Day 99: Freewriting monster battles
I got a late start today, and I ended up taking a nap because of the heat (96 degrees in the house!), but I also discovered something rather neat.
I started 4thewords.com 12 days ago, and they encourage keeping up a writing streak. In fact, they give you little gifts for when you hit certain milestone days in your streak. When I started 4thewords, I was (and still am) writing the rough draft of volume 2 of my series, so keeping up the streak wasn't a problem. Even writing on Sunday wasn't an issue, because I usually go to bed after midnight, so I'd write some words after 12 on (technically) Sunday morning and they'd count as words for my streak on Sunday. Then I'd go to bed and not write at all on Sunday when I woke up, and I could still keep my writing Sabbath day.
But the past few days I was doing additional characterization for my villains, which included adding bits and pieces to my outlines for my manuscripts, and not writing prose.
But I didn't want to lose my streak! And I wanted to battle monsters!
So I started doing the outlining and characterization in 4thewords. I pasted the synopsis into a file in the game before starting a battle (so the copied words don't count toward my battles). Then I started a monster battle and added whatever words I needed to the synopsis, and the game counted the added words for the battles. I had to keep referring to my series bible in another program on my computer, so the process was slow, but the time limit for my monster battles (at least at this point) is very generous, so I had no problems about the slower writing pace.
I was really surprised at how much more productive and creative I was when doing the outlining and characterization in 4thewords! The reason is because I was battling monsters and wanted to keep writing words.
So when I hit a snag or I had to think about a problem, instead of doing like I usually did, which is to stop and ruminate (and sometimes get distracted), I found myself immediately start to freewrite in 4thewords directly in my outline.
All so that I could defeat more monsters faster! Amazingly, that little bit of motivation helped me to stay on track and keep focused on my characterization.
I found myself easily coming up with ideas that helped me continue past the snag. Then I edited the freewrite and condensed the rambling ideas for the synopsis (since the time limits on monster battles are so generous, it wasn't a problem to take some time to do the edits). I was actually rather surprised by how many words I wrote when only adding those minor bits of villain characterization to the book synopses.
I had a similar issue today where I had to do some blocking for the next scenes, and then I had to make a decision about if two of my heroines should still have an ability I originally gave to them when I was doing their initial backstories.
I did the work in 4thewords and battled monsters at the same time, and I found myself again being very productive and focused. I did a freewrite to help me make my decision about my heroines' ability, and when I had a plot hole in the next scene I was blocking, I got a fresh file and did a freewrite brainstorm to help me figure that out, too.
I've done freewrites before to try to brainstorm, but they've never been as effective as they were today (and yesterday). Maybe it was the fact that the monster battle was "active," and running. Even though I had plenty of time for the battle, I still found myself feeling the urge to hurry up and finish the battle. Maybe it was so that I could defeat the monster sooner.
Regardless of why, my freewrites have been incredibly creative and effective, and they hadn't always been that way for me. I was surprised that my writing time today was only 1 hour 55 minutes, because I got a lot accomplished.
If it hadn't been so incredibly hot, I probably wouldn't have taken that nap and might have gotten more done, but my computer was overheating (despite the fan I have to cool the computer) so I decided to stop. As a result, I'm staying up later than usual to continue to work, but for today's post, I'm going to only include the work I did on Monday, and any work I do after midnight will be included in tomorrow's totals.
Another thing I did today was some editing on the Japanese translation of Sushi for One, so that's included in my writing-related business time below. It looks like that's going to be a really tedious process because I have to edit all kanji grades 1-6, which means I need to do a search for each and every kanji in the document.
I finished blocking one scene and part of another, so I might spend some time to block a couple more scenes tomorrow, then go back to writing the rough draft tomorrow.
Time spent writing: 1 hour, 55 minutes
Total number of words: 0 words (Like yesterday, I didn’t keep track of the exact number of words I wrote when doing the outlining/characterization)
Average writing speed: n/a
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 2 hours, 31 minutes
My takeaway for today: Using 4thewords to gamify my outlining and freewriting helps me be more productive and focused.
I started 4thewords.com 12 days ago, and they encourage keeping up a writing streak. In fact, they give you little gifts for when you hit certain milestone days in your streak. When I started 4thewords, I was (and still am) writing the rough draft of volume 2 of my series, so keeping up the streak wasn't a problem. Even writing on Sunday wasn't an issue, because I usually go to bed after midnight, so I'd write some words after 12 on (technically) Sunday morning and they'd count as words for my streak on Sunday. Then I'd go to bed and not write at all on Sunday when I woke up, and I could still keep my writing Sabbath day.
But the past few days I was doing additional characterization for my villains, which included adding bits and pieces to my outlines for my manuscripts, and not writing prose.
But I didn't want to lose my streak! And I wanted to battle monsters!
So I started doing the outlining and characterization in 4thewords. I pasted the synopsis into a file in the game before starting a battle (so the copied words don't count toward my battles). Then I started a monster battle and added whatever words I needed to the synopsis, and the game counted the added words for the battles. I had to keep referring to my series bible in another program on my computer, so the process was slow, but the time limit for my monster battles (at least at this point) is very generous, so I had no problems about the slower writing pace.
I was really surprised at how much more productive and creative I was when doing the outlining and characterization in 4thewords! The reason is because I was battling monsters and wanted to keep writing words.
So when I hit a snag or I had to think about a problem, instead of doing like I usually did, which is to stop and ruminate (and sometimes get distracted), I found myself immediately start to freewrite in 4thewords directly in my outline.
All so that I could defeat more monsters faster! Amazingly, that little bit of motivation helped me to stay on track and keep focused on my characterization.
I found myself easily coming up with ideas that helped me continue past the snag. Then I edited the freewrite and condensed the rambling ideas for the synopsis (since the time limits on monster battles are so generous, it wasn't a problem to take some time to do the edits). I was actually rather surprised by how many words I wrote when only adding those minor bits of villain characterization to the book synopses.
I had a similar issue today where I had to do some blocking for the next scenes, and then I had to make a decision about if two of my heroines should still have an ability I originally gave to them when I was doing their initial backstories.
I did the work in 4thewords and battled monsters at the same time, and I found myself again being very productive and focused. I did a freewrite to help me make my decision about my heroines' ability, and when I had a plot hole in the next scene I was blocking, I got a fresh file and did a freewrite brainstorm to help me figure that out, too.
I've done freewrites before to try to brainstorm, but they've never been as effective as they were today (and yesterday). Maybe it was the fact that the monster battle was "active," and running. Even though I had plenty of time for the battle, I still found myself feeling the urge to hurry up and finish the battle. Maybe it was so that I could defeat the monster sooner.
Regardless of why, my freewrites have been incredibly creative and effective, and they hadn't always been that way for me. I was surprised that my writing time today was only 1 hour 55 minutes, because I got a lot accomplished.
If it hadn't been so incredibly hot, I probably wouldn't have taken that nap and might have gotten more done, but my computer was overheating (despite the fan I have to cool the computer) so I decided to stop. As a result, I'm staying up later than usual to continue to work, but for today's post, I'm going to only include the work I did on Monday, and any work I do after midnight will be included in tomorrow's totals.
Another thing I did today was some editing on the Japanese translation of Sushi for One, so that's included in my writing-related business time below. It looks like that's going to be a really tedious process because I have to edit all kanji grades 1-6, which means I need to do a search for each and every kanji in the document.
I finished blocking one scene and part of another, so I might spend some time to block a couple more scenes tomorrow, then go back to writing the rough draft tomorrow.
Time spent writing: 1 hour, 55 minutes
Total number of words: 0 words (Like yesterday, I didn’t keep track of the exact number of words I wrote when doing the outlining/characterization)
Average writing speed: n/a
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 2 hours, 31 minutes
My takeaway for today: Using 4thewords to gamify my outlining and freewriting helps me be more productive and focused.
Comments
Post a Comment