pelielios, 9 months ago

@mjjmori @bookstodon @amwriting Sometimes I'm totally stalled out, others I churn through such massive word-counts that my body hurts for weeks.

Often the most productive hours are when I'm lying in bed and daydreaming ahead to future scenes. Non-writing time isn't wasted.

You can skim the abutting pages and slip into a daydream that might send you jumping up to commit a phrase to paper, or not.

Try stuff out, don't force word count.

mjjmori, 9 months ago

@pelielios @bookstodon @amwriting Good advice here. I’ll keep those tips in mind. Sometimes I wake up at night with an idea for the next part of my story. The trick then is to remember what it was when I get out of bed hours later 😴🥱🤔 I should write them down but haven’t got to that yet.

willelm, 10 months ago

@mjjmori @bookstodon @amwriting A lot of people also set word count goals. But either way, I try to have small goals I know I can accomplish. So if you can get 30minutes or 250 words done when you wake, do that. Or maybe start at just 15 minutes and move up as you get more comfortable. Starting can be the hardest part, so I always like to have a goal that is not intimidating

schoolingdiana, 10 months ago

@willelm @mjjmori @bookstodon @amwriting I tend to go by sections, rather than word count, if that makes sense.

trygvekalland, 10 months ago

@mjjmori @bookstodon If you have time in the morning and your brain is creative enough right after getting up, that sounds like a good idea. It’s never worked for me, when I’ve tried it. I have small kids, so my only option is in the evening, after they’re in bed and all the chores are done. Not ideal to write after a long day, but I have a low bar of just trying to write something, and sometimes it just works.

willelm, 10 months ago

@trygvekalland @mjjmori @bookstodon I feel this. Also, when you finally get a good chunk of time to write you will catch some illness from the little ones and downs the whole day in bed. Speaking from my current experience

trygvekalland, 10 months ago

@willelm @mjjmori @bookstodon Haha, yes. Maybe parents just aren’t meant to write!

mjjmori, 9 months ago

@trygvekalland @willelm @bookstodon Heh yeah I know what you mean. I did once committed to 500 words every morning, and after a few months got about 30k words out for a novel. Then my kid came along. I never decided to stop, just never got back to it. It may be time to make that same commitment again. I do think it’s a good idea to start more simply, 250 words and/or 15 mins. I agree starting again can be hard. Writing anything is better than nothing.