Writing Habits

A while ago I did a blog on reading habits and I decided that doing one on writing habits might be fun. I have been writing for about a decade now, though I only started writing seriously a couple of month ago. Thus I am still trying out new ways to work. 

I try to write every day. I do not set myself goals for the days as in how many hours I will be writing or how many words I want to write. Some days when I am having a down day or when I am very busy, it is just very hard to write. Still I try to get some words on the page, even if the writing ends up to be very bad. Bad writing is better than no writing. I fail the write daily more often then I want to, especially now that I am studying for my resists it is very hard. When schools start again in autumn, I hope I will finally plan everything in on a weekly basis and commit myself to that planning. I am, however, notoriously bad in planning.

source: google images

I hate being disturbed while writing. It can kill my flow. Most of the time I do the disturbing myself. The internet and not picking the right writing music are things that easily distract me. I like to chat with my friends and I do not stop a conversation when I am writing. It is not rare that I spend most of the time chatting instead of writing. I actually should close down the internet when writing, but I often use google translate to check up words seeing English is not my first language. Also the internet is easy for research. Writing with the internet open, is a very bad habit of mine. I really should try to close the internet more often or just ignore the people who are trying to talk to me until I have finished a paragraph or a scene.

Without a doubt my worst habit is wanting to rewrite scenes all the time. I have a hard time controlling my inner critic. When I reread something I have written previously, I almost always want to write it all over again because I know I can do it better. I should, however, leave that for another draft or else I have the risk to end up in a circle of never-ending edits or making myself very annoyed. Yesterday I spent a lot of time on writing a significant conversation and when I reread it today in order to continue, I wanted to make a back-up of the whole thing and start all over again. I managed to restrain myself so far, but it makes me frustrated and loose my enthusiasm to continue. 

I tend to keep everything related to the story in my head. I have a fairly good memory and I know that I am not likely to forget good ideas. I know everything would be much more organised when I would write it down, especially since I am working with a co-writer. I love world building until I have to write everything down. Because I have absolutely no clue what the best way to organise everything, I cannot stand to write it down. It somehow always makes it look very messy and disorganised. A giant cork board would be handy, but I have no room near my computer to hang something like that. I have, however, decided to scan in all my notes instead of typing them. It saves me a lot more time. I am also considering on using cards to write world building things on them and file them in a particular way. The downside of that system that I might end up with tons and tons of cards because they are so small.

I could go on for a little while longer, but as this blog is getting quite long, these habits (looking back on it, I a doubting if habit is the right word, but for now I cannot think of anything else) are the first ones that sprang into my mind. I might do another blog on something similar in the future about how I write, but I'm very busy now and leaving on a holiday in two weeks, so I might take a while before I write another blog.

If you have tips how I can improve these 'habits' or sort my world building organising problem, feel free to share in the comments. I would also love to read about your habits!

Reading habits

The last couple of weeks I have been reading a lot more than I usually do. This probably has something to do with the fact that I don't game as often any more and that I have no school right now (though I should be studying for resits). While reading I have discovered some reading habits of mine and I decided to share them.

1.  Whenever I am in a book store, on-line or not, I always end up at the fantasy section because it is my favourite genre. While I keep an open mind for other genres as well, it never has been very effective until now. Thanks to the booktube (vloggers who talk about books) community on youtube, I have discovered a whole bunch of books of other genres I really want to read.
   
   
2.  When I am reading a series and I do not have the next book in it, I just start to read a new series. Which inevitable leads to a lot of unfinished series. I currently have 15 unfinished series on my bookshelves. I am not going to finish all of them because the first book from two of them are not good enough to want me to finish the series. Some series are not wholly published yet so I cannot continue them just yet. I have, however, decided not to start any new series until I have finished the once I have started with exception of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I ordered the boxed set a couple of days ago since I want to see the next film and want to have read the book before I do that.
   
   
3. I always tell myself to remember certain passages or quotes from books, but I never do. So I decided to use sticky-notes to mark those passages. I do not get why I never thought of this before since it is so simple but efficient. I ought to do it with books I read for school as well! I heard of some people writing and marking stuff in their books, but I would feel bet for doing that. I only do that in my school textbooks.
   
    
4.  I cannot read on public transport except for the train (I have no clue about planes, but I will find that out in September when I will fly for the very first time). I spend quite some time on the bus and I would be able to read so much more if I was able to read on it, but I get sick when I do. Sometimes I even get sick without reading.
   
   
5. I can read in almost any situation. When I wait for the bus, I read often while standing up. I can read in a café, at home or even during lectures at school. I almost always carry a book around with me, but as soon as I get distracted, I have a hard time focusing on my book again. That's the reason why I prefer to read somewhere were there are not a lot of people since I like to listen to their conversations or just watch them. I suppose that it is caused by the part of me that is always looking for interesting stories. 

Have you any interesting reading or book habits? Feel free to share them in the comments because I would love to know them! I plan to do a similar blog like this one on writing habits in the future!