r/WritingPrompts • u/MajorParadox Mod | DC Fan Universe (r/DCFU) • May 30 '20
Off Topic [OT] SatChat: Do you have any preparation rituals before you start writing? (New here? Introduce yourself!)
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Do you have any preparation rituals before you start writing?
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u/TheProletarius May 31 '20
Hello, back here to push my freewriting agenda again. Does writing in preparation for Writing count? haha
I open Calmly Writer, turn on a Pomodoro, and just bash out my first impressions about the prompt or story brewing in my head. It's mostly incoherent vagaries but the idea is to warm up the writing muscles, loosen up your fingers. No care for grammar, spelling, syntax, or tense. No backspace!!! only Spacebar and Enter be your friends here.
Our brain is departmentalized for so many specific functions and I personally forget daily that the critical, nay-saying part of my brain is NOT actually 100% of my waking consciousness. It's certainly not the only dayworking department in my mind's office. Preliminary freewriting before actually drafting a story/scene/prompt is a way to put the Creativity Dept of my brain to work without the shadow of Upper Management Review Board bearing down on my poor 2 underpaid creator brain cells.
Usually with freewriting, I've found that once you get into the flow and send your Inner Critic on vacation, you grow a lot more honest as you write, and I think you can find a lot more gems in honest thoughts than hesitant, filtered ones backspaced to death. Freewriting, for me at least, reminds me that I actually like writing things, y'know? sheds one whole tear
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u/MajorParadox May 31 '20
That's a cool program!
Usually with freewriting, I've found that once you get into the flow and send your Inner Critic on vacation, you grow a lot more honest as you write, and I think you can find a lot more gems in honest thoughts than hesitant, filtered ones backspaced to death.
Oh that Inner Critic. I wish it was easier to send him on vacation!
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u/snipersam11 May 31 '20
Hey, my name is Sam. I live in israel currently, initially from canada. I have been in the subreddit for a while and every now and then read something from the responses. I often looked at the prompts and had ideas but always felt i would just embarrass myself but decided to go for it anyways yesterday. I have never written before and so can't really add to the discussion about rituals, just mostly came to introduce and chat.
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u/MajorParadox May 31 '20
That's great! Don't be embarrassed, just realize that nobody starts off a great writer. It takes practice like anything else. And writing for prompts is a great way to get that practice!
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u/omelete01 May 31 '20
Hello, relatively new to Reddit, really just got going a few months ago during quarantine. I found the Writing Prompt subreddit to be super helpful during these times. I've been writing most of my life (since I was about ~16, currently 40), although there are large chunks of time (like, years) when I don't write at all. During those times when I don't write, I am constantly reading. Oddly enough, I have not been reading at all during quarantine, and mostly focusing on writing.
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u/MajorParadox May 31 '20
Welcome!
Oddly enough, I have not been reading at all during quarantine, and mostly focusing on writing.
Interesting, I wonder why not?
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u/NystromWrites May 31 '20
Hello! I'm u/NystromWrites. I'm new around here, but I've been posting something like every other day.
My ritual:
So, I have ADHD, but I didn't really have access to medical care for the first 16 years of my life, so I didn't realize it and went undiagnosed until about a year ago. (24) Ever since then I've figured out tricks that work for me to work around it- my process is...
1)Exercise- I do this first thing in the day, usually just by going for a 30 minute run.
2)Slow digesting carbs and protein heavy breakfasts- if this is beginning to sound like a fitness manual, that's because it kind of is haha
3)Quiet music in the background with some kind of clear rhythm- it sets the pace for my output, and keeps me distraction free. If my ADHD kicks up, I stop writing and go to storyboarding mode instead.
Any other ADHD writers out there??
(also I'm doing a Choose Your Own Adventure writing experiment in my subreddit, https://old.reddit.com/r/nystorm_writes/ , if anyone wants to come vote on what we should do!
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u/MajorParadox May 31 '20
So, I have ADHD, but I didn't really have access to medical care for the first 16 years of my life, so I didn't realize it and went undiagnosed until about a year ago.
Glad you got help with it!
Would you like some user flair for your subreddit?
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u/InterestingActuary May 31 '20
No prep rituals but I tend to spend a lot of time looking for the right prompt, then thinking it through over and over again, before moving forward with a fully fleshed out idea. Over the last couple days, to try and finish a particular post challenge in a short enough timeline that I remember to actually finish it, I've been trying to just start writing immediately on whatever pops into my head first.
And the quality's about the same.
Huh.