The thing I was coming down with yesterday, I woke up with today. Sick, and not up to writing, so I’m going to go to sleep and hope I’m better in the morning.
Hope your own words are going well.
Not Writing Tonight
read with hunger, write with joy, live with passion
Managed to write 451 words in between doing laundry and packing for trip to NYC. The big decision–do I take my computer? Thanks to this site and motivating words like those from SCBrazil; “don’t get it right, get it written” the answer is, YES.
I’ll be at the Yankee game tomorrow night and hope to see Derek Jeter break Lou Gehrig’s record. Can’t think of a better place to be on 911 than in the stands with Yankee fans watching this historical moment. Go Yankees!
Ok, well I said that I would start writing yesterday, and I did, 484 words. I’ve never been good at writing beginnings to stories though, and now I’m stuck. . . what should I do?
I’d say… keep writing.
If you can’t write the beginning, write something other than the beginning. Try writing the end. Or try writing a scene from the middle that you’ve been thinking might be cool.
What kind of writer are you? Do you work from an outline or do you do it by the seat of your pants? Try doing it the opposite way than they way you’re trying. 🙂 Have you researched your characters and your world? Maybe you could do some more?
Sometimes you need to just sit down and start typing. Allow yourself to write stupid stuff. You can even try to sit down and write crap. Sometimes that gets the floodgates going because your inner critic is being too harsh and needs to be silenced.
And remember that the first draft is about getting something on paper. It’s not about writing the next great novel. Assume that your first draft is going to require a lot of work after you’re done.
HTH.
Had a root canal to day and got fitted for as crown, thank god to Tylenol Three or I to would not have written word. I did 497 added some scenes I got an ending in my head but I wont write it down just now I’ll wait until maybe 75,000 words. Get well soon Holly.
I sympathize over the root canal. I had one a couple years ago. Not fun! My jaw is not designed to be held that wide open for that long!
Joining today. Am about 2/3 through my first draft of first novel. Not sure how many words – lets just say quite a lot. Looking forward to the fellowship along the way…..
Just joining today. I’m at 10,650 words of first draft– wrote about 1,600 over the weekend. I’ve consolidated my “making money” hours to free up blocks of writing time so there are a few days when sleep overrides writing.
It was Brazilian Independence Day yesterday so I got visitors for the long weekend. I know many countries but these people like to have fun more than any I’ve ever met. Three days away from my story took its toll and today I felt completely out of my story.
But I am determined to move forwards and onwards to the end of this one and it’s for this reason I am sat here right now. I sat and turned on the PC against the wishes of Miss Muse, I argued and cajoled her into “just 250” words and got 370. I think I owe her a box of chocolates now.
I hope everyone has a great and productive week.
173 words on Glass Roses.
I was really busy and tired, which was not conducive to writing. I hope to get more done today.
I’m sorry to hear you’re not well – I too am a useless patient. Get better soon!
316 words on my main WIP, and 1407 on my busman’s holidayWIP. I’m more proud of the 316, though, because I finished a difficult scene, so I let myself move on. Having two projects going really keeps me motivated; I’m rarely blocked on both, and it’s a great boost if I can get some words on my Busman’s Holiday project even if I’m blocked on my main WIP.
There’s more juice in the tank, but I have housework. Hopefully this means I’ll wake up with lots of words tomorrow.
No words today
No words for me, too.
I’m not exactly ill, after all I was well enough during work and had 2 fantastic hours while cruising around on a Segway … but when I finally was at home that evening, I just could not write. Too tired, head too mushy, etc..
2 hours on a Segway? Man, you’ll have to write about THAT sometime. 🙂
Hello,
I’ve just joined this section today. My dilemma is that I have lots of projects all going at once, and I need to focus on one or two and get them finished.
Have just found out hubby may be out of a job by Christmas so I want at least two projects finished by then and sent off.
So I am working on Martha and Mary.
I am dedicating my self to writing every day so that I don’t keep losing the thread of my stories.
thanks X
I hope you can finish the one or other project, but I’m sure you will find this little community helpful.
Just joined here today. I’m excited to have this extra motivation. I am 5,738 into my first draft. 1,079 of those today. Will check in with you as it goes on…
Good luck to all!
(Hope you get feeling better soon Holly!)
Welcome to the writer-diary 😉
Wonders if anyone would like to read and help her with some of her stuff. If so, contact me at my email: ambur_h@yahoo.com
Holly, I hope you feel better.
I didn’t post yesterday because I was busy doing yard work. But I did 716 words and then 547. It wasn’t the amount I wanted but I am happy I did get some. I worked on flower beds and painted trim. Busy, busy, busy. I am not sure how happy I am with all the words, but I worked a wonderful scene when my MC went to the city for the first time.
Feel better soon, Holly!
I managed 478 words on the new WIP and I’m so dang pleased with myself at this point it’s bordering on obnoxious. LOL.
Holly, I hope you feel better soon!
466 words yesterday. I was happy with what I got. Also did some brainstorming about the various antagonists in my book. There are a lot of them, including the war itself, the Rebel army, heat, rain, infection, disease. Plus a number of human antagonists, who are still waiting in the wings, and not at all happy about it.
I am going to start posting every day, even if I don’t have any words to count. The weekend ate up my time. Though writing feels good, and after writing, I am always happier, sometimes I get afraid to start writing. It’s a confusion of very basic feelings/emotions. ANyone have any insight about this?
No insights, Belle, but the same thing happens to me. Sometimes it just feels too hard to switch back and forth between worlds. And the journey into my fictional world takes a lot of time, which I don’t always have.
Do post, even if you don’t have any words.
i feel the same way, and most of my fear comes from sharing things that are intrinsically private and wondering if others will find them worthwhile or ridicule them. its the unknown reaction that you can never gauge until you’ve poured months of your innermost thoughts into your work, knowing the whole time that there’s a 50% chance that it won’t be well received by peers. I’ve never found a way to silence this voice, but i have been able to learn to ignore it, and force myself to continue because that is what feels right.
Just keep pushing through it, silencing the self destructive voices and working to create something with meaning for you. good luck.
I know I’m happy after writing because I feel like I’ve accomplished something – even if it’s only a couple of words (although the more words the happier I am). What I find hard on the next writing session is an anticipation or fear that I won’t be able to match the same progress as the night before. It’s a pre-emptive blow from the inner critic, that I won’t get the right words, the right mood, etc… I just try to work through it and write anyways.
Sometimes it helps to turn the frustration around and I visualize my inner critic as this other person who I kick, tie up, gag, and leave in a corner so the muse has room to play. lol, no I swear I’m not crazy, I’m just a very visual person! 🙂
I don’t think it’s unusual and I think it applies to other things in life as well. I used to get it when I would practice guitar and I still get it sometimes with weightlifting. I know I’m going to enjoy doing it and I know I’m going to feel better after doing it, but for some reason I will find other things to do to put it off.
Over the years, I’ve gotten pretty disciplined about just doing it.
“…feels too hard to switch back and forth between worlds” – about sums it up for me.
Ruminating about starting a new project is different but daily progress on a WIP is all to do with ‘staying in the book’. It is for this reason I force myself to write even when I don’t want to – I know that tomorrow it will be even harder. Once I sit down, I’m in it for the week and by Friday I’m flying. If I didn’t have so many visitors, I would write at weekends also.
It’s for this reason also that I thank Holly for this ‘game’ – it is much easier to persuade and cajole my Muse into doing ‘just 250 words’ than ‘a page’ or ‘1000 words’ or whatever. I invariably do more.
I get your ‘afraid to start writing’ comment also. But when I ask myself ‘afraid of what?’ the only possible answer is ‘being lambasted by my own internal critic.’
And then I just remind myself ‘don’t get it right, get it written’. Moving my story forwards by just 250 bad words that can be edited later is (for me) better than no words at all.
Haven’t counted it up yet but somewhere around 2K for Fri-Mon. Not nearly as much as I wanted to get done but progress. Only thing is 1000 of those words felt like they were going in the wrong direction or at least not nearly enough action. I think I know how to change it though, got the idea last night just before bed. I’m going to make some notes of what to change and then go on like it’s already done. (The other 1K is really heart-pounding though!)
It’s gonna take me a while to read up on all the posts I missed but I hope everyone had a great weekend (long or not). And Holly, I hope you feel better soon! 🙂
Get well soon, Holly!
851 words yesterday, 499 today. Yesterday’s was all rewriting, but I think I’ve finally managed to find something that fits in with the story.
Story in question is turning into less of a parody thing than just a fantasy thing that is occasionally funny. I should probably let it evolve the way it wants, although it’ll mean I can’t blatantly make fun of all the stereotypes I want. And I may have to take out the vampires. I mean, come on, vampires have become really cheesy since Twilight came out. And I’d hate to be cheesy. ^^
Take care of yourself Holly, we miss you over here at the blog!
Another day where I wonder just what the heck am I doing, and why? Then after I dive into my free write/timed writing, kick around ideas, and write some description, I realize, it makes me happy and when I’m writing the real world goes away for a while. That’s more than enough for now. (Of course it will be great if I get better at it as I go along:)
515 words including a major info dump that is simply not believable dialogue. I console myself that at least I kind of know what is going on in my story, and now all I have to do is to slip it in more elegantly.
Then I spent way too much time trying to figure out how to spell surreptitious. And then decided not to use it after all. (no spelling dictionary in Scrivener?)
Prepared some notes for tomorrow’s scene, because I wish I’d had them for tonight’s writing. So I can see what it is like to write a (really) planned scene…
D&D: 646 and impending battle
OFL: 1213 and lots of personality conflict
I hope you’re better soon.
No writing today, because I need to plan out some scenes. The story has lost its fizz, strangely enough, even though things have blown up and someone has been shot and there’s a madwoman locked up in Mrs Standish’s privy. There’s got to be conflict somewhere in there. I just have to get it to come out.
This happens to me sometimes. I get so mesmerised by ‘ooo! Fireworks!’ that I forget about all the repercussions and how people will react (badly, in most cases) and it all feels a bit flat and disconnected.
Good luck with making your explosions, er, explosive.
Thanks! And it worked. I’m not done plotting yet and I’ve got two scenes and one twist. Not too bad.
I hope you get well soon!
850 exactly. End of Ch. 33. Heroine’s been captured by the Spy, her best friend’s leg is broken, and a female antagonist is dead. And the hero has no idea where to proceed next. He so hates waiting.
2461 words (1/2 new, 1/2 revision)
Feel better, Holly!
Two scenes today. One totally from scratch and the other comes from the second or third version of the story and required some major rewriting because the character has grown a bit and the opponent morphed.
Scene 1: The Mentor and a friend of hers (The Dancer vampire) are at a party for the actors and dancers in a new show opening in Windhaven with some famous dancers/actors/actresses that was thrown by The Dancer. The Mentor sees The Mage and mistakes what he’s doing thinking he’s just a fan and not realizing he’s stalking one of the dancers. When he’s surprised to see her and obviously afraid, the Mentor’s alarms go off and she’s going to go kill him but the Dancer stops her. A short while later, the Mentor notices that a spell has been placed on a star dancer from the troop and is about to see if she can do something about it but she’s stopped by The Dancer because it’s probably a simple love spell and the dancers have protections against those things.
Scene 2: The Dancer is preparing for opening night. But realizes she’s dressed to hunt. Something is calling her. She tries to fight it but the call takes her to a run down noble manor. She slips inside and finds the famous dancer suspended in air and the Mage waiting for her. A spell takes her and suspends her into the air and the mage pulls out a crystal tear.
Well, looks like I’ll just be starting today, and it’s 12 in the morning. . .
I’ll start in about 7 hours, how’s that 😉
267 words. Feeling kind of tired as well today. I guess autumn really is starting if we’re all feeling under the weather like this. Hope everyone gets well soon.
Great big writing day today, in spite of an afternoon tea and chocolate chat with a friend, and my morning spent hanging out with my husband.
3100 in my main WIP. I’m actively trying to recover from 7K words I spent writing with the wrong villain (though she will pop up in the next book, if there is one). And 13 words in my short story. Because I am tired, and want to get some reading done before I have to sleep. Which is soon…
Get well soon!
got another 700 words in chapter 11, have to finish the fight scene, but took it through to the last assailant. didn’t get to write nearly as much as i wanted to, but family comes first and it was good to spend some quality time with them playing games.
good luck
I’m afraid work on the actual novel has been a little slow lately, because I realized I didn’t have a clear enough picture of my other characters. I mean, I can close my eyes and see my MC as clearly as if he were standing beside me, but everyone else…let’s say it’s like faces in a dream. I’m afraid that it might hurt my writing if the other characters aren’t living and breathing as strongly as my main character, so I’ve been taking the time to get to know them better. Generally though, I’m happy. And I hope you feel better very soon Holly.
Gosh, do I ever know what that feels like! I have an MC who pretty much writes himself, and is that ever fun…BUT that only makes the rest of the characters seem stiffer. Getting it right once makes me only want to work harder on rest of them.
I’m in the same place.
Scenes with my MC flow smoothly and are a pleasure to write. Other scenes just feel heavy and confused.
I suppose groundwork and planning is the answer.
Edited a monstrous 4,000 word chapter on an alternate story. Won’t be back to my primary for a while yet.
I’m holding my thumbs for you. Get better soon!
I did no work on the novel, but I rewrote a short story from zero (2100 words) so I’m very pleased with myself.
4,200 words
Yeah, I know. I’m awesome. 😉
Yes, you most definitely are awesome!
Nah.
You’re better than that.
🙂
Must be exhilarating to write so many words in one day! At least once in a while:) Great job!
Wow. Thats about the amount of words I do in a good week… well done you!
I’m properly awed. 😉
Hugs from FM. I hope you’re well soon!
I hope you feel better soon, Holly!
I got 1228 words today, split between two writing sessions. These were my only words of the long weekend, so I’m pretty pysched about them. I’m happy with the direction of my story and have made peace with the fact that first drafts are messy. I’m having fun! 🙂
Oh, I hope you feel better soon! Oddly enough, I’ve been feeling unwell today–nasty sinus headache that mimics a migraine–and yet I managed to get quite a lot done. 1025 words, more than twice my usual goal. It is a very exciting scene, of course. Raoul showed up before Cricket started dragging Jack behind her, and since he’s big and strong she had him carry Jack, then ran back to the boarding house to get the elf. His wound is healed now, but he’s not feeling so great, and there’s something strange about the wound. Also, I think Ernest and the elf were about to have sex when Cricket came pounding on their door.
Just wanting to wish you to get much better very soon… Hang in there 🙂
Words are going very well. Slow and steady agrees with me.