At this point I seem to have given up on pursuing the editing of the first part of my book. Instead I am going to focus on finishing my first draft. I'm not sure what to do right now. Everything is up in the air with school and I am constantly stressed so I can't concentrate enough to write properly. I know that all advice for writer's block is to push through it but I don't think it will work this time. I need to wait it out. The most I could do was push myself to getting to the 110000 word mark which I am very proud of. I will try to continue writing this coming weekend as the rest of the week is hectic to say the least.
I did write a short story last weekend. I went on a biking trip with my dad to prepare for this summer and I brought my new notebook with me. I wanted to test out how I planned to do it during the summer. I typed it up on my computer yesterday and I want to spend the next week tinkering with it. I am nervous that it doesn't feel like a short story. It comes across more as a vignette of something bigger. I have never really done them before so we'll see how this goes as I continue to edit.
As you can tell from how many topics I am touching base on, I really have no idea what's happening right now. But as long as I am getting words down on a page I am not going to worry. All the advice that I find online points to writing everyday so that's what I am going to do.
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I thought it might be fun to talk about my writing habits. I prefer writing on the computer as I can type faster than I can write. I also like being able to go back and change things, which is harder when writing on paper. A lot of my first drafts is straight dialogue so being able to add in description and character actions afterwards is helpful. I am always searching for a better word to use, or a more impactful way of saying something so having to erase my writing on a piece of paper would drive me crazy.
Microsoft Word is my favourite program to use. I attempted to use Scrivener not so long ago. I quickly gave up on it. Having all those gadgets are cool at first but they are also distracting and I never felt comfortable with the layout of that program. All other reviews that I have seen are positive so it might just be me. There are features like being able to split a manuscript into chapters that I really enjoyed about it, but it's not enough to convince me that I need to switch permanently.
I never have any snacks while I am writing. Food distracts me. I will have water by my desk as well but, honestly, whenever I get into the true "zone" of writing I tune out everything around me and only concentrate on my characters and my setting so I never actually reach for it. I might reward myself when I have really fun treats. Every couple hundred words and I get a candy. Typing it out feels weird because it sounds like I am rewarding a dog, not myself.
It's still on my to do list to write with photos also on the screen or music in the background. I have started to create a folder (I don't know if that's the right word) on Pinterest which I will link here if you want to check it out, but I haven't yet found the time to use them. I can't deny that they are gorgeous though. I have some celtic music that I was listening to over March Break that I thought might be good to use, but I haven't gotten around to trying it yet. I thought that it might be better to have that going while I edit instead of writing my first draft.
Writing in short chunks like ten or twenty minutes never works for me. Like I said before, I have to really get into the story before I start coming up with any good material so by the time that I am concentrated, five or ten minutes have already elapsed. I like knowing that I can take as much time as I want. An hour or two is the perfect balance between enough time and not too much that I lose concentration.
I prefer to write in the mornings and the evenings because they always seem more peaceful. During the day my mind is whirring at a million miles an hour. When I write in the morning before school it starts my day off with a feeling of accomplishment because I did something useful with my time. At night I have the luxury of writing however late I want. Though when I say late, think a lot earlier than you would expect. I am an early riser and, other than a short period a few years ago, I like to go to sleep fairly early as well. That means I stop writing at ten thirty or eleven at the absolute latest because my mind needs half an hour to calm down before I can get to sleep.
By the way, I have made a list of a bunch of topics I want to talk about in my blog posts, but if you have any suggestions of something you would like for me to touch on, feel free to let me know down below in the comments. I am aware that you might have to have an account to leave comments, but you can also message me on Goodreads or Pinterest (though I don't know whether you can send someone a message over Pinterest as I have never done it before). I have also recently joined a book forum called Love Books? Talk Books! so if you are a member I would love to be your friend on that platform. Currently I am still a little lost with the site but there seem to be many welcoming people there.
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