WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 19 -- Sunday

[linaewen]

Greetings!  It's Sunday, and that means it's the beginning of a new week of writing possibilities.  I'm linaewen, and I'll be doing my best to encourage you this week.  So tell me, what kind of day was it for you today?

Did you write?

• Yes!
• No!

If yes, what kind of writerly activity did you engage in?  If no, what were the obstacles/situations that affected your writerly pursuits?

For discussion:  Author Stephen King holds to the discipline of producing 2,000 words a day, and suggests that all writers set a daily writing goal. What kind of discipline, if any, do you impose upon your own writing efforts?  Set word count? Writing at the same time of day or in a specific place?  Does a strict routine help or hinder you?

Comments

[linaewen]

Yesterday was an editing and posting day for me. I am posting chapters of WIPs at new archives and touching them up as I do so. I discovered that one chapter written a long time ago actually had a change of POV in the midst of a sentence, so I was happy to notice that and correct it wherever the story is posted. ;-) It's early in the day where I live, so I haven't done anything worth mentioning as yet, but hope springs eternal in my heart, and I look forward to some real writing today!

As for the discussion topic, I am craving more discipline in my life, and so I am trying to implement something like this for my writing. It's obvious that writing when I feel like it is going nowhere fast. :-/ I'm going to try a couple of different methods and see which works best for me -- such as a set word count per day or a set amount of time writing per day.

I look forward to what other people have to share about this, because I need some helpful ideas!

[lilly_c]

Yesterday I finished a fic for a fandom I have very little interest in but once the idea was there it wouldn't budge. I plan on editing and posting tomorrow. Today I've read a lot of fics because I haven't read much fic for a while. I also woke up to a notification on AO3 of kudos for two old fics.

I try to aim for 2000 words a week then I can write a couple of oneshots or work on DFITM for a few days and there's less self guilt if I don't reach my target. I prefer weekly targets to daily ones because my RL is hectic most days. At the moment I feel happy with 150-300 words a day because I have a broken wrist and writing, well typing, becomes difficult after a while.

[linaewen]

Weekly word count goals sounds like a good idea, actually. My RL is also hectic, which is why I am wishing more discipline to try to control it -- though it may be uncontrollable, and I'm just asking for more guilt if I try to set my goals to be too strict.

Sorry about your wrist, hope it heals quickly!

[lielac]

Hehehehe. Before I crashed at lol:idk in the morning (10:50 AM EST) I wrote! I also posted yesterday, my first WIP. Oh dear. (It's a six-chapter series of one-shots-with-a-theme-on I'll be fine, just dandy, this'll be a breeze!)

The thing I wrote was the beginning of the second third chapter of the six-chapter 'fic. I say "two, no, three!" because I was planning for it to be the second and then I remembered I couldn't very well do chronological order and then have a chapter involving any Toa Mangai after one involving the Morbuzakh except maybe maybe maybe Toa Lhikan. Gotta characterize Toa Naho as awesome before I proceed to offscreen-off her (via canonical death, this whooole thing is missing scenes) and show the difference in Ga-Metru. (Dammit, that's going to make three times Ga-Metru shows up in this fic as where Jaller does something dumb as hell. Half the dang oneshots. Oh well, maybe I'll just make the other three happen in Ga-Wahi and hold to a pattern...)

Heeh. Discipline? What the heck is that? Even during November I don't hold with discipline, the one time I managed 50k it was because I wrote the first 35k words in the first week. (VROOOOOOOOM!) If I write at all on a day I'm happy, though I'd like to get into the habit of writing 365/366 days a year.

[linaewen]

I love writing missing scenes!

[gramarye1971]

I pushed through some writer's block to flesh out the opening section of a long-neglected WIP. The whole fic is about three-fifths done by this point -- it's a collaboration with a friend, though I'm doing a lot of the heavy lifting on the writing front (she's providing character-voices for the characters I'm less comfortable writing). I'm hoping to push a little further and get to three-fourths done by the weekend, with final work set for next week. I also helped the above-mentioned friend beta a fic she's working on, too, so I feel like that counts like a portion of my writing goal.

Regarding the discussion question, I try not to impose deadlines on myself unless I actually have a deadline to hand (a fic exchange, a call-for-papers submissions, etc.). Otherwise, I get fidgety if I don't meet my goal and a frustrating guilt spiral sets in: I feel bad for not having written, which makes me stare at a page without being able to form words, which means I can't write anything, which makes me feel bad for not having written...and that guilt spiral was partly responsible for a devastating writer's block that lasted for almost three solid years. I've mostly broken through it now, but I always feel like there's a knife hanging over me, so I try not to put too much writerly pressure on myself these days.

[linaewen]

Guilt is a real problem for writers, I think. I know it affects me, and that's maybe one reason I haven't committed to more discipline yet, even while I seem to be wanting it. Yay for getting so much done on your neglected WIP!

[lullabymoon]

I added 4800 words to my big bang yesterday which I am ridiculously pleased about. It was a mini-round of fic rush so it's not going to be replicated any time soon but I'm feeling a lot less panicky about it now. And still somewhat in shock.

I tried quite a few times to set myself a daily word count and while I could last a couple of days or weeks, I ended up just stressing myself out. Instead I'm setting myself a minimum time goal to spend focused on my writing (I'm not always necessarily actually writing, but as long as it is related to my fic writing then I'm happy). Most days this is twenty minutes, though I do adjust it down for days that I know are going to be bad. If I can get five minutes of fic related stuff done on those days then I'm happy.

I've been doing this for the last, well it's nearly two months now, and I have noticed a big change in my output. True I'm writing a big bang at the moment, but it is much easier to get a 1000 words out in a day than it was this time last year. My overall word count is much higher, and I'm writing much more consistently than I ever have been, even when RL is tough. I'm really rather pleased with this change and that's having a huge positive impact on everything else.

I don't stick to a set time of day as my schedule is too varied for it, though I have noticed most of my writing does take place in the afternoon/evenings. I do tend to write at my desk, mainly because it's the best posture for me. Too much of a strict routine does hinder me, though I do find outside deadlines incredibly helpful, for the most part.

[linaewen]

This sounds like the kind of discipline that would work best for me! I have a feeling that strict routine might be more of a hindrance than a help. Also, if I had more outside deadlines, it would be better for me -- they give me the push I need to stay on track.

[the_rck]

I wrote a very little bit. I need to buckle down and write. Ah, well. I did laundry, and I got some time with my husband.

I'm not good at imposing discipline on myself. When I've got a deadline, I try to write at least 100 words a day, but that's more about trying to make myself write something, anything at all every day.