Write Every Day: Day 17

[the_siobhan]

Today I have no work, no chores and no family obligations. It finally feels like I am on vacation. I swept and dusted my office, organized and cleaned my desk, and arranged all my notes and papers. (Have you ever turned a keyboard upside down and given it a good shake? The results are horrifying.) I have a hot cup of tea on my desk and a nice-smelling candle burning in the corner of the room.

I'm not starting a new project, but for some reason the little ritual of cleaning my workspace and getting it ready makes it feel like a clean start and makes my look forward to the process of editing this monster.

What about you? Do you have any rituals that you use to get you in the mood to write? A favourite pen or a cup of coffee when you sit down to edit? Daily routines or only when you are starting a new project?

Day 17 Tally:
china_shop, badly_knitted, luzula, sylvanwitch, shadaras, alexseanchai, sanguinity, brainwane, nafs, cornerofmadness, sakana17, yasaman, lferion, marvelouscity, silveradept, phrenk, iberiandoctor, firecat, auroracloud

Day 16:
china_shop, badly_knitted, luzula, sylvanwitch, sanguinity, yasaman, brainwane, firecat, nafs, cornerofmadness, lferion, sakana17, phrenk, silveradept, iberiandoctor, shadaras, ysilme, auroracloud

Day 15:
china_shop, alexseanchai, sylvanwitch, badly_knitted, trobadora, luzula, yasaman, sanguinity, shadaras, brainwane, nafs, sakana17, cornerofmadness, phrenk, lferion, silveradept, firecat, iberiandoctor, ysilme, auroracloud

Day 14:
china_shop, ysilme, sylvanwitch, trobadora, badly_knitted, luzula, alexseanchai, shadaras, sanguinity, nafs, brainwane, cornerofmadness, yasaman, lferion, sakana17, phrenk, shopfront,silveradept, firecat, ysilme, auroracloud

Day 13:
china_shop, shopfront, badly_knitted, luzula, shadaras, alexseanchai, sylvanwitch, nafs, cornerofmadness, lferion, yasaman, phrenk, sakana17, silveradept, ysilme, iberiandoctor, trobadora, sanguinity, auroracloud

Day 12:
china_shop, sylvanwitch, shadaras, brainwane, silveradept, alexseanchai, thevetia, yasaman, zulu, sakana17, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, lferion, phrenk, badly_knitted, saki101, ysilme, iberiandoctor, trobadora, luzula, auroracloud

Day 11:
china_shop, firecat, badly_knitted, luzula, sylvanwitch, shadaras, thevetia, sakana17, brainwane, sanguinity, yasaman, cornerofmadness, china_shop, nafs, lferion, saki101, alexseanchai, phrenk, firecat, shopfront, silveradept, zulu, trobadora, ysilme, iberiandoctor, auroracloud

Day 10:
china_shop, badly_knitted, luzula, sylvanwitch, alexseanchai, shadaras, sanguinity, brainwane, nafs, firecat, yasaman, cornerofmadness, sakana17, saki101, lferion, phrenk, auroracloud, iberiandoctor, silveradept, thevetia, trobadora, ysilme

Day 9:
china_shop, shadaras, sylvanwitch, alexseanchai, sanguinity, saki101, nafs, yasaman, cornerofmadness, lferion, sakana17, phrenk, badly_knitted, ysilme, silveradept, solo, carenejeans, auroracloud, iberiandoctor, luzula, brainwane, trobadora

Day 8:
china_shop, sylvanwitch, badly_knitted, luzula, saki101, silveradept, sanguinity, shadaras, thevetia, brainwane, nafs, cornerofmadness, lferion, sakana17, yasaman, phrenk, alexseanchai, firecat, auroracloud, ysilme, solo, carenejeans, iberiandoctor, trobadora

Day 7:
china_shop, shopfront, falkner, badly_knitted, luzula, trobadora, sylvanwitch, shadaras, nafs, brainwane, sanguinity, lferion, yasaman, sakana17, phrenk, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, firecat, saki101, silveradept, auroracloud, ysilme, iberiandoctor

Day 6:
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, auroracloud, 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, auroracloud, 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, auroracloud

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

[badly_knitted]

I'm not sure it's a routine as such, but my morning goes along the lines of turn on computer, check what's new on my friends pages, answer emails, choose which challenge I'm going to write for, open blank document, ignore it and play Freecell instead.

Eventually inspiration will hit, or the urge to write will take over and I'll start typing, which usually results in a fic or a drabble. Weird, but it works for me.

Nov 17th - 1000 words on two 500 word ficlets, one of which might eventually be made longer. Also, a lot of knitting. Had to go out again this morning so I haven't felt like doing anything that takes physical effort for the rest of the day.

[luzula]

Augh, yes, keyboards can be disgusting...

Hmm, no, I can't think of any rituals, actually. But it sounds nice!

Wordcount for 16th of November: 1,000
Total wordcount on poly fic: 40,000

40K, woohoo! \o/

[sylvanwitch]

I love these questions you keep asking us! They're fun! :-)

Sometimes, I need a ritual to get into the right mood to write, but often I do not. My most complex ritual involves lighting candles, putting on the fountain, and finding the right mood music. My least complicated ritual is to play a few rounds of some brain game at Lumosity to get myself in the right frame of mind.

Tonight, I added 606 words to the novel. Only today, when I caught up with filling in my Excel tracker, did I realize that yesterday I crossed the 200K words line for this year. Yay! :-)

[shadaras]

It looks like I'm missing from yesterday's tally? I definitely wrote then, and I thought I'd said so on yesterday's post, too.

Today I wrote ~600 words on my longfic.

[alexseanchai]

I wrote a piece that's for both the current 100words theme and sholio's comfort promptfest, and then I made it pretty

[sanguinity]

I go lay down on the bed with my notebook, and I'm generally good to go. Writing on the laptop is a little harder, because I do everything on the laptop.


Today I took more notes for the next story!

Rituals, and checkin

[brainwane]

Right now my ritual is that I often pair up with a friend so we are writing at the same time!

17th of November word count: 564 (much of it copied from a previously published blog post of mine).

[nafs]

That all sounds very lovely (apart from the keyboard, that's always ugly, lol!).

My rituals change as something works or doesn't. I have two favourite pens, although I've mislaid one and the other needs a refill, so right now I'm using a backup I bought from a woodturner at Summerfolk in 2019. I write in spiral notebooks that fit into a leather cover I got at a folk festival in the late 90s. For the last few weeks I've also been lighting a triple-wick "Field of Lilacs" candle while I write. I started off with three of them and I'm down to my last one so I will have to see if I can find a replacement soon.

Day 17: Three pages longhand.

[cornerofmadness]

Other than having something to drink and some music I don't have another ritual.

I got 3588 words tonight and I finished the novel. I'm happy

[sakana17]

Day 17: Some edits and an alibi sentence.

[yasaman]

Day 17: 608 words on the new fic I started, plus some notes and very basic outlining on another.

[lferion]

Day 17 - 275 words on yet another possible fan flashworks drabble, and a post.

[marvelouscity]

checking in for day 17 after 2 weeks of not writing anything ... wrote about a page today!

[silveradept]

My writing tends to be a "steal a moment, steal an hour" kind of situation, so there's not really a ritual so much as a letting everything percolate, and then, when an idea hits, opening the program and writing on it. The Grief is slightly easier, in that it's "open the book, read until something warrants commentary, then start commentating" rather than Ving to come up with all of it myself.

Day 17 involved fitting in one of those puzzle pieces into an outstanding assignment, clearing out tabs, and reading and commenting on an exchange archive's works.

[satoyan]

Day 17: 910 nano words. My first time not hitting 2k, but I just don't have it in me tonight.

[china_shop]

18th: a couple of hundred words on a WIP. Not much focus. I stayed up too late last night watching kdramas.

15, 16, 17

[iberiandoctor]

Hope your vacation and rituals and your keyboard shaking proved productive for you! Are you still working on Nano, or looking forward to another project in the coming week?

I have no rituals beyond copiously outlining, and I have a 4,000+ word finished Yuletide draft! Now for edits, and possibly treats :)

[the_siobhan]

Your answer made me laugh, because I am at this exact moment playing solitaire while I think about what I want to do next.

Well done on words and knitting. :-)

[the_siobhan]

I don't even eat in my office.

Well done on your words and hitting a milestone! Woohoo!

[the_siobhan]

I'm definitely enjoying the responses, but I think I'm going to run out soon. :-)

Well done on your words and on your milestone!

[the_siobhan]

You did. I'll fix that.

Well done on your words!

[the_siobhan]

Aww, poor kitty.

Well done on your words!

[the_siobhan]

I feel like doing it in the same place or at the same time kind of counts, because it cues your brain to say, "Oh, it's writing time now."

Well done on your progress!

Re: Rituals, and checkin

[the_siobhan]

That works! I used to do "laptops and beers" on the occasional Saturday afternoon with some friends and I kinda miss those. They were surprisingly productive.

Well done on your words!

[the_siobhan]

I do like the scented candles for creating a mood. I have to be careful with them though, I'm allergic to a lot of the cheaper scents. (Those plug-in air freshener things give me a massive migraine.)

Well done on all your words!

[the_siobhan]

I think those count. They act like signals to your brain that writing time starts now. I'm actually having trouble not drinking while writing because my muse is so used to having a glass of wine to hand.

Well done on words and accomplishment!

[the_siobhan]

Well done on your progress!

[the_siobhan]

Well done on your progress!

[the_siobhan]

Well done on your words!

[the_siobhan]

Well done on your words and on getting back into it!

[the_siobhan]

Well done on your progress!

[the_siobhan]

That is an entirely respectable number of words, especially if you're not feeling the muse. Well done!

[the_siobhan]

As you do. :-) Well done on your words!

Re: 15, 16, 17

[the_siobhan]

Still working on my old nano re-write. I have to admit, the first draft was a lot more fun. This stage feels like work.

Well done on all your work and finishing your draft!

[badly_knitted]

It's surprisingly effective, isn't it?

Thanks!

[firecat]

Day 17: 635 words

Right now I'm so obsessed I write whenever I have a spare moment, but I especially enjoy lying down in my recliner in the evening with my iPad on my tummy, opening my various projects and seeing what speaks to me.

[the_siobhan]

Well done on words!

[marvelouscity]

Thanks!

[cornerofmadness]

Thanks. well in my case something to drink is usually tea or water though occasionally it's alcohol

[ysilme]

Have you ever turned a keyboard upside down and given it a good shake? The results are horrifying.
Heh. I have four cats, I need to regularly clean my keyboard or I'd need a new one every six months. I have a special brush to get hair etc. out from under the keys, a special adapter to my vaccum to clean out the keyboard (but that doesn't do much), and a kind of cleaning goo that goes in-between cracks and picks out crumbs and other things, too. I also used to work with air pressure cans but haven't got hold of one for a while, but combined with the brush they give the best result.

I wish I'd manage to clean up my workspace/office to get in a good writing mood/for a new procjet, but things just multiply over here, and I rarely manage it without having to tackle a major project. *blushes* (It's not that I'm not tidying up or working the piles down or so, it just keeps accumulating). What works fo rme is making sure I don't have anything left on my to-do list for the day, brew myself a nice pot of tea, put on suitable music for the projecdt/tast/mood, and then start by tidying up my writing/Scrivener folders etc.. Digital tidyness is more important for me to be able to work concentrated, I'd say.

[the_siobhan]

I feel you about the multiplication. I was willing to take a picture of my office because it is literally the only organized space in the entire house - crap gets left in here regularly because it's next to the washroom/shower and I very firmly relocate it back to the owner.