Write Every Day: Day 6

[the_siobhan]

I'm off to go set up the bonfire pit in the backyard. It may be one of the last nice evenings we have here in Toronto, so we're going to order takeout and sit out back for a while.

How do you recharge when it feels like your muse has left you for another writer? Sometimes reading does it for me, but that can be tricky since I inevitably end up comparing myself to other writers. Nature definitely does it, but getting out of the city isn't really an option for me right now. So my firepit is going to be my "unwind" space tonight.


Day 6 Tally:
china_shop, ysilme, trobadora, luzula, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, saki101, sanguinity, shadaras, brainwane, nafs, alexseanchai, cornerofmadness, yasaman, lferion, sakana17, phrenk, shopfront, silveradept, iberiandoctor, firecat, solo, carenejeans, auroracloud


Day 5:
china_shop, badly_knitted, luzula, shadaras, sylvanwitch, nafs, sakana17, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, lferion, brainwane, saki101, phrenk, firecat, ysilme, shopfront, yasaman, carenejeans, houseof9cats, thevetia>, robadora, silveradept, trobadora


Day 4:
china_shop, shopfront, luzula, alexseanchai, shadaras, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, ysilme, sanguinity, saki101, silveradept, nafs, yasaman, thevetia, sakana17, cornerofmadness, lferion, phrenk, solo, iberiandoctor, firecat, brainwane, carenejeans, yasaman, trobadora

Day 3:
china_shop, alexseanchai, alexcat, sylvanwitch, sakana17, thevetia, nafs, lferion, cornerofmadness, phrenk, solo, badly_knitted, luzula, shadaras, yasaman, brainwane, trobadora, ysilme, sanguinity, silveradept, iberiandoctor, firecat, carenejeans

Day 2:
china_shop, shadaras, falkner, luzula, badly_knitted, alexseanchai, trobadora, saki101, sylvanwitch, brainwane, thevetia, lferion, cornerofmadness, nafs, sakana17, yasaman, solo, phrenk, auroracloud, ysilme, sanguinity, silveradept, alexcat, iberiandoctor, firecat, carenejeans

Day 1:
china_shop, sylvanwitch, luzula, badly_knitted, trobadora, falkner, alexseanchai, silveradept, shadaras, sanguinity, thevetia, nafs, cornerofmadness, lferion, sakana17, alexcat, marvelouscity, saki101, yasaman, solo, auroracloud, phrenk, shopfront, brainwane, dreamwriteremmy, ysilme, , iberiandoctor, firecat, carenejeans

Let me know if I missed your name at any point. And participation is always open, so jump in with a comment any time.

Comments

[trobadora]

Checking in for days 4, 5 and 6 - I worked on my FemslashEx fic. The deadline is tomorrow, and all it's missing now is the ending.

[china_shop]

*cheering you on* *\o/*

[shopfront]

*waves pom poms and cheers you from the sidelines*

[luzula]

Wordcount for 6th of November: 500 on poly fic + 200 on Yuletide fic
Total wordcount on poly fic: 34,200
Total wordcount on Yuletide fic: 700

...and I'm tired. To bed!

[the_siobhan]

A productive day. Go you!

[badly_knitted]

I work in the garden or I do crafts. I could say I read, but I do that a lot anyway. I always have at least two books on the go, and I read fanfic whenever I can make the time.

Nov 6th - 1089 words, a short challenge fic and some editing on a ficlet for posting.

Slipstitched aroud the neckband of my sweater and finished and tidied the ends around the neck edge. Now I have to remember how to position the sleeves. It's a drop shouldered sweater so it's joining two straight edges, but I don't want to end up with armholes either too big or too small. Got to dig out some safety pins to mark positions so both sides will match, but I'm too tired tonight.

[the_siobhan]

Look at you go! Well done.

[sylvanwitch]

When I'm struggling, I try walking in nature, as you suggest, and also use my work commute to turn things over. Sometimes, though, I just have to sit down in front of the computer like the world's grumpiest thing and force the words out. I'm not saying it's comfortable, but I can typically bull through enough to get something on the page, anyway, even if it's stuff I end up tossing later.

Today, I added 760 to the novel. Yay! :-)

ETA: I meant to add: Enjoy the fire! That sounds lovely. (Also, I'm your neighbor to the south, just over the river from Fort Erie. :-)

[the_siobhan]

*waves across the lake*

Well done on wording!

[saki101]

Oh, a bonfire on a crisp night sounds wonderful! I find watching a fire burn relaxing and listening to it, too.

When I feel the muse has wandered away, I go see something beautiful - could be art, architecture, live music or a long walk in a beautiful park. The latter is pretty much the only easily accessible option now, but, very fortunately, there are a few to choose from and they help a great deal. Getting the dosage right is tricky though.

6 November check-in: only a couple paragraphs and some more editing.

[the_siobhan]

It was lovely and now my hair smells like woodsmoke. :-)

Editing definitely counts!

[sanguinity]

Day 6: Some transcription last night, some new words in the morning and at lunch.


Re the muse, I usually just switch stories. I have enough drafts going at any time that there's always something that feels fresh. If I can't switch stories (because deadline), then I drag grrlpup out for a walk and make her talk me through the point I'm stuck on. I find that my words usually only dry up when I'm fatigued (in which case, get some sleep and try again tomorrow), or when I've got something wrong in the story, and I haven't figure out what yet (in which case, let it sit fallow until my backbrain figures it out, or get someone to talk it through with me).

[the_siobhan]

Well done on words!

Your strategy sounds like a good one - in the first draft of my story I talked my way through a "stuck" point with my sister who has some knowledge of the setting. (Part of it is set in a refugee camp and my sister works in refugee camps in Greece so she was able to give me some context.)

[shadaras]

I got to the end of today and went 'ah shit I should write something' and so proceeded to write ~500 words

[the_siobhan]

That's a pretty good word count for being end of day. Well done!

Recharging, and wordcount

[brainwane]

I've written 709 words tonight (this includes some copying and pasting of notes on this particular topic -- something that is way more likely in this chapter than in nearly any other... and I decided to give myself a somewhat easy night with this because I am underslept).

For me, recharging often involves phone calls with friends, or diving deep into reading something fun.

By the way: fiction writers here might enjoy a Star Trek slash pairing generator my spouse made.

Re: Recharging, and wordcount

[the_siobhan]

You are killing that wordcount goal. :-)

And your spouse is hilarious.

[nafs]

I am too prone to just giving up for a while and expecting the muse to show up later. Over the last year and a half or so part of what I have been doing is trying to get myself out of that mindset and trying to write through it however I can. I forget who said that there are are so many terrible words one has to get out before the good writing begins and so I try and just get the terrible words out.

Day 6 count: 606 words. One of the good things about trying to beat my count each day is that in order to do that I can't just promise myself I'll write a little before bed, I *have* to be in a position to write before 10 pm. (Granted my rule is still "anything I write before I fall asleep counts as today", but starting at midnight is not generally conducive to writing a lot, at least not on a worknight.)

Btw I didn't realize you were relatively local to me - I'm a couple of stops east on the Lakeshore line, although in Normal Times I work in Toronto.

[the_siobhan]

forget who said that there are are so many terrible words one has to get out before the good writing begins and so I try and just get the terrible words out.

That's a really good way of looking at it. I'll try to keep that in mind when I'm hating everything I've written.

Well done on words!

[alexseanchai]

I thought the thing I was plotting today was a 5+1, but the 5, the +1, and probably the tail end of the 4 are thoroughly interconnected, so either the 1, 2, 3, and rest of 4 have to be thoroughly interconnected too or I should do the 5+1 concept and the thing I was plotting today as two separate fics

[the_siobhan]

That sounds complicated.

Well done on your productivity!

[cornerofmadness]

enjoy the bonfire. I go out for a walk, I talk to writing friends, I watch some fun stuff and try to recharge.


I got 5154 words via three projects. I can't feel my fingers

[the_siobhan]

I'm not surprised, that's a lot of words!

[yasaman]

Day 6: 126 words on the Yuletide fic today. Just taking it slow, because *gestures at everything*

[the_siobhan]

Completely understandable. Well done on productivity despite it all.

[china_shop]

7th: I spent some time working on my Yuletide treat. Not a huge amount of success, but I added some words. :-)

[the_siobhan]

All progress is good, no matter how small. Well done!

[lferion]

Day 6 - 326 very iddy words.

[the_siobhan]

Well done on wording!

[sakana17]

Day 6: 484 words.

[the_siobhan]

Well done on wording!

[satoyan]

Day 6: 2,102 words. Today was just okay, but tomorrow my final two main characters will arrive! Here's hoping I can find interesting dynamics to write between everyone.

[the_siobhan]

You're making great progress. Well done!

[shopfront]

Nearly 2k again on my Nano, so I’m at least keeping pace with half of my ideal targeted wordcount *facepalm* Other than that it’s all coming along really well though, I’ve apparently settled into some of my character and plot issues since the last time I touched this manuscript and I’m totally falling for my characters which I think is a good sign haha.

I also did some planning for my smallfandombang and poked a bit at my tricksy exchange assignment that I managed only the start and end scenes for last month. I added another 500ish words to that and filled in most of my still remaining gaps. The last scene needs a bit more work, but I’m hopeful that I can polish that off today in a way I’m happy with and finally clear it off my plate entirely.

[the_siobhan]

Hey, 2K words is a lot!

And yes, falling in love with characters is definitely a good thing. ;-)

[silveradept]

Day 6 was more work on exchange fic, and the reluctant one had given me a set piece to written with, so I'll put that in and see whether that's the story or whether there needs to be more.

When the mouse has left any particular story, I generally rotate to a different story. If none of the stories seem to do much, I'll often write Grief, because that engages a different set of brain, or I'll clear out tabs, which does the same. I also try to take regular breaks to play games so that problems can be properly backburnered while my brain is occupied with something else.

[the_siobhan]

I always have some "backup" projects to play with, but sometimes I have such a bad case of the idonwannas I have trouble even working on them.

Well done on making words happen!

Days 5-6

[iberiandoctor]

Deadlines? Deadlines inspire me ;) But then again, I'm definitely in the fake-it-till-you-make-it camp, so I'll grimly soldier on, making lacklustre words, until I make it to the finish line, as it were.

That said, this current fic has been like pulling teeth (I edited laboriusly over these last two days, while I wasn't making work words and obsessively refreshing my newsfeed), and I'm afraid the fandom fires may be kind of burning low, though I definitely still feel fannish about the fandom? Maybe it's just that I feel I've said all I wanted to say in the fandom. I'm slated to write in other fandoms for Yuletide, so perhaps a little break from my principal fandom will be the shot in the arm for the muses that I need? IDK.

I'm hoping your muse recharges soon, and that the reading and firepit do it for you today!

Re: Days 5-6

[the_siobhan]

I, on the other hand, have never met a deadline I couldn't completely ignore. :-)

Good for you for sticking with it. I hope the change of setting is inspiring

[ysilme]

Sitting at the fire outside sounds lovely! We did that last week, doing a little non-spiritual Samhain celebration, and it was beyond lovely. Also just to sit outside and talk, or be silent together.
Sorry to hear that your muse seems to be elusive, though! I hope it comes back soon.
How do I recharge in such cases? For me, it's first important why my muse has left me; in most cases it's because I'm generally stressed, have too many balls up in the air, and/or am overwhelmed. I still can write in general and edit drafts, but inspiration is scarce or missing. On occasion I'm also stuck, inspiration-wise.
It usually helps me a lot to just get into another person's head and story helps a lot, particularly if it's refreshing and new, or intense on emotions; I found that often I need to get myself into powerful emotions over a story or movie to reset my own inspiration, so-to-say. Like, when I'm overwhelmed, anything that allows me to have a good cry or really get feels for a character or situation will work that way. (I'm not a cryer in general, just when I seem to need an emotional valve. )
When that doesn't help or isn't the issue, it usually helps most to have a good whine to my writing buddies about my troubles, or to my flist/circle, to get me un-stuck, which also usually pleases my muse.
What most helps me, and also in most cases, isn’t exactly recharging but rather doing something with my hands that gives me pleasure and/or is productive, preferably something where my mind isn’t too occupied and can roam free. Doing needlework or jigsaw puzzles, longer food-related tasks in the kitchen, mostly to do with preserving, maintenance and renovating tasks in house and garden, but even things like folding laundry or ironing can help.

[the_siobhan]

Yes, stress is definitely a thing for me as well. It's hard to be creative when I'm drained.

[firecat]

Day 6: Wrote 1165 words on an exchange fic.

How do you recharge when it feels like your muse has left you for another writer?
Read my old fics. Watch porn (don't ask me why it works, but it sometimes does). Look at my lists of prompts. Consume caffeine. Try to work on something different from what I've been working on. Watch movies or TV on my "watch this so I can write fic about it" list. Give up until tomorrow.

[the_siobhan]

Well done on words!

[solo]

I wrote on day 5 even though I spent 12 hours travelling. 250 words of which I'm inordinately proud simply because they exist.

[the_siobhan]

You should be proud. well done!

[carenejeans]

I wrote many words on Nanowrimo. I'm still behind, but not badly so.

Enjoy your bonfire! (I'm in California, so no bonfires here!)

One thing I do to recharge is to step back a bit and just think about the story from a bit of a distance, and forget about the actual writing. If I'm trying to write fic, I sit back and think about why I like the characters and the canon. If I'm writing original fiction I think about why I'm writing about this particular thing. I try to put myself in a sort of "daydreaming" mode. This can often bring some of my original enthusiasm back.

[the_siobhan]

That sounds like a great strategy.

Well done on words! All progress is good.