Creative Writing Slump (ROW80 Update)

 

Hi, Everyone!  How are we at the start of Week 3 already??

As some of you may remember, I am combining the "National Novel Writing Month" goal with the "Digital Writing Month" goal--I'm still trying to write 50k this month, but for me that means half my words are in online content, and half are in creative writing.  So far, the blog writing has been much easier--I get to talk about things that have happened, and what they made me think of, while the creative writing is WAY more stymied by choices.

There was a DigiWriMo prompt last week that made me very uncomfortable. I’ve been thinking about it off and on this week.

Here is an excerpt of the challenge:

Digital Writing Prompt: Revealing the Play, not the Polish

(November 10, 2014, by Chris Friend for www.digitalwritingmonth.com)

For this challenge, we’re getting vulnerable.

1. Upload your current work in its current form. It’s not finished, and that’s perfect.

2. Tweet a link to your work. Be sure to use the #digiwrimo hashtag.

3. You may also want to tweet about how it feels to publicize something that’s still unfinished. Talk about the unfinished nature of your work: What would you like to get from reviewers? What makes this vulnerability awkward or scary?

Art and fruitful living are supposed to be about stepping outside your comfort zone, and considering or experiencing new things. But the idea of putting something rough and awkward online awakens my inner social anxiety bot. It would be misshapen like that, and would represent me--and my work--forever. And it wouldn’t say what I wanted it to say. And yet, at the same time, this anxiety seems kind of silly, since so much of the art I like to make, while also feeding my inner perfectionist, is about letting go of control and embracing the one-of-a-kind imperfect quality that comes with making something by hand, and letting the other person have some control over the interpretation. 

But I still want the control over how it gets put out there…

NaNoWriMo/DigiWriMo/ROW80 Update: I had a lot of time, but I succumbed to gloominess and did not write much this week.

WRITING-SPECIFIC GOALS:

1. Blog Sketches: Still at 15. Not shabby, but this definitely also trailed off this week (I only drew 1 doodle).

2. Blog Drafts (Pre-writing 10+ blog posts for November & December, revised to be two ROW80/NaNoWriMo update posts & one crafts-based post per week):  I continue to be 2 blog-posts ahead.  It is not the "cache of material" I envisioned, but it works.

3. Vlog Idea: I need better lighting, and more energy. This has not progressed.

4. Creative Writing: I’ve written a couple more chapters (scenes, really), but I’m a bit stuck on where to take the story. My characters are fighting a plague, and I’m trying to decide how much of a traditional “hero’s quest” should really be necessary. And whether this should be the main point/arc of the story, or just an interval in the characters' histories.

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ONGOING SOCIAL MEDIA/PERSONAL GOALS:

5. Tweet more Original Content & Reply to more ROW80 posts/comments.  Same. I added up my tweets for Nov 1-14. A huge chunk are, unsurprisingly, commentary and discussion about our writing projects (it's very meta...).  Even with my tweeting (and writing) less this week, my tweets for the month have already passed 5,000. Admittedly, some of those words are “retweeted by @fiberverse” and links (which count as 3-4 words), but that’s part of what twitter is, so I’m trying not to be too self-critical about what to count or edit out for the word count. Also, part of my goal of studying my tweets was to see just how much of my content really was re-posting others’ content.

6. Keep Up with Minimum Exercise Goals: My minimum personal goal is still 3/3/3 (3+ sets each of counter push-offs, planks, and jumping jacks, for 3+ days in a row). Sort of keeping up, but not surpassing, which is a long-term goal.

The big challenge for the week will be pushing past the "Week 2 slump," and figuring out what to do about analyzing and curing my plague.  Some crazy people have already finished the 50k, but I'm trying not to pay too much attention to them this year (with varied success).  And I do appreciate how encouraging everyone is on the various forums!