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In this issue:
Maintaining a Streak
Writing Prompt
WWT Tool Kit Craft Card
Maintaining a Streak
So a while back, I gave myself permission to call it a successful day if I got in 250 words. Since then I’ve written every single day. This is probably my longest streak ever. That said, at least twice, I gave myself credit just for showing up and getting any words. I think I got about 200 words one day and 63 on the other. But I showed up. That’s a win.
Keeping the bar low has been helpful, because recently I’ve been having to prioritize the business and publishing parts of authordom. The independent chair needs three legs. It’s no good if one or two of those legs are really long and the other(s), short.
But I just got things more balanced recently, and now I’m trying to ramp up my wordcount. I’m liking the idea of 4000 words a day. Every day, if I can.
So far I’m not making it. I got in just under 3000 words yesterday. I got just over 2000 today. But, just as with 250 words a day, every little word adds up. This is a win…
…especially because, if you’ll recall with my last project, I took a lot of thinking time every time I was coming up on a major plot point.2 Like days of thinking time.
I have taken no more than hours of thinking time before getting started writing again this time around.
I’ve still pulled out my books on midpoint and brainstorming. And I’ll probably pull out my book on series and the dark night, and the climax. But I skim them that day, make any notes (that my creative mind usually ignores, but, hey, at least critical mind feels better enough to let her type), and then I get back to it…
…usually the next day. I’m still working on getting right back to it the same day. Apparently changing my process is itself a process, not a one-eighty.
But it’s a process that is already allowing me to show up every day and get words on the page. At least 250. Usually. Sometimes only 63. But sometimes thousands. However many words, it’s a win.
Writing Prompt
Character: LOVER
Light Attribute: Forms deep, fulfilling connections with others. Serves social harmony and mutual respect.
Shadow Attributes: Becomes codependent and overly attached. Sacrifices personal identity and well-being for another.
Setting: A bustling cafe.
Object: A worn book, a spilled coffee, an acoustic guitar.
Emotion: YEARNING. Pining, longing, wistful.
WWT Tool Kit Craft Card
As mentioned before, I’m making a deck of craft cards to quickly remind myself of techniques while also having a convenient place to keep track of elements like character, conflict, and theme specific to each story. This week’s card is about types of troughs, because that’s what’s coming up next in the project I’m working on.
Thank you for reading!
I hope this helped you, and I hope your writing goes well this week.
Keep at it,
Megan
WritesWithTools
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Which I deemed *important*! I think I said this in a post already, but I don’t remember which one, so I’ll say it again: All the plot points and none of the plot points are important. Meaning they’re all equal. They all need to be there. They all need to do their own jobs. My deciding that they’re all equal and that I know my craft decently enough to deliver on them has helped me get over this notion that any particular part of a story is *important*! Which helps keep writer’s block at bay.