I commit to write
one thousand words a day
So I am 3 437 words behind today.
Day four.
I read the manuscript
the W.I.P.
and laugh out loud
at scenes so real
I believe them.
More scenes
Good scenes
but
how do they connect?
Where will I
find the patchwork
pieces to make
this fit together?
I think.
I clip a poodle.
I think.
I clean the kitchen.
I think.
I make the bed.
I think.
I go to the gym.
I think.
I tell my students,
“Don’t think. Just write,
your brain is in your pen.”
So now I need
to take
my own advice.
Shawn L. Bird 
No need to approve this comment, but you have a typo in your second line: “one thousand” not “on thousand.” Fun poem though, have a great day! 🙂
I will approve it, so people know I want to know if someone catches typos! lol Thanks.
this made me think of your process as a quilt of scenes you are piecing together with a thousand stitches a day… all the best in your camp nanowrimo quest
Precisely! I write in quilt squares, and then I have to figure out the best layout for all my squares…
Writing is the hardest part…
Well it’s not, actually. Making sure all the writing connects to tell a cohesive story is the hardest part! For me, at least.
This is great! That’s where I ‘m stuck, too! I have to take about 8 sections and connect/blend them together. Hahaha! They have to make sense first 😛 Oh well…I’m enjoying Camp Nano. Now…if I can only find a cabin with adults. Yay for us! We are actually doing ths.
Ellespeth
My challenge is that I have the main series story, which is set in stone, but this novel is a parallel plot from another character’s perspective, so his story needs to have its own arc that works within the series arc.
Years ago I tried, Journalling the Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron and it actually works…to allow your pen to guide you…not your brain:) Great idea to have a goal of 1000 words a day. WI
Amazon delivered me The Artist’s Way and The Artist’s Way Morning Pages Journal just last week. I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet. 🙂 I’m a little concerned because I am SO not a morning person. They might be Midnight pages for me… 😉
I am a night owl and did the exercise while working my late shifts. You do it when wake up…be it 10am. or noon. There IS a point to it. It is used as well for counselling this method…quite enlightening. Good luck. There is no right or wrong way…just set your pen on paper and write without lifting it off the paper or pausing or thinking…just write. You will be amazed after a few minutes. I suggest this to teens with personal emotion issues they need to work through. Happy Journalling.
For the last year I gave my students visual or alphabetical prompts and they had to write for X mins (varied throughout classes and throughout the year- 18 was the most). The only rule was that they had to keep pen on paper and keep writing. I got really good feedback on it, and many of them mentioned that they could tell their writing fluency had improved dramatically, which was the point of the exercise. Like I said above, I need to follow my own advice! 😉
Very good I like it
“Just write,
your brain is in your pen.”
I should heed your advice.
Easier said than done, eh? lol
In the land of all writers you have nailed the issue we all have when writing. Good one Shawn
lol Thanks
i get thata way typying at lotsa werdz a minute as fast as i can think, sumtimes…so jest go with teh flow and cum back an fixmistake laters…i do.when i write i write so fast lotsa time i cant read my own writin lol.so i like the keyboard now ,,is kewl for thet reason i cant typpe fast as i think a lotta times,,funny blog…cya cheers:)….Q
You made my day, because this is exactly where I am with my WIP–looking for the right connections for my scattered scenes!
My sympathy! I’m now distracted trying to write a poem for a submission deadline. Arg. Of course, it’s not coming together either.
Thanks so much for the follow, SB. You described me in this post. LOL I might post someday how I write all the time, everywhere. *Hair dripping* “Honey, hold on. I have to unload my brain [on the computer]. I was writing in the shower.” I like your fun voice.
Once I get going, there’s no stopping, it happens all day, snippets appear in dreams, etc. Apparently it’s the getting going that’s an issue right now!
You’ll lift out of it. =)
Fake it until you can make it: I don’t know what to write I don’t know what to write why don’t I know what to write how do I make this connect with that other thing I don’t know what I’m doing I’d rather clip a poodle (?) I’d rather wax the floor…wishing you a speedy exit from your writing rut! 🙂
lol Thank you. Got almost a thousand words last night! 😉
Hooray! (Don’t forget that they don’t have to all be good words — any ol’ thousand words will do.) 🙂
That is a most excellent point! THANKS. I will write 1000 words good and bad today!