Apr. 8th, 2014

smallhobbit: (Hathaway Lewis body protector)
My last post commented that I had finished all the stories I was writing and [livejournal.com profile] draycevixen very kindly pointed out that there were a couple of things coming up that I could sign up for.  Which got me thinking.  I've read other writers say where they get their inspiration from and how a chance remark will set them writing, but for me there has to be more.  I need to be signed up for a challenge or exchange before I feel the urge to write.  It doesn't need to be a formal challenge, with rules, it can be something as simple as "let's celebrate X by writing Y" and I'll be ready to write.

I think a large part of this is that for the most part I write ficlets, or short fics up to 2,000 words, so whereas a number of writers are working on multi-chaptered stories, I've finished whatever I'm writing and am up for the next thing.  Once I've signed up, say, for an exchange and been told who I'm writing for, with whatever general requests the recipient has made, the odd fact or the strange comment will come into play, and I can write again.

I think that's why I like the ACD 60 for 60.  Every week I have to produce 60 words, on a story that I have written something for twice before.  I have to find something to latch onto - the case where all we know is the title, the strange situation - and I can let the ideas tumble around in my brain.

And yet I feel lost with nothing to write - nothing to occupy my brain with on the drive to work - nothing to think about when I wake in the night - not that I spend all my time thinking about writing, far from it, but there are times when untangling a plot can be the best way of stopping thinking about other things.  So roll on the next challenge, when I can make a blog post about the difficulties of getting the words down.

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