Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

Let's talk about setting aside time to write. We hear all the time 'I don't have time to write.' We've probably said it. It's one of the reasons I do a write every day thing. That is, of course, not the only way to do it. Many find that too much pressure which is understandable. Years ago I belonged to a LJ community 100 words a day.

If you think of it like that, in small bites, it is less overwhelming and more manageable. 100 words, 15 minutes, these are tiny blips that will allow you to relax and get a little writing in. If you're in the zone, it can go longer. If you're not, you spent a mere 15 minutes (even if it's not 100 words because sometimes it's not).

I've started word sprinting in 2020 and those 15 minute sprints have really helped (look at my combined 2020/2021 word counts, it's about a million words). I want to get this going on my local group's discord once or twice a month. I might be able to get a few others into the group if I ask (if you're interested). I find the community cheerleading helpful as well. If you don't need that, you can do things like written?Kitten! or write or die as well.

Have some links

from around the web (the best of 2021 I've probably shared a few before)

Establishing A Writing Routine: 10 Tips For Aspiring Authors

Is Your Writing Terrible… Or Is It The Dunning-Kruger Effect?

15 YouTube Channels For Writers

The “Do’s” Of Planning A Book Launch

Don’t Forget Your Book’s Back Cover

How To Read Your Writing From An Editor’s Perspective


From Betty

The 5 Fs You SHOULD Give While Writing

Improve Your Sleep And Creativity With Dr. Anne D. Bartolucci

Terraforming: Worldbuilding for Sci-fi Authors

The Art of Masterful Fiction Dialogue

SHOULD YOU CREATE YOUR FIRST NOVEL FOR A MARKET?

12 Clever Ideas for Promoting Sequels or Later-Series Books

How to Make Your Reader Cry

Expert Tricks To Improve Your Author Newsletter

How to Write Amazing Character Descriptions

How much backstory should your story have?

How Writing Instructors Forgo the Most Vital Fiction Lesson

Four Classic Writing Techniques That Belong in the Past

Three Ways to Plot With Index Cards

Relationship Thesaurus Entry: Headmaster and Student

Choose the Perfect Title for Your Novel or Memoir: 7 Authors Offer Tips

Comments

[sperrywink]

Sprinting has worked wonders for me too. I generally need more than 15 minutes to settle in, but a good 30-minute one often does the trick.

[cornerofmadness]

That works well too. In my local group we mix them up. On discord we can set them to either (I haven't done it in forever but I'm sure I can google that)

[sperrywink]

Very true! I've seen everything from 10 minutes to an hour on discord. You can modify it.

[cornerofmadness]

which is handy

[goddess47]

Another option you can suggest is to find a writing buddy. Someone who will sit online with you (Zoom, Google Hangouts, whatever) and write together. The free Zoom gives you 40 minute sessions and if you chat for 5, write for 30 and finish up, you've gotten 30 minutes of writing.

And it prevents some of the Google black holes flailing. You can ask each other "do you know about X" or "does this sound too silly" or whatever... and when it's too quiet on the other end, you have permission to say so... "I don't hear you working"

Not for everyone but another option...

[cornerofmadness]

You know, that's a good idea too. I haven't thought of it but that could work. I had discord on the brain since I've been using it so heavily for 2 years.

I have never used Google hangouts but I've also never heard anything good about it I'm afraid.

[goddess47]

One of my writing buddies had a Zoom account through her school and they didn't care what it was used for. So we abused the heck out of it until she retired. So this year I bought a personal account (it's like $150 for a year for unlimited use) and we use that.

But the writing buddy thing started within the pandemic and has lit a fire to my writing... I did like zero words for the first couple of month of the pandemic but started when we reached out to each other to keep tabs and make sure we were okay. I'm up to 250K this year, which is my personal best.

So kudos to your 1M words... that is amazing!

[cornerofmadness]

that is really cool with the zoom accounts and kudos to you for all the words. I never used to care much for writing buddies BUT that was mostly pre or early internet. Now I value having writing buddies or at least people to bounce ideas off of when I get stuck.

Yeah the million words for 2 years is pretty damn nuts