posted
I hope it's okay if I post this. I wanted to check in. I worry a lot about how frequently I don't write since I started working full time. According to my understanding of the Secret, all the Universe will hear from that is "write". Right? Well, I guess I better try to sleep. I know a lot of people stand by sleep deprivation as a stimulant, but not so much for me.
I've been at my new job a month now, and it's permanent, so I don't have as much worry about that. I think my routine is getting a bit more settled.
quote:I worry a lot about how frequently I don't write since I started working full time.
I don't know about The Secret necessarily, but I do know that worrying about something you'd like to be doing is one of the easiest ways to sabotage your efforts there.
quote:I know a lot of people stand by sleep deprivation as a stimulant, but not so much for me.
I know I personally use the coffee that comes after the deprivation part as my fuel. ;)
quote:I've been at my new job a month now, and it's permanent, so I don't have as much worry about that. I think my routine is getting a bit more settled.
When your routine is settled, I'd say it's a perfect time to roll up your sleeves and set realistic word goals; I'm aiming for a first draft of 70,000 words by the end of August. If I break it down, that's only about 23,333 words a month, or 933 words per day, if I only write 25 days per month. That'd take well under twenty minutes of your time, typing slowly.
Maybe if you have a target like that in place (and brush aside any anxiety over 'not writing' you may have built up - I know it kills my efforts) you might be able to get rolling.
I find that it helps to remind myself that an editor doesn't see time lost over your manuscripts unless you're already signed and h/she has set a deadline for another book. Of course, if it took you 5+ years to get the first one out you may not want to mention that, but if you were busy in life and writing goals got away from you for a while, don't sweat it.
I did not complete anything, but have about four or five pages in another Waxy Dragon story. I had to look and think about the story for a while after the initial opening as I was not sure how to get from where I was, to where I needed to be. Now I just have not had the time to dig back into it. My friend, Nancy, is working on one of the Waxy Vacation story. She is already on page twenty and have more to go. It likely will, be split. Unlike most of these vacation stories, this is a bit more of an adventure. When she is finished, I then will do a heavy edit on the story.
I also carve and wood turn. I carved a couple Santa boot ornaments and turned a couple vases. I like to include practical knowledge into my work when I can. I tend to like to do stories about wood turners and wood carvers, or metal workers as my brother is teaching me metal working.
My compost pile of story ideas is growing. I post an idea a day, more if I can, but usually cannot. Don't have time to write them up. A while back I did a sort of my compost pile of ideas. This was something like February. At that time, I had eighteen in my "must post now" story idea stack. All new ideas go into that stack. I have two other stacks: Post sometime in the future, and never to be posted. I just did a count of my post right now stack and it is now up to fifty. Glancing through that stack, nearly all of them are worth posting. I am getting ideas faster than I can post, which is nice, since I have no idea where these ideas come from or when the idea mill will stop. I have been posting these ideas since 1997 on bulletin boards. I figure that by the end of next year, I will have posted four thousand ideas. I don't think I have done any idea twice.
So the question becomes, Did you write?
Posts: 1008 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
rstegman - where are your ideas posted, that sounds fascinating!
Did I write? If I use my normal mechanism for evaluating, I'd say no, but this week I wrote LONGHAND for a while. Inspiration while drying my hair (I'm a mom, even when I'm multi-tasking, I'm multi-tasking) and managed to write out a page worth that is a passable beginning to my Clone story, that has been nagging at me for about a month wanting to be written. My 5 year old was hooked, does that count?
I'm working more on story development/story arc/plot/planning/outlining and have much work yet to do there, which is one reason I'm working in longhand right now. Easier to "see" the story when I can draw circles and make lines and arrows and the like.
I've been reading a lot of fiction - finished a book, started another. Two recent trips to the library, loads of books on writing. Need to plow through those more quickly. I take notes while I go - does that count as writing?
More to do, but that kindergarden graduation program isn't going to finish itself, and they haven't invented a laundry-folder robot yet, sadly.
posted
My stuff has come out of me at varying rates. I usually stick to five hundred words a day, with scattered exceptions. Right now, I've had about a year of fairly active production, on the heels of about five years of less-than-a-great-deal, and before that about two years of fairly active.
Early on in my career, I was fairly prolific, but it tapered off after I entered the job market. I was attributing it to the onset of working full-time at a soul-draining job, but now I'm not so sure---I still have the same job, and I'm more able to put stuff out right now. One of the previous fairly-active times fell partially within a period where I was out of work [I omit a long and angry story here], but kept going when I went back.
There's inspiration. About half that previous period was taken up with Internet Fan Fiction, a new direction for me---but that tapered off after awhile. (I can date the tapering off to a specific outside event---9 / 11---where I stopped writing for the rest of the year, and never got back on the prolific wagon as far as fanfic was concerned.)
posted
My goal is to always be moving forward. I was on vacation the last week and a half, so I didn't get any writing done. My creative mind didn't stop, though. I had a few ideas and wrote them down. Just before vacation I finished my novel. In the next week I'll be researching query letters and start querying agents. While this won't be very creative, it will keep me moving in the right direction. After I send out my queries, I'm going to start researching my next novel, which is very different than the one I finished. I think that's important. I'm not going to write a sequal to an unpublished book. I'm going to write another novel in a potential series and try to get it sold. If both sell, wonderful. If not, then I'm off to another project.
posted
I did write…I’ve actually joined a writers group, which has helped keep me motivated and moving in the right direction. We meet once a week and go over our stuff. Very supportive group, also very knowledgeable.
Posts: 58 | Registered: May 2006
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