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

[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. :-)