Write Every Day, September Day #1
Sep. 1st, 2018 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
auroracloudHello and welcome to the September 2018 edition of Write Every Day! We're back at my journal for the whole month this time, and I'm glad to have you all here again as we try to write at least something every day, or however many days happen to work out for each of us. If you don't know what this is or could use a reminder, below is my explanation, mostly copied from my April post.
What is this?
It's just what it says on the tin (well, title). Participants aim to write something every day. One person hosts the challenge in their journal each month, and every day, they create a post where others can check in about whether they've written and anything else they may want to say (e.g. how much you wrote or what you were working on or whatever about your writing/life/something is causing you to tear your hair out or jump from you). You don't need to tell anything else than that you wrote, though. The host keeps a tally of who wrote, posting it as a part of the next day's entry, so people can see themselves on the list (or not) and hopefully feel motivated! The host also aims to provide comments, encouragement, cheerleading etc. to everyone checking in. You don't have to check in on the days when you didn't write, but you can feel free to comment anyway if you want.
The best part is, there is no minimum to how much you should write! Even just one sentence a day is writing. (When you write just a sentence, in order to have written that day, we call it an alibi sentence. See, it's common enough that it needs its own term!) There is no competition, no minimum word count, no pressure. no ranking, no "punishment" or shame for missing a day or a few or a week or a few months. There's only the challenge to try to write even a little bit every day, or on as many days as you can manage.
Why does this work? Many of us find that it helps us to keep a regular habit of writing, but without a pressure of how much you should write. Because life happens, and sometimes you're busy, sometimes you're exhausted, sometimes you're sick, sometimes words just won't come together. But if you write even a few words each day, you keep it active in your mind, and the threshold to writing becomes lower; and so it's gets easier to write and to have those days when your writing goes better.
I've participated in this since August 2016, and it's been wonderful for my writing. I've written so much more than I ever would have without it. There are so many days when I've set out to write even that one alibi sentence, and I've ended up writing several hundreds of words. On some days I only manage a sentence or two, but eventually those sentences added up, and eventually the writing started flowing again. Plus, you get to know new people and get a supportive little community of writers. I used to do this kind of thing on my own several years ago, but eventually I fell out of the habit and didn't get back into it before I joined Write Every Day. Having someone to report to, and seeing others go through challenges just as I do, makes it easier to stick to the daily writing
You can write anything - fan fiction, original fiction, non-fiction (say, journal entries, academic writing, articles), poetry, planning, research and notes for future writing... Editing certainly counts even if you end up removing more words than you write, and some count beta-reading as well. It's up to you what writing you want to encourage yourself to do, really.
New people are welcome to join any time, and you don't need to do anything else to join except start commenting on the daily check-in posts when you've written. If it turns out not to work out for you, there's no shame in dropping out of it, and I you miss a check-in, just let me know and I'll add you onto the tally afterwards. I crosspost everything on both DW and LJ, so feel free to check in at either place.
If you want to see how it works out in practice,carenejeans hosted the challenge in August, and trobadora in July, so you can check out their journals.
Other chatter
It's sometimes nice to do this writing goals question in the first post of the month, but I'm just too tired right now for anything extra now. Maybe tomorrow. I'm absolutely knackered tonight - kept being exhausted all week, I guess from being back at work and not sleeping well, and today I went to see the musical Kinky Boots with my friend. It was marvellous, with a great cast and great energy, and I had a fabulous time, and we went to have dinner at a falafel place and chat afterwards, which was good, too. But that much activity totally drained me, and I had to rest a couple of hours just to have the energy to consider writing. I'm still really glad we did it, though.
Today's Writing
I wrote some ideas/notes for one of the (too) many novel ideas I have kicking around. I also worked on a new ficlet for the![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
femslashficlets language of the flowers challenge. One of these days I'll have to get around to finishing and editing some of those ficlets so I can start posting them!
How about you all? How has your writing been today?
What is this?
It's just what it says on the tin (well, title). Participants aim to write something every day. One person hosts the challenge in their journal each month, and every day, they create a post where others can check in about whether they've written and anything else they may want to say (e.g. how much you wrote or what you were working on or whatever about your writing/life/something is causing you to tear your hair out or jump from you). You don't need to tell anything else than that you wrote, though. The host keeps a tally of who wrote, posting it as a part of the next day's entry, so people can see themselves on the list (or not) and hopefully feel motivated! The host also aims to provide comments, encouragement, cheerleading etc. to everyone checking in. You don't have to check in on the days when you didn't write, but you can feel free to comment anyway if you want.
The best part is, there is no minimum to how much you should write! Even just one sentence a day is writing. (When you write just a sentence, in order to have written that day, we call it an alibi sentence. See, it's common enough that it needs its own term!) There is no competition, no minimum word count, no pressure. no ranking, no "punishment" or shame for missing a day or a few or a week or a few months. There's only the challenge to try to write even a little bit every day, or on as many days as you can manage.
Why does this work? Many of us find that it helps us to keep a regular habit of writing, but without a pressure of how much you should write. Because life happens, and sometimes you're busy, sometimes you're exhausted, sometimes you're sick, sometimes words just won't come together. But if you write even a few words each day, you keep it active in your mind, and the threshold to writing becomes lower; and so it's gets easier to write and to have those days when your writing goes better.
I've participated in this since August 2016, and it's been wonderful for my writing. I've written so much more than I ever would have without it. There are so many days when I've set out to write even that one alibi sentence, and I've ended up writing several hundreds of words. On some days I only manage a sentence or two, but eventually those sentences added up, and eventually the writing started flowing again. Plus, you get to know new people and get a supportive little community of writers. I used to do this kind of thing on my own several years ago, but eventually I fell out of the habit and didn't get back into it before I joined Write Every Day. Having someone to report to, and seeing others go through challenges just as I do, makes it easier to stick to the daily writing
You can write anything - fan fiction, original fiction, non-fiction (say, journal entries, academic writing, articles), poetry, planning, research and notes for future writing... Editing certainly counts even if you end up removing more words than you write, and some count beta-reading as well. It's up to you what writing you want to encourage yourself to do, really.
New people are welcome to join any time, and you don't need to do anything else to join except start commenting on the daily check-in posts when you've written. If it turns out not to work out for you, there's no shame in dropping out of it, and I you miss a check-in, just let me know and I'll add you onto the tally afterwards. I crosspost everything on both DW and LJ, so feel free to check in at either place.
If you want to see how it works out in practice,
carenejeans hosted the challenge in August, and trobadora in July, so you can check out their journals.Other chatter
It's sometimes nice to do this writing goals question in the first post of the month, but I'm just too tired right now for anything extra now. Maybe tomorrow. I'm absolutely knackered tonight - kept being exhausted all week, I guess from being back at work and not sleeping well, and today I went to see the musical Kinky Boots with my friend. It was marvellous, with a great cast and great energy, and I had a fabulous time, and we went to have dinner at a falafel place and chat afterwards, which was good, too. But that much activity totally drained me, and I had to rest a couple of hours just to have the energy to consider writing. I'm still really glad we did it, though.
Today's Writing
I wrote some ideas/notes for one of the (too) many novel ideas I have kicking around. I also worked on a new ficlet for the
femslashficlets language of the flowers challenge. One of these days I'll have to get around to finishing and editing some of those ficlets so I can start posting them! How about you all? How has your writing been today?
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Date: 2018-09-01 08:40 pm (UTC)Also, while I'm thinking of it cause I just went hunting through the last few days comments to check what I'd said (I am so scatterbrained right now omg.) But
Chances are I won't be around much at the end of the month 'cause that's when the wedding is, so I thought I'd make a note now for your reference in case no one else remembered where/when we all last discussed upcoming hosts when the next round of scheduling happens. Feel free to list me for either Nov or Dec without me re-confirming if I'm not around on whatever day that happens.
Also check me in for today, I am currently plowing in a dramatic fashion through the last of one of my auex assignments in a panic, ha! It is very nice to be writing, but ack, how is this due tomorrow already?
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Date: 2018-09-02 05:06 pm (UTC)Also, good luck with your deadlines!
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Date: 2018-09-02 06:36 pm (UTC)And that's a good idea about the hosting arrangements - I'll throw the idea into today's post and we'll see what comes out of it. It would be pretty mind-blowing to have the hosting sorted out for five months in advance.
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Date: 2018-09-02 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-01 11:05 pm (UTC)I wrote 668 words on the original short story I've been working on for several days now (maybe ten days?). It doesn't have an actual title, but it does seem to want to be a complete story, which is always nice. ;-)
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Date: 2018-09-02 06:39 pm (UTC)Yay for short story writing! And oh, who needs titles? Well, okay, they're important, but mine don't tend to have titles until I pretty much have to slap one on them in order to be able to post it / send it to the writing contest / whatever it is I'm planning to do with it. Things wanting to be a complete story is always good, though! I tend to get way too many beginnings or middles floating around.
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Date: 2018-09-01 11:50 pm (UTC)Today, I've actually managed to write 2624 words (whaaaaat.) for a script that I got wrangled into doing for my friends. And I'd like to think it's about halfway done at this point. So that fills me with a massive sense of accomplishment, and I'm happy - although I still do need to get back to my main writing project, because the deadline's in a little under two weeks.
Back to work!
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Date: 2018-09-02 06:41 pm (UTC)Woo hoo, that's an amazing word count, sounds like you're doing really well with your script! Good luck with your main project as well! Oh, deadlines...
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Date: 2018-09-02 06:49 pm (UTC)Good luck with your fannish WIP behemoth! And I'm happy to hear writing is going easily for you at the moment. Maybe I should try to finish some WIPs, too. :-)
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Date: 2018-09-02 03:44 pm (UTC)Yesterday was stupid. I had an allergy attack, so had to take the Dreaded Pink Pill, which made me soooo sleepy. Every time I sat down and tried to work on something, I went to sleep. Sheesh. I only managed a bit on the nonfiction project, which I'll probably have to go back and re-write, because, augh. Nothing on the novel.
But I'm better today, so should get more done.
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Date: 2018-09-02 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-02 05:05 pm (UTC)I started the new month the same way I ended the last - with an alibi sentence. After finishing my WIP Big Bang fic I was completely wiped, and I'm still crawling out of that mire again.
Goals for the month ... well, for once I don't have a deadline looming; the next one is FemslashEx, and I won't actually have to tackle that one until the end of the month. So I suppose I'm going to set myself a goal of actually writing and finishing something, anything, when I don't have to and there's no pressure on me to complete it by any particular date. We'll see if that works.
(To be honest, I don't have the slightest idea what I want to write next. My brain feels totally empty right now.)
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Date: 2018-09-02 06:58 pm (UTC)I should set myself that same goal, really. I've been talking since the beginning of the year that I need to finish things that aren't for a deadline, and so far I haven't. I did recently finish a fic draft, but it needs plenty of editing... Still, that's an improvement over not even finishing first drafts.
Hope your brain gets back on gear soon, but if you need the time to rest, just take it now that there's no pressure. :-)
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Date: 2018-09-03 05:10 pm (UTC)My goal was to finish 10 pre-existing WIPs this year; I'm at 6 now. Which isn't bad at all, but I managed to do them all for something with a deadline in the end, whether it was treats or WIP Big Bang. I really want to re-learn finishing things on my own!