Write Every Day - April Day #2

[auroracloud]

If you are wondering what this is about, I explained more in yesterday's post

Today was a really blah day for me for some reason. I would have had tons of time to do things, writing as well as anything else, but most of the time I was just tired and listless and didn't want to do anything. I did buy five of the books I was looking at yesterday, though. Well, they weren't expensive. Oh, the peril of e-books...

Today's Writing (and optional question!)

I felt like writing poetry, so I wrote some. I also spent a bit more time planning my novel. Not nearly as much as I hoped I would, but at least some. It took the form of a mind map about the personal relationships of one of my protagonists, as well as an attempt at sketching her home.

What forms of planning/preparation do you have that aren't writing as such? I'm not a very visual person, so I don't do a lot of visual things, like some writers do, but sometimes mind maps work nicely for me - they allow me to see what I already know and offer an easy, noncommittal way to come up with new things. Like, today I wrote different categories of relationships my character would have - family, work, study etc. - and jotted down the characters I knew, and then I came up with some new ones to fill in the blanks. I used lots of colored pens. :-) Sometimes I've tried to create plot graphs, but I don't know if they're any use for me. Time lines can make sense some times, for example to see how different subplots advance. I know some writers create playlists for their stories/characters, but I usually can't listen to music while writing, so that doesn't really happen for me.

Well, one of my constants is just taking a walk with the story, going round walking while letting the characters and stories spin in my head. Works with some other activities, too, like doing chores at home, or travelling/commuting.

Tally so far

Day 1: auroracloud, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme


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

Comments

[sylvanwitch]

I, too, walk around with the characters and spend time thinking about my story while I'm doing something else.

One thing I've done on this novel is write down a bunch of questions about my MC's motivations. When I'm stuck or not feeling right about the story, I can refer to those questions to see if I've answered them, and if I haven't, that can sometimes tell me where the problem really is.

I wrote 577 today. I had intended to shoot for 1000, but it wasn't happening. I think I really need to spend tomorrow reading the whole 60K and figuring out where the heck it's going, and now that I've mentioned it, I think I need to look at those questions again to see if they'll give me some sense of direction.

[auroracloud]

Questions are good! And having figured out the motivations of the characters is really important.

Nice word count, even if you didn't get to the 1000 you were aiming for. Good luck with figure out where your story is going!

[cornerofmadness]

I'm not much on prep work with a few exceptions. I make a few notes on what I'd like to see (because I'll forget) and I make up character sheets because a) I write multiple projects b) I will forget details c) it helps me explore them d) did I mention I'll forget?

Today I worked on the author's note for the novel and edited 2 pages of a short story that was also picked up for publication.

[auroracloud]

Yes, character sheets are really nice. Especially for supporting cast, so the name of the MCs cousin isn't something different every time they're on the page. Though of course it's also useful to have them for the main characters, because like you said, it helps explore them (and then their eye colour and home town and whatnot are more likely to stay the same throughout the piece).

Nice that your story was picked up for publication, yay for editing it!

[cornerofmadness]

Yeah I have several stories including my current WIP where the murderer from the 1920s keeps changing names and I can't remember if his ex wife is Kirsten of Kristen. I'm excellent at moving tattoos. and when my first novel was published I realized I had gone the ENTIRE novel and never mentioned if it was his left or right arm that had been amputated and didn't know what to tell the cover artist.

Thanks! I should have two coming out this year (maybe more, getting one more ready to go out soon)

[carenejeans]

I've gradually realized that while I don't write outlines, with novels I need to write a sort of meta/brainstorming/notes journal as I go along. It's like a shadow novel. I've done this through several Nanowrimos, and at first I didn't want to count it in my daily wordcount, since it wasn't part of the story, exactly (and sometimes feels like just flailing and whining). But I finally realized that if I didn't write it, there would be no novel, so now I include it.

I don't do this with short stories, since I tend to write a sketchy first draft in one fell swoop.

As for my writing today... it's been a really hard day and all I've got is an alibi sentence. I'm pleased with it, though! 8-)

[auroracloud]

That's a bit like what I do. First I write random bits of notes in my notebook, and lately I've started taking advantage of various features of Scrivener, in that I write my ideas for scenes and such in Scrivener index cards, sometimes write in bits of description/dialogue that occurs to me, or even parts of scenes that may go into the draft later, and make various brainstorming notes in other documents. It works well for the chaotic process that my planning and writing is, because I can later organize everything better, I can insert new things in between whenever I feel like it, and when I want to start writing I can just turn my notes into scenes. Well, I haven't yet actually written a full first draft this way, but I've done the same kind of thing previously, just without the software.

But I finally realized that if I didn't write it, there would be no novel, so now I include it.

The same here! I've included a lot of brainstorming and planning notes in my word count this year, because I need that phase before I can actually write.

An alibi sentence is always better than no sentence at all, so yay! Especially if you're pleased with it. :-) Hope the next days will be better for you. :-)

[ysilme]

Just popping in quickly to leave my word count; 220 words of drawer fic after a relaxing, lazy day I partly spent in Skyrim. ;o)

[auroracloud]

I'm glad you had a relaxing day. Yay for writing happening as well!

[talkingtothesky]

I made a point of being sure to catch up from Day 1. Splitting my 1600 words between 4 projects made it seem more attainable, motivation wise. In the end I wrote more than expected, so I only needed to add to 3 projects to get me to 1,800 words.

I consider myself quite a visual person, but I don't plan for my writing like I plan for other things. Mind maps are good...I do have one for all the characters in my novel and their connections to each other...but I don't use them that often. If I set out to write a big story I know I need an outline. I used to be a pantser but I'm definitely not now. But when I set out to write a 1000 word quick story and it turns into a huge monster I often don't outline for that...so things slip through the cracks of my attempts at organisation.

But thank goodness for Scrivener and its split screen feature. If I couldn't write with my outline and chapter file side-by-side, I don't know what I'd do.

[auroracloud]

It's always a nice surprise when you end up writing more than you expected, congrats!

I don't do much (or any) planning for short stories either, but I definitely need one for long projects, like hopefully-to-be novel manuscript. Otherwise, after then 10,000 words I just muddle about not knowing where I'm going and how to get there, and the project just loses steam and dies down. I may change a lot of things while I'm writing, but I need to have some plans when I start out.

Yes, Scrivener is a wonderful too for me, too! And the split screen feature is very handy. I'm the most dependent on the index card feature and the many fields of information you can use there, as well as the snapshots and rollbacks when I'm editing, but the split screen definitely has its uses. I hadn't actually thought of using it to work on the outline and the chapter file side by side, I'll have to try that for this project!

[st_aurafina]

Ugh, I'm a terrible planner. These days, I at least try to write down where I want to be at the end of the story, and five or six things that I want to have happen in it. And then I need to write the story to see what happens (tweaking my plan along the way) so I can write it for real. Which I never seem to get up to. I have so many wips.

But I did write 615 words today on my POI thing.

[auroracloud]

I'm not a super-detailed planner, but I basically need to have an idea of the important points along the way, and enough notes about the important characters that I know where to start with them. I find things out along the way and then change the plan, but if I don't have the plan to start with, I get stuck after a while.

I hear you on having many WIPs, though!

615 is a nice word count for a day, congrats!

[shopfront]

Kind of daydreaming and then jotting down words in either a list, spreadsheet, or zerodraft is generally how I plan best.

Some words yesterday (2nd), had a brainwave for tweaks to the steampunk novel. Otherwise I suspect I won't be anything else done until next week now because packing and moving is about to start in earnest, urgh.

[auroracloud]

Daydreaming and lists are a big one for me, too! I don't use spreadsheets much, though sometimes I've used them to keep track of character details so I can quickly check out everyone's appearance, age etc. But I haven't done it for my recent projects. The zero drafting you speak of sounds interesting - if my current methods don't work as well as I hope, I could give that a try.

Woo, yay for some ideas for the steampunk novel! Good luck with your packing and moving, it's quite a task so I'm not surprised if it's hard to find time to write while that's going on.

[shopfront]

I've mostly only used spreadsheeting for chapter/arc planning tbh, everything else just gets listed under an appropriate page name in my scrivener doc. But juggling how all the different characters arc fit together requires way too many bits of info for anything less than a spreadsheet, haha. And I highly recommend the zero-drafting! It's part synopsis and part speaking-aloud-to-yourself-via-typing/writing, which is a very good mix for my introverted self because thinking aloud is helping but thinking aloud at other people is horrifying for me :P

And yup. As expected, nada today. The good news is I'll probably have at least a few days to a week without more than mobile data (which I can tether, but still) so at least I can catch it all up post-move while we wait to be reconnected.

[trobadora]

I wasn't feeling so great most of the evening, and I almost didn't manage to write more than an alibi sentence, but then I wrote a little over a thousand words after all. (Yes, still drawerfic.)

I generally don't do any visual things other than make maps for fictional worlds. Otherwise it's all text for me. Outlines, scene breakdowns, character motivations, timelines - all words on the page. It all goes into the same document, too - I like having everything in the same place, and organising and re-organising the info so it's easily findable also helps keep it present in my mind.

[auroracloud]

Sorry you weren't feeling well, but glad you ended up writing a lot in the end, after all! Hope you feel better today.

I'd probably do maps if I was good enough at world building to set things in fictional worlds. I love maps. When I write something historical, I try to find maps of the places in the right time period, and then imagine where my characters live and where things happen - sometimes I sketch maps to myself about that. But yeah, I mostly plan by words on the page, or just thought in my head. I'm too chaotic to put everything in the same document, but Scrivener is super-helpful for my kind of writer and planner, because I can keep all my disorganized planning together and access it easily, anyway.