Write Every Day: Day #2

[auroracloud]

Hello again! Here is the check-in post for the June Day #2 of Write Every Day. If you didn't see the previous post yet and are wondering what this is, I'm explaining it here.

Today, it was exciting because I went out on a research trip - nothing fancy, just travelling to a place where some of my novel is supposed to take place in, looking around, walking, taking many photos, guided museum tours, etc. As a result, I'm pretty drained now! So nothing fancy in today's post, I'm too sleepy already. But it was nice and useful. I was silly and forgot to take my sunglasses, though, and the sky cleared up in the afternoon, so I got a bit of a headache, but the painkiller has kicked in now, so I'm okay.

Today's Writing

In a way, today was all writing, since I was spending most of the time on stuff related to my novel project, but there weren't many words, though I took some research notes. But I also got ideas for some supporting characters that I'd known I should have, and I got ideas for names for characters, so at home I wrote some new character notes as well.

How was your writing today?

Tally

Day 1: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, luzclarita, shopfront, silveradept, sylvanwitch, used_songs, ysilme (14 so far)

Let me know if I missed you, or if you wrote but didn't check in yet. You can join in or drop out any time!

Comments

[falkner]

Nothing written yet, and probably won't be able to in the last two hours of the day. But I did beta read an 8k words story for someone, so I feel like I did my duty today.

e: wrote two alibi sentences right before midnight!

[auroracloud]

Yay for managing a bit of writing after all that, too! But 8K of beta-reading is awesome work, too, and I do think it benefits your own writing as well as the writing of the person whose work it is, even if you're not producing your own writing as you do it. :-) (I feel like that was an unnecessarily convoluted sentence, but I'm tired, so I'll let it stand.)

[alexseanchai]

apparently I am writing a crossover fic

(eta: that sentence went to spaghetti, so for clarity:

setting "etc" equal to "dropping the leads of the one canon into the setting of the other canon so that they meet one lead of the other canon shortly before she meets her canon's other lead":

the ways in which etc will impact the first canon once its leads get home? I've thought of several, and the first two took about thirty seconds altogether.

the ways in which etc will impact how the second canon plays out? uhhhh

(I mean if I want to break the second canon's happy ending, that's easy, a bunch of lives are riding on the climax and it's really tightly timed, even a few minutes' delay at that point could be disastrous)

(but I don't wanna do that)

(and if I want to break all of French history between the two canons' settings, that's easy too, as long as I don't bother to research how it would break)

(but I don't wanna do that either)

[auroracloud]

Good luck! Figuring out crossover fics can be tricky. Which is why I've yet to write one, though I'm quite into them when done well, and keep having crossover ideas.

I think French history has been broken enough times that it won't mind another!

[alexseanchai]

Yes, well, Miraculous Ladybug is set in present-day-ish Paris, which might look somewhat different if there hadn't been a French Revolution, which is a plausible alt history arising from the canonical events of Disney Beauty and the Beast before considering how time travelers might screw with things! Soooo.

[alexcat]

I filled the last 2 squares on my STONY Bingo Column with 2341 words today.

[auroracloud]

Ooh, that's a lot of writing! And yay for finishing a bingo column, too! Congrats!

[sylvanwitch]

Oooh! Research trips! They are SO MUCH FUN! I love going to a place that I know I'm going to be using and looking at it through the writer's lens instead of only as a visitor. It's such a different perspective and so much fun, at least to me. I'm glad you had such a lovely day of it! :-)

Today, I woke up with a sore throat, which I'm hoping isn't going to develop into anything more bothersome than a cold. Still, boo. I also had a lot of cleaning to do, and I've done quite a bit of it, but now I'm out of energy. Thankfully, before I lost the last of my oomph, I added 1502 words to the H50 fic. Yay!

[auroracloud]

Yes, they're fun! I firmly believe in getting my feet on the ground my characters will be walking on, both literally and figuratively. Nothing like being there to make it more real and detailed in your head and make the setting a part of the story. Even if what I'm writing is set in another time and all the buildings will be different etc., just getting a feel for the layout, the distances, the landscape and such makes it easier. And indeed, you see the places very differently then and pay attention to different things.

Sorry you woke up with a sore throat. Hope it goes away soon and doesn't make you very sick. And uh, cleaning when you're not feeling well is even less fun than cleaning usually is. But wow, that's quite a productive writing stint despite your troubles! That's great!

[cassini]

[that research trip sounds wonderful, i should really do some more educational trips in future. too much of my learning is done through screens ]

[had to throw in a 2330-2350 writing session to reach 1k today but i made it, 1.1k total and another chapter has reached full first draft stage. gotta throw it all onto the master ms, as it's still in phone-based scraps rn ]

[auroracloud]

I do recommend getting out to do research, whether it's visiting a place or something else, like trying out an activity. Although there are a lot of good resources online these days, there's still a lot you can't learn and experience that way, and so getting out to try things and see things can make your writing more concrete and give you new ideas. Also, it's often fun. :-) Of course not everyone has the opportunity to go everywhere, but it's definitely useful to try something you can do. :-)

Congratulations for reaching your goal again! And getting another chapter to full first draft stage is awesome. :-)

[china_shop]

Day 2 and day 3: I started rewrites on a ficlet I got back from beta. It needs a significant overhaul, and I'm dragging my heels a bit, but hopefully I'll get some traction on it tomorrow. Right now I'm going to do a weekend's worth of dishes and mull...

[auroracloud]

Good luck with your rewrites! I know the feeling of dragging your heels when you have to edit/change a lot. But usually it passes after a while - first you resist and it's hard, then you start getting into it and it starts to work out. At least that's my experience. Hope you get into the phase where it gets going soon. :-)

[cornerofmadness]

I managed 534 words on Mischief Christmas and a 355 M.A.S.H. ficlet for comment_fic

[auroracloud]

Congrats, that's a nice amount of writing for one day!

[cornerofmadness]

thanks

[carenejeans]

Today was not good for writing. I managed to write about 150 words, but they're kind of terrible. Oh well! (They were useful, anyway. I can jump off from them tomorrow).

Your research day sounds fabulous! And definitely counts as writing. But good for putting some down after a long day.

[auroracloud]

Sorry to hear you had a bad writing day. Still, sometimes terrible words are less terrible than you think when you've written them, or they're at least an useful jumping point to something else, as you mention. I sometimes can't get a certain bit to work and then just write something bad to tide me over to the next bit, and return to the bad part later. Good luck!

[ysilme]

That research trip sounds lovely! I've found again and again that it makes a difference if the author of something, particularly if it's historical, has visited places and did hands-on research like that. And I don't mean the kind of background where you could retrace the steps of a fictional character in the town where the story is playing, for example, or if the corner pub the antagonist likes to take a drink has ever existed and whatnot. But I think you can tell if the author has ever been to a place or a similar place to what they're writing about. Personally, I also find it much nicer to write about things, surroundings, places etc. I'm at least a bit familiar with - but that might well just be detail-obsessed me. ;o) But for nearly all of the places I've written about, no matter if fantasy or fandom or so, I have rather clear mental images of how the places look and "feel" for lack of a better word. For the latter,
I'm kind of "recording" possible or concrete inspiration or info all the time when travelling, often taking pics especially for that, or needing/wanting to see some detail, inspect some place or something of the like to collect all the details I might need or want one day. *g*
My tally's only 70 words for yesterday; it's got horribly hot which is making my head cold even worse, and I'm also having much worse pollen allergy problems this year than usual, once again the skin-contact variety when pollen as well as soil and plant dust raise itchy, painful wheals where they come in contact with sweaty skin. But some gardening work needed to be done, so I couldn't avoid it.

[auroracloud]

I've found again and again that it makes a difference if the author of something, particularly if it's historical, has visited places and did hands-on research like that.

I agree! I find it invaluable, especially with historical fiction, it makes it much more real to get to the ground and get to know the places. I also feel it makes it much easier to write and to really see the places and events in my mind. I'm also really into writing that has a strong sense of place, and I've discovered I love to write about places I know, and try to make the setting properly a part of the story. And even if you're writing about a place you can't visit, or about a fictional world or another planet or such, it can be helpful to go to places like it. Like if you were writing about a fantasy world or a planet that's covered by huge forests, it's a good idea to visit real old forests if you can.

I'm sorry you're feeling poorly with the head cold, the pollen allergy, and the heat. I hear that pollen allergies are particularly vicious this year, because of the weather patterns this spring. I fortunately don't get any, at least not from plants which grow here, but a lot of my friends are allergic to birches, which have had a crazily intense pollen spring. Hope you feel better soon and that the worst pollen phase passes.

[sierranovembr]

Hello! I am checking in for day 2. I edited a chapter. :) thank you for hosting June- I am excited to keep the words going this month.

[auroracloud]

Thank you for checking in, and yay for getting a chapter edited, that's great! I like hosting, it's a fun way to interact with other writers. Hope this helps keep your words flowing!

[silveradept]

Not much writing for me, as a scene gently refuses to get written quote yet, but that's okay, there were still words. Now I need to find the courage to post a thing I wrote, now that a beta has taken a spin through it. It's not like I don't have plenty of other works already posted, but each new one always seems to be "what if this one makes everyone hate me?"

[auroracloud]

Yay for words, even if there weren't many! Some scenes take their time, but working on them can still help them move forward even if much isn't actually happening on the page.

Good luck finding the courage posting that new work! I totally get what you say there, I'm always nervous about posting new works, too! But I'm sure yours will be fine, and it's very unlikely that it would make anyone, let alone everyone, hate you. So, here is my official encouragement to post. *waves pompoms in the air*

[alexseanchai]

[azurelunatic]

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