tahariel: (Dragonbird - fly)
tahariel ([personal profile] tahariel) wrote2010-12-04 12:35 am

Writing habits

As part of the campaign I am inflicting on myself to develop better writing discipline, I decided to instill some new writing habits into myself to try and reprogram my brain into settling down to writing when I tell it to.

It actually seems to be working, too, and no-one is more surprised than me!

This pretty much came about when I realised that as long as I was sitting on the sofa where I always sit my brain automatically fell into a sort of pissing-about mode where it just wanted to veg out and play computer games or read or watch TV. Which unfortunately was not conducive to writing.

So I figured maybe if I chose a different place to be my writing place, and always went there to write, then maybe my brain would reset to writing mode when I was there? Worth a try, right? But I hate writing at a desk, and obviously the sofa is out, so I settled on my bed as a writing place. And to reinforce it I decided to make myself a hot chocolate when I went to start writing as another sort of reminder that it was productive time now.

I've written every night this week, at least 800 words per night. Part of that, no doubt, is being excited about a new project, I'll admit, but I haven't written this much this regularly in at least three years.

So here's my wordcounter as of tonight, before I head off to bed:

9547 / 100000
(9.55%)
Dragonbird

Do you have any weird writing rituals or habits? Do they really help, or can you ignore them and still get on with writing?

[identity profile] zoeiona.livejournal.com 2010-12-04 02:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I write best in bed too. Not too badly on the sofa, but bed is comfy. Editing is done on the armchair in front of the desktop PC.

My only other weirdness is that I handwrite all my first drafts. If I'm rejigging an existing scene, even in major ways, I can do that on PC, but I really need to handwrite my first drafts. They come out better that way.

[identity profile] tahariel.livejournal.com 2010-12-04 03:31 pm (UTC)(link)
How funny - I'm the complete opposite. I can't write by hand at all. My fingers can't keep up with my brain and I can't make corrections and move things about the way I naturally do when writing on a computer. If we have a techno-armageddon and all the computers die I'll probably never write again.