Routinely Yours

In my quest for a workable routine I came across a piece of advice that said when you’re setting a daily goal aim low. Start with one sentence a day, make it a good one, and go from there. It reminded me of a little notebook I have that I created for just such a purpose. I even found notebooks like it to give to a few other writer friends.

Inside the front cover of the notebook I printed out the following:
The purpose of this little journal is a challenge of sorts. The idea is to write a single sentence every day for five years. Just random sentences so that you get into the habit of writing every day.

To be honest, I also questioned the point of just one sentence a day, and that five years was a pretty long time to commit to something like that. I even suggested keeping it going for a single year or until I filled the notebook.

So . . . how did I do? I started on June 6, 2014 and it’s now over five years later. I am less than a quarter of the way through the notebook, probably closer to an eighth of the way through. I reached sentence 42 on November 9, 2014 and skipped to October of 2015 for sentences 50, 51, and 52 – I have no idea what happened to sentences 43 through 49. Sentence 53 has no date, sentence 54 was written in November, 2015.

There is only one sentence written for all of 2016, at which point I decided not to number them anymore. There are three sentences for 2017, and only one in 2018. In 2019 I stopped dating them as well, and I have 14 of them so far.

I fully admit to slacking off in the writing department on my quest for a workable routine, but I’m thinking the one sentence a day would be an easy habit to pick up. I read over the sentences I’ve written and there are some interesting images – some could be developed into a story, some could be used in a poem. And if I added that one sentence to a WIP – well, even one sentence a day will start adding up.

So . . . until I get my wordage and timing worked out, I’ll aim for one sentence a day and hope for more.

Prompt of the Week

As you may have noticed, I haven’t exactly been doing much with the prompts lately. So instead of picking one to work on this week, I’m just going to list the generators and let you pick your own. And if I happen to be inspired by a prompt as well, I’ll post it on Saturday. But don’t hold your breath, I have a busy week ahead.

The Story Shack
The Plot Generator
Writing Exercises and Prompts
Springhole
Seventh Sanctum
RanGen

It’s a Hard Knock Life

As you may recall, I promised to do better writing-wise last week. Well, I kind of broke that promise.

I was full of optimism, thinking I’d jot a little something for both prompts, and I started with the prompt about the lonely wizard. Only I started getting bogged down in riddles (because he had to solve three of them) and then I realized this was not going to be a short story – there was too much going on. I may, or may not, write this story some time when I have more time, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.

So I turned to the second prompt – dinosaur versus the monster under the bed – and I just wasn’t feeling it.

Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug. I was definitely the bug last week. And, to be honest, I’ve been the bug on the windshield for a while now. I’m in a bona fide writing slump.

So I spent a bunch of time reading blogs of other authors, and was happy to see I’m not alone in my slump. Call it a sign of the times, but there are a lot of unmotivated writers out there. Some of them even big name authors. Kind of makes me feel a little better.

But I need to shake it off. I’ve got too much writing to do; I’ve no time to hunker down in the bottom of the abyss. Winter is coming, and if things are bad now they’re nothing compared to what they’ll be later on.

Time to set up a routine, and if that doesn’t work I need to find another one, and another, until I find something that does work. Writing needs to be distilled into a habit – and I’ve gotten out of the habit over the last couple of years.

So for the rest of the week I’m going to be trying out various times/places for writing and see which one feels right. I think the fact that I’m so determined is a point in my favour (although the fact that this post is so late takes that point right away again).

At any rate, I’ve been doing some research online to help me get started/motivated into my new routine, and I’ve found these articles particularly helpful:

Developing the Writing Habit
How to Create the Habit of Writing
Form a Daily Writing Habit
Writing Routine

You aren't the only ones curious to see how this will turn out.

Prompts of the Week

I think I need to find some new prompt generators because it took awhile to come up with something that was workable. This one came from good ole Springhole, and once again I chose Creepypasta & Horror Creep Generator.

It looks like a police officer with an emaciated body and a misshapen torso. It has been observed in the forest. It's said that it can pass through solid objects.

With Halloween just around the corner this should be a snap, right? Why don't you give it a try too?

Epiphanies, Lists, and Routines…Oh, My!

I had another epiphany last week. I figured out where I was went wrong with Wandering Wizards. It wasn’t that I wrote the first 50,000 words during NaNoWriMo, it’s that I wrote it before the previous book was finished. I had no idea what was happening/going to happen to Jessica before the end of Lucky Dog so I really didn’t know what my jumping off point was supposed to be.

**Advice for anyone who wants to write the second (or third or fourth) book in a series before the previous book is finished: DON’T DO IT!!**

After mapping out where my characters have been, I did a second word map to figure out where they’re going, and while it’s not a pretty as one of the spiffy maps I drew years ago, it’ll give me an idea of what goes where (or maybe that should be who goes where). One of these days I may get around to doing an actual map, but it’s not a priority.

Anyway, now that I know what I’m doing (more or less), I’m starting over with Wandering Wizards. I have a clean document file in which I will cut/paste the sections of the previous version that are usable (surely some of those nearly 60,000 words are worth saving) while at the same time adding new stuff that will help the whole thing make sense. The only problem I foresee is having to edit as I go because the old stuff will need to be changed somewhat to fit with the new and that’s not a job I’m going to want to tackle when the whole thing is done.

As of the end of last week I’ve added about 1500 new words to the first couple of chapters and I must say – so far, so good. The section in between still needs some editing, but not too much (I hope). The old section was an entire chapter and I might have to split it up – actually, it might read better split up so I’ve got the old and the new twisting around each other so you’re not getting big chunks of either. Hmm….

I function better when I have a routine to stick to. I know this, and yet I continue to waste a lot of time that could be put to better use if I just had an idea of what to do with it. I’m not just talking writing, either. I’m talking about all the mundane things we have to deal with. I need to go back to making a list.

I like lists. I really like being able to cross things off of a list. But a list not only lets you see at a glance everything that needs to get done, it’s also a reminder that you have better things to do than sit there playing Bubble Mouse for hours on end (or is that just me?). I’m actually going to need two lists: one made on Sunday nights for what I want/need to accomplish in the week ahead, and one made at the end of the week for what I want/need to accomplish on the weekend.

But back to routines…. It’s just cool enough in my office that I can work in there for a couple of hours in the morning, Both times I worked in my office in the morning last week I got words done on WW., so office time is going to be part of my morning routine.

I was checking out some old files and I’m kind of appalled at the amount of flash fiction I have. Enough to fill a couple of volumes I’d say…if they were finished/polished. So as part of my new routine I’m going to pick one flash story a week, finish it, polish it, and – here’s the hard part – shop it around. If nobody wants it but I still like it, I’ll set it aside until I have enough to do an anthology. One way or another, these stories have to start earning their disk space.

So. We have spending mornings in my office, finishing up one story a week, and making lists. I’m sure it looks easier than it’ll be, but I’m going to give it a try.

Great ambitions for a Monday, don’t you think? :-D