WIP challenge - day 5 check-in!

[littlebutfierce]

Checking in! We're inching towards the end of the week. How's it going today?

Poll #6888 Day 5 check-in!

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

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How's the fic going today?

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Fantastic
3 (21.4%)

All right
3 (21.4%)

Creeping along
5 (35.7%)

Not going anywhere at all
3 (21.4%)

We're nearing the end of the 1st week of the challenge. Are you:

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Behind schedule for your goal
3 (23.1%)

Ahead of schedule for your goal
1 (7.7%)

On track for your goal
5 (38.5%)

It's too early to tell
4 (30.8%)

What did you do today, fic-wise?

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Write
6 (54.5%)

Edit
3 (27.3%)

Send to beta
0 (0.0%)

Research
1 (9.1%)

Procrastinate
2 (18.2%)

Something else I will describe in comments
3 (27.3%)

Three words or less about your fic!

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& today's discussion question brought to you by me having no time at all for fic today. Oh, & by the flamingo, of course. Let's talk procrastination! We all have days where, sadly, offline obligations prevent us from writing fic. But how do we prevent ourselves from writing fic? How do you slack off when you do, technically, have the time to devote to fic? Can you persuade yourself that it's not procrastination, but research or taking a break or catching up on other things? What's the difference if so? & how do you fight off the urge to procrastinate?

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

I've been really busy w/offline stuff this week, but today, even when I had a bit of time, I just couldn't make myself focus on fic. I'm really tired! So I did what I often do when I procrastinate: I refreshed various websites (my reading page on DW, etc.), checked my feed reader too frequently, etc.

Other things I do to procrastinate instead of writing fic? Reading other people's fic. Rereading my own fic. Checking my hit counts, ahahaha. & rewatching canon. Sometimes that's a genuine need to refresh my memory on details I need for a fic, but sometimes it's not. The line is very blurry!

I try to let myself consciously procrastinate once in a while--in hopes that this will make it easier not to procrastinate all the time. I don't know how well it works though!

[dragovianknight]

What I wrote is actually from a later story in the planned arc, but it is making me SO HAPPY I don't care (and usually, I write a little backwards, so when something hits me like this it means I'm going to be writing the setup for it soon).

As for procrastination, all I can say is: TV Tropes.

[jagnikjen]

But how do we prevent ourselves from writing fic? By filling the time with other important things.

How do you slack off when you do, technically, have the time to devote to fic? By watching TV or reading or cleaning house or doing laundry, shopping, or hanging out with my kids and playing board games.

Can you persuade yourself that it's not procrastination, but research or taking a break or catching up on other things? Nope, I know better and I've learned/gotten to a place where I just go with the flow. If I don't write, I don't write. And that's okay, because I just came off a year from hell where I had this enormous pressure to write and produce words and it was exhausting and I was tired of it. So in reality, for me it's not procrastinating most of the time. It's just that I don't feel like writing, so I don't. :)

What's the difference if so? & how do you fight off the urge to procrastinate? Mostly, I truly procrstinate when it's time to write a sex scene. I just tell myself to put the words on the page and go back and tweak it later. You can't fix a blank page. :)

As for the poll, I haven't had a chance to write at all today so I couldn't really answer the questions. I'm hoping tonight, I'll be able to work on a fic or two. I got my beta'd story back last night so I'll be looking at the comments and making changes as I deem necessary. And then I'll try to start a new fic...or work on polishing up one of my others and get it ready for posting.

[curuchamion]

110 words. Work ate my brain. To my utter disappointment, I am not going to bed yet.

Scribbled more notes - about a canoe trip, this time - got some character stuff a bit more settled. Still love my characters.

Running on fumes, apparently, because incomplete sentences like this are just above calling the mastodon a dinosaur, for me. *sleep-deprived*

[jagnikjen]

Reading fic and re-watching canon are good ways to refill the well and spark new ides. And giving yourself permission to *not* write is important too.

[jagnikjen]

TV Tropes

I can surf there for hours, too. :)

[jagnikjen]

Any words are better than no words. Don't despair. :)

[charamei]

Apparently I suck at procrastinating, because I was fully intending to give writing a rest until Monday and yet in the past hour I've cleared my workspace (read: wall), taped a piece of A2 paper to it and got half my story arc(h) for the novel drawn up. Ahhh, the dewy-eyed first romance between author and story. It won't last ;)

I have a bad habit of procrastinating by writing other fic, or working on the wrong story ;) But that's assuming I get as far as opening Word... half the time it's refreshing the reading list, refreshing Lifehacker, and The Sims 2. And TV! And, you know, everything else in the world...

[charamei]

110 words are still words that you don't have to write tomorrow! Sleep well :)

[charamei]

Oh God, TV Tropes.

And yay for happy-making scenes! Those are the best kind!

[jagnikjen]

Ahhh, the dewy-eyed first romance between author and story.

Go with it--even if it doesn't last. We gotta get while the gettin' is good.

[anehan]

277 words. Too tired to writzzzzzzzz.

[terajk]

A big part of procrastination for me is fear--either I feel like I don't know where to start with researching, or I've never written [fandom, character, scenario, type of story] before, or I worry the story won't be good enough (if it's for a prompt) or whatever.

Thanks to all the 3W4DW writing fests, I *have* written a lot of new-to-me things, which is awesome. And I want to write more things! (So many awesome prompts!) But I'm nervous about my queer_fest fic. Maybe since I've been having so much fun writing drabbles, I could write it as a drabble first? Maybe that would give me the kernel of something to build the fic around, and more importantly, get me to at least write something. I call it a plan.

[jagnikjen]

277 words is nothing to sneer at--great job.

[jagnikjen]

Maybe since I've been having so much fun writing drabbles, I could write it as a drabble first? Maybe that would give me the kernel of something to build the fic around, and more importantly, get me to at least write something.

Sounds like a great idea.

[schwertlilie]

Have you considered writing it as a set of drabbles? Or snapshots in time/place? It depends on how you've structured the story, but I had a lot of success with my NaNo last year by breaking it into tiny chunks and not forcing myself to write connecting bits.

[jagnikjen]

Edited one fic, which is now ready for posting.

Realized another fic had a serious flaw--so I'll have to decide if I want to make it sort of AU or revise it to reflect canon.

Started another fic.

[glitteryv]

Sometimes, we *need* the break. The only problem is if we make a habit out of it. I've also realized that not getting enough sleep will affect (often quite adversely) the following day's writing. It's not like I go to bed at nine p.m., but I *do* try to go to bed at a decent-ish hour. *g*

[glitteryv]

Writing is writing is writing. If your muse wanted to tussle with a later fic and it made YOU happy (therefore--hopefully?--inspired to work on your goal fic), then yays to you!

[glitteryv]

Yah, sometimes RL/offline life can eat most (if not ALL) of one's writing time. While I don't stall when it comes to sex scenes, I can sometimes have a hard time keeping the momentum when I'm writing a bridge scene (meaning, a scene where the characters regroup/go about their day/what-have-you before I throw an obstacle or two.)

[glitteryv]

Dude, 110 words IS 110 new words. I hope you get some rest soon. Tiredness will eat at your urge to write or lower your concentration levels or something ridiculously sucky like that. *hands you a cup of tea and a cozy throw*

[glitteryv]

I hope your romance goes strong. *cheers you on*

[glitteryv]

*gives you two thumbs up* Woot for new words! Every single one of them counts. Really, they do. :)

[glitteryv]

I second schwertlilie's idea of breaking that OMG!SCARYWITHBBQSAUCE! fic into drabbles or snippets. For one thing, it will seriously ease some of the pressure and anxiety you're feeling. And the final piece might turn out to be quite interesting to read.

[glitteryv]

I worked on another story (adding about 1,650 words and doing a final edit before sending it to beta). Then, opened my goal fic doc and . . .kinda . . . stared at it for a little too long. Added my (now usual) 400 words. I'm focusing on spending some time wrasslin' with this fic over the weekend.

As for procrastinating, well, there's the usual surfing of DW, LJ and the handful of blogs I read. I can get distracted rather easily.

What I figure works for me is to sit down and write about an hour or so after I get home from work. By then, I've already shaken off the workday, have had dinner, answered emails and commented on my close friend's posts.

That's not to say that I do this everyday. I just work at making it a habit. Occasionally, I struggle (like in the past two days when I had all the intention to really work at my goalfic, but ended up a little on the the slacker side), but there comes a point when I end up looking forward to shutting the whole world out and seeing where my fic is going to go.