littlebutfierce: (dtb suou scream)
littlebutfierce ([personal profile] littlebutfierce) wrote in [community profile] writethisfanfic2011-01-09 06:41 pm

How do you get yourself actually writing?

OK, folks, help me (& your other comm members!) out here. I'm sure many of us are masters of the art of procrastination.

How do you get yourself to actually sit down & write? Internet blockers (or maybe even -- shudder -- going offline entirely)? Bribing yourself? Getting other people to nag/threaten you? Signing up for challenges?

I write something every day using 750 Words; I've posted before about what a good tool this is for me. Sometimes it works brilliantly, as both a way to get words down on the page & sneak past my internal censor. But often I don't write fic there; I'll just brain-dump. Which is good -- it's still writing -- but I feel like I need to kickstart my word count for fic.

Things I have done today instead of opening up a file to work on fic: updated my reading journal w/what I've read lately; updated another comm; answered DW comments; signed up for Diaspora; took down last year's calendars & put up this year's; put up random things I've had around the house to put on the walls but have been lying around for ages; made tea.

And now, my latest avoidance technique: posting here!

My word count is begging you for help. What are your tips? What have you tried that didn't work for you? (It might work for someone else!)

& just for LOLs, what are your favorite things to do when you're resisting sitting down & actually writing?
charamei: (Default)

[personal profile] charamei 2011-01-10 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Is your monitor visible by your coworkers? Occasionally I have free time at work, but because my monitor is viewable by other people I feel too nervous to even start drafting something in a blank e-mail or something. Sigh.

One of my screens is more visible than the other, but even if they were both completely open you'd be surprised how close people have to be to see what's actually going into that Word document you've got open. (Of course, I also used to write during boring lectures at uni/classes at school, so I'm an old hand at this.) The trouble for me is that because I never know when the next bit of work will turn up, I end up wasting hours 'just in case' - and then, the moment I do give in, five project managers turn up at once. That plus I-should-be-working guilt makes for very unproductive days.

As for drafting into emails, U use Dropbox. That automatic sync (and by extension, backup) is niiice.