WIP Challenge check-in Day 13, Monday

[sylvaine]

It's time for check-ins again!

Poll #9516

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

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How has today's writing gone?

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very well
4 (30.8%)

pretty good
1 (7.7%)

alright
6 (46.2%)

not too great
2 (15.4%)

not at all
0 (0.0%)

Are you...

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writing?
10 (76.9%)

editing?
5 (38.5%)

researching?
2 (15.4%)

giving your muse a rest?
1 (7.7%)

Discussion question: you all know those days where you just don't want to do anything that requires any sort of effort. How do you motivate yourself to write on days like that?

Comments

[annotated_em]

Discussion question: you all know those days where you just don't want to do anything that requires any sort of effort. How do you motivate yourself to write on days like that?

*rueful* Just here lately, mostly I don't. But when I'm being more assiduous, I kick myself in the ass and make myself do it anyway--I tell myself that I can stop after I've written so much, a hundred words, a paragraph, whatever. And sometimes that's enough, and I can manage to power through the blahs and remember that oh yeah, this is fun.

[roane]

I'm doing lots of plotting today. I have five story ideas all from the same demented crossover/threatening-to-be-AU universe that I'm creating. All five are demanding headspace, so I'm going to have to prioritize somehow. I have titles, plots, the whole thing. That NEVER happens to me. Seriously. I suck at titles and I never get a title before a story. Who am I and what have I done with me?

I've been so insanely busy lately with work and school and writing, that when I have a day where nothing HAS to be done, and I don't want to do anything that requires brain, I let it be. Everybody's brain needs downtime, especially if you've just finished a big project. I took my downtime this weekend--didn't write, didn't think about writing a whole lot (at first), did a lot of reading and watching stuff in my main fandoms. And then last night everything just exploded in my head and here I am, desperate to get back to my laptop. :)

I'm pretty sure it's not coincidence. I think our subconscious needs that empty time to do its work digging up the good stuff. Of course, there's a big difference between letting your brain lie fallow for a day or two and avoidance--the hard part is seeing where that line is. :)

[insignia]

Good luck with your stories! :D

[roane]

Thanks, I'm really geeked about it. :)

[enemytosleep]

Oh wow, five? Good luck! If you're anything like me, you should totally get the outlines down before they leave!

[roane]

Yeah, it's CRAZY. They're in various stages of planning. The one i thought I'd be writing next may not be next, as another one on the list jumped up and down and started waving its arms at me today. :)

I don't outline as a general rule, but I've been making crazy notes like "This happens, then this, and this is what's behind everything and oh, don't forget this scrap of conversation." :)

[enemytosleep]

I forget stuff like woah, so I need to make notes and outlines else it vanish. @_@

[dhae_knight_1]

You and I see things very much the same way. :-)

[insignia]

I've done a bit of plotting for my secondary humongous WIP, but haven't touched my main one. I got inspired, and some of the many scattered pieces are starting to fit into place :D

[roane]

I love that feeling, when stuff starts falling together.

[sleuth]

If I have one of those days, but I still feel like I have a few ideas I need to let out, I try to write them down in my notebook. That way I still have the ideas written down, but not in any way that requires effort from my part.

[enemytosleep]

Ditto this (though I'm lame and it's usually more like an envelope or the back of a flyer ... why I can never be bothered to locate an actual piece of paper).

[sleuth]

This used to be me. But I finally kicked myself into buying a notebook and made it a rule to always carry it with me.

[crowdog66]

I've written about 3400 words today (and am still writing!), and posted a new chapter of a WIP ("Three and a Half Days") and a stand-alone short story ("Overture").

On days when I have no energy I try to break the writing task down into smaller units that I can tackle (I'll just roughly plot out this chapter... I'll jot down that tiny bit of dialogue that came to me in bed last night..." and so on). On days when I'm particularly exhausted or depressed, I give myself permission to rest. :)

[dhae_knight_1]

You write like a fiend, you do! I usually hit the 1200-word mark and it's like I... run out of words or something.

[littlebutfierce]

So I had a huge huge... flaming ball of shit go off in my personal life this weekend (uh, that's a lousy metaphor, but my brain has been destroyed by misery, so, uh, that's what you get). I'm... all right, sort of, sometimes, but anyway, so I've been managing to get a little bit of editing done today. Which is a relief & a nice distraction. Though today & yesterday when I was writing my 750 Words all I could come up w/was soul-destroying darkfic of the kind I would never actually write & finish for Natsume Yuujinchou. ;__;

[insignia]

I'm so sorry to hear that! I hope that whatever happened you can get through it without any permanent damage :(

[littlebutfierce]

Thank you! I'll get through, it will just... take a while. :/

[roane]

Oh no. :( I hope things get better soon.

[littlebutfierce]

Thank you.

[enemytosleep]

Oh shit, I'm sorry to hear that. If it helps at all, there is baby kitteh spam linked in my comment below. Nothing's fluffy like baby kittehs. ^^;

[littlebutfierce]

Thank you. & hahaha, b/c I know you will appreciate this, as an example of my state of mind: I was writing fic IN WHICH NYANKO-SENSEI DIES. Not normally a thing I want to read or will ever finish writing. ^^;;;

Inappropriate Icon is Inappropriate

[enemytosleep]

OMG, haha. If Nyanko-sensei death fic pops up in the anon comment meme, I'll have my suspicions. XD But again, I'm so sorry you've been that upset to go and kill off Sensei. *internet hugs*

Re: Inappropriate Icon is Inappropriate

[littlebutfierce]

Oh, I don't want Sensei to be dead, so I won't be prompting it (& I wouldn't read it either, sob). It was just... cathartic to write. He didn't even die actually in the fic, it was all just Natsume grieving & people trying to figure out how to help him, ahahaha.

Re: Inappropriate Icon is Inappropriate

[enemytosleep]

Sensei! I hope you're feeling better today. <3

[crowdog66]

So sorry to hear you're going through a rough time. :( I hope things get better soon, and that perhaps the process of writing can offer you a little bit of comfort.

[littlebutfierce]

Thank you very much!

[sleuth]

That sucks to hear. :( I hope life will treat you better -- or is treating you better.

[littlebutfierce]

Thank you!!

[dhae_knight_1]

RL sucks sometimes, so hard you can't even escape into the saner world of fandom. I hope whatever it is calms down some, soon.

[littlebutfierce]

Thank you!

[enemytosleep]

Today's progress...

Yuujinchou Exchange (due Mar 17 - 1K word min): 866 new words. I wrote more and also did some editing on what's been drafted thus far. I also worked on the outline a bit and have come up with some ideas on the ending. Current word count: 3,728

Help_Japan (due 18 years ago - 750 word min): No new words. Current word count: 3,666

Kitteh Spam. She's really warming up to us now. ^_^

[enemytosleep]

And I forgot to address the question of the day. If I'm really not at all inspired or in the mood to write, I don't. I find things work better if I do something physical (chores, walk the dogs, go to the gym). Often times getting away from the computer screen to move around helps get ideas flowing again.

[lea_hazel]

I feel selfishly thankful that I'm not the only one a year behind on help_japan fic.

[enemytosleep]

LOL, I have 4 LJ buddies who are also not finished, so we can all share the shame. XD

[littlebutfierce]

Oh no, there's definitely a few people on the comm! I was commiserating w/bay_alexison for months during the challenge about neither of us having finished ours. ^^;;

[dhae_knight_1]

1322 words tonight. It helped to take a short walk to shop and think my approach to the section through. And to tear out every word I wrote last night and start over.

At the moment, Words Count is a good motivator for me. Much like MiniNaNoWriMo has been before. Because, damnit! I'm going to get my 200 daily words in, even if I have to go out and write something entirely unrelated to my WIP. Even if it's stupid, I'll get those 200 words!

And in other unrelated news, I also got my job-application done tonight. Fingers crossed they'll want me, even though they're going to have to wait 4 months until I'm done with my Master's before they can get me. That? Would stroke my ego to epic proportions! :-D

[enemytosleep]

Good luck with the job stuffs! \o/

[snowynight]

1K this day. And someone took a look at this wip and gave useful opinion.

I had such a day, and my solution was rest a bit and coerced myself to write for 5 minutes. I found that once I got writing, I could do better than 5 minutes.

[lea_hazel]

No progress on my WIP, but I did write some insubstantial porn. 0~0

I keep having beginnings to stories, and not enough follow-through to get all the way to the end. It makes me sad because the ideas seem initially good, I want to sit down and write immediately, so I don't forget them. Then I run out of steam.

[dhae_knight_1]

Plotting, plotting, plotting. It's made a huge difference in the fic I've finished (as in; I've actually finished it), as opposed to the metric tom of stuff that ran out of steam.