Write Every Day: 03 August 02019

[silveradept]

Greetings! This is the Write Every Day Check-in post for 03 August 02019.

I don't have much for advice or a story today, but I did want to mention that one of the things that I have to keep reminding myself about, when it comes to writing or any other of my various skills, is that I don't have to be perfect to do what I want to do. If I could turn out perfect stories, that would be cool, but also, if all of my stories had to actually be perfect, I'd never have anything done or sent off. Sometimes having a deadline makes you realize that good enough is what you want to shoot for, and that you, like me, are good enough. Even if you're just getting started, you're good enough to just be getting started. You Are Good Enough is one of those mantras that I have to believe in, or things go downhill fast.

Thankfully, I'm not the only person who believes this. Courtney Summers does, too, and wants you to believe that there's no magic point where someone else says you've made your career. There's a spot where you decide you belong, and you go from there.

I closed the book on one of the volumes of the Giving of Grief and then adderd some more to my currently open assignment, so it was a productive day in writing. And I tried to whittle my way through some of the interesting links that I have open in another browser window. We'll see if I make it all the way through.

People who have checked in with writing on Day 1: alexcat, alexseanchai, athaia, auroracloud, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, magnetic_pole, sanguinity, shopfront, silveradept, sonia, sylvanwitch, yasaman, ysilme.

People who have checked in with writing on Day 2: alexcat, alexseanchai, athaia, auroracloud, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, magnetic_pole, sanguinity, shopfront, silveradept, sonia, sylvanwitch, yasaman.

People who have checked in with writing on Day 3: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, magnetic_pole, sanguinity, shopfront, silveradept, sonia, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yasaman.

Comments

[sanguinity]

Did some of the revision that beta suggested on my story. Still don't have a title or a final line.

[silveradept]

Yay for revision.

I tend to make my last lines work more like the beginning of another adventure, even if I don't intend to write that other adventure, ever.

I've got nothing for help with titles. Some people like lyrics and poetry for theirs.

[sanguinity]

It's been years since I've had this much trouble with a final line; I'm not at all sure what's going wrong here. I'll figure it out sooner or later -- possibly while I'm away on vacation, when the pressure is off. (I was trying to get this published before I go, but that's obvs not going to happen today.)

My wife and I spent some time brainstorming titles yesterday, and while I was able to narrow down what theme I'd like the title to speak to, I can't come up with actual words I like. Poetry quotes are unlikely to cut it on this one, although I just had a look for possibilities, in case. (And struck out, much as I anticipated.)

Ah, well, I have some days to chew it over.

[silveradept]

It's nice when you're ahead of schedule enough not to need to worry about getting something in before going on a trip.

[sanguinity]

This isn't an exchange fic; there's no schedule but my own satisfaction. But I would like this off my desk and on to the next thing, damnit.

[silveradept]

Yep. Getting them out and gone is important. Frees up space for the next thing.

[cornerofmadness]

I think the pursuit of perfect can drive you nuts.

I had company all day so only 274 words for intoabar

[silveradept]

Words are still words!

And yes, the pursuit of prefect tends to remind me of how far away from it I am.

[cornerofmadness]

we all are

[alexcat]

I wrote another drabble and finished up a chapter one of a two parter that I didn't now was a two parter until I got the first part done. Really. 483 words in all.

[silveradept]

Don't you just want to give a baleful eye to those works that get done and then spring their sequel on you as if it were a terrible episode of trashy reality television?

[chanter1944]

Something like 200 words on the surprise!serious!fic so far. Cape Verde and Macau are insisting that, since I know that I want them in the story, their parts start being written right now, out of sequence. And East Timor is startling a couple of their connections with colorful language, which is making me snicker.

[silveradept]

Sometimes writing out of order can be beneficial. Occasionally I've found a solution to an earlier problem by writing what happens after, and then all I have to do is figure out what happened.

[sonia]

Some more brainstorming notes for the article. I'm getting a sense for the shape it will have, and that I definitely have enough to say on this topic, both of which are reassuring.

Also still poking at possible title for next book. Someone serendipitiously sent me a link to a relevant post. It might be time to gather up paper copies of the articles and sort them into piles and mutter about categories and chapters. In the past that process has taken months to gel, but it doesn't hurt to start.

I'm appreciating the sense of accompaniment on the journey from these checkins. Thanks for hosting and replying to all the comments, silveradept!

[silveradept]

It's helpful to find that when you despaired of writing one page, you're on page five and realize you're about halfway through. Then there's editing, but it's nice to know you've gone beyond your fears.

[china_shop]

Yay for productive days and whittling links! \o/

4th: I shaved a few paragraphs off my flashfic and took it in a different direction to get to the ending. Just a few lines, but it's done and sent to beta. \o/

Not sure what I'm working on next. *looks around* I have a table from 15kisses... or, you know, WIPs. /o\

[silveradept]

There's always something else we could be working on. For me, that can be helpful in using my idle time well. I can see where it would be a trouble for others, though.

[alexseanchai]

0 words since midnight, which is unlikely to change before midnight, but I plotted plenty of the thing spawned here and I am moderately confident I will remember it all when my brain reboots?

[silveradept]

Plotting counts, too. And there are words on the page her, so you've achieved some writing today.

[yasaman]

Oh man, Good Enough is a thing I struggle to remember and commit to. It's so easy to get bound up in perfectionism for me, especially when writing something with no deadline. I try to remind myself that this is, ultimately, my hobby, so Good Enough is perfectly acceptable and not a failure mode.

I was out most of the day, so just 149 words for me today.

[silveradept]

Good Enough is good enough in most cases. (Sometimes I can short the circuit that demands perfection by telling myself that I'm writing it for me, and if anyone else likes it, that's their fault. Not always, though.)

[lferion]

100+ words on a new section of the reverse bang piece, and some useful thinking about how that section is going to work.

I have some driving to do tomorrow, which is often good for thinking/plotting, so I'm hoping for that.

[silveradept]

I sometimes wonder whether creative projects and bread-making are relatively similar, in that sometimes they need a lot of active work to get them going, and then sometimes you need to let them rest, and then they rise into great ideas that you can put in. I hope your plot drive ends up helping.

[talkingtothesky]

I did write on Day 3, 700 words of fic brainstorming. But I'm a little scared? This is the third day in a row I've had wrist/arm pain. At first I thought I'd slept on my arm awkwardly, but last night I had real trouble getting to sleep due to discomfort and (probably unwarranted) anxiety that it might be carpal tunnel. I didn't write on Day 1 and 2, thinking that resting it might help. Thankfully it's not my dominant hand, but yikes.

[silveradept]

Oh, no. That's not good. Is there a medic that you can see who can help you with minimizing the pain and maybe providing something useful to keep it from flaring up too terribly?

[carenejeans]

I had a hard time concentrating, couldn't decide on what to work on or write, sigh. Finally I looked at the prompt for the flashfiction challenge, and wrote a little over 200 words of ... something. Meh. It should either be a drabble or part of a longer story. I might work on it more.

Also worked on the nonfiction project, which I MUST do every day if I'm going to get it finished.

I'm glad you had a productive day!

[silveradept]

Writing is good. And sometimes, the stuff that we put down and think is terrible turns out to be really good stuff with a little writing, or finding the connecting thread to where those words wanted to go. Hooray for more straightforward-seeming progress on the nonfiction project.

[auroracloud]

I managed over 1,200 words on my novel! Skipping ahead in the timeline to the interesting stuff seems to help. As did sleep, of course.

And yes, letting go of the need to be perfect was my first step on the way to being able to actually write rather than just think about writing. And usually when I have trouble writing something, it helps when I ask myself if I'm trying to make it perfect and to stop doing that and just write something. I trick myself by reminding that I can always fix it later and I just need to write the first draft... And then upon editing, I of course need to remember I don't need to edit it to perfection either. (I had that problem with the last novel manuscript I worked on, hopefully with this one I can overcome it.)

[silveradept]

Yes! Writing the interesting stuff always seems to help when trying to figure out what happens next. It's bridge segments that get between the interesting stuff that I have a hard time doing.

Heh. I like the idea of turning the inner perfectionist away with a promise that they'll be able to get to it later, and then making sure that later doesn't happen until after it's done.

[magnetic_pole]

Sorry I'm running so late checking in! Just an alibi sentence on the RL project for yesterday, but a few comments, too. I'll go catch up with yesterday. M.

[silveradept]

Alibi sentences are still progress, or so I should believe.

[magnetic_pole]

They're actually super helpful for me, and I give this group credit for the discovery. I'd always heard that writing a bit was better than nothing, but I often have a hard time doing that on a very busy day. Writing a sentence about what I'm thinking about doing next, on the other hand, has helped me get started again the next day. I'm grateful for the idea! M.

[silveradept]

Oh, that's a good way to do that. I sometimes leave notes to myself so that I can figure out what I was planning on doing when I start writing again.

[sylvanwitch]

D'oh! Somehow, I missed this check-in until just now. My apologies for adding extra work. On Day 3, I edited and posted the latest H50 fic.

Also, congrats on getting so much done! :-)

[silveradept]

Hooray for posting! The world now has something new and great in it.

[sylvanwitch]

Thank you so much--you've made me smile. :-)