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

[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 ;)