First and foremost I'd like to thank terrorcandy for being so wonderful and brave and articulate and just. A truly good person. One day I hope we can hang out.
I think any particular word count ultimatum from anyone should be ignored since output (esp. quality output) varies widely from person to person, although it IS best to write every day, and if setting a word count is helpful then you should set a word count that works for YOU.
not that i would know since i typically spend months at a time running screaming every time i try to write anything other than inane tweets
running screaming every time i try to write anything other than inane tweets
^^^^ preaching to choir sobbbbbb wakaru yo.
Hoping the 1000 word suggestion meant any words, good or bad. I suspect the trick to consistent production is the ability to just take off and go for pages before stopping to judge/edit material. Because who writes 1000 good words every day. OTOH discipline has got to foster improvement, so maybe it's like being a pro violinist. Skip practice for one day and you'll hear it, skip practice for two and everyone will etc.
Does LJ count as a dream journal haha. Sometimes I also write frothing counterpoints to strawman pieces at overthinkingit.com and similar. Which I never send in because I wisely sleep on bad decisions;;;;;
Well yeah, ia, but I also tend to think that overstretching oneself can have negative impacts on quality of output too - it's important to give yourself permission to suck sometimes and you can't write w/o discipline but... I feel like it's too easy for that discipline and word count to become the ultimate goal instead of writing the story. Idk if I'm expressing myself well here, I'm just v. wary of any kind of "you should do this exactly if you want to be a writer" b/c everyone's process is so different.
For me personally, discipline (not that I have any, what am I even talking about) is less about improvement (although it helps that too) than trying keep in the habit - my skills don't deteriorate much (in fact sometimes they improve) in those months long gaps, but the less I write, the harder it is to write
( ... )
"you should do this exactly if you want to be a writer" <<< Yessss so true, it's all just advice. From disinterested parties.
I have resolved (uh this month;;;) to set down everything I think of, even if it's just a little every day. Slow and steady etc. Like stomach crunches! Long before I sit down I have sentences floating up day and night. It's important to record them before I forget! So easy to forget the details.
Is there a diff between examining book mechanics visually and physically typing them? I've done one but not the other. But from what I've seen in the film Finding Forrester it's super effective haha.
I read this book once called Dogs of Babel and it inspired me to briefly keep a dream journal. The rough part was that dreams are harder to describe than waking scenes. Lazily I'd end up with just lists of mnemonic cues, like. "Roller coaster like the Viper at Six Flags CA" etc. But a dream journal written in legit prose seems like it would be pretty great, some KJ Bishop shit right dere
"Is there a diff between examining book mechanics visually and physically typing them?"
Well I mean it's kind of comparable to how writing things down helps you remember them and remember more detail, without even looking back at what you wrote. And as you're writing you just feel things going on in the prose in a sort of instinctive way that you don't get (or at least I don't get) from just examining it without writing it. I don't actually do this all that often anymore b/c I am super-lazy but I did it a lot early on and it was super helpful in putting me on the road to finding my own voice.
Haha, I don't describe my dreams in prose (god I shudder at the thought of how hard that'd be), I just spit out events like I'm chatting w/someone online, like. "the rainbow turtle is a hispanic man. WTF." (Hilariously, KJ Bishop says her dreams are usually pretty boring.)
not that i would know since i typically spend months at a time running screaming every time i try to write anything other than inane tweets
BUT I'M SURE IT MUST HELP IT'S ONLY LOGICAL
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ALSO DREAM JOURNALS
but maybe those are only useful to people who like weird shit idk
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^^^^ preaching to choir sobbbbbb wakaru yo.
Hoping the 1000 word suggestion meant any words, good or bad. I suspect the trick to consistent production is the ability to just take off and go for pages before stopping to judge/edit material. Because who writes 1000 good words every day. OTOH discipline has got to foster improvement, so maybe it's like being a pro violinist. Skip practice for one day and you'll hear it, skip practice for two and everyone will etc.
Does LJ count as a dream journal haha. Sometimes I also write frothing counterpoints to strawman pieces at overthinkingit.com and similar. Which I never send in because I wisely sleep on bad decisions;;;;;
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For me personally, discipline (not that I have any, what am I even talking about) is less about improvement (although it helps that too) than trying keep in the habit - my skills don't deteriorate much (in fact sometimes they improve) in those months long gaps, but the less I write, the harder it is to write ( ... )
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I have resolved (uh this month;;;) to set down everything I think of, even if it's just a little every day. Slow and steady etc. Like stomach crunches! Long before I sit down I have sentences floating up day and night. It's important to record them before I forget! So easy to forget the details.
Is there a diff between examining book mechanics visually and physically typing them? I've done one but not the other. But from what I've seen in the film Finding Forrester it's super effective haha.
I read this book once called Dogs of Babel and it inspired me to briefly keep a dream journal. The rough part was that dreams are harder to describe than waking scenes. Lazily I'd end up with just lists of mnemonic cues, like. "Roller coaster like the Viper at Six Flags CA" etc. But a dream journal written in legit prose seems like it would be pretty great, some KJ Bishop shit right dere
Reply
Well I mean it's kind of comparable to how writing things down helps you remember them and remember more detail, without even looking back at what you wrote. And as you're writing you just feel things going on in the prose in a sort of instinctive way that you don't get (or at least I don't get) from just examining it without writing it. I don't actually do this all that often anymore b/c I am super-lazy but I did it a lot early on and it was super helpful in putting me on the road to finding my own voice.
Haha, I don't describe my dreams in prose (god I shudder at the thought of how hard that'd be), I just spit out events like I'm chatting w/someone online, like. "the rainbow turtle is a hispanic man. WTF." (Hilariously, KJ Bishop says her dreams are usually pretty boring.)
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