Write every day - Day 17

[zwei_hexen]

Inspired by current circumstances: Are there any conditions, emotional or otherwise, under which you find it especially challenging to write? Does happiness make your muse go into hibernation? Does stress make you less likely to write?

For me, if I'm struggling with some big, RL issue, I find it harder to focus on the words until the situation, whatever it is, is resolved. Long-term stress isn't an issue, but short-term shocks or sudden disasters make it difficult for me to sit still (I'm a pacer) and write.

Tally:
Welcome
Day 1: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, navaan, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme (16/16)
Day 2: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, navaan, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme (15/16)
Day 3: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, navaan, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, yantantether, ysilme (14/16)
Day 4: alexcat, alexseanchai, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, navaan, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (14/16)
Day 5: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, navaan, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (15/16)
Day 6: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, navaan, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (15/16)
Day 7: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, navaan, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (15/16)
Day 8: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, navaan, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (13/16)
Day 9: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, navaan, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, ysilme (15/17)
Day 10: alexcat, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, navaan, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (14/17)
Day 11: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, navaan, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (15/17)
Day 12>: alexcat, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, navaan, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (14/17)
Day 13: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, user name="navaan">, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtthesky, ysilme (15/17)
Day 14: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, navaan, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (15/17)
Day 15: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, navaan, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (15/17)
Day 16: alexseanchai, auroracloud, carenejeans, cassini, china_shop, cornerofmadness, falkner, navaan, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, ysilme (14/17)

Let us know if we missed you or if you didn't check in fosr a while, so we can add you. Of course joining the fun is possible at any point.

~ ~ ~

ysilme here: 1k fic for me, with about 700 words of it written on my phone in the morning - I have a new phone my bluetooth keyboard interacts with much better, and seem to be able to type on it now as quick as on my computer. Yay!

sylvanwitch here: I managed 703 words in between bouts of stress-crying and financial panic. *sighs* (I think everything is ultimately going to work out. I will not be 100% confident of that, however, until the money from the house sale is in the bank.)

Comments

[sylvanwitch]

How awesome that your new tech is working out for you! Yay! That's excellent progress!

[cassini]

[we are having a time here today. i sorta forced 700 words out of myself to meet the daily goal while rotating between 1) pain in bath, 2) fever in bed, 3) pain and youtube and 4) pain at work. fingers crossed for tomorrow being much less annoying for everyone currently disgruntled ]

[sylvanwitch]

Oh, man, pain sucks. I'm so sorry you're suffering, and I hope you feel much, much better tomorrow. Thank you for the good thoughts my way, too. That's much appreciated.

Also: 700 words are AMAZING given circumstances!

[china_shop]

17th: I wrote about a thousand words on a flashfic and posted it.

18th: Polishing the exchange fic. Making post-beta edits, deleting commas and adding a couple of lines. Trying not to fret, and resisting the temptation to find another (third) beta just because I've been working on this story so long I can barely see it anymore.

[sylvanwitch]

First: Yay for words, for posting, and for the polishing work! That's a LOT! Also, I can definitely relate to being so close to a fic that there is no longer anything approaching perspective. I hope you are able to resist the temptation and let your story out into the world, where I'm sure it will find people who are eager to read it and love it. :-)

[china_shop]

Thank you!! (And I'm sorry to hear about the stress crying! *hugs*)

[sylvanwitch]

Thank you so much! *hugs*

[sierranovembr]

Alibi sentence! :)

[sylvanwitch]

Yay for words, no matter how many or few! :-)

[alexseanchai]

plotting!

*pokes scene* come on, what's the problem?

[sylvanwitch]

Did the scene give you a satisfactory answer? I hope so! :-)

[cornerofmadness]

Stress can make me write more just to avoid it but i have major depression and that sucks to try to write through. I've noticed in the last six month (which have been bad) I've slipped back into fanfic, almost abandoning original fiction because it's easier for me to write.

and speaking of which 834 words on Like Stone today

[sylvanwitch]

First, great word count!

Second, me too, re: fanfic vs. original. I find such comfort in slipping into familiar worlds. Also, it takes less creative inspiration in the sense that a lot of the groundwork has already been laid. Plus, there's just the familiarity of fandom in general. Sometimes, despite needing to be productive on our original work, we just have to let ourselves rest in the familiar for a while. I guess it's probably bad as a long-term escape, but for periods like the one you're in now, it makes sense to be easier on yourself.

[cornerofmadness]

Thanks.

That's exactly it. I don't have to concentrate on character development or world building. it's done for me already so my limited abilities during the depression times can be spent on plot. (Also you have a fandom where people will feedback your work). I usually only do fanfic at the holidays but it's dragging out this past year

[talkingtothesky]

I added 600 words on Day 17.

*hugs* I really hope the crying and panic backs off and leaves you be soon.

[sylvanwitch]

Thank you so much for the hugs and kind words. I'm trying to tell myself to listen to the people who know better than I do that things will probably be okay, but I won't really believe it until the papers are signed on Monday morning. *sighs*

600 words! Excellent! You are a steady, productive machine! :-)

[silveradept]

Finished a post, so there were words. My problem sometimes is that I'll get focused on something else that's enjoyable, like a game, and then I'll lose a lot of time to playing the adventures.

[sylvanwitch]

Oh, me too! I play pretty simple computer games, like story-centric solitaire, for example, but even so, I get caught up in the, "Oh, I'll just play one more hand/round," and then, well, yes, there's less writing time for sure. ;-)

Yay for finishing a post! Those are, indeed, words!

[st_aurafina]

Are there any conditions, emotional or otherwise, under which you find it especially challenging to write?

Ugh, work! Work needs so much concentration that I'm usually quite flat when I sit down to write. But there's always editing, like tonight.

I didn't write new words but I edited 2k of old words and they're better for it.

[sylvanwitch]

Excellent work on editing, especially after a long day of life-draining work. I can definitely relate to work being an inspiration-killer.

[alexcat]

Ten words on thw 16th and ten today... just so I could say i wrote. I will be making a ist of upcoming works on the 18th and work on my Holmestice fic as well.

[sylvanwitch]

Words are words, and you wrote them! Yay! :-) Good luck with your approaching deadlines, as well. I hope you find much joy in those projects.

[falkner]

I have been thinking for a long time now to buy myself a bluetooth keyboard to use with my phone, but I never took the plunge. A couple of years ago when I moved into my current apartment I was without Internet access for months, so all my fic was written and posted on my phone, and a keyboard to use with it would have been an absolute heavensent...

As for writing, 200 words/a double drabble written and posted for a challenge.

[sylvanwitch]

Yay for writing and posting! :-)

I don't even have a phone, so the very idea of writing on one seems terribly exotic. *grins*

[ysilme]

Yay for writing and posting! *\O/*
I have four bluetooth keyboards by now, with various advantages and disadvantages. The first was a very inexpensive (about 7€) one a bit difficult to set up (most are set by default to a QWERTY layout, but as I'm used to a QWERTZ layout even when typing English this won't work for me, also because all the umlauts and lots of punctuation marks are missing or in the wrong places) but works really well. It's about 20% smaller than a regular notebook keyboard and very lightweight, and I mostly used this one until I got nr. 4. Nr. 2 was bought after a recommendation by a friend, a sturdy, water-resistant Logitech one where you could put the phone or tablet upside in so you'd have a fake notebook. Sounded awesome also for using it as a passenger, but it's so bulky and heavy that I never wanted to lug it around. I gave it away eventually. Then I found out that using one keyboard with two devices (tabled & phone) often causes connecting/coupling issues, as you need to couple it again if switching devices, and then with some devices need to selet the keyboard layout again. So I got a sleeve for the tablet with an attached, magnetic, keyboard, which also works really well, so I can use the tablet very comfortably for writing, too.
The first one I used with my phone only, but the size is a bit big in my handbag, and as it's got no cover the keys are subject to getting dirty or scratched by other content of my handbag. *coughs* So I got a foldable one, for around 30€, I think. Folded, it's of course bulkier than the other one, but as long as my phone and only a bit wider, and lives happily all the time in my handbag without any issue. It's super comfortable to write on, but I needed ot get used to it first, as the two folding joints at the bottom irritated a bit in the beginning, and the keys of the topmost row are a bit shorter than the others. But after only three writing mornings I'm now typing as fast on it as I do on my regular keyboard, and I'm able to type _really_ fast.
If you want to buy one, make sure it's suited to your device, has the correct keyboard layout, and read as many reviews and reports about it as possible. The latter helped me enormously finding out which ones suited me and which not, as people kindly listed issues they had or had not.
Now if I could use Scrivener on my phone, too, I'd be in writer's haven! *ggg* I used to have a Samsung and now have a Fairphone, so I make do with Jotterpad and Google Drive, where I have the texts I'm working at for reference, and then just copy&paste any new content. It's not ideal, as I like to check back and forth through lots of texts with some writing work, but it's possible to be productive and creative, so I'm happy enough.

[falkner]

Omg, thanks for all the detail, I'm going to keep all of this in mind and start looking around for one to buy myself! I didn't know much about them, but now I know of a few things to look for to find one that best suits my needs!

[carenejeans]

Ysilme: Great word count on your new writing tech! If I ever get a good phone, I'll get a bluetooth keyboard for sure. My terrible bottom-of-the-line crap phone can hardly work with itself, forget about a keyboard.

Sylvanwitch: Sorry to hear about the stress crying. I hope things work out well for you! And great word count despite it!

I didn't work at all on fiction yesterday, just immersed myself in the nonfiction project.

An emergency will affect my writing pretty badly. I can write through longer term stress, and was even writing quite a bit when my job went sour, when I would flee the building to sit and write for an hour at lunch. Weirdly, since I retired, I find having more time to write makes it harder to concentrate, or even to sit down and open the laptop. "Oh, I have all day. I'll write later..." Famous last words.

Happiness tends to make me write silly things. Which is good, for the most part!

[sylvanwitch]

Thank you for the kind words. I've reached anxious resignation--that is, what will be, will be, and there's nothing I can do about it for the moment--so at least I'm no longer crying, which I hate to do with a fiery passion.

I SO get where you're coming from, re: retirement writing time. I'm not retired, but as a high school teacher, I have summers off. (I used to work summers, too, for extra cash, until I realized that the money I was making wasn't a fair trade for the exhaustion with which I began the next school year.) Anyway, many's the summer's mid-morning sit-down that ends with me spending more time scrolling the internet, playing solitaire, or reading fanfiction than with actual writing, and that's for the exact reason you highlight here--"Oh, I'll have time." Next thing I know, I realize I've wasted SO MUCH TIME, and now I'm crunched because I have something else that needs doing.

[auroracloud]

More editing of the hurt/comfort fic for me. Starting to get stressed out by the reveals closing in...

For me, stress and anxiety make it harder to focus on writing. Being in a bad/depressed mood isn't necessarily a problem - then I'm usually happy to escape to writing. Though sometimes it may lead into being too lethargic or tired to write. My mood does affect what I can write. When I'm feeling angsty, I'm likely to write either angst, hurt/comfort, or tooth-rotting fluff. :-)

[ysilme]

Starting to get stressed out by the reveals closing in...
*all the sympathies* I can totally relate to what and how influences your writing, it's very similar for me! *hugs* For me, anxiety isn't an issue, but what I call myself "being overcommunicated", a state when my autistic brain has had too many sensual input and just can't take it any more. The resulting state is, I belive, sometimes similar to anxiety, but I don't want to call it thus as the difficult-to-bear part of it goes away easily and on its own if I can just have some space and quiet to myself. The creativity block takes longer to leave me, though.

[sylvanwitch]

I hope your stress over reveals eases soon for you, especially since, as you say here, it has an adverse effect on your writing.

Like you, I find myself retreating into fanfiction sometimes when things are especially difficult for longer stretches (as opposed to sudden emergencies, when I'm not able to focus as well). I do love a good angsty hurt/comfort on those occasions, though sometimes, if I'm feeling particularly dark, I'll let the snakes in my brain do the writing, in which case, what's produced is typically very dark indeed.

For fluff, though, I almost always have to be in a happy, upbeat mood, or I somehow end up sliding into snark and angst instead. ;-)

[navaan]

Bluetooth keyboards are a blessing. Since I have one that works well with phone and tablet working ANYWHERE has become so much easier.

I hope everything worked out for you too, sylvanwitch.

I was on to the next draft and more editing. about 740 words for me.

[ysilme]

Congrats to the word count, that's great!
Do you have a special keyboard with several channels? so you can use it on two devices? My least favourite, too bulky one has this option, with a little switch to turn; all others I always have to couple anew when I switch from one device to the other, which is why I'm now having separate keyboards for all of them since I don't use the bulky one for size and weight reasons.

[sylvanwitch]

Thank you so much! I should know one way or the other by about noon tomorrow. Until then, I'm pretty much trying to distract myself from thinking about it, which I suspect is going to work right up until the moment when it doesn't anymore. ;-)

And that's a great wordcount! Yay! Go you! :-)

Also, I'm on The New Avengers: Vol 1. and am really loving the vibe between Tony and Steve.

[navaan]

I AM SO GLAD YOU GO NEW AVENGERS V.1.

I love that part of canon so much. ♥♥♥ You have to tell me all your thoughts. (When things settle down, of course!)

[ysilme]

I managed 703 words in between bouts of stress-crying and financial panic. *sighs* (I think everything is ultimately going to work out. I will not be 100% confident of that, however, until the money from the house sale is in the bank.)
*hugs tight*

[sylvanwitch]

Thank you so much hon. *hugs back*