Write Every Day: Day 23

[the_siobhan]

I have a ton of things to take care of at home today, and then I'm leaving the house for some bubble-time with the gf, so I may or may not get some work done when I get home tonight.

One of the things I discovered when I cleaned off my desk last week[1] was a moleskin notebook that I bought because it was small enough to slip into a pocket. It's full of idea prompts, notes on overheard dialogue, random thoughts about my day - I had completely forgotten I had this. It may not have anything useful for my current project, but it's a fascinating read into what I was working on at the time. There's still a ton of space in it so I plan to start carrying it around again.

Do you find that you have those little bursts of inspiration when you're doing something else? Do overheard conversations end up in your stories? Do you keep a record of thoughts for story ideas or characters? And how do you keep track of them - do you have an organized file system on your computer/phone, or are you like me, with my scribbled half thoughts in random order?


[1] HOW IS HALF MY VACATION GONE ALREADY WHERE DOES THE TIME GO


Day 23 Tally:
china_shop, shopfront, badly_knitted, luzula, anankastick, sylvanwitch, shadaras, alexseanchai, yasaman, nafs, cornerofmadness, lferion, sakana17, phrenk, ysilme, silveradept, sanguinity, auroracloud, iberiandoctor

Day 22:
alexseanchai, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, shadaras, brainwane, sakana17, sanguinity, nafs, phrenk, cornerofmadness, lferion, yasaman, auroracloud, shopfront, luzula, silveradept, ysilme, iberiandoctor

Day 21:
china_shop, alexseanchai, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, shadaras, silveradept, brainwane, lferion, sakana17, nafs, cornerofmadness, yasaman, phrenk, auroracloud, shopfront, firecat, sanguinity, luzula, iberiandoctor, ysilme

Day 20:
china_shop, sylvanwitch, badly_knitted, luzula, alexseanchai, shadaras, nafs, sakana17, cornerofmadness, yasaman, lferion, phrenk, shopfront, firecat, sanguinity, silveradept, auroracloud, iberiandoctor, ysilme

Day 19:
china_shop, ysilme, shopfront, luzula, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, alexseanchai, brainwane, silveradept, cornerofmadness, nafs, sakana17, yasaman, lferion, sanguinity, alexseanchai, phrenk, shadaras, auroracloud, iberiandoctor

Day 18:
china_shop, alexseanchai, badly_knitted, luzula, sylvanwitch, shadaras, brainwane, marvelouscity, nafs, lferion, cornerofmadness, yasaman, sakana17, sanguinity, phrenk, firecat, ysilme, silveradept, auroracloud, iberiandoctor

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

[shopfront]

The notes app on my ends up perpetually full of little snippets, though I'm more jotting down a quick summary of an idea on the fly than overheard conversations note taker.

Managed about 2k on my Nano today, which is only half of what I need but I am all out of steam for the night already :|

[the_siobhan]

That's an entirely respectable number of words. Well done!

[badly_knitted]

I usually have ideas in the middle of washing the dishes, which is most unhelpful, or when I'm down the bottom of the garden, so I have to stop what I'm doing and jot a note on a scrap of paper. Of course, half the time I can't make sense of it later. =/

Nov 23rd - 1071 words, 5 double drabbles and some edits on a couple of fics for posting.

[the_siobhan]

I have the same problem.

Well done on all your words!

[badly_knitted]

My handwriting is abominable.

Thanks!

[luzula]

Wordcount for 23rd of November: 500
Total wordcount on poly fic: 44,500

And my hands ache a bit, so no comment beyond that...

[the_siobhan]

Well done on your words! I hope your hands feel better today.

[anankastick]

I definitely collect little bursts of inspiration. I usually type them up and put them in whatever journal I'm using under a tag for that sort of thing. Due to Bad Joints I very rarely write by hand, but I've been known to scribble notes in planners, on scraps of paper, in the margins of notebooks... I tend to lose those, though, and discover them months later or never again. Posting them for myself online is a much more reliable system.

[the_siobhan]

That sounds very organized. I'm bad for losing things so transcribing things seems like a good solution.

[sylvanwitch]

I am sorry that your vacation is going at least as quickly as this year has gone slowly, and I hope that the second half of it is slower and lasts longer. :-)

My most frequent bursts of inspiration come when I'm in the bathroom for all the reasons one might be in a bathroom, and the second most likely spot for me to have some sort of writing-related moment is while driving. Neither setting is especially conducive to writing things down, so I'll try to go over the main elements of the idea, image, snippet of dialogue, what have you until I am in a position to write it down. This does, as you can probably guess, sometimes lead to That One Great, Lost Idea (TM). ;-)

Today, despite being terribly tired (stayed up too late reading, had to get up to remote teaching this AM) and having spent the vast majority of the day on the computer for work, I managed 554 words, which, frankly, feels a little heroic to me. ;-)

[the_siobhan]

I keep a notebook by my bed, I'm not sure about keeping one in the bathroom. :-)

Well done on your words!

[shadaras]

Not quite 800 words today. :)

[the_siobhan]

Well done!

[alexseanchai]

made faces at the firelight scene, stuck in a placeholder, moved on to the next scene, promptly stalled again

[the_siobhan]

Well done on your progress. Hopefully the rest has helped you get unstalled today.

[yasaman]

Day 23: 612 words tonight!

[the_siobhan]

Well done!

[nafs]

I generally only write things down that pertain or might pertain to the current story I'm working on. The other stuff just sort of percolates and then my brain will come up with weird shit in the middle of a scene that I only have the vaguest idea of where it comes from.

Vacations flee like the wind, cling tight to what's left!

Two alibi sentences for Day 23

[the_siobhan]

Well done on getting those alibi sentences down.

Vacations flee like the wind

Don't they just.

[cornerofmadness]

Do you find that you have those little bursts of inspiration when you're doing something else? Yep

Do overheard conversations end up in your stories? Yep

Do you keep a record of thoughts for story ideas or characters? I used to not. then I tried putting them in files on the computer but forgot their names. Now I'm trying a story idea tag on the blog

managed to get 2190 words today

[the_siobhan]

Well done on all your words!

[cornerofmadness]

thanks

[lferion]

Day 23 - 525 words, a post and a ficlet.

[the_siobhan]

Well done on your words!

[sakana17]

Day 23: 1132 words.

[the_siobhan]

Well done on your words!

[satoyan]

Day 23: 2,214 nano words.

[the_siobhan]

Well done on your words!

[china_shop]

24th: 815 words of flashfic. I still need to add a couple of paras before I can post it, and I didn't manage that this evening.

[the_siobhan]

Well done on your words!

[ysilme]

Aww, that moleskin find sounds lovely! I totally collect such ideas and inspirations all the time. I'm having a tiny moleskin in my handback for emergencies (as in, no phone or tablet available *g* ), but I mostly collect them digitally. Used to do it by voice messages recorded on my phone, now I mostly just type them either in Evernote on my phone or into my telegram app where I have a private channel just for that purpose. Whenever I get around to it (not often *ahem* I sort them into the according Scrivener documents, where I have a page for just such collections; I have one general Tolkien-Scrivener, for example, where I also collect research, quotes, things in other stories that inspired me with the source (so I can credit), plotbunnies and the like.

(What eez theez strange concept, "time"? People are always talking about it, but it's always gone far too quickly to understand it. Or so. Just rambling because these days it feels as if time not just even passes fast any longer, but just vanishes. Might I have a wormhole under my desk? Probably.)


Checking in again for several days: 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd. I wrote every day but didn't read the NaNo goal on most days, although I'm still well within the range of

being able to finish without problems. It's not going well now, though; inspiration has mostly left me as well as the writing energy, for RL reasons that affect me rather badly (family conflicts due to corona), and seem to have pushed me over the rim into the looming depression I'd managed to fight off so far. *sigh* At this point I'm knocking out scenes or drafts I'm never going to use, partly for keeping me in the mental headspace of this story, partly to finish NaNo, as aborting NaNo at nearly 46k isn't something I find myself capable of dealing with right now, mental health-wise. This year has sucked for me in so many ways (most not corona-related), I just can't. I don't have a bad conscience either as I am writing the words after all, and they're for the story, even if they're just helping me to stick to it. *wails* (Of course, it doesn't help that my country seems to be busy to catch up with all the bad covid-management, steeply raising case numbers, protesting covidiots and so on. We managed the first phase well enough, but so much has been neglected and not done afterwards, and now we're paying the price. Gah.)

[the_siobhan]

Voice message recording is a brilliant idea. Why have I never thought of that?

I'm sorry to hear things are being so difficult for you. Does it help at all to know that you're not alone? I know my mental health has been all over the map and most of my friends report the same thing.

Well done on the work you've done so far. I don't know if that helps you, but I often feels like being creative can make me feel better when everything else is in the garbage, but the energy to be creative is also harder to find. So well done you for keeping at it.

[silveradept]

I specifically use the notes so that I do because I want to have something close by to write on if things hit, and then everything else syncs so I can pick up whatever device is handy and go at it again with the notes or new idea from before. Admittedly, there's not usually a lot of future stuff plotted out, but I do leave myself notes sometimes when I need to.

Day 23 had significant progress on the assignment, even as I'm slightly fighting it to get to the spot where I want it to go, and it's telling me I haven't done enough work to get there yet.

[the_siobhan]

Well done on your progress!