Writing Consistently--What I've Been Doing

So my posts here slacked off about the time that I adopted a new personal production policy regarding my fiction writing. After listening to an installment of the "I Should Be Writing" podcast by Mur Lafferty, I went and checked out a writing/tracking tool called The Magic Spreadsheet. It has been, so far, one of the most encouraging tools for the consistent production of words that I have encountered, and I am on a two week streak as of yesterday. I have written my words after long, horrid shifts at work where I would much rather have just showered and gone to bed. I have written big production (1775!) days and in bare minimum (250!) days, but I'm working hard to establish a writing habit that might even supplant my Candy Crush habit.

And that would be for the best for everyone, but especially me.

In the two weeks that I have been writing, I have roughed out (shitty first draft, yay!) a short story about a gender-bending highwayman who ends up back home among the people who knew him when he was a she, and I have returned to what I think will be a short novel about different inheritance structures in a fantasy setting, and how they might shape culture, and the lives of three characters. That sounds dull when I write it out that way, but I aspire to non-dullness, I swear. This one is based on a dream I had months ago, and I have several snippets of scenes that I wrote by hand or for 750words.com when I was trying that tool.  It didn't work for me, but the Magic Spreadsheet seems to be more effective. You might try it, if you have a daily writing goal, or if you want one.

I embraced this tool as a part of trying to follow the writing tips of Cory Doctorow. Here's what he had to say:

1. Write every day. Anything you do every day gets easier. If you’re insanely busy, make the amount that you write every day small (100 words? 250 words?) but do it every day.
2. Write even when the mood isn’t right. You can’t tell if what you’re writing is good or bad while you’re writing it.
3. Write when the book sucks and it isn’t going anywhere. Just keep writing. It doesn’t suck. Your conscience is having a panic attack because it doesn’t believe your subconscious knows what it’s doing.
4. Stop in the middle of a sentence, leaving a rough edge for you to start from the next day — that way, you can write three or five words without being “creative” and before you know it, you’re writing.
5. Write even when the world is chaotic. You don’t need a cigarette, silence, music, a comfortable chair, or inner peace to write. You just need ten minutes and a writing implement.

In keeping with these tips, and the notion that social accountability is also helpful to me, I started a closed Facebook group for other people who wanted to commit to a daily writing goal. So far, it's working, and I think for others, not just for me. I can't wait to see what comes from my own committed practice, as well as that of the people who raised their hand for the group.

More here, when I have more to tell!