Fic Talk > General Discussion
Writing & Thread (aka The Writing Thread 4)
mare:
This past year I read 45 books. This year I’m setting my reading goal for 60. We’ll see what happens. Starting today with The Paris Library.
mare:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on January 01, 2022, 01:21:59 AM ---For anyone wanting/struggling to get back into their writing groove this year, I came across a Reddit thread with a strategy that has worked for me in the past: The one word per day formula.
When I've set goals to write every day or see how long I could keep a daily writing streak going, this is basically what I did. As long as I wrote at least one word that day, it counted. Sometimes, on busy or uninspired days, I really did just write one word. And sometimes I ended up deleting that word the next day and writing something different. But most of the time, one word would lead to another, and I would end up writing over a hundred words... on a good day, over a thousand. I've found that when I feel uninspired or am just out of the habit of writing, working up the motivation to open the story is often the hardest part. But if I open it thinking, "Okay, I just have to add one word, and then I can quit if I want to," it makes it seem a lot less overwhelming. Once I get over that hurdle of opening the story and writing one word, though, more words will usually follow. And when I get a streak going, it becomes routine, which makes it easier to stay inspired so I want to open the story and write every day.
I need to remember this for my long-unfinished stories like Guilty Roads and my Harry Potter crossover. With two other projects I'm actively working on right now, I'm not in the mindset to try to tackle either of those anytime soon, but next time I find myself between stories, that might be a way to force myself to make some progress on them: challenge myself to write at least one word per day.
I hope this helps someone else! I miss all your stories and our fanfic discussions. :-[
--- End quote ---
Great advice. One word at a time. It’ll get you where you need to be eventually.
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: mare on January 01, 2022, 04:15:53 AM ---This past year I read 45 books. This year I’m setting my reading goal for 60. We’ll see what happens. Starting today with The Paris Library.
--- End quote ---
Wow, 45 books! That's almost one a week. That's awesome!! Good for you!
I definitely need to get back into reading more. Obviously reading is important to writing, but does anyone else struggle to do both at the same time? When my writing is going well, I don't make as much time to read because I'd rather use that time to write. But when I'm in a reading phase, I don't write as much because I'd rather read. What I really need to do is be more disciplined about going to bed an hour early and using that time to read instead of playing on my phone or staring at a computer/TV screen. I would get through more books that way, and I'd also probably get more sleep. We'll see!
mare:
I definitely had a hard time doing both at once. When I was writing, the only time I’d read was during my lunch breaks. Any other time (like in the middle of the night when I read now) I devoted to writing.
RokofAges75:
Glad I'm not the only one! Do you ever get story ideas/inspiration from reading so much? Sometimes reading inspires me, and other times it just makes me feel inadequate LOL.
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