Day 2 for me, a week delayed. Got down 1529 words this morning before work. I'm not sure if this is a long short story or a very short novella yet, but I'm enjoying discovering the world and this character as I go. Thanks for the push to do so!
1425 words, and most of them were not planned! A nice thing happened where I was writing out the scene as I imagined it and then found myself fleshing out a small flashback moment that I only realized was necessary in that instant. I've been using pomofocus.io to write in spurts and force myself to take breaks, and I'm also listening to rain sounds. I usually do music, but I've found that white noise helps minimize distraction, and the rain noise is especially pleasant.
I'm so happy to have a reason to keep myself writing!
I went to the library again but found it too crowded, so I went to the cafe and found myself a seat right by the door (circulating air, important in COVID times!) I sat there for a couple hours and wrote till my vanilla steamer intake exceeded my capacity to hold it in, then went home.
Wrote for another couple hours after my mom went to bed and surpassed the 1000 word mark by a good measure -- the thing is, the magazine I submit my cartoons to every week has taken a two-week break in receiving submissions, so I am trying to do as much undistracted writing as I can till its time to think like a cartoonist again: it's like they knew about this mini-1000!
I'm making good progress, and have reached about 24.6K words (up from 17,079 yesterday) in what I'm thinking will be my first, incomplete (because I hope to make someone pay me to finish it) draft/taste of the finished book to come.
What a wonderful thing it is, to be able to come here and see everyone else also at work, or struggling, or succeeding, or just getting on with it, all of which are things we just do.
as a double Capricorn I very much love structure and boundaries, and also am learning how to let them be flexible enough to allow more fun and creativity to flow through. But today's structure (as well as creativity) did help me write 3390 words so that's something.
Yes, structure and boundaries. I'm a day behind but I got down 1166 words today by setting some boundaries for myself, and remembering some of Jane Kenyon's instructions for writers: "Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Take the phone off the hook." Onward.
Feb 8, 2022·edited Feb 8, 2022Liked by Jami Attenberg
I started listening to brain.fm, which I liked a lot yesterday and today, not so much. It started to remind me of Kenny G, which was irritating. But I think I was looking for something to focus on instead of putting words to paper.
Everyone knows this but I'll put this quote out there. It's from Austin Kleon (who has a useful newsletter about creativity, in addition to all of his many helpful books): "The mistake I used to make was thinking that I had to have an idea in my head before I started making marks on the page. More often than not, it’s the other way around: making marks on the page gives me an idea, which I then follow by making more marks, which gives me more ideas, and so forth."
1002! wrote a few more pages longhand this morning than yesterday, thinking that would put me over 1k when it came time to transcribe but I still had to cough up like 200 more lol
this group keeps me honest! 2000 words today. what helped was knowing i wanted to post this comment about it :) to minimize distractions, i keep post-it notes or index cards near me and jot down the nagging to-dos that pop up (email xyz, call abc) as i write so that i can calm my mind by reminding myself we will get to them later. and i've taken all socials off phone/computer (which doesn't stop me from checking them, but it makes it harder which is helping me cut back).
I got 761 down. Not quite 1,000, but meetings starting at 8am and the desire to go for a run for the first time in weeks after work meant that I was a little limited. Still 761 more than I wrote last Tuesday!
1007 words on secrets i've kept - went really into left field, but ended well. I'm glad I'm doing this without any end goals/projects in mind. It keeps me just writing. "Do not disturb" mode is my go-to on both my phone and computer.
Day 2 for me, a week delayed. Got down 1529 words this morning before work. I'm not sure if this is a long short story or a very short novella yet, but I'm enjoying discovering the world and this character as I go. Thanks for the push to do so!
Replying late for accountability: I did 1087 words yesterday!
I got 750 today. Not 1000, but good enough.
1425 words, and most of them were not planned! A nice thing happened where I was writing out the scene as I imagined it and then found myself fleshing out a small flashback moment that I only realized was necessary in that instant. I've been using pomofocus.io to write in spurts and force myself to take breaks, and I'm also listening to rain sounds. I usually do music, but I've found that white noise helps minimize distraction, and the rain noise is especially pleasant.
I'm so happy to have a reason to keep myself writing!
I went to the library again but found it too crowded, so I went to the cafe and found myself a seat right by the door (circulating air, important in COVID times!) I sat there for a couple hours and wrote till my vanilla steamer intake exceeded my capacity to hold it in, then went home.
Wrote for another couple hours after my mom went to bed and surpassed the 1000 word mark by a good measure -- the thing is, the magazine I submit my cartoons to every week has taken a two-week break in receiving submissions, so I am trying to do as much undistracted writing as I can till its time to think like a cartoonist again: it's like they knew about this mini-1000!
I'm making good progress, and have reached about 24.6K words (up from 17,079 yesterday) in what I'm thinking will be my first, incomplete (because I hope to make someone pay me to finish it) draft/taste of the finished book to come.
What a wonderful thing it is, to be able to come here and see everyone else also at work, or struggling, or succeeding, or just getting on with it, all of which are things we just do.
Managed to get my 1500 words of editing in today between work, &c.!
562 hard-fought words. Tomorrow we go again. Thank you, Jami.
as a double Capricorn I very much love structure and boundaries, and also am learning how to let them be flexible enough to allow more fun and creativity to flow through. But today's structure (as well as creativity) did help me write 3390 words so that's something.
Yes, structure and boundaries. I'm a day behind but I got down 1166 words today by setting some boundaries for myself, and remembering some of Jane Kenyon's instructions for writers: "Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Take the phone off the hook." Onward.
I started listening to brain.fm, which I liked a lot yesterday and today, not so much. It started to remind me of Kenny G, which was irritating. But I think I was looking for something to focus on instead of putting words to paper.
Everyone knows this but I'll put this quote out there. It's from Austin Kleon (who has a useful newsletter about creativity, in addition to all of his many helpful books): "The mistake I used to make was thinking that I had to have an idea in my head before I started making marks on the page. More often than not, it’s the other way around: making marks on the page gives me an idea, which I then follow by making more marks, which gives me more ideas, and so forth."
1000 words. Keep Going.
1002! wrote a few more pages longhand this morning than yesterday, thinking that would put me over 1k when it came time to transcribe but I still had to cough up like 200 more lol
this group keeps me honest! 2000 words today. what helped was knowing i wanted to post this comment about it :) to minimize distractions, i keep post-it notes or index cards near me and jot down the nagging to-dos that pop up (email xyz, call abc) as i write so that i can calm my mind by reminding myself we will get to them later. and i've taken all socials off phone/computer (which doesn't stop me from checking them, but it makes it harder which is helping me cut back).
I got 761 down. Not quite 1,000, but meetings starting at 8am and the desire to go for a run for the first time in weeks after work meant that I was a little limited. Still 761 more than I wrote last Tuesday!
1048 words today, and I learned some weird stuff about my narrator.
1007 words on secrets i've kept - went really into left field, but ended well. I'm glad I'm doing this without any end goals/projects in mind. It keeps me just writing. "Do not disturb" mode is my go-to on both my phone and computer.
1004 words figuring out the way forward.