WIP challenge - day 7 check-in!

[littlebutfierce]

It's my last day doing the check-ins for this month -- tomorrow I hand over to lola_mento. Thanks very much to everyone who's volunteered to do check-ins, hooray! If something comes up & you can't take your shift, please let me know ASAP & I'll find someone else (or step into the breach). Also feel free to experiment w/the format of the check-in! (I think, because I'm a paid member & an admin for the comm, I should be able to allow any members, whether they are paid members or not, to post polls -- perhaps one of the check-in folks could let me know? If it doesn't work I'll check w/Support.)

Anyway! On to today's poll.

Poll #6909 Day 7 check-in!

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 12

View Respondents

The fic! How is it going today?

View Answers

A++, would fic again
4 (40.0%)

Nothing doing
3 (30.0%)

IT BURNS
3 (30.0%)

Have you been able to do any of the fic-related stuff you set out to do this weekend yet?

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Yep!
3 (25.0%)

Sorta kinda
6 (50.0%)

Nope
3 (25.0%)

I didn't set out to do any
0 (0.0%)

And what fic-ly things did you end up doing, then?

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Write
7 (63.6%)

Edit
2 (18.2%)

Send to beta
0 (0.0%)

Research
2 (18.2%)

Procrastinate
4 (36.4%)

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

Your fic, in three words or less!

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For a discussion topic, I'd like to hear about how folks get, & stay, in the zone when writing. We all have periods when we're more distracted than others, but I feel like sometimes I can't sit down to write without switching over to another window to look at DW or check Twitter or see if an e-mail's come in. Every other minute. I should probably use an internet blocker, sigh. Has anyone been able to improve their concentration or minimize distractions? What did you do? Somehow I still manage to write things even while flicking between tabs, but I wish I could focus more. Do you struggle with this?

Comments

[chibifukurou]

For me 'being in the zone' really depends on the story. If I fall in love with a character voice or a plot, and can't stop thinking about it. Then I'm pretty much indefinitely in the zone until something major happens in RL or the story finishes.

I'm one of those people who gets so involved with a project, that they can't think of anything else, once they've gotten started. I'll walk around with my head in the clouds for days. Which means that my RL responsibilities tend to suffer.

The bad part about this is that if I get broken out of the zone, then I've pretty much lost the entire thread of what I was writing. I've got a fair number of 5,000+ word stories that I've abandoned because I've fallen out of the zone and stopped caring what happened to the characters.

[jagnikjen]

I've got a fair number of 5,000+ word stories that I've abandoned because I've fallen out of the zone and stopped caring what happened to the characters.

Oh, that's so sad. I hate to hear of abandoned stories. :(

Hopefully that will never happen again. :)

[littlebutfierce]

Oh no, that sounds difficult! Both in trying to keep up w/RL stuff when you're stuck in a story, & in getting thrown out & then not wanting to pick up the story again. :( I hope you're able to find a way to balance the two--w/o, obviously, losing the awesomeness of being able to be so much in the zone & so productive.