The return of the one-hour quick write
I've mentioned a few times how one of the critique groups I'm part of does a weekly one-hour challenge where you're given a topic and have one hour to write a story, or the germ of a story at least. We'd taken a break from it because our attendance was down and some members were feeling burnt out...and I'll admit that I often hadn't been participating either.
Well, tonight was the first time to do that since we took a break. I wasn't able to make it on time (so I missed the chat and all that goes along with it), but I did come and do it later. And it was really good for me. I like what I wrote, and I intend to finish it up (it'll probably be pretty short, maybe twice as long or a little more as what I wrote already), but that's not really the main thing. What I noticed was that I kept getting to a certain point and thinking, "Well, that's a good point to take a break--I'll just stop here and post that." But I still had some good time left, so I made myself keep going.
See, that's been my struggle in other writing too of late (especially with all the revising I've been focusing on this past month or two). I get to what my brain says is a good place to stop...and I stop. So now we'll see how much these writing exercises carry over into the discipline I need to get done everything I want to accomplish.
I've mentioned a few times how one of the critique groups I'm part of does a weekly one-hour challenge where you're given a topic and have one hour to write a story, or the germ of a story at least. We'd taken a break from it because our attendance was down and some members were feeling burnt out...and I'll admit that I often hadn't been participating either.
Well, tonight was the first time to do that since we took a break. I wasn't able to make it on time (so I missed the chat and all that goes along with it), but I did come and do it later. And it was really good for me. I like what I wrote, and I intend to finish it up (it'll probably be pretty short, maybe twice as long or a little more as what I wrote already), but that's not really the main thing. What I noticed was that I kept getting to a certain point and thinking, "Well, that's a good point to take a break--I'll just stop here and post that." But I still had some good time left, so I made myself keep going.
See, that's been my struggle in other writing too of late (especially with all the revising I've been focusing on this past month or two). I get to what my brain says is a good place to stop...and I stop. So now we'll see how much these writing exercises carry over into the discipline I need to get done everything I want to accomplish.
Comments
On the hour write topic, I think it was good to take the break, but it was also nice to have it back, especially since we had so many people participating.
Yeah, I was a bit burned out on the hour-writes also, but I'm feeling reinvigorated about them now.