Write-vember Diaries: Day 11
First drafts can be heavy, but you can always take your character to the pub
Inner-ramblings-turned-outer-writings of a girl trying to hit 50k in 30 days
An opening note on the joy of writing posts
because I’m having a lot of fun; please indulge me
If I’ve learnt one thing this month1, it’s that writing, formatting and posting these updates takes a lot longer than I think they’re going to (but also I love doing them - so I guess that’s two things learnt). Taking time can be a great thing, of course.
Instead of feeling like I “should” take a post in a certain direction, or I “should” do XYZ because of reasons 123, I’m embracing following the creative vibe. Letting the post, the story, tell me what direction it wants to go.
Sometimes, I’m happily lured into adding more and more to the post than initially intended. Sometimes, I get into a flow state trying to do the words on the page justice. But all these sometimes have meant more to me than so many shoulds.2 They are a marker towards a development of letting go and embracing creativity (and self - more on that another time). I’ve cultivated a real enjoyment for crafting and posting them, which is far, far more than I expected at this point - delightedly so.
Day 11 (in case you forgot after all the above rambles. I certainly did.)
Daily word count: 1,099/ 1,667
Total word count: 16,110 / 50,000
% complete: 32%
Morning wellness of choice: this yin yoga and a walk through some autumn leaves
Evening wellness of choice: short gym session
Drink of choice: peach iced tea [I had a delicious one at brunch yesterday which rather put today’s Lipton in its shadow]
Background Film of choice: Star Trek Into Darkness. My original impulse was to put on Dungeons and Dragons but then I’d watch Dungeons and Dragons. While I still really enjoy the Star Trek, it’s easier to tune out. Plus I get to look up every now and then and watch Cumberbatch have fun at being evil3 and the rest of the cast being equally great and entertaining. Plus, I love that the composer, Michael Giacchino, also has Ratatouille on his CV.
Session Notes
The race was on. Tonight I had a total of two hours to get 1.7k + this Substack post written. Sleep is my priority today. No time for me to be writing and editing until 10pm again. [it is however 9.09pm as I finish this, a full hour later than intended. but as I say, it’s been too much fun to stop]
After 50 minutes, I’d written 1,099 words and consumed one hot chocolate, which seemed like the right point to dart off and write this check-in.
Bringing levity to the page
because sometimes the first draft can be heavy
Despite all the fun I’ve been having, there was a moment where I nearly changed project today. I opened the file. I re-read my last entry. I started musing on what would come next.
You see, within the world I’m writing, I’m exploring the many of facets of the human mind and - in patches - this can be fairly dark and a bit difficult to get through. I’ve spent 10 solid days mulling around in this landscape, but today I craved levity. Give me a slice of lemon-elderflower drizzle cake to balance out all the triple chocolate I’ve been munching through.4
Just as I was about to type my first words on the other project, a flash of an idea sparked.
If I had wanted to watch Dungeons and Dragons for the camaraderie, the ensemble cast, the lightness of touch on serious subjects… Why couldn’t I write that into my story?
I flipped back to my original project and began typing. I librarian-shushed my brain when it tried to question sentence structure or meaning; this is a first draft, all that will come later.
At the end of my fingertips, my MC arrived in the future, at a jovial pub/tavern - a location loosely inspired by an old after-work pub in London. She arrived with one new friend and immediately met three new acquaintances. I’m not sure how she got there, but that doesn’t matter right now. And I can tell one of these four people will betray her, in a terrifying way, I just don’t yet know how. These are the fun ideas I get to work on across the next month, all because I decided to take my MC to the pub for the night.
I’m so, so pleased I was able to find this in me today - to be able to bring a new facet to the story that didn’t exist this morning. Nor even 3 hours ago! Once Write-vember is done, I’d like to bring this to my non-fiction writing; an area that has captured my attention for a few months but I’ve struggled to get much over the finish line. There is fun to be had. Perhaps in building a community here, it will help bring the camaraderie I seek.
Shelf-Talkers
As you can probably guess, I’ve not had a spare moment to read anything new for recommendation in the last 24 hours, but this note caught my eye and was *exactly* the vibe today. So I do in fact recommend this:
I hope your writing projects are flourishing just as you need them to. And if they’re feeling a little quiet, that’s fine too - they just need a little time.
Thank you to the gorgeous souls who show up every day to read, check-in, leave hearts or comments. I really appreciate every one of you 💕
And now I really must go because the laptop is 9%. Anyone else do this when they get into a flow?
See you tomorrow <3
Write-vember Diaries: Days 9 & 10
As I look out to the magical pinky-purple hues of dusk, I am entirely grateful for having written today. To have had any spark that rose up and stayed around long enough for me to translate it to paper. Because that’s what writing is, isn’t it? A translation of soul.
I mean I’ve learnt plenty already but you get my point
“But I just want to say that all this nothing has meant more to me than so many... somethings.” - Kathleen Kelly, You’ve Got Mail
It just got to the very menacing bit where he says “You should have let me sleep” and I mean to add this to my Sunday morning vocabulary when the cat wakes me
mm, apparently I’d like some cake. That’s what you get for working in a cafe all day.
I feel like you need to curate a playlist of all the best writing tracks, I'm loving seeing what you listen to!!