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*falls asleep on keyboard*
I should really go to bed ...
We're almost caught up on Supernatural; two more episodes to go. And I got both House and Numb3rs for Christmas, so which shall I watch next? Decisions ... :-)
I've been going through and polishing up some of my older original stories and posting them on my other LJ. Today's story is one that makes me giggle every time I read it: Henchmen, a tale of two out-of-work henchmen trying to make a living by other means. Flower arranging, say. *Hee*. I need to write more with them. If you like my sense of humor on the goofier SGA stories, then you may like this one.
It's kind of interesting to me, looking at these older stories, just how MUCH I've actually improved over the last few years. Heck, I've improved an awful lot just since I've been writing SGA. Surprisingly, I really do think that reading slash (which I'd never done before) has been good for my writing skills, because good slash uses language in a different sort of way not only from most genfic, but from most published novels as well. And I think it's having a bit of an impact on the way that I put words together, especially descriptive passages.
I'm actually starting to wrap up most of the ficathon stories. I have one drawing and two SGA ficathon stories to go, plus Derry's non-SGA one. Everything but Derry's story is started, and I even have some ideas for that. And work is really slow right now, so I can write fic at work -- which is always good for getting stuff done.
We're almost caught up on Supernatural; two more episodes to go. And I got both House and Numb3rs for Christmas, so which shall I watch next? Decisions ... :-)
I've been going through and polishing up some of my older original stories and posting them on my other LJ. Today's story is one that makes me giggle every time I read it: Henchmen, a tale of two out-of-work henchmen trying to make a living by other means. Flower arranging, say. *Hee*. I need to write more with them. If you like my sense of humor on the goofier SGA stories, then you may like this one.
It's kind of interesting to me, looking at these older stories, just how MUCH I've actually improved over the last few years. Heck, I've improved an awful lot just since I've been writing SGA. Surprisingly, I really do think that reading slash (which I'd never done before) has been good for my writing skills, because good slash uses language in a different sort of way not only from most genfic, but from most published novels as well. And I think it's having a bit of an impact on the way that I put words together, especially descriptive passages.
I'm actually starting to wrap up most of the ficathon stories. I have one drawing and two SGA ficathon stories to go, plus Derry's non-SGA one. Everything but Derry's story is started, and I even have some ideas for that. And work is really slow right now, so I can write fic at work -- which is always good for getting stuff done.
no subject
*laughs* Well, that's really first, foremost and always what it's about. Of course, I realize that it's not terribly helpful. How do you get ready for a marathon? Run. How do you lose weight? Eat less. But there's a world of difference between *knowing* that and actually doing it.
If actually sitting down to write is a problem, I can tell you a few things that help me.
Something that I will often do is to assign myself a daily goal. I once wrote a novel (a very bad novel, but we won't go there) by telling myself to write a page a day for a year. A page is very small; of course this was back in the days of writing in longhand in notebooks, so it was literally a page, but on the computer it's about 300 words or so. Before breakfast, after dinner, on your lunch break, whenever you can find a few spare minutes -- work on your daily goal. I've learned over time that it's better to set a small goal that's easy to meet and adds up slowly, rather than a large goal that is hard to meet. Better to tell yourself to write 100 words a day, and always achieve it, than to try to write 1000 and never achieve it. Of course, you can always surpass your goal in a day. But it gives you a place to *stop*, to put it aside and say to yourself, "I'm not thinking about this any more today." The hardest thing about writing a long-ish story is that there's nowhere to stop except the end, so you can't get away from the damn thing. Having goals gives you defined start- and end-points.
I like to listen to music while I write, but to remove other distractions -- turning off the TV, for example, and having my husband and pets somewhere else. This is an ideal state that can't always be achieved. ;-) Still, you might see if you can find what works for you. If you're always getting distracted by the Internet when you're trying to write (and notice what *I'm* doing right now...), then maybe unplugging your network cable while you're writing would help.
Another thing that actually does help me is to have a cup of tea while I'm writing. Like with the daily goals thing, it seems to help me focus. I'll sit and write while I'm drinking this cup of tea and I *won't get up*. On the other hand, eventually the tea runs out and I have to go get more, so then it helps get me away from the computer for a few minutes.
I'm glad science is finding out that tea is good for you, because I drink a lot of it ...
Anyway, I hope that a little of this will help you!