WIP Check-in -- Day 19

[glitteryv]

Hi, everyone! I hope your Sunday has been equal parts relaxed AND productive (the latter in regards to your goal fics).

Poll #7308

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

View Respondents

Today I . . .

View Answers

Wrote!
5 (62.5%)

Did something else that's fic related (brainstorming, research, daydreaming,etc.)
3 (37.5%)

Edited!
3 (37.5%)

Posted fic!
3 (37.5%)

Procrastinated/Took a break from writing
0 (0.0%)

did something else that I'll describe in my comment
1 (12.5%)

Aaaand for the question of the day: do you have any particular way of dealing with writer's block? How effective is it in getting you back to writing?

Comments

[glitteryv]

It's still early enough, but I might be afk til later tonight so, I'm commenting now.

Wrote two snippets for a fluffy!kink h/c commentficathon and posted them. Yay!

I'm going to try to do 750words sometime before I go to bed and add more words to my Big Bang rough draft.

It's been a good day. :)

ETA: I had forgotten to answer my own question. If I'm severely stuck, I will put the fic away for a day or two and tackle something else. I think the reason why this works is because distancing from the story lets me get some perspective on it.

[littlebutfierce]

Another 1100 words & I think I am actually done w/a really (crappy!) rough draft of current WIP! Must try to sneak printing it out at work tomorrow--I do better editing in hard copy.

Sometimes I can avoid getting stuck by switching to a different WIP or taking a break of a few days. Other times it doesn't seem like I can do anything much but keep faith that I'll get over it eventually! (This is one of the things I like about 750 Words: even if I don't write fic in there every day, I'll do a brain-dump about work or my day or whatever, which at least keeps my brain thinking in terms of writing something.)

[glitteryv]

Yay for wordage! Crappy or no, you can deffo spiffy that WIP up during editing. Wish I could help you sneak-print it at work tomorrow. Shh!

750words totally helps with writing. I like the fact that it doesn't have to look pretty, it just has to be done. :)

[pkc_creative]

So far I've got about 500 words written for a SVU fic that came outta nowhere. Will get it finished off tomorrow and also post it. I'd finish it tonight but I have to be up before 5 for work and I can't risk missing my alarm. Started a little research for my epic WIP and also started typing a new chapter for it. I finally posted my 'need a beta' post on my LJ too.

With writer's block it depends on what it is that's bugging me. I'll either talk the scenes through with my husband and listen to what he suggests or I'll leave for a while and then go back to it when I'm in a mood to deal with it. Sometimes I'll just write drabbles and random scenes in my notebook to try and work through it that way.

[glitteryv]

Go you for writing those words! :)

[lexicalcrow]

Filled in plot holes! I had a four year gap to fill in and somehow managed to do that. Added another 6000 words, but it works. So yes. We're in the last stretch of editing for this queer_fest fic, so hopefully I can finish it all off today and work on other things for the rest of the month. Like my AU big bang fic, which has languished because this queer_fest fic got so damn long. D:

But it's okay, my Prisoner torrentz are at 83%. I should finish them off in a day or two and then I can watch them for AU big bang inspiration. :D It does work for me like that so hopefully that should get things rolling again, especially as I'll only have that to concentrate on for the rest of the month. I hope to get a good chunk of it done over the weekend. I plan to take my laptop, switch of mah internetz, and just write. So that should be good. :D

And I feel I'd probably have more ways of dealing with writer's block if I had it more often. I seem to avoid it by working on several projects at once so I've always got something to write if I don't have inspiration for one. I did have bad writer's block one February a few years back though. That was a bloody tough month. It did eventually go away, but yeah. Not fun. I think I only wrote 11k the whole month? IDK. Something like that.

[glitteryv]

Yowza, that's some wordage! *\o/*

Also, yeah, working on other fics (be them snippets or something longer) usually kickstarts my writing engine.

[lexicalcrow]

I know. :D I've spent the morning writing out author's notes. Apparently this fic needs an awful lot of them, though I'm working on a tl:dr version for the header so at least there's something there? IDK. I am getting carried away with this. And trying to prod any of my friends into giving it a read over. Apparently all my beta pals are on vacation atm. Boo. :( I will post it unbeta'd if I have to, but I'd rather not if I can avoid it. I think it's a bit too long to get away with that, tbh. At least I've got to the final tweaking/getting ready to post bit. That's nice.

I'm kind of saving half my kink_bingo stuff for next month so I can write it along side my kinked big bang fic. And maybe I'll plan it so I work on fics that will give me a bingo, rather than just aimlessly filling in whatever squares draw my attention. I've been rather disorganised this time. XD

[linaewen]

I wrote some notes -- on my church bulletin, of course! -- that should help me past a sticky point in my Big Bang tale. I did some research for another WIP that I've been stuck on for too long, and it might be enough to help me past a battle I've been avoiding. ;-) I also posted a chapter of an ancient WIP that has long been written, but is new to the archive at AO3. So I guess that counts as posting!

I'm hoping to do some actual writing shortly, now that all the possible interruptions for the day have taken place and everyone is in bed and I have the place to myself! \o/

Writer's block for me usually comes about when I've been unable to get to writing for a long period of time due to RL, and then I can't sort out what I want to do, because it's not fresh. Though sometimes it's an event that I totally can't figure out how to write properly. What seems to work the best when I'm blocked or at a loss is to go back and reread everything I've written for that story up to the point I'm stuck. It helps remind me that I DO know how to write, and that I can surely get past this. If it's a particular scene that is troubling me, I do research on it -- even if I already think I know everything. Sometimes fresh research gives me a new angle I hadn't thought of and that's all I need to get moving again.

[glitteryv]

Man, that church bulletin sure is handy. XD

Re your anti-writer's block: yeah, I too get that random feeling of "omg, will ever be able to write a good fic sometime in the near future?" Like you, it helps to remember that yes, I can indeed scribble a good fic.

*sends happy writer-ly vibes your way*

[snowynight]

I wrote 2 stories and have them posted. Now I only have one possible achievement to win in kink bingo.

When I've not been writing for a long time, I found that I can't get back to the mode to write and/or edit my wip. I usually start writing short fic to return to the writing mode.

[mystiri_1]

I also find the longer you leave it, the harder it is to get back to it. And sometimes you can't even remember where you were going with a particular scene or idea. (I have done this a few times, and the story I end up with is something I'm quite sure I never intended at the start - if only I could remember what that was.)

Commentfic is a lifesaver when it comes to getting me writing again. It's just not so intimidating.

[glitteryv]

Oooh, one fill away from a bingo! How exciting! Yays for those new fics too. :)

[mystiri_1]

I have been really slack this month, and haven't written much at all. But I did start what promises to be a fairly long SPN fic last week, and I wrote two responses for fic_promptly last night - including one for a fandom I'm not even into.

Possibly of interest to others is that fic_promptly is kicking off another challenge week - the chance to fill old prompts from the archives, and possibly even win DW points. It's a good chance to hunt down prompts from those fandoms that you like, but never have any ideas for - and to write lots of commentfic in a relatively short period of time.

[glitteryv]

It's great to stretch out your writing muscles, isn't? *g*

[jagnikjen]

Yesterday was pretty much a bust for me since I had to take a last minute road trip to help out my husband. Once I got back home I did laundry and vegged for the rest of the day. It's too hot here to do much else (102/103 degrees, somewhere around there!)

As for writer's block... Sometimes I leave that story for a day or two and let the issue simmer in my subconscious and work on something else. Sometimes, I just write whatever crap spills forth knowing that A) I'll have to edit or delete most of it and B) eventually I'll get past the crap and what I really want to say will finally evolve or emerge after the crap has been purged.

[glitteryv]

Aww, that sucks! I hope you can write something today.