Writing tips again.

So as everyone who reads my bi-polar bitchin' and moanin' on here knows, I spent six months with some serious writer's block. And since then writing has become more of a chore for me than something I love. Why yes I can find so many things to occupy my time that doesn't include writing. Right now it includes the Song Pop game on face book in which I am whipping my best friend's ass. Usually. He's faster on the button but I'm more well listened. He knows Kate Bush music. I know Motley Crue. We have always disagreed on music. Same as with the husband, they both stick to one or two genres while I listen all over the place. I like country music, gasp, kill me now. Gimme a person with a guitar or a mandolin over electronica every day of the week. You know 'cept I like dance music too. Sort of. Okay a little bit.

So what was I writing about again....shiny squirrel want some pie I made possum.

Oh yeah, having writer's block and offering up some advice.

There's something on Twitter called 1 hour 1k or something like that, where writers challenge each to a group sprint for an hour. The goal is to write for one whole dedicated hour without distraction specifically the lure of Twitter or Face Book or Song Pop. I've been on twitter for little over a year now. I know you never see me there. I'm uncomfortable with the format. It's too spastic for my crazy brain to keep up with. I prefer the FB format for social interaction. The topic has all comments right under it and you can see what everyone is saying at once and other people can interact with each other inside the topic. I like this. Instead of that scrolling thing on twitter where it looks like people are talking to themselves. I always feel like I'm butting into private conversations when I try to participate. and @ing someone just feels like I'm bugging them.

So back to the topic...I can wild tangent all day long. Seriously, I'm a barrel of fun in real life. After I come out of my shell. I've known about the sprint style of writing for a little over a year. Even participated in a few. But this past week I really started using the method. Monday I posted on FB that I was going to write if anyone wanted to join me to come on. Mostly I'm alone but the point is I put it out there in public and I held myself to it. Monday I did three sprints. One starting at 5:30 another at 8 and another at midnight. The first two I had to make sure my youngest was suitably occupied for the hour with orders not to disturb unless the was fire or blood involved. And then when the hour was up I stopped at the end of a paragraph. I just stopped and I did a word count. 1165 words I think. The next hour was a little less but still over 1k as was the third hour, just a little less but still over 1k. I reported in my progress and I took a break. Had dinner. Watched a show with the kids. Then I came back and did it again. Took a break watched another show. Got the little kid to bed. Played online. Watched a movie that I wanted to see. And then I did another hour. When it was over I was close to the end of the chapter so I finished that up. All in all I put in close to 4 thousand words that day.

Yesterday wasn't a good day. We had rolling storms all evening. Bad ones. Lightning struck the ground outside the house. And since the electrical storm from last week that wiped out two desk top computers, the internet modem, and disabled one input section on the television I chose to unplug my laptop for the better part of the evening. My battery has pretty much given up the ghost. It holds about a fifteen minute charge now, if I'm lucky. So I didn't get much of anything done. I did manage to do one sprint and wrote over the 1 thousand word goal. And today was my husband's only day off this week. I did one sprint again over 1 thousand words and then watched True Blood with him. I'm trying to catch him up on the season so he stops asking me what's going on in season 5.

Anyway, the point is. I can write more than five thousand words a day. I've proven it many times. But I usually do marathon writing sprees. Mostly because I have a young child. I don't really like to write until after she goes to bed. But as she's getting older and can spend more time entertaining herself, as in she knows how to use my Samsung tablet better than I do. Give her a game and let her go. She prefers it to the Wii

Now I'm not swearing this will work for you. As I've always said everything is subjective. Find what works for you. But this worked for me. I set myself a challenge and I met it. I moved this story a whole seven thousand words in three days. Not a record. But certainly better than the months I didn't even manage that much.

So that's my writing advice for this week. Challenge yourself. And don't look at the shiny things.
 If you want to join me I'll start sometime after 5pm central US time tomorrow, because there is no way I write before then. I've tried. I think I'm just trained that way. But it works. I'm not throwing away what works. Just look for me on FB I have a regular page and an author page, I'd prefer you sent me a friend request over liking my site, because I forget how to find that page more often than not. I'm still several thousand friends away from my limit. Come visit with me. Hear more of my crazy than you can shake a stick at ( I do not understand that saying, why would anyone shake a stick at something? Now poking with one, yeah I've done that. What? It was a snake. I wanted to see if it was alive. It was. We ran like hell.)

Mercy