How to write, when you have nothing else to do.

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FOTSGreg

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1) Make a routine exercise one of your morning or evening habits, particularly getting out of the house and going for a walk. Take a slightly different route every day and extend the length of the walk at least once a week until you plateau. Most professional writers are dedicated walkers.
2) Take a digital camera with you. Take pictures of everything, mundane or extraordinary. Save them to your hard drive. You never know when a picture will become an inspiration or a reminder. And, like the adage says, a picture really is worth a thousand words.
3) Like everyone else says, set yourself a writing schedule. Adhere to it religiously. A hundred, 250, 500 words a day or more, it doesn't matter. Just stick to it.

You'll be surprised just how much inspiration just taking a walk around the block can deliver. But don't limit yourself to just around the block. Seek out nature preserves, parks, hiking trails, lakes, rivers, forests, city walking tours, unusual (and usual) locations, etc. these things are everywhere around us, but most people don't take advantage of them and many don't even know they exist.

Artists need inspiration as much as they need food and water.

Seek it out.

But, in the seeking, do not neglect the art.
 

android415

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Try setting a timer for yourself for a five minute increment. Write till it dings. Wait fifteen minutes/a half hour, rinse and repeat. I've found that when I just don't feel like sitting down and writing, it's the thought of hours spent wringing out the words. But five minutes at a whack? Not intimadating, and easy to squeeze in (say, around a cartoon commercial break ;) ). Before you know it, you'll be shutting the timer off just to make it stop and writing way past the 300 second mark*.

Thought I must say, endless repeats of Law and Order: SVU are distracting for me. I think it's the doink-doink sound.

*Sounds even more manageable like that, eh?:tongue

Everyone's advice is most excellent, but I did utilize this in particular today. It's pretty easy for me to write 1,000+ words in a day (assuming I make it to my chair...), so today I broke it up into short increments, and ended up writing 500 words

It doesn't help that the middle of my story is dragging, but I'll save that for the editing stage I suppose.
 

Little Anonymous Me

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Everyone's advice is most excellent, but I did utilize this in particular today. It's pretty easy for me to write 1,000+ words in a day (assuming I make it to my chair...), so today I broke it up into short increments, and ended up writing 500 words

It doesn't help that the middle of my story is dragging, but I'll save that for the editing stage I suppose.

Yay! Glad to have helped. :D

I hate having to slog through something that's kind of...meh...so that I can write the fun parts. Always makes me feel like this: :chores
 

toriej

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Good for u for being so honest. Some people on these forums seem to like nothing better than disect what you say to make you seem like a complete fool. I'm not in school now and where as I'm more concerned with finishing a cohesive novel and not so much with getting published and making a living from it I too seem to not get anything done. I always find an excuse to go to the store or meet someone for lunch in which case I have to get ready which can take up to two hours. (I'm a bit obsessed with being as close to perfects as I can)(the people I spoke of earlier would love that little comment) a few people said treat it like work. Maybe if u make a part of ur house for only writing (not facing the tv) or like me have access to an office outside of the home that could work. But of course when writing becomes a chor it would be harder to do. Good luck with the employment.
 

CatchingADragon

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I tried setting a routine for myself, and it didn't work for me. It just made me too aware of what time it was, and made writing feel like a chore.

What I do now is try to remember what excited me about the story I'm working on, what made me want to write it at all in the first place? Sometimes I can jump into an exciting scene, but sometimes I have to listen to some music or watch a movie or browse the bookstore to get myself excited again. (Really all I need is some good goosebump-inducing music. Never fails.)

That said, I can still be an atrociously slow writer, and some scenes can be challenging to write, but I feel more passionate about it. I never want to do it because I feel like I "have to." My stupid mind shuts or goes crazy if it feels like it doesn't have a choice.
 
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