So I’ve nearly reached a full 30 days of lightning blogs. I feel like I’m slowly but surely getting my writing mojo back. It’s taken a while, and I think I still have a way to go still. I am not yet at a point that I can sit down and be inspired and just write for hours every evening. I’m generally a bit tired by work, and a bit torn between chilling, doing ‘good for me’ things (looking at you, problem set 3), and actually being creative.
The practice of writing is getting into my hands a bit – I navigate here and open Spotify to find the day’s track pretty fluidly. I need to check (pretty much every short blog) what number I’m on. Once I’ve hit a specific round number, I will likely drop that element of the lightning blog format, and the format may change as I need to use it as a reflective place to think about the challenges of my bigger project.
I am so excited to have the writing project I’ve been dreaming about. I am proud of myself that I am working on it with some regularity and consistency. I am still struggling a bit with timing – for example, my best ‘ideas’ time seems to happen when I turn off my bedside light. Like, most nights, I lie back and suddenly, rich character sketches float into my brain. And I know I can’t leap up and write, because then I will be a grumpy mess every morning.
Dear characters, please come to me in the early evening! 11.30pm is not a good time to come calling!
“So build me up, buttercup, don’t break my heart”
The next steps I want to take on my writing journey (aside from keeping my blog practice up) is to develop some regularity about my fiction writing. My very small, totally reachable goal is 200 words per day. So small it’s a laughable total, but literally impossible not to do, because it’s so so achieveable. That rate will mean it will likely take well over a year to get draft 1 of the bloody thing out, but I can always write more should I have the time and inclination. I also want to find a writing group that I can join for support and feedback, as I slowly trickle chapters out.
What else should I investigate? Do you have a favourite writing programme? I’ve been reading reviews of Scrivener, and it sounds really good and also really intimidating…
Day 28.
Writing song:
Everyday Adventures 