I recently received a question from a friend of mine. She asked, “Since you’re challenging yourself to write weekly, what do you do to make it more fun? Would you listen to music, make a favorite snack, or spontaneously break into dance halfway through your word quota?”
The answer to this question differs slightly between when I was working on Veritas drafts and drafting this current story. When I first finished up Veritas, I had two jobs. Because of this, my hours were all over the place, so I edited and revised sporadically as I had time. Then after I got my first real “grown up” job, I did those things on the weekends.
Since I was spending hours at a time working on it, I would make a giant cup of coffee or tea, complete with frothed creamer, and sit down to work. I also listened to a lot of instrumental music (mainly Lindsey Stirling and the Outlander score). A couple years ago, I also started lighting a candle before starting–and I even made a custom Veritas scent at a candle bar!
Part of the consistently in my writing rituals was due to Veritas being in revision status. Typically, I would have sent a draft of it to a friend and waited for their reply. After they finished it, and we discussed it (both what wasn’t working and what was), I would feel so inspired to keep working on it. However, since it was being revised, there would be long stretches of time where I didn’t have much to work on.
Drafting my new story has gone a little differently. Since I’ve been trying to figure out what the best way to write it is, I don’t have any of those little rituals. And for whatever reason, I can’t seem to listen to music while I draft this one. (Maybe once I start revising I will?) Perhaps trying out a few of those past rituals will help my brain get into writing mode.
I’ve tried out prize motivation. I told myself that I could only sign up for the AWP Conference, if I participated in the first two weeks of NaNoWriMo. I managed to write at least 1,667 words every day for those two weeks, but then the Thanksgiving holidays hit, and it was hard to keep up the momentum of the previous two weeks. But I did write enough to hit that goal. However, I also had a friend who added a little extra motivation, and it helped to have her as an accountability partner through that time.
After Monday’s post, I did have a friend offer to PayPal me coffee money if I picked a routine and stuck to it, which is actually quite motivating. So if any of you generous souls out there also have similar ideas, or wish to fund my coffee addiction as a reward for meeting my word count goals, just let me know.
As far as spontaneous dance breaks go… Those are reserved for moments when I’ve figured out tough plotting issues or character motivations.
Britnie Jenkins 