Check-in: Day 20 - Monday

[annotated_em]

Happy Monday, everyone! How's your writing going?

Poll #13472

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

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Today I have

View Answers

planned.
3 (60.0%)

researched.
2 (40.0%)

written.
3 (60.0%)

edited.
0 (0.0%)

posted.
1 (20.0%)

taken a break.
0 (0.0%)

done something else.
0 (0.0%)

How do you feel about your progress?

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I feel great!
1 (20.0%)

I feel okay.
2 (40.0%)

I'm pretty neutral.
0 (0.0%)

Kind of meh, to be honest.
2 (40.0%)

Can we not talk about it?
0 (0.0%)

For discussion: what's the most difficult part of writing something for you? Is it coming up with ideas? Figuring out the perfect first line? Or the snappy close? For me, it's a combination of coming up with titles--I hate that part--and sustaining momentum during the middle part of the story, after the joy of starting a story has worn off and before the momentum of the final act catches me up. How about you?

Comments

[lilly_c]

I've got a few words down but not as much as I wanted. I still have a few hours to add more though.

For me it is pacing because there are things happen too quickly or too slowly and getting it right is never easy.

I'm back! :) - I need to get offline .....

[theresa_ramseyer]

Morning all :)

I was offline for a bit, my modem was fried by lightening a week ago last Thursday. Installed a new one Saturday.

While my output didn't go by a huge amount, it did increase. I did much better in doing other things as well.

I need to work on three things:

1) I still need to put more time into my writing, and to do a better job of working it into my schedule to get the output I want.

2) I'm seriously thinking of finding a small time lock box to put my modem and phone cord into, that won't open once I set it, so I'm not online first thing in the day (I have a dial up USB modem).

3) I have got to put things away and reset for the week on Sunday nights, no matter what, instead of putting stuff I don't want to do off until Monday. I got off track even more this morning by having to spend an hour+ cleaning up and putting away the mess on my bedroom floor.

It's lunch time, and I have accomplished very little. I am mainly waiting for my cousin's Facebook posts to download from the weekend - sounds like she was in a car accident, but she's being cryptic about it. May have to call later to find out.

Then I may stash my phone cord and modem in the closet until late tonight or until I get my writing and everything else that's necessary DONE.

(grin)

Hopefully will soon have much to report!

Keep writing!

Theresa

PS. If she was in a car accident, it obviously wasn't serious at all, so no worries.

[rhi]

I can usually come up with titles. When I can't, I look for a key concept of the story and wander Bartlett's Quotations for quotes with the word.

What drives me nuts is getting a story to end with (most of) the ends tied off. Starting is easy. Ending is hard!

[the_rck]

It's hard for me to think in general about my writing right now. I know what the hardest part of my current story is, and I know what the hardest part of my next story is. My brain won't reach beyond that. Every story seems easy after it's done, even when I sweated blood over it.

For my current story, the hard part is figuring out one bit of the plot-- the why of what's going on. I know what's happening and what's going to happen. I just don't know why.

For my next story, the hard part will be writing action scenes. This one requires combat, and I'm lousy at that.

[linaewen]

I'm not doing the poll today because it's always the same for me lately -- not writing, feel bad about that! ;-) Today, perhaps, things might change. I've got a day off right when I need it, so I should take advantage of it.

The most difficult thing for me is picking up after I've not written for awhile; it takes tremendous effort to get the words to flow again after I have ignored them for a long time. Combine that with first lines, and it's really difficult. First lines definitely are a pain, too. Once I get those down, the flow is reestablished -- unfortunately that goes for every new chapter, so I keep having to struggle with it! I also seem to have a mental block about writing battles at the moment, so that has one WIP totally stalled right in a good part -- can't get to the next part without a fight, and I can't seem to bring it to life. ;-)

Re: I'm back! :) - I need to get offline .....

[linaewen]

I have a similar need, to somehow get disciplined enough to write instead of do other things. Drastic measures seem to be in order to avoid being distracted, and not being online right off the bat in the morning seems like a good plan for me, too. I do most of my writing on the computer, but I could unplug my modem until later on. That wouldn't keep me from playing a computer game instead of writing, however.... Maybe I'll have to go back to writing with paper and pencil until I'm back in the groove! :-D