ExtraPenguin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
extrapenguin) wrote2019-04-28 09:14 pm
extrapenguin) wrote2019-04-28 09:14 pm
Entry tags:
On Writing
Summer is coming! My new place has a thermometer. Based on observations from that, while 21°C is a perfectly valid temperature to do stuff in, 22°C is too hot and my brains want to melt.
I have written a lot of words for Guardian. I still have more to write. I've also read 55 chapters of Sha Po Lang and holy fuck I love it so much, it's got so many MilSF-type feels from Gu Yun loyal to his country despite the crap happening to him. A+ would recommend.
However, the title of this post is On Writing (instead of On Sha Po Lang) because I have over the past few weeks discovered two posts on writing I wish to share!
One Free Trick: How to Use the Writing Skills You Have to Learn the Ones You Don’t (Arkady Martine) is mostly an essay about how we all have something we're good at, so we can use those bits to push through the harder bits. Then I spent some time wondering what my "free trick" is. Humor, maybe? That seems to come easily to me.
How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day (Rachel Aaron) is exactly what it says on the tin. As a hobbyist, I can't do 10k per day, but method one (write a more barebones outline summary of what has to happen in the scene) has so far worked really well when I'm a bit stuck.
Anyway, I am now off to write even more words for the 520 Ex assignment (yay) and then sleep. Mayday is a public holiday here, so I'll probably dedicate Wednesday to words as well!
I have written a lot of words for Guardian. I still have more to write. I've also read 55 chapters of Sha Po Lang and holy fuck I love it so much, it's got so many MilSF-type feels from Gu Yun loyal to his country despite the crap happening to him. A+ would recommend.
However, the title of this post is On Writing (instead of On Sha Po Lang) because I have over the past few weeks discovered two posts on writing I wish to share!
One Free Trick: How to Use the Writing Skills You Have to Learn the Ones You Don’t (Arkady Martine) is mostly an essay about how we all have something we're good at, so we can use those bits to push through the harder bits. Then I spent some time wondering what my "free trick" is. Humor, maybe? That seems to come easily to me.
How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day (Rachel Aaron) is exactly what it says on the tin. As a hobbyist, I can't do 10k per day, but method one (write a more barebones outline summary of what has to happen in the scene) has so far worked really well when I'm a bit stuck.
Anyway, I am now off to write even more words for the 520 Ex assignment (yay) and then sleep. Mayday is a public holiday here, so I'll probably dedicate Wednesday to words as well!
no subject
The book is definitely geared towards pro writing, but much of it applies to fanfic too, I think. I only really remember the parts I tried right now, namely rough outlining and tracking word output. Most of the tips in the book weren't right for me, either, but it was because of my personal writing ways - I will never be able to do 10k words a day, and that's okay. Not everyone is that fast a writer.
My fic is, uh, *long*.
Coolness! :-) My story will not be particularly long, sadly, but at least I'll have finished something over 1k again. Maybe it's a trend? *g*
Mostly I just need more hours in the day, and days in the week, because argh. *headdesk*
no subject
Yup, not even the pros. Yoon Ha Lee, frex, only does 2k a day because he needs to digest the work before writing it, and he's a full-time pro.
My fic has exceeded the minimum wordcount by an order of magnitude. I hope to end it before it exceeds the minimum by *two* orders of magnitude...
Yup, more leisure time would definitely be a plus! Maybe then I would be bored enough to actually clean something.