Happy Friday!
I hope you all had a wonderful week. My week was pretty much consumed by one thing: NaNoWriMo. Except for yesterday, when I worked on a few other things. A few other things that are not the pile of laundry that needs to be folded and put away. That’s what weekends are for, right? š
That’s right! I’m doing NaNoWriMo again this year. I might regret saying that publicly if, you know, I end up failing miserably. I’ve been Snapchatting about it, though, (follow me for more regular updates: dreamsetcblog) so if you follow me there you already know.
One thing I’m trying out with NaNoWriMo is developing a writing routine, so some sort of routine that leads into the actual writing. When I took the Silencing Your Inner Critic class last weekend the teacher led us through a guided meditation, and while that isn’t really my thing, I thought I should do some sort of activity that will help me relax before I start writing and take away any restlessness before I start writing. My plan was to do 15 – 20 minutes of yoga before writing; I have some relaxing yoga workouts that I could pop in and it doesn’t require a ton of space so I knew I’d easily be able to do it in my room by my writing desk (once I take care of Mount Laundry).
I read the NaNo pep talk from Daniel José Older when I announced my novel and he also talked about what to do leading into writing. He talked about listening to a song before he started writing and I liked the sound of that too, so I decided to try that out as well.
So the first day of trying out my new writing routine I grabbed my stack of workout DVDs to pull out a yoga one and… I decided to do a Tracy Anderson Mat Method DVD instead. Relaxing yoga or intense toning: practically the same thing, right? After I was done I hobbled to my desk and listened to a song, then started writing. The next day I started later than I had been planning to, so I listened to the song, but didn’t do the activity and after these two days I definitely think that 15 – 20 minutes of physical activity key. I’ll keep working on my writing routine and report back.
Who else is doing NaNoWriMo this year? Do you have a writing routine?
PS – If you’re doing NaNo, we should be NaNo buddies!
[Tweet “Reflections on the first week of #NaNoWriMo2016 and developing a writing routine. #amwriting”]
How neat that you are doing NaNoWriMo! That is on my bucket list to tackle (maybe next year!). I like the idea of doing physical activity before writing. I think it would help with relaxation enough to sit down and just be creative!
You should definitely give it a shot soon! š I’m liking the physical activity thing more and more. I don’t know why this hasn’t crossed my mind before, especially since doing something like that is also thought to help stimulate activity from what I’ve heard.
Hey, Crystal! š I made the last minute decision to do NaNoWriMo this year. My process has been slow so far because I had to outline my book and create characters before I could start writing. Luckily, I’m writing the prequel book to another book I’ve recently finished writing, but I still had to create a few of characters. I’m a huge believer in outlining and I observe the three act structure and a few other elements involve in the crime + thriller genres. I usually write a basic story synopsis, create characters, outline book, create a story timeline, then import all of this into Scrivener, then the writing begins. xx
That’s so cool! Sometimes the last minute decisions to join are the best. š It sounds like you have a great process in place for planning. I’ve always been more of a pantser at the start (although I do have the general story arc in mind), but then about halfway through I like to create a more detailed outline to finish it out. If I was writing a thriller, I’d definitely want an outline from the beginning. Good luck with NaNo!
I think it’s awesome that you are doing this! My sister did it a few years ago, and it’s so impressive to me! Good luck!
Thank you! I have done it before, but have only accomplished writing 50,000 words once and that was in October. š I did a “warm up” for NaNo and wrote the first book (which I had started already) in October. I was going to write the sequel in November, but that was an optimistic thought because I was in school and had a lot of papers/a poetry chapbook due in November.
Ooh I love the idea of having physical activity before the creative activity! Smart!
I’ve definitely noticed a difference in how I feel and how my writing sessions go when I get some physical activity in before! š Hope NaNo is going well for you. š