Write Every Day, June Day #26

[auroracloud]

Thought I should link to this, via marthawells who also has an essay in it. The Writer's Book of Doubt. It's coming out next month. I think I'm going to need it. Here's the blurb:

Impostor syndrome. Thinking that your writing sucks. Feeling targeted by the rejection cannon. Despairing that no one is ever going to read your stories. Lost in Submissionland. Overwhelmed by radioactive brain weasels.

The Writer’s Book of Doubt contains practical advice and inspiration for dealing with the problems of the writing life.


I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that description resonates. And the collection of writers sounds like people whose words I actually do want to hear (well, read).

Still have mostly spent the day in bad brain chemistry land, but there have been better moments, and at least I've been taking care of myself and taking things off my schedule for the next days.

Today's Writing

At one point I managed to read fairly much novel research and make notes about it. As for things that actually add to my word count, I added a bit to a supporting character sheet, and I now continued one of my many unfinished fanfics. This one's more just stream-of-thought about characters rather than a story, but who knows, maybe I can make it into something at some point. Nothing else was inspiring me.

Tally

Day 1: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, luzclarita, ofmonstrouswords, shopfront, silveradept, sylvanwitch, used_songs, ysilme

Day 2: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, ysilme

Day 3: alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, ofmonstrouswords, shopfront, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, used_songs, ysilme

Day 4: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, ofmonstrouswords, shopfront, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, ysilme

Day 5: alexseanchai, alexcat, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, yantantether, ysilme

Day 6: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ellieet, ofmonstrouswords, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme

Day 7: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ellieet, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, ysilme, yantantether (15 so far)

Day 8: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ellieet, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme (14 so far)

Day 9: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme (15 so far)

Day 10: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, navaan, ofmonstrouswords, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, tinx_r, yantantether, ysilme (16 so far)

Day 11: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, navaan, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, tinx_r, yantantether, ysilme (17 so far)

Day 12: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, tinx_r, yantantether, ysilme (15 so far)

Day 13: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, ofmonstrouswords, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, tinx_r, yantantether, ysilme (15 so far)

Day 14: alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, used_songs, ysilme (11 so far)

Day 15: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejean, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (11 so far)

Day 16: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, ysilme (11 so far)

Day 17: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (11 so far)

Day 18: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, ysilme (12 so far)

Day 19: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvan_witch, ysilme (12 so far)

Day 20: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, ysilme (12 so far)

Day 21: alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (11 so far)

Day 22: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (13 so far)

Day 23: alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, ysilme (10 so far)

Day 24: alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, yantantether, ysilme (10 so far)

Day 25: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, yantantether (12 so far)

Day 26: china_shop, sierranovembr

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

[silveradept]

The description definitely resonates.

The good thing for today is that I managed to rubber-duck past the most vexing point of an assignment and follow that line all the way to completing the draft.

[auroracloud]

What's rubber-ducking? I don't think I've heard that expression before, at least in this context. But in any case, very well done for managing to get through the difficult part and finish the draft!

[silveradept]

I'm borrowing it from programmers and tech people. Essentially, it's the idea that talking about your problems aloud, even if it's only to a rubber duck, sometimes makes things clearer than trying to keep them in their head. In this case, I had live humans, but there have been enough cases where a stuffie or a rubber duck did fine for getting me unstuck.

[auroracloud]

Ah, right! I had the vague idea that I've possibly heard it used in relation to programming, but couldn't remember at all what it was about. But that makes sense! Sometimes I freewrite my way through a difficult bit, and sometimes I just talk to myself. But I should try to see if a stuffed toy animal or something would work even better, since I don't have a rubber duck. :-)