Monday, February 6, 2012

Writing Resolution: Week 5

Resolution Icon
My New Year's Resolution was to write. Preferably for a novel, but any creative writing will suffice. I must have my butt in my chair behind my desk for two hours each night to write. The time frame I set up was from 6-8pm Monday through Friday. Weekly posts will report on my progress and keep me on track!


Week Five Results:
Did I write all five days for two hours? YES
Word count for the week = 1012 words


What I Learned This Week:
  1. My word count was abysmal, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it.  I still worked on writing stuff like plotting and research (which I don't count towards my word count because it's in notebooks, not typed). But as you probably saw Behind the Story post... this was a rough week.
  2. To solve my plotting/setting issues, I did something I hadn't done before.  I kind of did little synopses for each possible plot/setting combo with what I'd do if I chose that option.  It helped because I wasn't going over it all in my head.  After doing this, I saw the pros and cons of each option and which option fit best with my overall themes.  
  3. I really think stress and personal life has an impact on creativity. The reason I had such a bad week was likely due to stress at work. When you're worried and stressed about other things, it's hard to get your brain to change directions. I wonder if there's like a stress chemical hormone in the brain that has to do with blocking creativity receptors.  Hmmm.
I hope all the black of the new layout doesn't bother anyone.  I was absolutely bored of the old one, and wanted something with either typewriters or owls (as I love both).  Plus I wanted my blog and twitter to match because I'm a goober.

How was your writing week?
Do you think stress negatively impacts creativity?

3 comments:

  1. Stress definitely negatively impacts creativity. All of my best ideas come when I'm most relaxed, like on the verge of falling asleep or in the middle of the shower.

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    Replies
    1. Hehe! I get writing ideas in the shower too! Never thought about it being a relaxed thing!

      I've been drinking tea when I sit down to write, so that probably goes along with your relaxed theory too!

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    2. The shower is the birth place of many of my good ideas :P

      I like the strategy you used in #2. I like being able to see things out in front of me like that.

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