Saturday, June 3, 2017

Weekend Stockpiling

Once upon a time, I ran writing groups.

I ran a few here, and those became unwieldy. So then I ran a few on Facebook, and those were better, though still a lot of work. I realized that I can run a writing group, or write, but I can't do both without going nuts. So I'm not running them for the foreseeable future.

Still, I learned a few important lessons. The first was write every day. Every day you are away from the work is a day to lose your place. Every day you are writing -- even frustrating days where you only write two sentences -- is a chance that you might find your spark.

Paradoxically, the other lesson I learned was that some days you shouldn't write. I learned this from having writing group members with families and children, who wanted to keep those weekends sacred. As a solo flier with no children, I literally hadn't even thought of this. But I quickly realized how important those two days were: not just to recharge the batteries, but to stockpile raw materials for the week to come.

So, this weekend I've been trying to follow my own advice, reading and taking notes. So far, I've read two articles about Blerg City's fish market. Tomorrow I'm going to dive into my scanned sources and find out all I can about the city's porters and bearers. And then, come Monday, it'll be off to the races, I hope.

I've got an ambitious goal. I'll need to blow well past my usual 500 words a day to make it happen. But so far, so good.

This is going to be the least relaxing summer ever.

6 comments:

JaneB said...

Can you join a writing group, if they help? Topleftquadrant at blogspot is a descendant of the writing groups that were over here (we still talk about parking work on a downhill slope!) and you'd be very welcome to join in any time

Notorious Ph.D. said...

Oh, I LOVE that the writing group has a legacy! I might be up for joining, as I have two major projects this summer. And I love your one about a drishti: I was thinking in yoga class today about minding the transitions and the poses would follow, and how that applies to writing. Next blog post on that.

As for joining up, it looks like you're well into things. But if you want a late addition, send me a message and let me know how you're working it?

Zabeel said...

Hi! I'm a old alumn of that group too! I got a lot out of it. One that I really love is the graftonline on Facebook - it's a closed page where members talk about their wrk and log progress as they go with a bit of cheering from the sidelines.

Good Enough Woman said...

Notorious, several of us responded encouragingly to your inquiry on TopLeftQuad (with some procedural suggestions). You're welcome to jump in anytime! Still lots of weeks left.

AliceAcademic said...

I love the idea of dedicated reading and note-taking time. I'm going to give this a try myself instead of feeling guilty about reading and note-taking when I am supposed to be writing. Thanks for sharing this tip!

Yang Kuo said...

Can you join a writing group, if they help? Topleftquadrant at blogspot is a descendant of the writing groups that were over here (we still talk about parking work on a downhill slope!)


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