Thursday, April 19, 2012

Thursday April Writing Month Check-In Status

Just a quick post to see how everyone is doing this month on their writing goals. Even if you've fallen behind don't stress out about it. The goal of April is to get yourself writing. Yeah, the pages and words are a good way to measure how far we've come in the month but that's not the point. The point is to do something we all love to do and that's write.

I'm not usually a pat yourself on the back kind of person but you probably need it. So take a deep breath, de-stress yourself from the ball of anxiety you've become after realizing you're not doing as well as you wanted to do and reward yourself. Writing shouldn't be punishment.Writing is supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be an extension of our imagination onto page.

One of the exercises of NaNoWriMo is to just write. It doesn't matter if it has nothing to do with the story you're writing, the point is that you're writing. Your brain is thinking creatively. So if you're stalled on your story don't sweat it. We all go through these spells. Stressing about it will make it worse and then we start to stress that we're stressing over our writing. It's a vicious cycle.


So the goal for the rest of the month is to just enjoy it. Enjoy the time you do get to sit down in front of your computer or the time you get to pull out your notebook and jot down your thoughts and snippets. Remember how much you love to write scenery or dialogue and just write for the hell of it. I want you to succeed. You want to succeed. And you can do this. I have faith in your ability to create. Just have fun.

Go out enjoy the sun. Enjoy the wind buffering against your face. Smell the sweet flowers blooming. Go for a walk. Take a nap. Read a book. Do anything else but sit there and stare at your computer screen for hours.

Sin

9 comments:

Hellie Sinclair said...

Working on my collage--that has felt like progress, in an odd but fun way. :) I've been working too on the "class" Terri and I are giving in a couple weeks, trying to sounds more...informative. Break it up to look more visually interesting.

Terri Osburn said...

I just deleted my own comment BEFORE I even hit Publish. HOW did I do that???

Was cruising along getting all sorts of ideas for the new WIP then hit a wall called exhaustion. I WILL be catching up on sleep this weekend. Hoping by Saturday evening or Sunday at the latest to get my feet back under me. Or my keyboard rather.

Maureen said...

I'm butt in chair today...after RT sucked the living soul out of me then spit it back inside. Hasn't anchored properly yet...

Terri Osburn said...

BTW - Has anyone heard from Scape? I'm afraid we need to sail in and liberate her from that day job.

JulieJustJulie said...

Poor Scape!

JulieJustJulie said...

My Apprentice is diligently working on rewrites. His biggest challenge is learning the difference between storyteller/narration and letting the story tell the story. He has to let go of his being in control and let the characters drive the story. In other words he’s in control, but then again he’s not. They are. “They” being his characters. Since IMO a story is better when the reader can “hear” the character’s voice, not the writer’s voice, even though the writer is the one writing the story. Does that make sense? Or do I sound like I’m trying to promote anarchy?
Maureen explained it well with her “ Are you the puppeteer or the puppet” blog.

The guy has six books plotted out for this series. He also has a standalone story that he outlined for me. It is a more serious contemporary novel. It has an Intriguing plot, rather sad, with a thought provoking tone to it. It is also very ambitious project to tackle for any writer, let alone a newbie.

JulieJustJulie said...

A for my own personal Crossroads project? I finished off an essay/note that was started back in December of 2010.
It is about 1050 words. Nothing momentous to be sure. But. It is finished and it will be (for the moment at least ) my final piece/essay/chapter for my I'm-only-gathering-this-stuff-together-because-my-children-complained that I never finish telling them the story not-quite-but-something-like-a- memoir-thingie. I just call it TMW, or MoWa. Which is short for The Mother Wars.
I like the last line in the piece. Its a nice way to end things IMO.

JulieJustJulie said...

About Mowa. If you have kids or have baby sat then I'm pretty sure that you've heard that sound ...
"Mowaa mowaaa we want moreeee." ;)

JulieJustJulie said...

Ooooh ... then there is the index card thing I have my Apprentice doing.