WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 10 -- Wednesday

[linaewen]

Hello on Wednesday!  What kind of a writing day has it been today -- or yesterday, if today hasn't gotten going yet?

•     I thought about my fic once or twice
•     I wrote
•     I did some planning and/or research
•     I edited
•     I've sent my fic off to my beta
•     I posted today!
•     I'm taking a break
•     I did something else that I'll talk about in a comment

Discussion - Do you have creative dry spells which affect your ability to write?  How do you weather them?

Comments

[linaewen]

My work week has not been conducive to writing so far, but I remain hopeful that something will happen with getting words on paper before too many more hours go by.

I have had quite a few creative dry spells lately, mostly due to setting aside a story for too long and not being able to get back into it, or because I'm too stressed from Real World stuff that distracts me, so I can't concentrate on being creative. Even so, I try to keep my hand in by tweaking my outlines (which are usually extensive), brainstorming ideas even if I don't actually get around to writing them, and rereading what I have already written (and sometimes editing if I find something that doesn't work as well on a second look). This usually gets things flowing again (though not always immediately!).

[rebecca2525]

I wrote a bit on Tuesday and took a (planned) day off of writing on Wedsnesday. So not terribly much progress, but not stalling either.

Rereading and outlining can help, but if there's nothing more to reread or outline, the best for me seems to be to force myself to write a little each day, even if it's just a ridiculously little amount like 100 words. What I need is idle thoughts revolving around the fic even if I don't write, and when I fail to keep on writing, my idle thoughts will stop to progress, they will rehash the same things over and over and then finally stop. So writing even the tiniest bit each day helps to free up brain space for new thoughts and keep things moving. Slight physical exercise also helps, like walking and cycling.