Write Every Day, Day #7

[auroracloud]

I got my genprompt_bingo card today, as you may have noticed if you saw the post where I posted it. There is something shiny and promising about a fresh new bingo card! Now let's hope I get some stories out of it.

Otherwise I've been really tired today, given that I woke up too early and took ages to fall asleep, and then ages to get started once I woke up again... And I've just been cranky and irritable, which is probably 40 % due to hormones, 40 % cabin fever/isolation, and 20 % general anxiety. Though I did feel better after doing a small pilates routine, so maybe I also just need more exercise...

Today's Writing

I mainly managed some longhand writing early in the day, some freewriting, and a bit under a page of some scene that might grow into a story, might not. We'll see. I tried to make myself do more in the evening, but I'm too tired and unfocused, so it'll have to do. I did look at my bingo card and try to come up with some ideas, though.

Tally

Day 1: alexcat, auroracloud, badly_knitted, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, deifire, lferion, luzula, nafs, sanguinity, shadaras, sierranovembr, sylvanwitch, trobadora, yasaman, ysilme

Day 2: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, badly_knitted, china_shop, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, deifire, elliet, falkner, lferion, luzula, nafs, sanguinity, shadaras, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, trobadora, yasaman, ysilme

Day 3: alexseanchai, auroracloud, badly_knitted, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, deifire, falkner, lferion, luzula, nafs, sanguinity, shadaras, silveradept, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadora, yasaman

Day 4: alexseanchai, auroracloud, badly_knitted, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, deifire, lferion, luzula, nafs, sakana17, sanguinity, shadaras, silveradept, sylvanwitch, trobadora, yasaman, ysilme

Day 5: alexseanchai, auroracloud, badly_knitted, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, deifire, falkner, lferion, luzula, nafs, sakana17, sanguinity, shadaras, silveradept, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadora, yasaman

Day 6: alexseanchai, auroracloud, badly_knitted, carenejeans, china_shop, deifire, lferion, luzula, nafs, sanguinity, shadaras, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, yasaman

Day 7: auroracloud, china_shop

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

Comments

[luzula]

Sorry you're feeling low, I hope you get more sleep tonight! <3

I tried your advice about writing early; since I also wrote in the evening, this made me quite productive (though, er, not at my actual paid work).

Today's wordcount: 1100 words
Total wordcount on story: 4100 words

[auroracloud]

Thank you! I'm fortunately better rested today (though still tired; I guess keeping busy to stave off anxiety will take its toll eventually!).

Glad you had a productive day! That's a very impressive word count! ♥ And just to clarify, the suggestion about scheduling writing first doesn't mean it has to be actually done first; it could very well be "I'll write at 9 pm" but by scheduling it first, you're prioritizing making sure that you'll be free to write at that point, rather than having the evening swept away by other things if you didn't plan for writing. On the other hand, I do still think it's a great idea to give morning writing a try, because it works for surprisingly many people. :-) Glad it worked for you to write both early and later.

[trobadora]

Oh, oops, I forgot to check in yesterday. It was only an alibi sentence, but today I finally got back in the saddle - 1,092 words for the 7th!

[auroracloud]

No problem, I'll add you on the tally for both. And woo hoo for getting back in the saddle, that sounds like a very productive writing day!

[falkner]

Some words got written.

[auroracloud]

Yay words! :-)

[badly_knitted]

I know what nights like that are like. I'm always waking up, and I'm always tired. I did get out in the garden again today, which also makes me sleepy...

Writing wise not such a good day.

April 7th - 800 words, a 500 word challenge ficlet and two 150 word drabbles. My brain didn't want to form words.

[auroracloud]

I'm sorry you suffer from sleep problems, too. I've always been a bad sleeper, and it seems to be really hard to fix. It's probably not surprising that in generally anxious times, I should have trouble with sleep. Glad you got to do gardening!

To me, your writing day sounds plenty productive! I'm not sure I've written that much in all the days of April yet, or if I have, not much more. But I understand not feeling satisfied with it if it felt harder than usual and words were reluctant to come.

[badly_knitted]

Stress and anxiety always make sleep problems worse. Just when we need sleep the most it's even harder to get.

At least I got words down.

[sylvanwitch]

Honestly, I'm of the mind that any productivity, especially of the creative kind, is heroic right now. I think there can be an enormous amount of pressure in these circumstances to "make something of your time," etc., and that's such a limiting, pernicious attitude. I mean, you know, if you're built to write a great novel or something while the world burns down, that's awesome--you do you! Lol! But for me, given my anxiety, etc., I'm just happy to get words down every day. I find the routine of WED is immensely helpful *especially* now. But anyway, I didn't mean to make this All About Me(TM) ;-) I meant to say that I think you should be proud of yourself for the work that you did. I also hope that you feel less tired tomorrow. *hugs*

I added 656 words to Bond/Q.

[auroracloud]

You're right that it's hard to write/create in this situation! I recently listened to a writing podcast that talked about just the phenomenon you describe, the idea going around that you should use this time to do something special - apparently there was a thing going around in Twitter saying that Shakespeare wrote [insert well-known play here; she thought it was King Lear but wasn't sure] while he was in quarantine because of plague, implying that you should do something similar. Uh, even in the best of times being expected to do what the most famous writer of Western literature did is... daunting to say the least, let alone the pressure that this time when everything is unusual and many people face extra pressures or anxieties! And that isn't even talking about the fact that many people still have work they must adapt to different circumstances, children who are suddenly at home all the time, etc. But even someone whose life doesn't change that much can still feel a lot of stress, which makes it harder to create, and the pressure to "do something great" doesn't help.

I'm also just happy to get words down, though on some days I feel like I should do more. But I try to remind myself that I'm already doing the most important duty I have by staying home and avoiding spreading the virus, and I should focus on keeping myself sane and healthy besides that, and anything else is extra! Thank you for reminding me of that.

*hugs* Anyway, glad that story continues rolling on for you! I imagine it's a good comfort to have a story to return to day after day, in these times.

[shadaras]

I've got a hundred more words on the fanfic I'm meaning to spend this week on, and the rough overarching plot and first few sentences on a fanfic I'm being talked into writing. :3

[auroracloud]

Yay, sounds great! And new fanfics are fun, too. :-)

[nafs]

Sorry the cabin fever's getting to you. I was pretty grumpy myself as the workday ended, and gave up on going for my usual end of day walk. I almost miss the office.

Today wasn't especially productive, but I got about 350 words out of it. Ran out of steam with plenty of time to type it up. And before I got going I futzed around with structure a bit more, which helped me figure out what I was writing next.

[auroracloud]

Thanks! I can get outside, of course, since we're not under curfew or anything yet, but being alone at home, only meeting other people via video calls and phone calls or passing by strangers/neighbours when outside... That is exhausting at times. But I've been less grumpy today, yay!

Glad you got some words done and typed up, and figuring out some things too! Sounds productive to me, even if it might not have been as much as you wished.

[sanguinity]

Apr 7: I slept late again, but got a half-hour of revision done in the morning, then a longhand page or two at lunch. Oh, and wife talked me down from starting the story over again.

[auroracloud]

Sounds like you got a fair amount of creative work done even if you slept late. Glad talking to your wife was useful, too!

[cornerofmadness]

Good luck with the card.

I got 948 words between two projects today

[auroracloud]

Thank you!

Sounds like a productive day. :-)

[cornerofmadness]

It was thanks

[yasaman]

Day 7: wrote 1,202 words across two fics, most of it on a new fluffy fic because that's just where my brain is at these days.

[auroracloud]

Bring on the fluff! All the fluff! Goodness knows we need it at the moment. *waves the fluff flag*

[lferion]

Day 7 - 200 words in two drabbles. I saw your genprompt bingo card and decided to get one for myself. I’m looking forward to seeing what I get.

[auroracloud]

Glad to have inspired you! Hope yours brings you some nice story ideas. And well done with the drabbles. :-)

[sakana17]

Day 7: Edits and finishing touches on story back from my beta.

[auroracloud]

Excellent!

[china_shop]

*hugs*

Day 8: Alibi sentence.

[auroracloud]

*hugshugs*
Alibi sentence is writing!

[deifire]

Day 7: 98 words

I've reached the "Remember: Being gentle with yourself > productivity" part of the weekly writing cycle.

[auroracloud]

Sounds good! We need to not over-exert ourselves, especially in these times. Take care!

[ysilme]

I can relate so well to feeling cranky for these reasons.... it's often the same for me at the moment, when I'm not bleary from sleep deprivation or over the elbows in work. All the sympathies to you! *hugs*
Since Sunday I'm back at at working long hours for the church homepage; my parish is contributing a lot to the passion week digitally and people are really loving it, but we still have to build a lot of basics for this, or understand how modules work and whatnot (we're using a CMS specially made for our county church which has lots of awesome features, an impressive collection of bugs, and often outdated or missing documentation. I'm completely self-taught at using it, and am the most knowledgeable person about it in the district, so most of the stuff we need my colleague and I need to figure out for ourselves. We're learing a LOT but it's really time-consuming.) No fic writing happened since then, but I wrote tons of nonfic and at least one line of longhand every morning, for my ten-year-calendar. I'm checking in today for the - *counts* - 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th.

[auroracloud]

I'm sorry you've been feeling cranky and sleep-deprived, too! I hope it lets up soon. *hugs*

Sounds like you've been busy lately. Glad you managed to write things anyway, even if it wasn't on fiction. ♥

[silveradept]

I got to the project I wanted to last night, which is excellent. More than a few words sprung forth to help speed it on its way. There are still a lot more words to go.

[auroracloud]

Sounds great! I'm glad to hear that words came.

[carenejeans]

Day 7: Still plugging away at the nonfiction project. Really teeth-grinding stuff -- as in, "I need to check this reference. Where is the file? WHY ISN'T IT IN THIS FOLDER WHERE IT SHOULD BE???" Argh.

I'm going to try to write some fiction today, even if it's an alibi sentence.

I hope you're sleeping better. Remember, any writing is good. Perseverance!

[auroracloud]

Ah, good luck with that! Finding references and files, oh dear! I know some historians in RL, so I can imagine. Good luck! And good luck getting to fiction-writing as well!