Write Every Day, Day #11

[auroracloud]

Today I noticed again how much better it is for me to have some crafts on hand when I write. Usually some piece of crochet that I can work without too much attention, something with a repetitive enough pattern. When I get stuck or need to mull on something, it's so good for me to have something for my hands to do. It can help me so much in thinking and becoming unstuck, or at least it serves to give me just enough to do that I don't get distracted and do something entirely different, like browsing Etsy for a million pretty cross stitch patterns or ballet skirts or... you get the picture. Not that this is a common occurrence or anything So I'm more likely to be able to get back to working on the writing rather than leave it entirely.

And it just really, really helps my brain if my hands are doing something.

Do you have non-writing related activities like that which help you to write? Crafting or doodling or colouring, or putting on the right kind of music (I can't usually write while listening to music, but I know a lot of people love it), or something else entirely?

Today's Writing

I managed to do my writing early in the day, and I managed to write, let me see, 326 new words of the novel. I also spent a while browsing through my notebook where I've been writing scenes from the novel from time to time. I need to read them properly to see which ones are usable for the current shape of the novel, but I do think the last few can be used at any rate, so I'll try to take some time to type them up soon. Going through the older scenes will take more time. I hope I can still read my handwriting for them.

Some day I ought to do the same for my generic writing notebook, which contains... well, anything that isn't the novel or the Ambush Project (TM)*. See how many starts of stories and random scenes I actually have stashed away there.

* The Ambush project started as something random to scribble on my Dublin trip and is now on its second notebook, with several worldbuilding sketches on big drawing papers on my living room floor etc., though I haven't been adding to it lately. Come to think of it, I should probably type it up as well and see how much I've already got...

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, trobadora, yasaman

Day 7: auroracloud, badly_knitted, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, deifire, falkner, luzula, nafs, sakana17, sanguinity, shadaras, silveradept, sylvanwitch, trobadora, yasaman, ysilme

Day 8: auroracloud, badly_knitted, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, deifire, lferion, luzula, nafs, sanguinity, shadaras, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, trobadora, yasaman

Day 9: alexseanchai, auroracloud, badly_knitted, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, deifire, falkner, lferion, luzula, nafs, sanguinity, shadaras, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, trobadora, yasaman

Day 10: alexseanchai, auroracloud, badly_knitted, caprices, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, luzula, nafs, sanguinity, shadaras, sierranovembr, sylvanwitch, yasaman

Day 11: 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]

Today's wordcount: 600 words of delicious UST
Total wordcount on fic: 6,200

[auroracloud]

Excellent, sounds yummy! ;-)

[shadaras]

I did write yesterday, about a paragraph. :)

Today I have so far written a hundred words or so, mostly about food still. :P I spent this morning reading fanfic and this afternoon running an online roleplaying game, so lots of other wordsy things even if not written ones. But writing still goes on, as ever. :)

[auroracloud]

Oops, sorry, I totally meant to add you to the tally of course, but somehow didn't. Will fix that, thanks for letting me know!

Food is an excellent topic for writing! And yes, online roleplaying is totally a creative activity as well, and reading fanfic can be very inspiring. :-)

[shadaras]

I'm like 90% sure I didn't actually comment on the previous post? But yeah, fair. :)

[auroracloud]

Ah, then I might be mixing up people's comments in my head. But anyway, you're on the tally now. :-)

[badly_knitted]

Sometimes I find a bit of simple knitting helps, or playing freecell on my computer, or working in the garden; my mind wanders and the other day I had to nip indoors quickly to note down something I'd thought of, but mostly ides come to me when I'm washing the dishes, or in bed. =/

I chopped up the last branches from the hedge and started tackling the ivy that's trying to strangle a couple of my shrubs. I like ivy, and I love the smell when I chop it up, but it's very invasive and kills other plants.

April 11th - 957 words. Most of that was on the fic I started a couple of days ago, and the rest the finishing touches to yesterday's fic. I worked on that tonight instead of doing cross stitch, had to edit the whole thing then fiddle with it some more until I got it down to 1000 words, but it's done and posted.

[auroracloud]

Ooh, I bet garden work is good for mind-wandering and ideas! I don't wash the dishes a lot because I have a dishwasher, but chores are generally good for letting the mind wander. Though these days I have a tendency to listen to podcasts while doing chores, but they also spark a lot of ideas, so it all works out.

Good luck keeping the ivy in check!

Congrats on finishing the fic and getting a lot of writing done on the other one. Yay for getting the story down to 1000 words! :-)

[badly_knitted]

Just recently my brain has been switching off in the garden. Lots of happy non-thoughts going on!

Living alone I only have my dishes to wash so it's not much of a chore, but it's very conducive to ideas.

Thanks, it took a bit of work but I think it's better for that.

[auroracloud]

Not thinking is also important! I'm really bad at getting my brain to switch off, it's always running like mad - the best thing to do is usually to focus it on something specific that takes up my attention completely. Or spend time in nature.

[badly_knitted]

I have a busy brain too, always have trouble switching off, but mindlessly snipping away at overgrown shrubs seems to work well. I listen to the birds, and just enjoy the quiet. Brains should come with an off switch ;)

[sylvanwitch]

I do listen to music when I write, but only instrumental music because music with lyrics throws me off. When I wrote the Thor/Loki novella last year, I listened to the same album for the entire project; something about it, the atmosphere it summoned for me, made it the perfect album for that story. I'll also play brain games on the computer if I'm stuck on a passage or just need a break--nothing super involved or long, a two-minute brain teaser or something like that. Having the break and using a different part of my brain seems to help me get back on track.

Tonight, I added 563 words to the Bond/Q story.

[auroracloud]

*nodsnods* The very occasional times when I do listen to music when writing, it usually has to be instrumental, or possibly in a language I don't know well, so the lyrics don't distract me. Also playing the same pieces on repeat for a particular project is a thing I've done, so I understand.

I sometimes wonder if I should take up some kind of computer games to relax and/or engage my mind, but I'm afraid of getting addicted and spending too much time on them! But looking at what people describe, it generally seems that what works is whatever best suits for the purpose you said: having a break and using a different part of your brain for a while. Whether that's crafts, chores or brief computer games. :-)

Yay for more Bond/Q story!

[deifire]

Day 10: 106 words
Day 11: 513 words

I never thought about having a craft on hand, but that's a great idea! Today, I kept getting distracted by trying to find groceries in the real world and didn't get quite as much done as I'd hoped.

[auroracloud]

Okay, I'll add you for both days!

And having a craft on hand is worth trying, at least. What works for one person may not work for another, but it's worth trying different things. :-)

Ah, the difficult task of finding groceries these days! I've mostly been okay so far, but some things definitely become scarce...

[sanguinity]

Another person who never thought of having a craft at hand! I suppose I do something similar when I "consult the Dish Fairy" (alternatively, "consult the Shower Fairy") -- do something that occupies my hands/body but not my brain, so I can mull over what the next plot point should be. (There was one day I was trying to beat a deadline for a fic -- it was a pinch-hit, write the whole thing in a week! -- when I consulted the Shower Fairy seven times.)

Apr 11: 500 new words, and I think I'm one letter away from the end. (Erm, this is epistolary fic: one put-a-stamp-on-it letter.)

[auroracloud]

Consulting the Dish Fairy or the Shower Fairy sounds very useful, too! I've had soooooo many ideas in the shower. It's a magical place, clearly!

(There was one day I was trying to beat a deadline for a fic -- it was a pinch-hit, write the whole thing in a week! -- when I consulted the Shower Fairy seven times.)

Well, at least you were clean as well as creative!

Ooh, I love epistolary fic, that sounds excellent! I really ought to try to write some myself some time.

[nafs]

Implemented some of the changes I made notes about yesterday but this one scene that needs to be rewritten still stubbornly refuses to come along. *kicks it*

One thing that usually helps if I can't make myself start is to put on laundry or put food in the oven - give myself a defined you-must-write-until time.

[auroracloud]

Good luck getting the recalcitrant scene to fall in line!

Ooh, that can be handy - both something practical to do for a bit, and then a time limit. :-)

[cornerofmadness]

Definitely music helps me write. Often talking out loud to the characters helps a lot...but makes me look a little weird if I'm doing this in the store...


I got 1082 words on a surprise Prodigal Son story + 459 on the one I'm supposed to be writing (figures)

[auroracloud]

Hee, I mostly just talk to myself everywhere, including public places, not actually talking to my characters, but the end result is probably not that different in the eyes of outsiders.

Stories are just like that, always the one you're not meant to be writing will come more easily. But still, writing is writing, and 459 words on the one you're meant to be writing is still a respectable number, I say!

[sakana17]

Day 11: 1063 words on something new. Hope to keep this one going for some daily writing again.

[auroracloud]

Yay, that sounds very productive! And it's helpful to keep writing daily if you've got a specific ongoing project, yes. Good luck with it!

[china_shop]

12th: I wrote today (edits to the last section, including an explanation of the canon divergence, which I'd been hand-waving a bit too much).

I can't write to music, and I don't craft (because I have limited arm capacity, and I need it all for typing) -- if I get stuck, I do dishes, take a bath, go for a walk, etc. Or set my brain the task of solving the problem before I go to bed and hope there'll be a magical solution awaiting me when I wake up. :-)

[auroracloud]

Yay for edits, and for getting something done which you'd been handwaving too much. :-)

Taking walks is excellent! I used to regularly "take my stories out for walks" and while I don't do it as much expressly for story purposes, I still love taking walks, and still end up brainstorming many story things while I'm walking.

[yasaman]

Day 11: just 332 words today. Between chores, cooking, and playing Animal Crossing, the day really got away from me!

[auroracloud]

Sounds productive enough for a day with chores and cooking and all, even if it's less than you wrote on previous days. Ooh, Animal Crossing, I used to play the old version way back in... 2005 or thereabouts, I think? After learning there's a new version, I've been sorely tempted to give the mobile version a try (I don't have any kind of a gaming console). It might feel really soothing now!

[the_siobhan]

300+ words tonight. I stayed up rather later than I should have just to do this.

[auroracloud]

Sorry you ended up staying up too late, hope you still got enough sleep or will catch up on it soon. It can sometimes be hard to get the writing scheduled into your day so that it doesn't take away from sleep. But yay writing, at least!

[lferion]

Day 11 - 800 words (and a few notes) on 3 single, 1 double, and 1 triple drabbles. I have now done instadrabbles for all the prompts so far in the lockdown instadrabble discord space, just in time for tomorrow's third round.

[auroracloud]

Sounds very productive, well done!

[falkner]

No actual writing for me today either, but on the flip side, I'm getting a ton of reading done these days, which is fantastic for getting ideas. It's just that lounging on the front steps outside under the sun is way too tempting to do anything else but that all day long.

Vaguely related: it's much easier for me to get writing done on days I work than on days off. And right now it's nothing but (unpaid (Ｔ▽Ｔ)) days off. I wonder why.

Maybe on the same vein, I also seem to get some help from having some easy crochet or knit WIP on hand! If I hit a roadblock while writing and need to stop and mull things over for a while, I inevitably get distracted by other things, but if I just switch to yarn work and think while doing that it works like a charm.

I get more writing on these comments than on fiction.

[auroracloud]

Yay for reading! I've had trouble reading in the past weeks, it's been hard to concentrate, so it's great that you've been getting lots of reading done. And it is indeed good for getting ideas, and it also builds up your sense of writing in other ways, story structure and characters and vocabulary and all that.

Hmm, interesting that you have an easier time writing on days you work than on days off! I suspect it might be because your mind is already in a more active state, so it's easier to apply that to writing as well. And sometimes it's easier for people to write when they've only got a specific time slot available for it, rather than knowing they could do it any time of the day. I've definitely heard about that happening to other writers.

Yay for getting help from crochet or knitting at hand! It's just like you describe, if I need to mull over things a bit, the crafting helps me not get distracted by something that takes my attention away.

Good luck getting back into the writing! But if you find that you need this break from the writing, that's all right, too!

[carenejeans]

Day 11: worked on the nonfiction project. And added an alibi sentence to the one I wrote yesterday, so I am officially 'working on a story.' ;-)

Sometimes cooking or baking helps my writing, though not my waistline...

[auroracloud]

Yay for officially 'working on a story' even if it's a sentence a day at the moment!

Heh, yeah, cooking and baking have their risks! Lately it's been a good thing I haven't been that great at time management - I've been meaning to bake myself some delicious cake or pie for days, but I haven't got around to it yet because the days get away from me. :-D