I have various bits of music I can listen to in order to kind of pump me up a bit -- it depends on what I'm trying to do. Sometimes I make a little ritual out of making myself v. nice tea, or regular (but nice!) tea but putting it in a teapot instead of just making a mug, etc. & getting a little snack to take to the computer w/it. I could probably do w/some more ways to amp myself up but I think for the most part I do all right.

[dhae_knight_1]

I'm done plotting the fantasy, and I'm actually psyched about getting to write it. JJ is now a werewolf! :-)

I try to figure out where I'm going with what I'm sitting down to write. Music can be helpful, but it needs to be song-less. Words scramble my brain. Mostly, I like silence, because the emotions the music engenders might go crosswise to hat I need to write, and then it just turns into a mess.

[dhae_knight_1]

Good luck catching up on your sleep! I have a kitten who, when I get up to go to the bathroom at 5a.m. wakes up and goes; hey! You're awake! Playtime nao? And will complain for the next hour if I just turn off the lights again. Oh, the joys of cats. :-D

[roane]

OMG I love your icon.

[dhae_knight_1]

Than you. And entirely right back at ya. Reid FTW! :-)

[enemytosleep]

I finished my bookkeeping, finally! Had to replace the keyboard on the PC to do so, but now I have a shiny new keyboard in addition to the satisfaction of being done with spreadsheets for the next few weeks. \o/

As of this moment I've opened my help_japan file, made some small edits based on the notes my beta gave, and have added some more detail to the outline (I tend to write scenes as I'm inspired, so oftentimes I'll have complete scenes with bits of outline in between as a sort of placeholder for scenes that need to happen). Maybe after dinner I can dig into one of those, as it's been talking to me a bit this afternoon.

[enemytosleep]

As for rituals and the like, I tend to need quiet in order to write anything, which is hard if my partner is home. I'm often stuck trying to write as soon as I get home so that I can get stuff done before the noise and distraction begin, which usually leaves me rushing and a bit stressed because I don't always get as much time as I'd like to work on writing. Somehow reading and other projects are far easier for me to do with background noise.

[enemytosleep]

*points to username*

I've always been a terrible sleeper, and some weeks are hell. The only good thing is that occasionally being so overtired can led me to massive word dumps and unfiltered creativity. <-- trying to find the light

[ty_writes]

I actually do my best work when im sleep deprived (the snark and sarcasm flows easier)

[ty_writes]

My icon is a good representation of what is happening to me. I try to write something and get hit with another idea for another story.

I've started to outline and look up research for the fic I want to finish this month.

As for rituals. Mostly what I do is read fanfic/ watch fanvids from the fandom I plan to write in. Generally once I get halfway though/ have watched 3 or 4 inspiration will hit and I have to jot everything down on papers (since my stories act like a movie in my head.) When its time for editing, I play some music, usually a single song on repeat, and edit.

[insignia]

Werewolf! :D (That is all. Carry on.)

[insignia]

I wrote a bit more of the ficlet I mentioned yesterday, but now I've hit a bit of a plot-snag, so I have to think about the ending before I can continue.

I didn't write anything for my big project, but I thought of a rather significant structural change I might do. Basically, some things that I meant to keep mysterious and reveal later might actually work better as a prologue. I'd have to expand the flashback I wrote yesterday, so I think I might do that tomorrow and see how it reads. This could simplify the plotting quite a lot.

Since the new fan_flashworks community looks potentially full of squee and awesome, I'd like to participate in that if I can get something done. So I wrote a draft for a short YGO fic inspired by the current theme; we'll see if I can finish it in time :D It's based on a scene in the manga, so my next step here is to double check the specifics to make sure I don't screw up the sequence of events.

As for today's discussion, I'm actively trying to figure that out RIGHT NOW through dedicated experimentation, so I have no answer :D

[samecgh]

I don't know. I'm writing, just not for the stories that I wanted to get working on. I ended up taking on a third story because a bunny bit.

I try to put something on so I won't get distracted by constantly changing stations or something and just focus. If I can, it's related to what I'm writing. If not, then something that I just like watching.

[roane]

I actually wrote a little bit before work this morning, and plan to settle in tonight and write some more. I've plugged in scene descriptions of the scenes I have left to write, and I'm eager to get this sucker done!

I've always written to music. This particular story has a lot to do with the Doctor Who Season 5 soundtrack, just because that's the only Whovian music I've got. I wish I had some of the Sherlock soundtrack, but alas.

I've been known to make whole playlists for larger works. And probably the best (non-fic) short story I've ever written was written while I listened to the same 3 songs on autorepeat throughout the first draft.

[sylvaine]

Ugh, what is this writing thing and how do you do it again? I can't seem to remember. :|

What works in about 70% of the time is getting out of my room/away from my computer. Because I get bored very quickly, and not having the computer as a distraction, I usually end up writing. But therein lies the challenge: getting myself away from the computer...

[lacerta]

Oh god yes, I have the same thing. The worst part is that in order to write, I need to get back to the computer...

(The icon really should say, "Can't write. Internet.")

[lacerta]

One more sentence down for the 1sentencefic challenge, one I didn't know what to do with earlier.

For the worldwide_spn fic, I really need to go to the library do some research, but it's so cold and I don't want to go outside.

I also wrote a little something else. I'm hoping to pull through like I did with the kink meme fill, whip it into shape as fast as I can and post in two days. I tend to spend too much time editing and generally losing interest because I feel like this should be so much better. Posting not quite perfect fics, however, is better than posting no fics at all.

[insignia]

I've considered making playlists for writing too; I tend to associate songs with my favourite shows anyway :D Maybe I should give it a shot.

[eve_doodle]

Finished Chapter Eight of my main WIP, Dulce, and posted it! I felt a little burnt out after writing so much in so little time, so I spent most of the day sketching out my Heroine Big Bang on Nanao from Bleach and admiring all the pretty icons I haven't had the chance to save.

I always read something I really admire/like right before I write, in order to get myself pumped up for my own writing. Add a Simon & Garfunkel playlist to this and I am a writing machine. (I also usually have to turn Aiport off so I don't keep randomly googling things on the internet. No cat videos until I finish a scene.)

[roane]

It works for me. For one thing I wrote, each POV character had their own playlist and I'd switch out playlists depending on who I was writing. :)

[jesseszen]

Story developed quite a bit in my wee brain as I was driving home from errands after work. Have a path ahead now and can commence actually writing. Thanks go out to Moby for the moody 'Wait For Me' which inspired the storyline. When I'm ready to write, will put on the soundtrack, get a hot drink, pull my fleece wrap up over my head and dive in. hahaha - sounds like a goofer, but works for me.

[crowdog66]

Wrote ~1350 words today -- none of it on the three main WIPs that are my target this month. :) But I still feel like I've accomplished a lot, because I've gotten a long way toward wrapping up "Lost in Translation" and written most of another stand-alone short story, "Enemy Mine".

I'm at the point of writing experience where I just sit down, open the tap and watch the words pour out. I don't have any "cues" to start the writing process; it more or less happens on demand. Which makes the times when I hit writer's block harder to deal with, because I have no habitual triggers to get the process started. Each time I hit a block (which doesn't happen often, thank God!) I have to work my way around it painstakingly, more or less from scratch.

[crowdog66]

Finished and posted "Enemy MIne". Hurrah!

[asecretchord]

I wish for you a good night's sleep.

[snowynight]

Written ~1K. At a point to consider whether to go ahead or just sit down and ponder whether decompression's needed.

I don't have specific ritual to start me up. When I need a pump, I use written?kitten a lot and use 100 words as a unit to push the writing.