For those who don’t know, I am part of IWSG where it is a community of writers who can connect with one another, provide guidance and assistance to those who are looking for it, and we can express any doubts or concerns we have regarding our craft. Within IWSG there is a question that is posed on the first Wednesday of the month. For December 1st, the co-hosts for posting this posting is PJ Colandor, Diane Burton, Louise – Fundy Blue, Natalie Aguirre, and Jacqui Murray.
December 1st question: In your writing, what stresses you the most? What delights you?
I suppose that those who have been reading the ramblings of in some of my personal posts or whenever I am giving an update of my word count for my projects know I love writing dialogue. There are times where it just flows out of me and I recently I’ve been adding descriptors like “he says as he stares at sparrow flying overhead swoops into a tree. Johnathon captures the bird on his camera, the shutter barely makes a noise as his bird watching companion, Marcus, rolls his eyes as he watches the surroundings for his prize: a red robin.”
For one it helps me give insight to character’s motivations or just adding action to the page because there are times where things seem passive to me. However, even with dialogue being my favorite to write about–especially when I enter flow–I feel like it can be bland. Either the characters are too one dimensional, I am struggling to find their voice, or the words on paper doesn’t match what is in my head. It is subpar, but it isn’t what stresses me out during the writing process.
That would be word count to for my writing goal, or deadlines. I am attempting to be comfortable with writing daily unless there was a health reason or my schedule is too busy. I don’t do well under pressure focusing on one project: I split my attention between the current two projects I am working on if I hit a writer’s block, or I write a WIP that won’t be posted. Normally those WIPs are stories I want to write but I don’t have time to fully flush them out, prompts, or scenarios related to one of my characters in The Forsaken Tale or Wandering Affection. There is a chance that those words could be included into the projects, I have written in a notebook for Wandering Affection that I had to type up a few paragraphs because it fits within the story.
I felt like before I had to focus all my attention onto one thing, but from the past three months of getting into the habit of writing daily that is diminishing. I am proud of what I have wrote even if I end up wanting to delete the whole thing a week later. The end of the day I write there is a sense of accomplishment as I finally ended the struggle of a writer’s block, writing at least 300 words that day, or getting the dialogue to be dynamic, or just giving up and editing it later rather than agonizing over three sentences.
Thank you for reading my post. I wish you a lovely day and know that I am rooting for you wonderful writers and aspiring authors.
Sit, Hydrate, and Write 
Well said and I agree. I must say, there are times when I re-read what I wrote the prior day, I am appalled. Am I really that bad a writer!
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I do think we are hard on ourselves, but at the same time, we are striving to improve on ourselves. I have been watching/listening to a group on Youtube, Drawfee, and one of the hosts was saying that sometimes they hate their style because they are in the midst of their style evolving. I am going to apply that thought process onto our craft because we have expectations, either the words not meshing with our vision, or we are growing.
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I follow some of the same rules. I write daily if I can, or if I can’t for some reason I try to get back to writing as soon as I can the next day. And I switch back and forth between different projects. I think it’s good to do that. Keeps me from getting bored.
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I also love writing dialogue. It shows so much about a character. Sometimes I think I use it too much. As in, can something interesting happen here besides these two guys talking? Finding that balance between dialogue and action is tricky for me.
Happy Holidays!
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