On Writing

[extrapenguin]

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!

Comments

[lynndyre]

Thank you for linking those! (and I completely know what you mean about brain vs hot weather)

[qikiqtarjuaq]

Good to hear that you're enjoying Sha Po Lang! I need to catch up on that translation, but I keep getting side tracked by other shinies.

And man, I'd be happy to write 2k a day. I find myself most often getting stuck on that first part - the whole knowledge/specifics of what I want to happen in the scene, and then I'm out of time to write!

[rheasilvia]

Yeeees, I cannot with the heat, either. O_O Just... not.

Thank you for reminding me of Aaron's book! I read it a few years back and - while much of it wasn't applicable to me and my writing is never going to be that fast, no matter what - the barebones outline thing is exactly what really helped me, too. I should re-read the book! She definitely does have some helpful pointers.

I'll check out the Free Trick, too! :-) Who knows, it may help. (Although I wrote 3k words yesterday/today on another WIP, which I hope will be the 520 fic. That's a record for me lately, so I am cautiously optimistic that my writing mojo may not have abandoned me permanently. *g*)

[mekare]

Hapy writing!

[maggie33]

Summer is coming!

Aaaa, don’t remind me. It’s the end of April and it’s basically already summer here. It’s supposed to be still Spring in Poland. I can stand 3 months of summer, but not 5. Just go away, stupid hot sun. >:(

And I’ve read that first article, but not that 2nd one, so thanks for the link. I would love to increase my daily wordcount. Not to 10K per day, not even 2k per day, because yes, I have to work sometimes. ;) But a bit more than now would be very nice.

[dhampyresa]

Thanks for the links!